Cause & Effect Pedals FET Dream

just tweak the dials - the overdrive yer looking for is in there somewhere ...

as od's go, this one delivers the goods in spades.

dunno, too new, will know in a few months ....

like dealing with a close, trusted friend.

i like the fet dream enuf to keep it on all the time, tweaked for adding a tiny, subtle amount of 'human vocal hair' to the guitar's voice, even for fingerpicking jazz and rag time. a twist of 2 knobs and it delivers an overdrive to my tube amps (8watt and 40watt) that's killer for blues 'n' rock, yet easy on the ears. this is one of those rare pedals that you get exactly what you paid for, and does exactly what an od is s'posed to deliver.

FET Dream. ???Now here is a pedal that has something to say.???

Have you ever wondered how it will feel to have a pedal where you can truly feel free and the pedal doesn???t hold you back from cutting loss?

Well get ready to discover the FET Dream pedal by CE Pedals.

The FET was designed with one thing in mind. Allow the player the freedom to create any mood from blues, jazz, rock, funk or smooth jazz. All in one amazing little box.

While testing the FET pedal. I thought it would be good to record my test. This way i can go back and listen to the way it sounds as a listener and not just as a player playing around with the pedal.

Like I always say. ???A good pedal will sound great right out of the box,??? and on the FET, my favorite setting is: FLAT! Just the true sound of the pedal.

When i first plugged into the pedal I played some blues licks. Recorded it. Played it back, and I was very impressed.

So I thought, now I should see how it sounds on a jazzy kind of track.

Using the FET as a clean boost. Gain on 3/10. This setting allows the pedal the chance to colour, and the amp to breath without hitting the tubes too hard.

Once I finished playing and recorded the solo. I pressed play, closed my eyes and tried my very best to find something I didn???t like about the sound. It did produce a fat piercing tone. Which is perfect for what I needed to set the mood for that specific tune.

My favorite feature about this pedal has to be the clarity and note definition. Even when playing a busy six string chord. You will still be able to hear each and every note.

Different amp. Different sound?

I tried this pedal on two different amps. Both are class A amps. Skyraider 15 by Mack amps, and a Black Heart little Giant.

Both amps provide a different overall sound, and yet the pedal still showed its colours.

Throughout the past years reviewing pedals and amps. I find myself asking the same question: ???Is this a pedal friendly amp????

Well with the FET Dream pedal it was very different, I love the fact that I can use the pedal with different amps. I am a multi-amp kind of player. I use two to three different amps at any given time. Different amps for different songs.

Thanks to the FET pedal I can use it with any amp that I choose at that moment and still have the pleasure of playing with a rich creamy tone.

Seems very well constructed and I don't anticipate any problems.

Brian hand-delivered my pedal in Toronto... very friendly and I'm expecting great support!

Final words.

It has been a week since I first plugged into the FET pedal. I am still as impressed and love playing with this amazing pedal.

So if you are looking for that clear/creamy tone which doesn???t mess your signal up, or you don???t want to use eight pedals to achieve that type of tone... You owe it to yourself. Get a FET Dream pedal by CE Pedals. Or for more info go to: www.cepedals.com

I've submitted a review of this product before but for some reason it was never posted ,so 'ill try again. The reason i am even trying again is that i think the creators of the dream pedal deserve it.

The pedal is very easy to understand how it works ,just plug in and dial in what you want. There is a manual but all you need to know is that the grith knob is more or less the bass control and lean knob is the highs.. it's not difficult at all.

The sound is somewhat like an overdrive to me as opposed to a distortion. Because it makes your amp sound like it's being pushed into break up territory. One has the choice of more break up with the gain knob but not into heavy distorion. Just different degrees of break up/overdrive sound.

I play my guitar through a tuner / F E T dream pedal /into a verbzilla echo reverb pedal (which i dont use very much)into a carr rambler 1x12 combo amp. Thats it. Of course it depends on the music one performs which in my case is blues , r&b, and when requested, some classic rock covers (clapton ,zz top etc).
NO NOISE AT ALL ,VERY QUIET..I KEEP IT ON ALL THE TIME AND CONTROL THINGS WITH THE VOLUME KNOB ON MY GUITAR.

