Custom ShopFD2SR

TTE's are shipping after 11 months and $275,000 worth of tooling,
sweating and high hopes. In short, it turned out better than I had imagined, but we can only make about 5 units per day (x 4 day work-week) making it many months before you'll see any TTE's sitting around unspoken for at stores. Some dealers are going to keep a unit in-stock for folks to demo, but I understand most the first 400 or so are spoken for by customers who've been waiting since last year. Locate a dealer here: http://www.fulltone.com/dlrframe.html

6/1/04 Grammy Winner John Mayer buys TTE #00048 to go along with his Fulldrive2

5/20/04 Brian Setzer records new record at Village Recorders and Capitol entirely through a Tube Tape Echo #00029, ending a 30 years relation with a Roland Space Echo

NEW! 5/1/04 Johnny A jump dumps his delays for his new Tube Tape Echo #00011

Click here for an AVI movie of our custom-made Tape winding machine in action

Click here for a look at the circuit design

See the pdf manual here (long download 7mb)

Click here for a Low-Fi Windows Media Video Clip of the TTE in action.(pardon the strat's selector-switch failure during the tune) It's me playing a stock late 50's Strat----> TTE--->1967 Deluxe Reverb...No Chorus or other effects, and only the $300 Canon S230 Digital Camera's built in Microphone.

Why a Tape Echo?

If you ask that then you have never played a healthy Echoplex! No delay (rackmount or pedal, analog or digital) can replicate the natural, warm, and shimmery tones of an old Echoplex. Unless you've experienced it you don't know what you're missing.

Yeah, but they're noisy and unreliable!

Yes, they certainly WERE....but the Fulltone TubeTapeEcho (TTE) is dead-quiet, and we've completely re-vamped both the electronics, the tape transport path, and even the tape cartridge itself to the point of near-overkill. My TTE produces less noise than most delay pedals.

How much delay time? From a quick slapback to over 1 second. There is a top panel-mounted dual speed toggle switch to choose between: Hi-Speed and Lo-Speed operation. Hi-Speed gets you lots of Highs, less Bass, and a True Repeat without the Pitch variation of the old Echoplex. Lo-Speed is waaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrm, lots of Bass, less highs, and a slight "warble" that imparts a natural chorus effect made popular by people like Eric Johnson.

Why tubes? Because they sound so good.....the enhancement to your basic tone is something you will not want to play without once you feel it, and you'll never again have to worry about signal loss due to long cables and too many pedals on your pedalboard.

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What makes yours better?

1) The big AC motors of yesteryear were noisy and inefficient so I replaced it with a servo-controlled hi-torque DC motor. Not only is this more quiet, but it is more stable and is 1/4 the size, allowing for a smaller overall housing as well. click here for a view of the Motor-Assembly.

2) the TTE uses 2 x 12AX7 tubes (for the Record and Playback sections) with @200 volts DC and supply the filaments with 12 volts DC to reduce the hum further. The erase/ Bias section function uses one x 12AU7.

3) Handwired audio path, and world-famous Fulltone Made-in-USA Craftsmanship. No PCB-mounted Tubes or Jacks in this thing.

4) Stereo outs! Yep, how many times have you longed for a slight slap or long bounce between 2 amps in the studio or on stage? But this ain't just stereo....there are 3 stereo modes.

Mode #1: Guitar/Echo on the Left---->Guitar/Echo on the Right Mode #2: Guitar/Echo Left---> Echo on the right. Mode #3: Guitar on the left----> Echo on the right amp.

4) Better Tape Heads. The TTE has proprietary (custom-made) Erase, Record, and Playback heads that not only have better frequency response than the oldies, but are designed to last well into your retirement.

5) Fulltone ETC-1 Tape cartridge...if you can't find it, make it yerself! The ETC-1 not only is a direct replacement for all Tube and solid state Echoplexes ever made, but it's loaded it with a vastly superior tape loop made with polyester backing and a higher bias Tape formulation. The ETC-1 not only sounds MUCH better, but is not prone to the shedding of the replacement tape (made by another company) you've been using. This is a big deal when you've been paying almost $30 for a tape that only lasts a month, if you're lucky. Who's tape do you think is going to last longer when you run theirs for 10 minutes and a residue of brown dust appears all over the heads, rollers, and top of the chassis! That "build-up" is what creates distance between the tape and tape heads causing degradation of the echo-repeats and also causing the pinch-roller to slip against the Capstain, which leads to wildly out-of-tune echo-repeats. That brown dust accumulating is your tape (and your echo tone) disintegrating before your very eyes.

6) Nickel Plated Stainless Steel Parts because I want the stuff I make to outlast me and look great.

7) Echo Tone Control. The TTE has a very full-range/full-frequency Echo Sound.....but you can alter it to as vintage as you want a Tone control affecting only the repeats..

8) Smaller. Old Echoplex EP-2 models have that cool little side compartment for storing stuff. I put that storage place into a Heavy duty (wood-reinforced) Cordura Nylon Gig-Bag. (included) This, along with some downsizing, due in part to the use of a DC motor, allows for a very compact, stout unit that can sit on your amp, in your pedalboard, or off to the side without taking up too much precious real estate.

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How Much $ is it?

$999, and I don't foresee much discount

Thanks, Mike

PS. all specs are subject to change, and that's an understatement.