Fulltone Tube Tape Echo

Looking on Youtube helps as their are a number of anomalies with this effect that the manufacturer has neglected to mention and the manual is non informative and unprofessional looking

I think some of these reviews have been written by the manufacturer, the unit hums and is noisy internally and so is the mechanism that runs the tape. To be honest, this effect is highly overrated and overpriced and it's tru what the other reviewers say about their customer service - it doesn't exist - once they have your money they are not interested - period. My friendly emails have gone unanswered. I used it with both Marshall and Fender amplifiers. I even compared it with the Roland RE 20 and could not hear the difference.I've given it a 3 because it is way overpriced for what it does but it does it well if you're prepared to put up with the noise

I took great care of it and it failed in the middle of a gig after only 10 shows, I strongly advise you have a digital backup unit. There is a very high incidence of these units failing if you search the web for forums you will find that people have been caught out.

I will never buy Fulltone anything or recommend it - I feel cheated after buying this effect and the complete ignorance by their customer service. I'm pretty fair about these things but Fulltone have used their reputation to sell this effect and experiment on their customers. Buyer beware, you won't be able to rely on this unit so don't fall for Mike Fuller's spin.The stories are true - he's an arrogant SOB.

The concept is great, just the execution that has failed. I've been playing for over 30 years so I've seen them come and go in my time. I'm pro so I have a number of different amps for different situations.Using the unit for me was cumbersome, noisy, and unreliable which does get in the way of the music for sure. I had it up against the Roland RE 20 and could not tell the difference - the Roland is 15% of the cost of one of these units and a tenth of the hassle to use. If stolen I'd certainly not bother to replace it

The TTE is actually quite easy to use, but needed a "7" here due to the maintenance issues that are periodically needed for this unit to perform at max potential.

The manual is a must read though, both in terms of optimizing the units performance but also on how to properly maintain the device. I feel the manual is well written and easily understandable.

Sounds incredible, a definite "10". I've owned the TTE for over a year and am still very pleased with the purchase. There is very little noise in the echo circuit, less than most if not all analog delay pedal. There is some mechanical tape cartridge noise, but that is to be expected and really can only be heard when in a quiet room when not playing. The newer ball bearing catridges do a nice job at lowering the mechanical noise.

The tone control is important here, as well as the input level. One can overdrive the unit's tube preamp and with the tone control turned fully counter-clockwise when on the slow setting the TTE can do a very good job at providing an "EP" type of echo tone if so desired. Personally I prefer the TTE's echo tones to that of the older Echoplex's and the TTE is also far more quieter with added flexibility.

It's a tape based unit so there's definitely more of a chance of failure at a gig than that of a analog or digital pedal/rack unit. having said that, I haven't had a problem yet, the unit has worked flawlessly, but as has been mentioned there is regular maintenance to be done, without you are playing with fire.

I've used it on gigs and have depended on it so far to total satisfaction, but I also have a pedal delay with me just in case. I'll give it an "8" here just for the fact I wouldn't be surprised if something happened to it at some point in time, after all it is a mechanical based unit.

I've read a lot of opinions on the net of Mike Fuller's and Fulltone's customer service, or lack thereof. I've owned some Fulltone products since 2000 and must be one of the lucky ones due to having no real complaints. I've received fairly quick, well informed answers to my questions. I had a switch fail on a FD2 some yrs ago and was promptly mailed out a few replacement switches.

The TTE is everything I wanted in a tape echo. Been playing many yrs and have owned an EP-3 in the past as well as various analog and digital delay units. There really is nothing like a well maintained and properly working tape echo.

I mostly play original material based in the sixties/seventies creative mindset, basically anything from ambient to blues to rock/hard rock and the TTE handles everything flawlessly.

I bought the unit new and I wouldn't hesitate to replace it if stolen/lost or damaged beyond repair. The TTE (and delay in general) is my favorite effect and I highly recommend it.

Run it stereo on your guitars, run it on your mix bus for vocals, etc. Basically has one in, and three outs (one of which is a bypass). Also has a bypass switch. Some players (the rare enlightened few who have one of these) I have seen use the footswitch, some don't. Just set your delay time, guitar volume and delay volume and rock out.

If you don't have one you will never have the sound or replicate it - period. The minute I hit the first note, I was mezmerized by the sound. Sounds like a vintage echoplex, but mabye not quite as dark (don't take my word, compare on youtube). I've read some silly complaints about noise. There is no unwanted "noise" in the signal path. The "noise" is merely the sound of the tape cartridge and you can't hear that unless you're not playing and standing right next to the unit. The only thing competing with this unit for cool vintage tape sound is a real roland space echo tape unit, but that's another story.