The F E T dream pedal lets whatever guitar your playing sound like it realy does..no coloration except for the breakup. A tele will sound like a tel ,a strat like a strat etc. No ugly mid range hump like a ts etc.. And for this i give it a 10..it's what i wanted it to do ..nothing more ,nothing less.

I imagine it will last as it seems built very well .For the price it should be as so. I always have a backup (in my case a barber LTD ,which i was useing before this F E T dream pedal) but it's been off the board since i found this pedal. Ive never been dependent on a pedal to do my job.
Time will tell if it stands up but as i said im not stomping on it all the time as it's one of those "leave on all the time pedals"..

They seem like very nice fellows to do business with and seem to care about their product . I would be interested in what future products they come up with.. No problems with the pedal so far but if something went wrong ,my guess is they would back it up with no problems.

I hate this part ..lol..ok...i play mostly blues for a living and some r&b ,some classic rock (tired of that stuff,lol..been there done that).
Been playing a very long time as a professional and am close to retirement now but still am particular about my sound.

If lost i would buy again...it stops with this pedal ...it's all i need for a good blues sound..
I like the pedal,nothing negative about it....my favorite feature is the bass /grith before the gain and dailing in the lean / treble after the gain...
The barber LTD is a very good transparent pedal and i still have it ..
it's just i hear more of my guitar's voice through the F E T dream pedal..might not make a difference to some's ears..
IT is like haveing no pedal at all by leaving it on and where i have the setting i just control it all from the guitar..unless i need more edge/gain ,i just turn it on and forget about it.

In closeing i have to say i am not affiliated with the company (only as a buying customer) although i was so impressed with the pedal i did send them a a pic for their site stateing that it knocked off the board any & all pedals that ive had... I've had many through the years ,fulltone,xotic,boss ,klon etc etc and they are all sold off..

If these guys market themselves right and never skimp on the quality of their products and keep their prices reasonable ,i have no doubt they will be a major success... I appreciate good music & talent(no matter what genre) ,good art ,good food & drink, good women , most anything that has taken effort and creative thought & soul to produce..
I must give the "cause & effects" guys a 10...

I had no problem with the minimal instructions on the signal flow (clearly marked on the pedal face) through the pedal. It only took a short time to figure out: 1. This isn't anywhere near a standard OD pedal 2. It's better than any OD pedal I've ever used.

It's almost wrong to call the FET Dream an OD pedal. It's more like a high end piece of audio gear that sits on the floor and designed to be used with guitars. I can't believe what this thing does!

I'm using a Mesa Mark IV head with both the Weber Blue Dog/Silver Bell combo in a Mesa vert 2x12 (the most beautiful tone ever), and a Celestion Century (the $200 dollar one)/EVM12L combo in a Mesa 4x12 Mark cab (this is the best combo for technical metal work, by far). A variety of axii with SD pups, from Antiquities to JB's, Demon's, and Distortions.

I was using a variety of OD boxes to tighten up the Mark, and color the R2 channel, which is the weak link on that head. I ended up with a Barber Small Fry for R2, a Direct Drive for R2 boost and Lead boost for tightening (all drives low with volume up) through a Jauernig Velvet Drive for smoothing the opamp grain. The whole thing starts with a TonePress, compression off, gain neutral, for a line driver (should have bought the Barber Launch Pad).

With the FET Dream, gain down, level up, girth a little on the heavy side, lean a tad to the right from 12:00, I got this incredibly airy, musically rich sound from every channel that I'd never heard before. Sparkling, crunchy yet crystal clear, I don't know what to call it. Harmonics just sing! I run a Joe Meek sonic enhancer in the effects loop, and it doesn't come close to adding what the FET Dream does. I also noticed that, when engaging the other OD pedals, the tone was diminished. I don't want to use the word "replaced", but the FET Dream eliminated the need for the two Barber OD pedals, the Jauernig pedal, and the Meek unit in the loop. As nice as the Mark IV is, this pedal turned it into a $15,000 monster amp.

