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 !