Fulltone Tube Tape Echo

[albertgen]

Anybody ever try one of these? I bet a guy could get a big note running it through 2 Fender deluxes in the stereo mode. Al

[Brian Ingram]

It's difficult to try one of those, unless you have already bought it.

Most of the sales for Fulltone's Tape Echo are direct from the manufacturer, likely because the pricepoint is pretty high as-is, and adding dealer profit might price it out of the market.

But that said, there might be a very few dealers in the US that actually have one on hand.

I have no experience with Fulltone's Tape Echo, but I do own a bunch of their other stuff. I'd believe based on the features they used to point out in this unit that it is a very good quality tape echo, a la the tube Echoplex. I'd believe the sonic effect would be similar to using any high quality tape machine to create an echo.

What's interesting to me is there are effect manufacturers out there who are making pedals to mimic a tape echo; the key is they are offering the ability to mimic the sonic effect of a tape echo not functioning properly.

What I mean is one given pedal allows 3 tone settings that claim the sound of "new tape" (full-range echo, sounds like any good analog delay), a middle setting, and "old tape" (had a lot of treble roll-off to simulate the EQ effect of a heavily worn tape). There are additional settings that allow the addition of wow and flutter, which are usually undesirable byproducts of misaligned heads or inconsistent motor speed. But listening to sound clips of this pedal, I can see how adding just a hint of the artifacts really does add character, and makes the delay sound more like a tape machine rather. A perfect tape machine with new tape might not have enough "tubey, tape flavor" to let your ears know your not using some other method.

I want to say there was also some form of modulation that can be applied in the tape setting of the delay pedal, which seemed to add a hint of distortion in the way tubes might.

Anyway, I'm not trying to talk you out of searching out a tape echo machine. It is interesting however, that a perfectly-operating machine might be a let-down, because there's not enough artifacts to tell your ears you're hearing tape. I have, for instance, a pair of tube microphone preamps. They have very high quality in/out transformers, are well designed, and operate with low distortion. On a first hearing, most folks are disappointed by the lack of "tubey flavor" because they don't get the distortion and treble roll-off they expect.

[Mike Nye]

I have a Klemt Echolette stashed somewhere in my self-storage, that was a much better tape echo than an Echoplex back in the day . . .

[Mike Nye]

Someone gave me a 16" high-end EMT transcription turntable that the base was burned in a fire several years ago. This thread sparked an idea as what to do with the motor/plater assy, which is all that's usable.

It has a 20lb. platter, with probably the most accurate speed of ANY turntable of it's day.

Looking at the plater from the side profile, it's the PERFECT surface to have iron-oxide sprayed onto, making a great medium for an echo machine.

Along with a 6 channel mic mixer, and a handful of inexpensive record heads and an erase head I should be in business . . .