I'm an audio snob. I like really good high end audio equipment and even better speakers. There is nothing like this pedal on the market today, or ever made before. This is something new, and will someday be a standard that other pedals will be compared to. It's not the same old JRC opamp stuff. I gave a ZenDrive away, it was worthless for what I use a pedal for. The FET Drive will turn an average tube amp into a monster, and a really great amp into something no amp designer could ever build. Caveat - I don't own a SS amp, so I can't comment on how they would match.

I don't know what's in there, but I'm going to get another one, possibly two. Playing without one is not an option.

And for the touring and studio players, it'll turn a rented/borrowed amp into something usable. You know how that works.

It seems reliable, it's very well built like other well built boutique pedals. The best paint finish I've ever seen, if you could even call it paint. It seems more like a baked ceramic print. But a small point.

These guys are fairly well known on the amp designer boards, so I'm not too worried. That's what backups are for! One might even go in the safe deposit box. I will never be without one!

The two guys that own C&E Pedals have been very friendly in answering my questions and keeping me posted on delivery details. They both seem to be very talented audio engineers and I'm not, so if you're a tech geek have at it. They'll give you a run for your money.

This is the finest piece of guitar effect I've ever heard. Their sound clips clearly show a superiority of signal quality over other pedals' clips, so I took a chance. I have been rewarded in spades. But there are some possible negatives.

This pedal is for the more technical player. If you are comfortable with your sloppiness/lack of ability getting lost in the distortion, you'll hear it with this. If you do care, get one. If not, don't. Someday every technical metal player will be using one of these. Period. Jazz, blues, sure. Punk, no.

Second, this pedal will reduce the happiness you now have with your existing pedals. I've put over half a grand worth of stuff back in their boxes. Ebay or Xmas presents. Add in the spares I want, and back in hock I go. Well, that new Mark V would look good on my stacks, too.

The FET Dream is pretty simple. The only reason it doesn't get a 10 is because of the reason it sounds so good, pre (GIRTH) AND post (LEAN) equalization. There can be a little bit of a challenge to find the right interaction of pre, drive, and post. What make this pedal so interesting is the relative difference between the the pre and post. The pre is much more than a "bass" knob. It is directly connected to the drive level. Fill out the tone using the GIRTH and DRIVE together. Then use the post to "polish" the sound.

After 24 hours with s/n 0004, I can say, "WOW!" followed by a very Keanu, "WHOA!" Even at higher gains, it is exceptional musical and transparent. Arpeggios are distinct. Individual notes while chording are easily discernible! It has different harmonic sound that sits between the Keeley BD-2 and the more distorted Box of Rock. There is a shimmer/sparkle to the break up that I got lost in more than a few times. There was a true joy when I forced false harmonics with my pick. I have not heard a sound like this out of any other dirt pedal and I LOVE DIRT PEDALS!!

I use a 2006 Gibson LP Studio with stock pick ups and play into either a VOX AC30CC2 or a Mesa Express 5:25-12. The Mesa is a two channel-dual configurable amp and everyone and their dog knows the VOX is single channel. I also have both the hand-painted and Vexter Box of Rock, along with a Keeley PHAT Mod BD-2, unmodded OD-3, and Seymour Duncan Twin Tube Classic. Additionally I use a Keeley 4-Knob Compressor and an unmodded DD-6.

The FET Dream has but me in a bit of a quandary. Do I use the beautiful articulate drive for rhythm work or leads? To be honest, I am playing with the idea of getting another just to have it on both sides. This thing is so incredible sounding.

My prior set-up ran the BD-2>Vexter Box of Rock>Keeley Comp>OD-3>Hand-painted Box of Rock>DD-6. The BD-2 gave a light overdrive for rhythm work while the Vexter BoR gave a thicker sound. Same on the lead side after the Compressor. OD-3 for lighter overdriven lead and the other BoR for gainier lead.The Twin Tube has been taking a break as of late.

I would compare the build quality of the box and switches to my Box of Rock. Solid metal case with removable bottom plate to access the battery. Internally, the circuit board is much bigger than the BoR and is shielded from the bottom plate with plastic like in Boss pedals. The knobs are a softer plastic than the ZVEX pedals but the switch is far enough away to be out of the way of a stomp. The pots are solid feeling with a smooth but not loose motion. Feels high quality.

