FULLTONE CS-SSTE SOLID STATE TAPE ECHO GUITAR EFFECT PEDAL

NEW FEATURE! All SSTEs (serial# 388 and higher) have a small toggle switch allowing you to choose between “Buffered” or “Bypassed” output. Why? An SSTE without its output buffer is very much an early EP-3 Echoplex circuit, and EP-3s have a pair of Mix potentiometers on their output that give them a very unhealthily high output impedance, degrading the instrument’s treble and the the brightness of the repeats! BUT, some people like this effect, and I’ve had people ask me “Can you make yours sound more like an EP-3?” Lol, so the EP-3’s sonic degradation is an “asset” to some people, and I get that. I like the sound of an SSTE with the buffer turned off…sometimes, so now all SSTEs have this “Buf/Byp” switch, and we can modify your SSTE to have it as well.

In the early 80’s I worked in music stores teaching Guitar and selling & repairing gear. One day a guy came in with a 70’s Echoplex EP-3 tape delay asking $30 for it!. The owner of the store said he didn’t want it so I bought it and thus was born a life-long love affair with tape echo. I used that solid-state Echoplex all through the 80’s and early 90’s. Everyone else showed up for auditions with a refrigerator rack full of cold, thin sounding gear, and more often than not I’d steal the gig using a pair of Blackface Fenders, a Plexi Marshall Half stack, a couple of homemade pedals and that trusty early version EP-3.