The Eclipse GTek
Text & Photography by Joshua D. Silverman • Some Photographs by Planet Eclipse
After years of success with the Ego
series, culminating in the LV-1, and later the Geo line of
spool valve markers now led by the flagship CS-1, plus the
ETek line and the Etha, Eclipse has this whole paintball
gun thing pretty well figured out. Their top teams, like
Edmonton Impact, San Antonio X-Factor, Upton 187
Crew, AC: Dallas and Dynasty have the trophies to back
that up. The problem is, Eclipse doesn’t seem to be
quitting. Instead, Planet Eclipse chose the 2015 World
Cup to launch a completely new paintball gun, a spool
valve addition to their mid-level line that joins the poppet
valve ETek5, giving players looking for the quality, value,
performance and service of Planet Eclipse something
they’ve never had from the company’s mid-level
line before: choice.
Through several iterations over many years, the Eclipse
ETek has provided players on a mid-level budget a
reliable, durable, simple and competitive marker able to
punch well above its weight. Improving with each new
model, there was simply not much to complain about with
the ETek line. That said, some players prefer the quieter,
softer-shooting and generally more accurate spool valve
operating system to the stacked-tube, poppet valve
system at the core of the ETek, and to receive that type
of performance from Eclipse the only choice was to step
up to the Geo, one of their flagship markers. With the
introduction of the GTek this is no longer the case, as
a spool valve brother at the Eclipse mid-level price of
$550 MSRP has now joined the ETek. Affordable, simple,
accurate, well built and well-appointed, the GTek brings
high-end, spool valve performance loved by serious
players from the woods to tournament fields around the
world to a much more affordable level.
Delivered in a hard, zippered case with the usual
barrel cover, spares and excellent owner’s manual, the
Eclipse GTek features a new, Gamma Core spool valve
surrounded by a combination of anodized aluminum
and the same light yet strong glass-reinforced nylon
composite parts like the grip frame, eye covers, on/off air
knob and feed neck found on the ETe k. Available in blue,
black, grey and red with black accents with an Autococker-
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