Fulltone Tube Tape Echo

Very easy to use. Like most boutique products, the manual has some flaws and omitions. But Fulltone is very responsive and helpful with inquires.

You can't beat this thing. No analog, digital or modeling pedal can reproduce what this thing can do. It's unbelievable. And it's a blast to play with. It can be played mono or stereo. It has a true bypass. But with a footswitch (Boss FS-6, not included!), you can turn off the echo and use the TTE's power tubes as a great in-line boost. It can't do reverse echo (as far as I can tell). But who cares? Obviously, the better your amp, the better this thing will sound. But you could use this thing with you Ibenez 15W practice amp and get great tone. I use a Carr Rambler and a TopHat Club Royale. Neither of these amps has an effects loop, and the audiophils will argue the best place to put echo or delay is in the dry signal path. But to Hell with those guys. Get one. You won't be sorry.

No problems so far, but I expect to have a few since this is a mechanical device.

FANTASTIC. They return my emails immediately. Very helpful. Great company.

By far the best effect I've every bought. I've had many regrets when it comes to guitar gear, but this is not one of them. This thing is destined to become a classic. With a little luck, someday I'll be like one of those schleprocks that bought a funny looking amp from some nobody named Dumble back in the 70's and I'll have to keep my TTE in a vault until I'm ready to retire!

It's fairly easy to use, but must be maintained periodically as any tape based unit would. It's not that hard- all you need is some Caig rubber roller cleaner, and a head demagnetizer.

Truly deserves a 10. I went through a bunch of analog delay units including the Maxon AD900 and Moogerfooger before I got my TTE (one of the first ones made). I know, tape echo is its own thing and probably should not be compared to analog delays. However, the TTE beats the analogs in every parameter- it's dead quiet, the fidelity of the repeats is user settable (fast or slow tape speed) and there's three stereo options. The guitar volume knob can be turned past unity to give a great tube-driven boost to your tube amp.

There is moving tape, so things can happen. The unit itself, though, is built as well or better than any boutique amp out there.

This is where I wanted to respond to "Topher" below, who I strongly suspect is an anti-Fulltone troll. I have about 6 Fulltone pedals in addition to the TTE, and my dealings with Mike both on the phone and through e-mail have been nothing but great. About a year after I got my TTE the tape stuck and unraveled while I was playing. I emailed Fulltone and said that I had one of the first TTE's and described what happened. Mike replied (the next day) "Wow! you have one of the first ones. Does yours have the plastic corner roller? Give me your address and I'll send you the new improved stainless steel one." Three days later the upgraded roller arrived; I installed it and many hours of use later and I have had zero problems. This is typical of my experience with Fulltone.

The TTE instantly become the cornerstone of my rig. There's nothing else I have heard in my 25+ years of playing that sounds this good. There's nothing like two good amps run in stereo, and the TTE delivers. If you want that Eric Johnson-like clean sound with two amps and a little chorus, this is the ticket. It will be passed down to my kids when I go.

TTE is very easy to use but it is necessary to dedicate some care to obtain the best performance from it.

I have played with several echo ( old echoplexes, binson, roland space echo, etc..) but TTE is the greatest echo ever made: great sound, no noise, high dinamic !

At this moment FULLTONE TTE-DVD support is not yet available but it is necessary for all overseas users to maintain theirs TTE TO working fine

I play rockabilly, blues and jazz: for my personal set up a better unit than TTe is another TTE !!!

It is very easy to use. Move a slider to select your delay time, twist a knob to set guitar volume, another for echo level and another for feedback. Two smaller knobs for tone and stength of the signal - these are important and take some work, but very simple.

Outstanding. Addictive, and truly glorious. Between the fast and slow settings you can all the delay sounds you wlll ever need for any kind of music I think of. Even on bypass the tube circuitry rounds out your tone.
Using two amps on the stereo setting is jaw dropping. If you have two valve amps you will need to ground one of them, and they include the plug for this.

No problems in over a year and half of pretty much constant use. Fulltone stuff is made for a hard life. Clearly it needs careful handling, but its old school build quality, and comes with a great carry case.