I exchanged emails with Mark while making the purchase. He was prompt and courteous. The pedal was sent within a day of my order. My only real knock was the use of parcel post (Canada Post->USPS). The Canada Post side did a good job of tracking the package. Once it got into the US, the Postal Service was its usually non-informative self. Please use someone else to ship! Give the Customer the option of paying for another method.

I play rock, pop, blues, alternative, and folk both with my music partner and directing a praise-group. I do a lot of lead and riff work.

I have had this pedal for a really short time but I have strong opinion about overdrive/distortion pedals. THIS IS NOT A DS1. Its the ANTI-DS1. I am not knocking the DS1 but the FET Dream is articulate and transparent.

I was able to get in with the pre-release pricing and its a GREAT DEAL even at the regular price. I would be really upset if I lost the FET Dream. It is truly unique.

I wonder if the guys at Cause & Effect have anything else up their sleeve...if this is any indication, I'm in!

Realizing that "boutique" overdrive pedals are a dime a dozen these days, I must say that I felt like I was taking a big chance to the tune of nearly $200 when I made the decision to order my FET Dream pedal. But alas I was a sucker for the audio clips on CE's site and so I thought "what the heck"....

And now I have Serial #03 sitting in front of me and I am really amazed at how good this little pedal sounds in front of a clean channel tube head. And it sounds real good. And it is hard to make it sound bad if you have a good guitar/amp rig to begin with. This may be the holy grail of good overdrive for all intents and purposes. I've been actively playing and pursuing good tone for 24 years and I've tried a lot of amps, guitars, pedals, cabs, speakers, etc, and honestly the FET Dream rates very highly in my book. Wow.

So I have a couple separate rigs (depending on the gig or the occasion) and I have primarily been playing the FET Dream through my "home rig" which is a modest Mesa Nomad 55 short head on top of a Mesa vertical 2x12 cab with V30's: fairly straightforward amp sounds with workable cleans, a decent crunch channel, and a slightly scooped lead channel. Not a high-end set-up per se, but not shabby either. But it is good for certain things and the cab in particular mics especially well with 57's, i5's, ribbons, etc.. My favorite guitar at the moment is an especially toneful '05 Gibson Les Paul Classic retrofitted with BurstBucker Pro's. Also on tap is a Fender Highway One Tele (modded with locking tuners, brass barrels and a roller nut), a sublime sounding Fender American Deluxe V-Neck Strat, and one of the newer American Fender VG Strats (modded with locking tuners and a custom gold pickguard). I also have an '02 Gibson Melody Maker with a P-90 for times when the Tele isn't rowdy enough. Those five guitars are my primary rides in my ever growing collection, and the FET Dream sounds equally divine with each and every one. And in all cases the pedal's knobs are very toneful throughout the ranges, despite the differences in each of these guitars' inherent tones. But that is just it.....each guitar retains its own tone when running through the FET Dream, only I would dare to say that each guitar sounds better when used in conjunction with the FET Dream.

I am one of those guys that likes to control his tone and dynamics with pick attack and fret-hand finesse, and I also really love to work the volume and tone knobs on each instrument. That being said, the FET Dream suits my style and preferences like a glove and I am glad to say that I have not had to adjust any of my techniques or tendencies when playing through the FET Dream. But man does it sound good. Dang. I'm sure this pedal can cover a lot of other ground sonically, but I have been searching for tones in the vicinity of the newer Bonamassa, classic Jeff Beck, the newer Mescalero stuff by Billy Gibbons and Co, Trower (sans the Uni-vibe), EJ's medium-thick tones, Larry Carlton's heavy tone, Robben Ford, etc.. And this pedal nails that stuff in spades. Certainly it helps that my guitars and amps are decent, but I think this little FET Dream pedal may have been the missing link for my tones across the board. And I would never say that I sound like any of those other players, only that my current playing is in the ballpark genre of all of those guys combined. This pedal will not make you sound like any other person in particular, but it will definitely augment and bring out the best of your own playing. I suppose if you are looking for a pedal to imitate someone else then this one probably isn't for you, but if you already have your own unique style and vibe then this pedal will most likely put a smile on your face.

