Meazzi Factotum tape echo

[dave robinson]

Thanks for all the advise I think for £ 200 and all your advise will just buy one
Cheers

A good move Bill and at a sensible price.

[Billyboygretsch]

Have ordered one today from Ecca

[keithmantle]

Have ordered one today from Ecca

I suppose I'll get my usual commission, 1 CHEESE COB !!.

[shadowkarl]

Hi Keith and Dave,

I do have a vox long tom and both Alesis GT and Q20 with EFTP patches already so I will not try any new one. When you have heard Charlies new pedal, which was as prototype openly tested at the June gathering (tonybiker) 2 years ago (and myself had this prototype demo personally from Charlie when buying Hank`s stage KCP) the audience including Amanda could not tell the difference between the Hall Collins pedal and the combination of Justin Daish`s tuned Meazzi and an AC15 clone.
So that for me is enough evidence to wait for (as Charlie anounced by mid of the year and at a price around 650.-£) not to try another device. And after all with this pedal I do move on as well as HBM.
regards
Shadowkarl

[keithmantle]

Hi Karl, I was at that get together(Liverpool Victoria Football Club) and I also used the H/C prototype and i must admit it was good, but for value for money+quality of tone/sound the etap is hard to beat (i've used Justins M-echomatic/my own Factotum/GT/Q2's/Q20's/M-stomp etc etc) , but you pays your money and make your choice. Good luck with the H/C unit.

[Billyboygretsch]

You want the cheese with onion or pickle he's feeling generous.

I just need an echo which sounds close to the Shadows. I am not good enough a player or have the nuances to distinguish between the mass of pickups, body woods, amps, all the other gizmos that are around to day. Back in the 60s the Shadows had a great sound and were limited by what was around them then.
We all played their tunes on different audio equipment and liked the sound seems to me customisation is for the manufacturers to make money out of us.
My main use for Shadows numbers is a MIM Strat with lots of mods to get it up to spec. Highly figured maple neck. Mint green bits. Special block on tremolo gold plated , special nut , fiesta red, kinsman pickup and a partridge in a pear tree. Cost me £600. Still seems that there are possible improvements I should be making - eh
I will never sound as good as Hank but will do my best to achieve it with what I've got
All in all I think the package I have with the new etap will suffice for me

Just my point of view

[shadowkarl]

Hi Keith

right so, and compared for value for money I still think the H/C is the best choice for me at the moment. And I do not intend to go for the costly TVS 3 as Hank has used when moving on from the Q20 (at the final tour 2004) to the TVS 3 at the reunion Tour with Cliff) What you heard at that get together in June was a Prototype and Charlie has reassured me after all the testing, that the new H/C pedal will be improved and also will include a wide variety of different echo patterns of other makes.
Regards
Shadowkarl

[keithmantle]

Hi Bill, on the etap forum on this site there are settings for Shadows tunes kindly done by Dave Robinson, look on page 1 etap/eccamatic settings, there are also lots of stuff on the echotapper website, cheers Keith
Hi Karl, I have to agree about the TVS3 and very expensive, incidentally i did put my name on order list for 2 H/C echoes after i tried the prototype,(before the Etap came along) but like everyone else still waiting. best wishes Keith

[dave robinson]

The thing is with echo patches, not everyone hears them the same.
The ones I published in 2012 after playing around with the eTap2, were just a guideline. I have since listened to the original tracks again and have changed echo volume on some of them, as I noticed that Hank's sound wasn't perhaps as "wet' as first imagined. We all love to hear loads of echo and I for one have been guilty of over doing it, but it isn't good if you are aiming to achieve perfection.
This brings me to why I prefer the eTap2 and ESE Echomatic over the pre-programmed options. On the eTap and ESE, you decide how much echo volume and regen is used and not the programmer from whom the patches were bought. To use one of those machines you do need some knowledge and a pair of good ears to get the best out of them, but when right they do sound spot on. The advantage of the pre-programmed devices is that if you're not blessed with good ears and know how, the sounds for each track are selectable, though not always 100% correct. There's a place for each option and as Keith says "you pays yer money and makes your choice.

Another thing that makes your sound 'right' is the backing track or the live parts that your colleagues are playing.
I noticed recently at rehearsals that the whole tune can sound different if the drummer uses the wrong cymbals for certain parts - cymbals on Shadows tracks are a massive part of the sound and shouldn't be overlooked, as they empathise with the rhythm guitar sound along with the way the bass is played (finger style or pick) and the general drum sound.

We were puzzling over one track and altering the echo volume on the lead guitar up and down until we realised that it was a simple thing like the drummer needed to use the hi hat instead of the ride (or vice versa) and not until listening again to the track does it become apparent as to what exactly is affecting the 'timbre' of the tune. The hi hat and ride cymbal tones are also very important and the wrong ones will throw everything out of kilter, there's a full discussion there.
Another big factor for the echo sound is the surrounding furnishing where you are playing i.e. wooden stages, carpeting, curtains, hard walls etc etc. It all affects the echo sound and that's why I like control over the echo volume and regen.

[shadowkarl]

Hi Dave

just a short reply to your comment about being at the helm for the echopatterns and not the programmer of patches.
With the H/C last version the programmer Charlie Hall and Joan Collins did just the basics, according to the precise measurements taken from the record. (like you can also see at Echotappers homepage) To do that all by good ears is a bit difficult and tricky. (And I do have good ears trained at a conservatorium in Salzburg and with the absolute pitch) If you read the lengthy explanation in Charlies thread about that unit now, you are the one to change intensity of wet (echo) to balance the dry channel to your liking, can define even the wow and flutter effect and a lot of other things I cannot remember at the moment. (and to copy the thread would be too lengthy also without the confirmation of Charlie);
and if still not satisfied can easily programme more regen, reverb and other aspects in a new patch. Fairly the same than with the twiddling and tweaking of old tuned Meazzi`s like Phil Kelly did on Shadowmania, but more easily repeatable.
So as Keith said, for a change of all my other gear and for gigs I will prefer with my money the new H/C pedal with all its possibilities.
Shadowkarl