eTap2hw valve preamp model used live

[dave robinson]

I received Ecca's prototype eTap2HW valve preamp machine last Friday to do some demos and compare with all that went before.
My first impressions were that I couldn't hear much difference between it and my own eTap2HW in my front room although it was a very authentic sound.
As we had a Cliff & The Shadows celebration show on Sunday at The Acorn Theatre, I opted to take it with me and use it in my rig, to discover that it is the best vintage sound I have achieved ever. That's a big statement from me I know, but there are patches in there that the ESE Echomatic doesn't have, namely the 'Midnight' patch, which whilst I was playing it made my hair (what's left of it) stand on end ! It sounded exactly like the recording on the 'B" side of FBI and I had never heard anyone reproduce that tone before. I always believed it wasn't possible as I attributed the sound to the Abbey Road studio but there were guitarists in the audience that heard it too and commented to me after the show how good it sounded. I was using a '62 reissue Fender Strat through my Vox AC30 with Roger Alcock's Vintage unit, the guitar fitted with Ernie's 10/46 (not even heavy)
Bottom line here is for not a lot of money, the sound - THAT VERY SOUND is available to all of us thanks to Piet's eTap2hw and Ecca Thacker, who had the idea of adding the valve pre-amp. It's a winner !

[ecca]

I'm glad you like it Dave, I was a little worried that you hadn't said owt.
But....... I love it.
Whatever follows from the eTap2hw , it's still all down to Piet's original.
Brilliant.

[dave robinson]

I'm glad you like it Dave, I was a little worried that you hadn't said owt.
But....... I love it.
Whatever follows from the eTap2hw , it's still all down to Piet's original.
Brilliant.

Hi Ecca, I hadn't said anything because initially I couldn't hear much difference between the models, but as you know I have been on chemo and my hearing could have been impaired somewhat.
I decided to just play all day Saturday and try different guitars, I have the eTap set up through my Vox VT30 with the old AC15 early sound and the later Top Boost sound so I can cover all the big hits. I liked what I was hearing and took it to the gig yesterday and stuck it through the AC30. The sound was there in volumes with no effort at all - there's no more I can say, I know the sound when I hear it and this is it ! There are fine margins between getting the 'distress' in the sound right and the potential of distorting it too much, the skill is getting the balance so you hear 'distress' on stuff like Man Of Mystery, but retaining clarity for Gonzales / Golden Street et al.
We didn't record the show last night, but we play Gainsborough Trinity Theatre on Saturday and we will record that one on video. I will be doing some studio demos for you too very soon, but I was just over the moon with the performance on the live gig.

[ecca]

Hi Dave, compare the height of your etap and my valve etap to see if the valve pre-amp will go in your casing .

[Nick Allan]

I could not agree more with Dave about this unit.

Ecca kindly supplied me with one a few weeks ago. I did notice a distinct improvement on the already excellent original, just playing it at home. However, as Dave says, the improvement is really noticed in a live context, and I reported on this on the e-Tap forum. It really is a wonderful piece of kit at an extremely modest price - thanks to Piet and to Ecca for the amazing addition of the valves. I think Ecca is going to have to set up a factory in China to deal with demand once the lads (and lasses) cotton on to this one.

All the best,

Nick

[AlanMcKillop]

I've got to agree, not a lot of difference at lower volumes but with the addition of input and output signals, you can overdrive very slightly at low volume to get that Blue Star grit, a great sounding unit.

[ecca]

If you back off the echo mix control completely you've a great little valve pre-amp !

[Kiwi]

I just want to add that when Ecca first announced his preamp version it quite rightly raised the question of what value was it adding particularly if the ETAP2HW unit was being output to a valve amp. The answer seems to be that the preamp is a"buffer preamp" which is design to add the warm valve sound with minimal gain to enhance the sound, so it it not a conventional preamp. A lot of Hi-Fi buffs are using them to enhance their sound. It was certainly very creative thinking by Ecca. Cheers, John

[ecca]

I certainly had to indulge in some creative thinking yesterday, the elastic went in my pants while I was in the garden and I suffered an internal descent which nearly crippled me waddling round giggling .

[alanbakewell]

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