TEL-RAY is a long-forgotten California electronics company that made "tape-less echo effects" in the 60's, before analog delay pedals existed. The mastermind behind this space-age approach to delay effects Tel-Ray's head honcho, Ray Lubow.
Instead of tape, "Adineko Memory System" used what looks like a tuna can filled with electrolytic oil. A tiny motor pulls a miniature rubber belt, spinning a flywheel armed with a pickup inside the can, acting like a recording head, sloshing it around in the oil to produce echo. While some Adineko effects were designed to create delay and reverb, others produced a strange pitch-shifting effect, an uneven and somewhat schizophrenic warbling sound.
Tel-Ray made several variations on the Adineko design with model names such as "Variable Delay" (self-explanatory), the "Organ Tone" (a rotary speaker simulator that produced a watery vibrato effect), and the impressive looking "Echo-Ver-Brato" (combining delay, reverb, vibrato and fuzz). Tel-Ray produced their own brand of amplifiers with integrated vibrato and delay/reverb effects, these amps were called the Supernova.
The Adineko Memory System was also liscenced to Fender, Gibson, Rickenbaker, Acoustic, Univox, Vox, and possibly other manufacturers, who sold rebranded Tel-Ray units as stand-alone effects or integrated into amplifiers.
After a number of emails to Fender, Gibson, Rickenbaker, and several so-called "historians" well known in the vintage guitar community I saw that virtually no information or record exists of the Tel-Ray liscenced effects. For a company that produced such a variety of effects for so many different manufacturers, the Tel-Ray name is inexplicably shrouded in mystery.
At some point in the 70's, Tel-Ray became Morley, still under the ownership of Ray and Marv Lubow. They continued to produce a solid-state version of the Adineko delay well into the 1970's (Electrostatic Delay Line) under the Morley brand name, along with pedals that implemented the oilcan design and exploited the pitch-bending effect by adding a restricting spring to the contraption, emphasizing the UniVibe-like vibrato.
By the late 70's (or possibly as late as 1980) Morley halted production of the Adineko effects. Analog delay or vibrato circuits were simply cheaper to produce and relatively hassle-free. No internal transformers or motors or oils.
Morley was bought by Sound Enhancements, Inc in 1989, and the Tel-Ray name drifted into obscurity, along with the secrets of the Adineko.
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