The very big plus is that you get to deal with Mike Fuller direct, which is also the main drawback.
He is as close to a genius as there is working in guitar gear right now, and is truly passionate about his stuff. But he can also be dismissive and rude. If you can get past that there seems to be a very decent fellow in there somewhere, and he does want all of his customers to get the best out of his stuff.

This is a unique unit. No question it is the best echo unit you can buy. Period. It makes amps and guitars sound better, and will flatter your playing.
I have been using echo as a key effect for over 20 years and owned some wonderful tape echoes from Roland, Korg and Wem. I am an admirer of Boss, patic if you are on a budget, and EHX.
But nothing comes close, honestly.
I know it is a heap of money for a regular player, but its worth it. It is handmade, unique, and once you have one you will never want to let it go. Bite the bullet and buy the one piece of kit you will never have to upgrade.
Oh, and it looks fabulous as well.

Easy to use. 3 main knobs and 2 secondary, some switches. Delay time selector with a vintage style. Clean. Wonderful blonde tolex covering. Nice cordura bag. Spartan but efficient Manual
I think it's impossible to get a bad sound of this.

Guitars: Gibson Les Paul Custom 1981, Fender Telecaster 52, Fender Stratocaster American Standard 2000, Rickenbacker 330, Gibson ES 355 Stereo, Gibson SG 1971.
Amps: VOX AC-15, Rivera R55, Demeter TGA3, Laney Head 100W Valve.
Effects: MXR DYNACOMP, TONEBONE CLASSIC DISTORTION, FULLTONE '69 PEDAL, TTE.
No matter how is the combination of amps and guitars, the sound is always awesome.

Built like a tank, but it's a mechanical device. May be need some maintenance someday.
It's part of my tone, but I don't use backups.

OK.
At last, after decades of search and prays, my redemption; now I own the Holy Grail of echoes, The FULLTONE TUBE TAPE ECHO!! Thanks, Sir Mark, the Protector of the Holy Grail of Echo Chambers, by giving it to us, poor mortals!!
Everything of my old Echoplex had, minus the mechanical instability, the noise, etc.
Just the vibe remains and the same face for instant recognizing. Inside, state-of-the-art components, tubes and intelligent solutions to old problems.
The result? The most absolute warm echo machine that money could buy (and it?s expensive, dudes!!!) but, after 40 years of playing, I learned the lesson: there are no miracles in musical gear, if you want the best, you have to pay for it. Period.
But this wonderful piece of art is not for anyone, even with money. It?s for purists, people with good ears and an understanding of the story of rock?n roll, of how the good sounds that caused that emotions in most of us was conjured. If you don?t ear the difference between this equipment and a delay pedal, forget all the words above and buy the pedal.
To the few that agree with me, all we have to say is:
God bless you, Sir Mark Fuller.

I was looking for the best delay out there and I found it, along with my Divided by 13 amps that I realy love and proud to own I think I have a wining combo. It took me 28 years to find the gear that works for me. I got TTE #105

I have owned and play through most of the anolog tape, digital pedals, and anolog pedals out there and this is the holy grail of Delay. your surch will end when you get this machine, trust me I've wasted alot of time and money surching. after I got the machine I sold off all my other delays qwick, I did keep a old boss anolog DM-3 pedal for back up in my gig bag incase of emergency.

I gig about 2 to 3 gigs a week and, So far so good.

They helped me out fast to answer any Questions I had.

If DELAY is a big part of your sound them you need this machine. I dont no how I could play with out it, its now my sound, If stolen or lost I would have to buy another one Qwick I would never settle for less, infact I might have to get a second one for a spare. I hope they keep them in blonde.

very straightforward, after an hour or so it's easy to get a handle on the functions. Every knob performs a useful function that affects the way it sounds. The manual is pretty detailed, but I'm waiting on the DVD manual that Fulltone has promised. Haven't had to change a tape yet, and I've heard that can be tricky. . .

I've had my TTE for about four months now and I love it more now than I did when I bought it. This thing is chock full of juicy, fat, thick echo, slapback and delay. At certain settings it can also cop a very nice reverb type sound as well. You name it and this unit can do it, maybe with the exception of super long delays, but who needs that crap anyway? Seriously, this thing sounds amazing and it is very quiet as well. I'm playing it through my only amp, a Bad Cat Hot Cat 30. It sounds great with clean, overdrive and heavily distorted amp tones. I usually use a short delay, less than 10 ms, but it's very fun to crank up the knobs all the way and enjoy some cool sonic mayhem. I can't wait to get another amp to try it in stereo. Simply put: You won't find a better delay sound out there, anywhere.

no problems so far. It seems to be extremely well built and the wood reinforced case that comes with it is very cool and will protect the unit well.

never dealt with them since I bought it. . .