The TTE is built like a tank and comes with a padded gig bag. I've had to replace two tape cartridges over the course of ten months of heavy use. The tapes didn't wear out, but got tangled up in both cases - probably due to dirty heads. The manual suggests cleaning the heads once a month and that's probably a good idea that I didn't follow. Don't use isopropyl alcohol, you have to buy special alcohol - it's all in the manual. The tape cartridges are not cheap either ($47.00). I keep a spare with me, and change out is a snap. Whether to gig with or not? If you want the sound, your question is answered. I use mine mainly for mixing, but am increasingly taking it to live gigs. Compared to digital pedals, I'd say it's raltively expensive to maintain. It just depends on how important your sound is to you.

I've not dealt with custome support.

The best sounding true tube tape delay one can buy new(mabye the only true tube tape delay). It just adds tons of vintage mojo (tape saturation) to your sound. It's a musically life-changing upgrade. Once you've heard it on your rig, you'll toss your thin little digital delay pedals and wonder why didn't I get one of these years ago?

Not nearly as difficult to use as it is to maintain. An electro-mechanical nightmare that begs for care and attention.

Very nice sound that can be closely imitated by the better boutique delay pedals. Not worth the trouble, unless you have a guitar tech that is paid a hefty salary to stay on top of this contraption. Noisy when idling, but otherwise a quality delay sound.

This is not a precision tape transport in the sense of Revox, Tandberg or Nakamichi. It is a very crude tape loop like an 8-track tape. There are better ways to achieve a desirable delay and tape warble without the downside of inherent noise and tape wear. Fuller just copied an Echoplex (bad design to begin with), and did some modifications that don't quite address all of the core design flaws of the original.

Have you ever communicated with the guy? If not, consider yourself fortunate. He is an arrogant *** whose initials -- MF -- kind of say it all.

Buy a nice boutique delay/echo pedal, and be free of the hype and

It's not difficult to get a good sound out of this thing. Usually I bypass the users manual completely, but since this is such an expensive piece, and given the fact that I had never used a tape echo before, I figured it'd be a good idea to read the quick set-up notes. I was flying by after that. Anyone familiar with normal delay/echo parameters should be able to feel more than comfortable with operating this thing. I've been messing with effects for quite a while now, and I'm guessing anyone considering buying one of these is the same way. Obviously it's not an entry-level unit.

Read the manual... it's got good info on how not to screw your machine up, how to clean your tape heads, which tubes to use.

I'm currently using a Fender Custom Shop Strat and a Paul Reed Smith Custom 24 with an Axe Fx processor. The delay in the Axe Fx is incredible, but the Tube Tape Echo truly sounds unique and unmatched by anything else currently out there. That's why I hung onto it, even as I was selling all my other effects.

I run the TTE out in front and use it mostly with a clean signal. The tone is just there, the warm, beautifully warbly echo repeats are simply unmatched. Everything from a quick slapback to super long delay times with tons of repeats, there's never a bad sound coming out of the TTE. Take care of regular maintenance and it will take care of you.

Crank the input gain and it pushes your amp into a nice overdriven echo heaven. Very cool.

Yes, it makes noise, it has tape moving around in it. It's not an issue... you won't notice any noise unless your amp is barely on.

You gotta take care of the unit. Open it up, and it's obvious that it's built very well, with quality parts through and through. It's honestly a work of art. But you still need to clean the heads and the tape path, change the tape and tubes when required, etc. It's not hard, it takes a few minutes.

After about a month of heavy use, one day all of my delay repeats started to fade away, and soon I wasn't getting any repeats at all. I thought that since it was brand new, maybe one of the tubes was bad. It turned out that I just needed to clean the heads, and after that it's been working perfectly for a few months with no issues. Just take care of it and keep it clean.

I probably wouldn't gig to heavily with it, personally. To me it's better for studio use.

I'm not going to comment. No experience here. But I've heard all the stories... hopefully I'll never have to go there.

Giving it an 8 just because it costs a lot of money. But I'm never getting rid of it, unless a serious emergency comes up. This is without a doubt the best delay I have ever used. And I've owned the following: Moog 104Z, Deluxe Memory Man, BJF Deep Blue Delay, Carbon Copy, DD-5, Dan-Echo, and I'm sure some other ones that will never come close to matching up.

If it were stolen, I'd probably just have to settle on something else... I'd probably just get another Deluxe Memory Man and call it a day. But that's only because I don't feel like spending another thousand bucks on a delay.

