Eventide Eclipse - worth giving a second chance, or no?

Hello all,

Some of you already know that I'm in the process of building a wet/dry/wet rack rig. What some of you also know is that back in May 2019, I've had a freak incident with an Eventide Eclipse where a used Eclipse arrived defective, where the right input kept on registering a "ghost input" in which it'd constantly cause feedback loops even when I'm not playing anything. Unfortunately, Long and McQuade couldn't pinpoint the issue and deemed the unit a lemon, resulting in a hard-learned $1800 worth of a lesson to think twice before buying anything used.

Now, here's the gripe I'm getting with rack effects. It's not just the Eclipse that arrived defective or damaged in transit. Many other units such as the Boss VF-1, Voodoo Lab GCX, Voodoo Lab Control Switcher, Boss SE-50's and many more that I bought from either the used market or small businesses arrived with defects, and/or damaged in transit thanks to Canada Post constantly manhandling delicate electronics. And thanks to these bad purchases I'm left with a dysfunctional rack rig that I'm struggling to hold together. I've tried asking for advices in other places, and sadly others haven't been so sympathetic of my circumstances.

Right now, I'm using a Boss SE-70 for chorus effects, a TimeLine and BigSky for my time-based effects and two Samson SM10 line mixers to route my effects in parallel. So far, the SE-70's are the only used gear that's been holding up so far; however, one of the two BRB-120 power supplies died on me, and it's only a matter of time before my SE-70's become unusable.

I've considered going Helix or Fractal; however, I don't like the idea of trusting my analog dry through Fractal's AD/DA converters that will mess up my dry signal. So the line mixers are here to stay; however, I still have to figure out how to salvage my rack effects. Pedals such as a Boss DC-2W are out of the question as they do not work well in true line level.

Here is where the Eclipse comes in. I'm currently thinking of giving the Eclipse another try; however, I've heard from Long and McQuade that customers have had mixed results in terms of Eventide's quality control, in which some of the Eclipse's have arrived defective/damaged in transit resulting in a couple RMA incidents with Eventide.

Another option is to bite the bullet and try to secure other discontinued rack gear, but honestly, I don't know if I'd want to risk my money on it.

What would you guys say? Give Eventide a second chance, or forget about Eventide at this point given my bad luck with rack gear purchases?

you can line match your pedals with a couple passive DIs and the right cables.... I had a bad experience with an eclipse and returned it but the rest of the eventide line is always aces. I don't know what's up with that one.

Okay, so we can safely establish that I'm not the only one who's had a bad experience with the Eclipse.

I really, truly cannot understand why people in the rack gear forums would even recommend the Eclipse, when it's extremely temperamental to damage and/or defects that even a single bad purchase can seriously ruin your day. Not everyone has $6000 CAD to splurge on backups for the Eclipse, and even if you can, would you really want to go through massive grief trying to get the damn unit to work reliably? I'm gonna guess no.

I feel bad for others who are trying to build a wet/dry/wet rig from scratch like what I've done, really. A lot of the good rack gear are hard to come by these days, mainly due to the fact that Lexicon, just like Behringer/TC, also made a corporate decision to not ship any of their products to Canada any longer, and the used market such as eBay and Reverb are extremely unpredictable. You never know if you'll get a good or bad unit from eBay because sellers refuse to show video footages of them testing the unit to ensure that it works.

Ugh, I feel so frustrated...I don't know what else to do anymore. I feel like my options have become so limited due to a series of bad purchases I've had in the past.

Ugh, I feel so frustrated...I don't know what else to do anymore. I feel like my options have become so limited due to a series of bad purchases I've had in the past.

that's a terrible feeling.... I have a stack of low functioning studio gear I bought with the intention of repairing and have found some of it is hard to get parts for now and I'm feeling similarly.... which is a first for me! Its a real drag.

