Boss TE-2 Tera Echo: I did not expect this...

[giantoz]

I was looking for a reverb and i waaaas going to get something simple....

I saw this one at a great price so i picked it after hearing some demos. Im still new to effects this year and haven't used a reverb. I know it isnt exactly a reverb but i thought i could coax a simple reverb setting from it.

I don't know what to say about the reverb aspect of it....its okay I think. I still think I need a reverb.

What i discovered though is at lower settings its a fattening tool that i didn't even realize i needed so bad. Its Incredible. It gives thickness and breath to every note no matter how fast or hard i play. I suppose its because the filter sweeps over the plate keeping everything tight and keeps it from being muddy or washed out. (forgive me i might totally be wrong-im stll learning)

After finding this i looked for more discussion on it. Theres a review of it on reverb that talks about it in a better way than i can.

Like I said im still exploring this stuff so this may be old news or something that can be achieved some other way but if not this pedal is a very special tool for bassists.

 

[VerryBerry]

I'm going to have to try one. I can rent one cheap for a week or so to see what I think.
Thanks!

 

[Real Soon]

I've always thought they were super cool, and in contrast, guitarists pretty roundly panned it when it came out because it wasn't a tape, bucket-brigade, or oil can delay (or a DD-7).

Actually, I kinda forgot about them for a good while. It'd be interesting to see what kinds of stuff they do to a bass sound, mild to wild....

 

[giantoz]

Definitely mild to wild

 

[thabassmon]

Whenever I've heard folks use the TE-2, I think that's a cool sound. Enjoy

 

[NoiseNinja]

I personally use a quite subtle plate reverb emulation from my Zoom MS70-CDR digital multi stomp pedal as my signal thickener, mixed in fairly low, with a 10ms pre delay, a rather short decay time, and with the low damp parameter dialed in relatively low (meaning that the low frequencies of the signal fed to the reverb are damped less than the high frequencies, and less than is common with reverb effects).

Or that is it really rather adds extra depth to my signal and sort of make it sound more lively, rather than really just primarily as such thickening it all that much, I guess really adding an extra dimension of complexity to the signal, rather than just doubling it with a slight delay (I assume the Boss Tera Echo the way OP describes he is using it would do something quite similar to this, though I imagine at the same time acting as a more regular doubling effect as well).

You actually don't really notice it is there, and unless you already know and specifically aim for detecting it you wouldn't be able to tell there was actually a reverb effect going on, but if you turn it off the difference becomes quite obvious and prominent, and you realize just how much depth and life it actually adds to the signal.

In fact to me it makes a night and day difference and I wouldn't want to be without it.

A pretty accurate description of the effect it has on my signal is actually very much like the difference between respectively looking at a 2D and a 3D image.

I realize 3D has kind of become a meaningless buzz phrase when talking tone, but in this case it is actually quite literary.

 

[Peaveylover]

I did a similar thing with the old DD-2. I even started a thread here about it. I noticed a very nice thickening at low delay times. I ended up not using that sound, but was amazed when I first discovered it.

 

[StayLow]

I like what the TE-2 can do at various settings.

Very sensitive to input variations and small movements in the knobs though, as I recall, so tough to zero in on quite the same sound the next time.