This is my first Fulltone product but it won't be my last. Mr. Fuller really outdid himself with this. I used to own an EP2 Echoplex and this unit sounds better, with more features and cool options like stereo outs. I got it before the price went up to $1200, so I felt like a got a good deal. At $1200 it's still a fair deal and I'd probably still buy it. If you like delay of any type I would encourage you to try one out but be careful--you'll probably end up taking it home!

it aint rocket science kid

i've pretty much always used a space echoe which i love and a couple of wem copycats which i also love but these are so noisy compared to digital delays. i had a chance to check out the tube echo recently and could not believe how quite this unit is, i still love my other echo units but am seriously considering selling them to get one of these beauties.it sounds fucking killer.i didnt use it on guitars which seems to be the norm but this has been all over everything else in the studio in the short time i had it and really left its mark..

couldn't really say personally but it had been brought from the states on tour so it had been gigged for about 6 weeks on the road and behaved perfectly.

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absolutely brilliant!!! very easy! manual is fine. this is amazing.

i play a strat and tele through zvex and fulltone pedals into this unit into orange amps. the only noise is mechanical noise. in 20 years of playing, owning a ton of digital, analog, and tape echo units, this is THE one. this is the most amazing sounding echo i have ever heard!! my favorite piece of gear i own!!

it seems very solid. i will not gig with it. i will use a maxon analog delay pedal live. i want to keep this baby mint AND 99% of the people watching you live cannot tell what kind of echo you are using. trust me, most people can't even hear the difference between analog and digital (this does not include us musicians and tone freaks so don't get mad at me!!!) i will use it for my at home pleasure and on all recordings.

i have emailed fulltone. i think it was mike e-mailing back. lets just say this. he acts like someone who has been spoiled by a lot of praise and success.

the most perfect echo unit i have had the pleasure of using!! www.myspace.com/thebusylights is where you can hear my band. i will try to add some music with the TTE in the recordings.

If you haven't used an Echoplex or tape unit you could be in for some 'dial-in' time. The directions are simple and the layout is 'user friendly'.

Well, I have a MONSTER amp made by Scott Splawn and is easily the best Marshall (clone but MUCH BETTER) type amp I've owned. I put the TTE in front of the amp (between the guitar and amp input) and played a bit. Sounds terrible :( the echoes are thin and muddy. I adjust the 'echo tone' and 'record' knobs as suggested in the manual and more of the same....I think I made a HUGE mistake in buying this expensive boat anchor...the echoes get worse as the gain on my amp increases. I'm not impressed. AHA! this is a 'tube' echo, maybe there is a tube problem? I open the unit up and swap out the EI 12ax7 tubes with NOS JAN Philips 12ax7 tubes (don't touch the 12AU7 the manual warns!!!). Fire er' up and VIOLA! there it is! the tone I was expecting to hear! (I've owned tube tape echoes before)It was a couple of(or just one)severely microphonic tube(s). I put the TTE in the effects loop of the amp and it sounds even better (more uniform echoes between clean and gain channels). Absolutely quiet, I have to put my ear up against it to even hear any mechanical tape travel noise. I haven't tried the stereo option yet but am doing some recording soon and will try it with an acoustic guitar going into the TTE and out into the board in stereo. Try changing the tubes out for a change in tone.

The EI tubes can be finiky (I've heard), Telefunken clones, but have quality issues....I won't hold this against this unit and its maker because the EI's are great when they aren't microphonic, and this could have happened to the tubes during shipping...unit is built with great care and highest quality throughout, nice job! I hope to own it, trouble free, for MANY years!

Mike Fuller is usually accessible and always helpful when I talk to him.

If you want the best possible echo tone, this is it, if you want the clearest sounding echo get a digital delay. I've been around for quite a while and have used ALL that is out there....this product is a keeper.