If you get a chance to try one, you'll probably fall in love.

This is a somewhat mysterious device with learning curve. It requires maintenance and twiddling.

This is not as easy as other devices without all the 'Rube Goldberg' stuff. The manual briefly discusses maintenance, but it's an afterthought.

The sound quality impressed me a lot when I first got the unit, 2 years ago. The guitar feed has a mild overdrive to it, and the echo feed, especially in stereo had that certain 'quality without a name' to it. But after several months the tone of the echos began to degrade, and I bought an expensive replacement tape. I had been doing all the recommended maintenance, cleaning the heads and capstan rollers, demagging the heads, but it never sounded as good as it originally did. I found out that, as I replaced tapes every 4 months or so, each time the echos sounded worse and worse. Finally, I got new Tung-Sol 12ax7's and a JJ 12au7 and popped them in--it made no difference. No improvement. At this point, it is really un-useable. I have replaced everything I can replace, and cleaned everything I can clean, and the echoes sound really low-fi--scratchy and warbly and distant. I have adjust the little felt tape guide over and over, experimenting, but nothing changes.

I can't use it at all. It is well built.

What customer support. Forget it. This is the deal breaker. The unit requires maintenance. It is fragile. It is also very expensive. Mike Fuller clearly does not care to support his products. I have written and written and written and written, politely, describing my problem and asking to return the unit for repair.

No response. Nada. Nothing. Zero. I get the sense that he thinks he is a genius or something for recreating the tape echo machine and he'll only talk to you if you are a celebrity. If I had to do it over I wish I never bought this thing.

I wanted it to work out. I needed it to work out. It was fine for a few months, then slowly the tone turned to crap. No help from Fuller, I got stuck with a worthless piece of junk. I don't know why this is such a difficult technology. Maybe the problem is the quality of the tape. I just don't know.

I read through the reviews here. There seem to be two camps. Those that love this thing and those that can't stand it. I've had some trouble with mine and continue to, but it is still a really nice product. I haven't contacted Fulltone yet. I hope I get a good response from them. It's easy to get really great sound out of it if you read the instructions and set things the way they suggest then sweeten to taste. This thing can get noisy if the guitar volume knob is up too high. The echo quality is superb, in my experience. The guitar tone is darkened a bit by this unit. I have to be careful to use good patch cords, but with a little extra highs dialed in on the amp(s), the sound is great. True bypass is only available with the hand operated switch, not with the pedal. It would be nice to have true bypass from the pedal, but there are circuitry difficulties with this, so it is the way it is.

My best setup with this TTE is into a Carr Rambler with some reverb and tube tremelo dialed in. It likes a clean sound as opposed to a lot of overdrive. You can put a little overdrive through and it will still sound good, but it loves clean tones and thickens them fabulously. I'm a blues guy but I love doing rockabilly and country licks through this rig because they just sound so hypnotically good. If you're a gain freak, the signal can get too processed and muddy with this thing added. Again, it is what it is. You need to find what it's good at and exploit that, not try to get it to be something it is not.

I've got some issues here. When I bought it used from ebay, it had a brand new tape installed. I breezed through the instructions and cranked it up. It immediately ate a tape. I tried taking the cartridge apart and respooling. You can forget about that deal. Not possible. Luckily, I got two extra new tapes in the deal. I installed one carefully and it worked. I now make a point of warming up the unit before I engage the capstan. I've used the current tape for months with no problems. I don't know if warming up makes the difference or not, but so far no problems and I've taken it out to a couple gigs.

The other problem is a bit trickier. When I have this unit in my effects chain, I'll play for half an hour or so and nearl all sound will fade out for 30 seconds or so and then come back. This can happen 3 or 4 times in a two hour session. It's really strange. I've tried to isolate it to one amp or one box. It seems to be the TTE. I'm using the no-ground adapter provided to avoid buzz. That seems to work, but it seems like some capicitor loads up and cancels all the signal or something. There is just no sound. It may be a bad tube. I bought a set of new tubes for it but I have not taken the thing apart and it has the original tubes. IF ANYONE HAS HAD THIS PROBLEM AND SOLVED IT, I'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM THEM.

I'm almost afraid to contact Fulltone. I didn't buy this new and I just don't know what to expect given the numberous bad reviews on their service and attitude.

