man, oh man,
the Roland Re 201 and Re 501 Chorus Tape Delays
were THE SOUND OF DUB.

Putting a guitar (or anything through them) added this wonderful
dirty sound and the degradation of the echoes cause by the tape passing
over the 6 playback heads that it had really made it happen.

For what it's worth (and this is not a stomp box pedal), Universal Audio has
an incredible digital model of the RE 201. It even has settings they made
with a brand new tape, a worn tape and a tape that is close snapping it
is so old and dirty........................it also has midi BPM synchornization
(which the originals didn't)

Additionally, there is a digital model of the RE 201 in the
Line 6 DL-4 Digital Delay Modeller (the fantastic floor box that also has
a great live looping function with forward reverse and 1/2 speed / double speed
looping functions (and a potential expression pedal to control the delays)

You might try that, as the RE 201 and RE 501 are really highly sought after and ,
consequently, very pricey in used condition.

The RE 501 Chorus Echo was $1,200 originally which is ridiculously expensive
in 1970's money. I bought one for $400 used in the 80's and sold it for
$600 in the naughties..................tee hee hee!

The other salient historical consideration is that originally in Jamaica, guitars and basses were not only hard to
find, but the people were very poor and couldn't afford expensive imports from the US and UK.

Consequently, they played what they could get and what they could afford.

Notoriously cheap guitars and basses (things like Sears Silvertones which could be ordered from catalogues in the early
1960's) had a couple of interesting tonal characteristics.

The cheapy electric guitars (many of them bad cheap Japanese knockoffs of American originals) has
virtually no Bass i their tone controls (we're talking about gutars like early Dan Electros and the aforementioned
Sears Silvertone). Consequently, the 'CHANK' in reggae and early Blue Beat and Original Ska was very, very
brittle sounding and , hence, very rhythmically oriented

The cheapy electric basses had the opposite going...............they had very little treble, so the bass guitars
would be very deep and woofy sounding.

You can see how the aesthetic of DUB was created........................deep, deep treble-less bass parts and
very , very skinny, trebly guitar tracks (particularly the 'CHANKS' and the famous pick bass sound innovated
by Hux Brown (who played on Funky Kingston amongst many other tracks with Toots and the Maytals)

I remember laughing my ass off when I saw Sly and Robbie play in the US for the first time on tour with
Black Uhuru (what an incendiary show that was), because they had suddenly come into money for the very first time
and guitarist MIkey Chung had gone out and purchased a Gibson Les Paul ( a very mid rangey guitar compared to Fender Strats/Telecaster or the aforementioned 'lipstick' pickup mail order guitars) and Robbie Shakespeare had gone out and
bought a headstock-less Steinberger electric Bass guitar.................renowned for it's trebly sound and the anti-thesis
of the deep dub timbre.

These guys then had gone out and paid a thousand bucks each on pricey parametric equalizers which they had used to make their
innappropriate Les Pauls and Steinberger Basses sound like cheap Sears Silvertone bassy basses and tinny guitars.

They spent so much money and time and they could have bought the appropriate guitars and basses for $100 in a pawn shop
(this was before anyone thought that a Sears Silvertone or an original Dan Electro was a coveted piece of retro gear).

Wow, thanks for asking about this..........this just produced a flood of memories from my days when I was fanatical about learning everything I could about playing authentic reggae and learning it's history.

That was a long time ago..............................Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz...............same place where I had seen Bob Marley and the Wailers
incredibly Babylon By Bus tour in the late 70's There were some amazing Reggae shows in Santa Cruz at the Civic and the Catalyst:
The Wailers, the Skatalites, the Wailing Souls, Black Uhuru, Burning Spear, Toots and the Maytals, The Wailing Souls, Steel Pulse, Ras Midas and the Sons of Negus, the Abyssinians, Peter Tosh and on and on and on. Great days!!!!