~2010 Fulltone Custom Shop SS Tape Echo (Serial #15)

Up for sale an early production (Serial Number 15) Custom Shop Fulltone SS Tape Echo in near mint condition. This unit is smaller than the traditional Fulltone Tape Echo and looks great in its black tolex hinged case. Flip it open and you see the SS Tape Echo logo and a neat array of control knobs, switches, and toggles. As the SS implies, this is a solid state unit which has a great sounding preamp combined with the traditional analog tape delay mechanism.

We love the old vintage Tape Echos and we’ve sold a bunch to players who were thrilled to have them. The vintage units do present a lot of challenges, however. They’re noisy and temperamental, and it can be hard to find a repair shop that knows how to work on them, and they all need to be worked on sooner or later.

So here’s your chance to own a Fulltone Tape Echo that gives you the best of both worlds, modern reliability and old school vintage tape delay. Thank you Fulltone Custom Shop for creating this wonderful design. This one is Serial Number 15, meaning it was the fifteenth unit produced.

Here are the specs as provided by Fulltone:

*1/3 smaller than the original Echoplex (9.5″ W x 7.25″ D x 5.6″ H) Handmade and bullet-proof.

*1/4″ tape for FAT sounding delay, using the ball-bearing equipped Fulltone ETC-2 Tape Cartridge.

*None of Hum found in vintage Echoplexes.

*True-Bypass toggle switch, which you won’t use much because of the SSTE’s low output impedance, but it’s nice to be able to bypass to check your levels.

*2 Tape speeds with a moveable Playback head to achieve everything from super-quick Plate Reverb emulations, to Rockabilly slapbacks, to a full 1 second delays. Manipulating a moveable playback head is the only way to achieve the Jimmy Page-like self-oscillating trick using a tape echo.

*2 Preamp Modes:

EP-3 mode is the identical TIS58 JFET circuit of the first version (pre-serial #9451) Echoplex EP-3, offering that slight bass cut and slight treble boost favored by Page, Brian May, Steve Stevens, Tommy Bolin, etc. that works so well in high-volume stage situations.
Full mode is dead-on, honest, full-range rich sound, just like your bypassed sound, in case you aren’t craving that unique Ep-3 color. Beautiful.
*Separate Instrument Volume & Echo Volume control knobs – unlike the single “Mix” knob on an EP-3 which gave a fixed Instrument Volume and increased Hum as you turned clockwise. The SSTE’s Instrument Volume knob has a center detente at 12 o’clock denoting “unity gain” and up to 10dB of clean boost available as you turn clockwise.

*Echo Repeats – turn clockwise to add repeats, and easily go into self-oscillation around 1 o’clock depending on Record Level knob setting.

*Echo Highs tone switch: affects only the Echo Repeats, not your guitar tone.

Vintage – look, Echoplexes hissed a lot, so instead of fixing the problem, they slapped a capacitor to ground to kill the highs where the hiss resides…primitive but effective. It’s part of the “EP-3 sound” and Vintage mode gets that sound.
Brilliant – allows more overtones and highs on the repeats…a subtle difference, not trebly.
*Record Level – small mini-knob adjusts how much signal smacks the tape. 3 o’clock is normal, above that and the Echoes get THICKER.

*relay-activated footswitchable Echo Cancel – unlike Echoplexes, the SSTE doesn’t route the Echo signal through the echo cancel footswitch…which absolutely kills the delay sound if you use a cable over 6 feet in length.

DETAILS
Year: Early Production

Make: Fulltone

Model: Custom Shop SS Tape Echo (Serial #15)

Serial: 15

Case: Black Tolex Hinged Case

Modifications: None

Comments: Amazing Fulltone Solid State Tape Echo in near mint condition.