Dave,
I can't agree in what what you say about pickups,strings,etc NOT being important. And neither would I think professor Paul Rossiter the brilliant inventor of the TVS3. If you have ever watched his series of video's on youtube regarding "THAT SOUND" he goes into GREAT detail about pickups,scatterwinding,string gauge,age,height. His TVS3 (Tape Voicing System) is set up to "emulate" the "UNIQUE" sonic voice of the Drum,and Tape Meazzi's,as well as Binson's etc etc. In the TVS3 All of the sound paths are analogue (with the 12AX7 in the dry signal path) and analog delay chips in the echo path. However, the settings for these (delay time, feedback, internal equalisation etc) are under digital control.If you have listened to the TVS3 recordings of the EARLY Shadows stuff,i,m sure you will recognize just HOW close they are to the "recorded Abbey Road sound".Of course as Paul say's a certain amount of EQ is required even with the TVS3. What is clear is that the "ESSENTIAL" CORE SOUND of the Meazzi IS THERE. I know Paul uses a standard american Strat with CS54 pickup's and his guitar has also been expertly"set up". He has built a "CLONE" VOX AC15 which is capable of copying all the EARLY VOX AC15's and Early JMI VOX AC30's etc. If you are a perfectionist,or as "fanatical" as ME and a LOT of other people about getting "THAT SOUND" you will KNOW..... all this is true and it DOES matter a great deal about ALL the things i,v talked about.
As for Christian's VST sound. I am a member of his VST forum,and Christian and I disagreed a few times on VST "DIGITAL SOUND" being able to faithfully copy the EARLY Analogue sound of the Shadows. VST uses e-Tap for echo emulation quite effectively. Most "ECHO" units WILL be able replicate the complicated echo patterns of the early echo units quite well. I have owned ALESIS QUADRAVERBS Q20's Q2's GT etc ALL of these do a good job with the ECHO's but the overall "sound" and "tonal" quality's go NOWHERE NEAR the TVS3, or the NEW LGK ECHOMATIC that I have just had built. Christian does a brilliant job emulating the "playing style" of Hank, but even with ALL his ABBEY ROAD plug-ins the "DIGITAL" SOUND IS TOO "CLINICAL" and lacks any character,.....life...... No one will EVER convince me otherwise.
By the way the LINK works ok for ME. If THIS LINK does not work, try the links in the OTHER THREAD I posted in on HERE, or go on youtube and type in "LEADRYDER" that will let you see Kurt Frobergs channel, on which he demonstrates HIS NEW ECHOMATIC, the SAME as the one Lars built for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuS5bZF2VM0&t=14sSteph
I don't mind whether you agree or not, but I too have had them all, Meazzi tape, Binson drum, ESE Echomatic (which was the closest) , Quad GT, Q2, various Zoom machines, Hall & Collins, eTap2, Klemt Echolette, Dynacord Echocord and the TVS3. Out of them I kept the Echolette, Hall & Collins, Catalinbread Echorec and recently acquired the Blue Nebula, all of which do the job as good as any of the others.
The key is in the tone of the amp, not the pickups or echo machine. The Shadows sound was borne a long time before Hank took the Meazzi on board, the magic is in the studio reverb on those records as there isn't a Meazzi in sight.