Yeah...I mean, worst comes to worst, my last resort would be to consider Helix or Fractal, but I don't want things to come to that because 1. I don't have space to accommodate a backup Fractal or Helix if I wanna back up my tube-related items first, 2. I'm still not convinced that Fractal or Helix will give me a transparent analog dry given that you're still going through AD/DA converters, and 3. The chorus effects in both units don't sound the same as my Boss SE-70's, so whether I like it or not I'll have to live with the sound if I'm going this route.

I'm thinking of giving a Lexicon PCM81 a chance, but honestly, I'm not confident that the used market will be friendly to me considering my really bad luck.

I'm thinking of giving a Lexicon PCM81 a chance, but honestly, I'm not confident that the used market will be friendly to me considering my really bad luck.

I don't like the 81, as a mix engineer at any rate.... just flat out dislike it.... sounds no better than a cheap mx series lexi (which I recommend, like the mx200, 400?fine)... though the conversion rate is lower the older ones and particularly the 60 are much more musical units.... I also HIGHLY recommend the klark teknik dn780, which is my favorite mono to stereo old school verb. Its fantastic and it just gets out of the way in parallel as all wet whether its on a mix or in a rig

If you look at my somewhat incomplete gear lidt under studio equipment you'll see I a host of reverbs and multi fx I wholeheartedly approve of for sound and durabiity.

I use my BigSky for reverb so that part is covered. What I'm looking for is a rack unit that can do stereo detunes well, bonus points if it can also do articulate delays.

If the PCM81 isn't an option, then maybe a Yamaha SPX 90?

If the PCM81 isn't an option, then maybe a Yamaha SPX 90?

I LOVE the spx90 but it has a antique, crunchy sound to its detunes.... I love them though... the king of detunes is really the eventide ultraharmonizer line but damn are they costly, can't afford one myself

Given how the Eclipse was a total disappointment to me in terms of reliability, I don't know if I'd want to even consider anything else out of the Eventide lineup at this stage of the game, really. But yeah, right now the SPX90 is in my radar to secure after I secure a Fryette power amp.

Given how the Eclipse was a total disappointment to me in terms of reliability, I don't know if I'd want to even consider anything else out of the Eventide lineup at this stage of the game, really. But yeah, right now the SPX90 is in my radar to secure after I secure a Fryette power amp.

I usually have at least 2 spx90s around (a I and a II or more), the 900 is also sweet, I prefer the 90 for its retro flavor but the 900 is a contender, much cleaner sound, less bitty...

All that's left at this point is to pray that the used market will be nicer to me than before since I'm only gonna have space for 1 if I wanna back up the Fryette power amp I'm hoping to secure soon.

are you leaving extra spaces around the tube gear so non fanned heat disapation doesn't cook your digital gear?

I'm not too worried about the Fryette power amps since they come with onboard fans inside. As for my Synergy SYN-2 I've left enough space so I should be okay.

I would put the fryette up top anyway, the fans don't pull all the heat off and it rises... and I at one time owned a VHT (back when steve owned them)... you want a space.... its really a nice poweramp but nothing on an integrated amplifier with a loadbox or DI on the speaker out for FX

Up top? Aren't power amps heavy in terms of weight to the point where they're better off in the bottom of the rack?

Up top? Aren't power amps heavy in terms of weight to the point where they're better off in the bottom of the rack?

theoretically but for tube, and digital? I would go with it, any decent rack will be fine... or spare a rack space or 2.... there's definitely heat off the top

Hmm...I'll see what I can do. I will say that my rack space is getting tight so I'll have to see.

hey, I've never melted a digital processor, but I know folks who have.... in my studio I actually keep most of the digital stuff in a separate rck from the analog gear, particularly away from the pultecs and varimus which kick some heat

I see. I mean, I always keep the back side of my rack open anyway, so I am hoping it does some help in terms of ventilating heat out of the rack. If you'd like, I can show you the picture of my current rack to show you what I'm dealing with.