One thing that is especially worth noting about the FET Dream is the "Girth" knob. The guys at CE designed the pedal to have the lows and low mids to be controlled before your signal ever hits the overdrive stage. To their credit that is a brilliant design and it totally makes the pedal worth the money in my opinion. The Girth knob really interacts with the gain stage by controlling how much "gush" you want. Truthfully, this element of the pedal is hard to describe without actually hearing it, but imagine having a gain stage that is very transparent across the spectrum, yet can go from extremely low gain to a moderate amount of overdrive. I say "moderate" because I wouldn't call this a "distortion box" because it doesn't take over your tone, but then again there is plenty of gain on tap if you need it. But as far as the FET Dream's personality goes, I'd say it is clear, smooth, ballsy, thick, open, complex, and for lack of a better term, Perfect. This thing can sing and has good natural sustain, yet it can simultaneously exhibit superb string definition and note clar

Seems built very well. One thing that may annoy certain players is the lack of a battery hatch. To get to the battery you have to remove the four corner screws on the bottom metal plate. But in my mind this is a good trade off for keeping outside noises under control. I live less than a mile from a rather dominating Top 40 FM radio station and a lot of my gear suffers from bleed through and RFI and the faint sounds of Mariah Carey and Sting seeping into my equipment. Not a problem for the FET Dream and I believe this is partly due to the lack of a cheap battery compartment plastic cover on the pedal's chassis. The pedal itself is very quiet and unwanted noise is not an issue. Even when I play through single-coils. The chassis itself is smallish and is a nice thick metal enclosure that seems like it will hold up under constant foot-switching, although I honestly doubt I'll be turning the pedal off very much, even for clean sounds. The top face of the pedal is all one piece and it has a solid metal plate for the bottom. Also worth noting.....inside on the bottom plate is a sticker noting the "FET Tuning" for "Vp", Idss", "Rd", and "Rs" (whatever those things mean) with the values of each of these measurements written by hand, along with a handwritten serial number, as well as a "Build & Test" line initialed with an "M" (I am assuming "M" stands for Mark Roberts from CE Pedals). The top of the enclosure is nicely dressed up with a good-looking shade of blue and the control knobs have arrows between them illustrating the signal path from input to output. Definitely a nice touch, especially when you are tweaking the "Girth" knob and getting it to interact with the "Drive" knob. Paint is paint, and it will likely acquire of few bumps and bruises along the way but I'm guessing the casing itself will hold up nicely.

As mentioned above, one of the guys behind CE Pedals is Mark Roberts. The other guy is Brian Alexson. Both guys are friendly and fun to email with. They obviously care about their customers and I'm sure if ever there was a problem with my FET Dream that they would take care of it. I'm from Illinois (south of Chicago) and people in my neck of the woods can sometimes be uptight and in a mad rush all of the time. Mark and Brian (both of whom are from Canada) seem to be laid back and easy going judging from the emails that I have exchanged with them yet they are quick to respond to questions or whatever. They truly are a "little guy" company and these guys are what you always hope to come across in a boutique pedal brand. If ever these guys grow too big to keep things small, it will be nice knowing that I have the 3rd FET Dream ever produced. This pedal is "boutique" in every sense of the word. So glad I bought it!

Have I mentioned how good this pedal sounds? I put this pedal up against my Keeley modded Rat pedal ("Apples and Oranges" really) and even though I wouldn't classify the FET Dream as a distortion box, it sounds better to me than when trying to dial in similar tones on the Keeley, and the Keeley Rat is a fine sounding pedal and the ratings here on HC reflect that. But the FET Dream (though it doesn't have the same amount of gain as the Keeley) definitely has better sounding lows and low mids and yet it never gets muddy or congested. Even with the gain dimed. The lows and low mids are very complex sounding (for lack of a better word) and simply sound "There". Again, I have to believe that this is due to how the "Girth" knob precedes the overdrive stage but it also has a lot to do with Mark and Brian really dialing in the tuning of the pedal. Also, aside from being a bit more refined than the Keeley, the FET Dream sounds more organic and the guitar strings come through better while still sounding warm and full. This is one seriously good sounding and versatile pedal and it is worth every penny. I also had plans of picking up a Barber LTD for lower gain stuff but I think I'll pass on that now. It just doesn't get much better than this. If you are an overdrive coinnoisseur then you owe it to yourself to check this pedal out. You won't be disappointed.....