It sounds great and it's an ambitious project on Fulltone's part. I'm glad this thing was created. I doubt it's been a big money maker for the company. It shows that Mike is willing to go out on a limb to fill a need in the market. The tapes should not be so fussy and prone to jamming. I may have a bad tube in mine. I should not be afraid to call these people. There is no excuse for bad customer service. I don't know if these other reviewers were nasty on the phone or what. The price of this thing is high, but when you look at the amount of work put into it, it's amazing that they ever created it. The old Echoplex units were prone to all kinds of trouble. The only issues I've seen that really need fixing are the tape cartridges. It's a slick idea and the execution of it is almost there.

as simple as the layout is, you can really get many different variations of delay. More so then any other delay I have ever used.

This is the best delay I have ever heard period. It is like an out of body experience. I am absolutely possesed by this thing. I have always used delay as my main effect for years. I used the Boss delays for years which are good, then I stumbled across a Chandler Stereo Echo which was great, now the TTE which is absolutely fantastic. I dont know how anything could sound better.I run a stereo rig consisting of 2 50 watt Marshall Jubilees. Guitar-Boss BD-TTE-Marshalls, thats it. TONE, TONE, TONE, SWEET THICK DRIPPY TONE.This TTE adds majic to my sound.It is the Holy Grail of delays for me.

I have the black tolex model which I think looks cooler then the blond. I bought it used and it looks and works like new. The previous owner only uded it a couple of times so it is just like new. I have had zero problems with this unit and doubt I ever will. This is the best built effect I have ever seen. All of these people that seem have problems with their units must not know what the hell they are doing.This thing will outlive me. Top of the line build quality here people.

Emaild a couple of times just asking small questions and was always
responded to.

Been playing 30 years and have been through my share.To me this is as good as it can possibly get.I got a smokin deal on this since it was used, saved myself around $400 dollars. I guess the black tolex models were more expensive ($1200 new) and I got mine for $850 , so I am very happy to say the least. Now that I have this and heard how
glorious it sounds I wouldnt mind having pay full price for it if I had to,worth every penny to a delay guy like me.

Very easy to use. Just remember to turn it on first before you plug in the output. No big deal.

This is the best Analog delay on the market. Doesnt get anymore Analog than this, tubes and tape. If you can dream of the delay sound you can get it on this unit.

For the people saying that it is noisy, try out an old Tape or Tube Echo. THOSE are noisy. Compared to them this unit is dead quiet. You have to be reasonable on this though and remember that there are tape heads, and motors to turn the tape. Of course those are going to make some noise. Nothing to complain about though.

I don't know what people are talking about the tapes being bad. Maybe they just have bad luck. I've had my TTE for over a year now and havent had any problems with the tape binding. I'd bring this on a gig and not worry about it at all. Mike's pedals are top notch. I own quite a few Fulltone Pedals and have not had any trouble with them.

Customer Support is good. If you've dealt with Mike in the past you know he is a little quirky. He'll send the one word or one sentance replies from time to time. BUT, have you ever met a musician that isn't just a little quirky. But he will take care of his customers too.

If you've got the money for this unit take the plunge and buy one. It's a life long piece of gear for me. When I'm in my 50's-60's I'll still be using this unit. Just hope I can get tapes then! If it was to ever be stolen I'd buy a new one in a heart beat.

Thanks for this unit Mike. Looking forward to the SS-TE (Solid State Tape Echo).

Made my $1500 Fender Vibro King sound like an $800 Roland Jazz Chorus. This may be because of the 12AY7 that is in the unit (if my memory serves me correctly). If I still had one --thankfully I don't-- I would probably swap out the exitsing tube for a 12AX7 to restore some of the grit/ character of my amplifier. The echos were very nice, but definitely not worth the hassle of dealing with Fulltone and coping with the sterilization of my amp's sound.

This is a follow-up to a review I wrote about 1-1/2 years ago after a miserable-- and costly-- venture into the dark world of Fulltone. I submitted a review which has since mysteriously "disappeared" from the forum. You'll notice a theme in reviews of the TTE: that many of us who were foolish enough to spend $1200 or so on this unit have been treated to Fulltone's pathetic excuse for "customer service." Included in that "service plan:" contempt for the customer, hostile or non-existent responses to e-mails, overpriced tapes and an utter lack of instruction on how to service the unit. (I assume the maintenence DVD is still unavailable.)Do yourself a favor: save your money and buy a Memory Man. There are too many other decent guys who build superior pedals and who appreciate their customers(Robert Keeley, Paul Cocheron, etc.) to continue supporting Fulltone. And incidentally, I'm not an "anti- Fulltone troll" (as alleged by an previous reviewer). I'm just a serious guitarist who expects that his equipment should work, not a sycophant who wants to endear himself to Fuller.