Watkins Copicat Solid State

Testing a Solid State Copicat. Gibson SG Standard - Copicat - Line 6 Flextone.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Watkins
• Copicat
• Tape
• Echo
• Delay
• WEM

[muzboz]

Hi @efflund! I got mine working! And I love it! It's a MkIII Slid State.

Which one do you have here? It looks pretty much identical to mine. I think the MkIII is very similar to the MkIV. Just perhaps a bit of a different circuit layout.

The only thing about mine is that when I turn the Sustain knob up full, it still doesn't feedback. Yours does seem to be at moments there.

I'm hoping to be able to tweak mine up so that it can feedback. Just so I have the option.

- Murray

The

[efflund]

@muzboz Great! I´ve sold this one, but i still have a Custom Copicat and a Solid State one that looks like this one. Regarding the sustain the only thing I can suggest trying is cleaning & demagnetizing the heads and changing the tape. Maybe it won´t feedback if the signal to tape isn´t strong enough? If that doesn´t work then it´s off to the repairman again if you need the feedback. WEM made lots of models, I´ve owned many of these and it´s like there´s always something different about them.

[muzboz]

I've bought one on eBay, and it seems to work fine, except the footswitch button is broken, and I get no echoes at all! Just dry signal. I'm figuring if I can replace the switch, it will magically start working! I think mine is stuck in bypass mode.

Does that hypothesis sound reasonable? :)

- Murray

[efflund]

@muzboz

If I remember correctly the delay is on when the footswitch is not engaged, so open the footswitch and make sure that the two wires are not connecting, maybe by unsoldering one of them. This should make it work until you get a new switch. I once put the tape on insideout and was sure that the whole thing was broken, check that too. :) If you still can´t get it to work then let someone qualified look at it. It´s not a complicated machine so it shouldn´t be too hard to repair.

[miikargh]

Thanks for the video. Does it have a footswitch of somekind? Cuz I'm thinking of getting one.

[efflund]

This one has a delaybypass footswitch. I can´t say for sure that all models have, but I suspect they do. BTW If you build/get an A/B-switch you can also use channel 2 as a volumeboost for your solos. Works very well.

[lordvespatron]

Mine works great but it's no way as quiet as this

[paulj0557]

I had the exact same Mark IV model that was called a WEM for Guild Guitars. I played it through my Sound City 120r head. Bypassed it still had the preamp stage of the copicat in line so I in effect I used it even when I wasn't using it. One amazing echo. I put a little single pole double throw switch on it to bypass the erase. Very simple mod. I could make galloping horses sounds and was really into the Adrian Belew edge of a quarter on the high E whale sounds. I traded it for a twin reverb in86

[scotthaslett]

i have one of these for sale if anyone is interested it just needs a new tape. open to offers. cheers.

[themilksnatcher]

I got given one of these when I first started playing guitar. But I never really understood it's use because all I cared about was distortion. So I ended up chucking it out!!!! If only I could go back! :(

[muzboz]

I am wondering, if the erase magnet is up in the red tension thing on the left, then why are there 5 heads? I understand the far left is Record, and the next 3 are playback, but what is the far right head? I've heard mention that it is maybe an erase head, but then, why the magnet in the red tension lever?

- Murray

[muzboz]

@efflund Thanks. I tried unsoldering the footswitch, with great hope, but still no echoes. I also flipped the tape loop, but no go. Perhaps it's one of the capacitor boards, or the oscillator board may have given up the ghost. Sounds like they are common culprits.

Also of note, the lower plastic vent on the bottom is quite out of shape from heat. I don't know what happened there, but it must have been exposed to some serious heat! I'll have to try to find a local expert!

Thanks!