...this is a pretty
straightforward overdrive/boost pedal. the controls are "lean"
(treble), "girth" (bass), level and gain. i set the lean and girth at a
little over 2:00, and the level and gain at about 11:00 (for unity
gain). i had no difficulty whatsoever getting good sounds, so it gets a
ten here. the manual eplains the "lean" and "girth" controls (treble
and bass is an oversimplification on my part).

...i play strats and teles into a
traynor ycv15blue, a 15-watt, 1-12 tube combo. this pedal gets a ten
plus!
here's why:
at the beginning of a weekend "rehearsathon", i plugged in and turned
the fet dream on. and then...
...i never turned it off!
this pedal does that thing that many pedals claim to be able to do:
retain your essential tone, so that you can turn the guitar volume down
for your clean tone, then turn it up for as much growl and scream as
you can stand.
this is absolutely the most inspiring o/d pedal i've used. i think
blues guitarists, especially, are going to see this as "essential",
although i think it is ideal for most genres.
i really am impressed. this pedal inspires my playing like no other
piece of equipment i've ever tried. i could easily play an entire night
with just a guitar, amp and the fet dream. in fact, over the first
weekend, i found that i was far less likely to go to my reverbs and
delays for added enhancement.
no apologies for my enthusiasm. but i'm not going to take that leap and
claim that this pedal is for you - that's for you to decide.

...very solid build - i expect to
get decades of glitch-free use from this pedal.

...this is a brand new company.
i've gotten to know one of the partners. they seem to be very, very
accessible and approachable. if this product takes off like i expect it will, they will be around for a long, long time.

...i'm a singer/songwriter who plays a wide variety of styles. the fet dream covers them all admirably, save scooped metal "chunk", which i like to employ occasionally.
i've been playing professionally since the late 60s. my pedalboard also holds a plush extreme cream, a radial tonebone plexitube and a barber tone press. the fet dream plays well with all of them.
if this thing disappeared, i'd have to get another immediately. the
"honeymoon" period is long over, and i would not want to play a show
without it.
what i love about it is the transparency and the sensitivity/response
to playing dynamics. there's nothing to dislike - it has a small
footprint and is very light. also visually appealing.
i'd prefer to have the input/output/adaptor jacks at the top/front.
the fact that this pedal is so affordable is the clincher.

This pedal has four controls - Lean, Girth, Drive and Volume. It is ridiculously easy to dial in a lot of really great tones. In fact, unlike alot of other pedals I own, it is hard to dial in a bad tone. There are details and great sound clips on the website www.cepedals.com

I would give it a 10 but any pedal with more than two knobs isn't easy to use.

This pedal blows away my Analogman modded Tube Screamer. I can get the same overall sound but when I compare them directly the FET Dream sounds open and airy where the Tube Screamer sounds like somebody came along and put my amp in a cardboard box. Cranking up the lean gives a bright Vox like tone and cranking the drive but backing off on lean and girth pushes into the range of my Mesa Lonestar Special's dirty channel. It sounds fantastic!

I own a bunch of distortion and overdrive pedals including a vintage RAT, a Mesa VTwin, an Analogman TS, xotic RC boost, a Vox Brit Boost and a few other assorted pedals and this one wins.

Solid - in the same kind of box as MXR pedals. Seems like it would be very reliable.

I haven't had to deal with them about any issues as the pedal works and sounds great but they are quick to answer questions/fulfill orders. They are a small Canadian company and seem really into people and customer service.

I play in a rock band that does stuff from Franz Ferdinand and Greenday to the Beatles and Queen. I've been playing for quite a few years and my effect chain goes Barber Tone Press->Analogman TS->FET Dream->Xotic RC boost->BOSS RE-20 echo->MXR Carbon Copy->Ernie Ball volume pedal with a tuner hanging off the volume pedal. If it were stolen I'd get another in a heart beat (and I'd probably sell my analogman TS to pay for it). Gretsch Powerjet or 6120 at one end and a Mesa Lonestar Special at the other.