ESTECHO

The Kastam company is a bit of a mystery; I’ve done extensive research on the web, and couldn’t find any information about the company, and no other products except the 8-track units in the ESTECHO collection.

They might have been bought out in the early eighties by Guyatone, who rebranded the SS-102 and released it as the EM-808D. If you compare the inside of both units, you’ll see that they’re identical. For an in-depth description of this unit’s features, please visit the EM-808D page.

Technical Info / Service Notes

My Kastam SS-102 worked fine when I got it, but after a few hours of use I lost the delay signal. I opened the unit and quickly found the problem: the belt had broken, a relatively common occurence with these old machines. The rubber on the belt was very brittle and dry, so it was only a question of time before it would break.

I’ve installed a replacement belt, 33cm length, 1mm thickness. The Kastam now works perfectly.

Specifications

Manufacturer	Kastam Electronics Co. Ltd. (Yokohama, Japan)
Date	Possibly early 80s (the same unit was released by Guyatone in 1983, see below)
List price
Transport type	8-track cartridge
Motor speed	Variable
Playback heads	1
Head selection	n/a
Delay time	150 - 400 ms (from EM-808D catalog)
Inputs	3
Outputs	High gain, Low gain
Wet output only	Yes, through the "from PA" input
Pinch roller
Tone control	Bass and treble for delay signal
Remote Control	Echo on/off footswitch jack
Operating Voltage
Related models	Also known as the Guyatone EM-808D, the Redson EC-25, Eiko SS-102 and probably others... There are a few other Kastam tape echo models I know of, such as the SS-100, SS-101 and SS-301.