Frantone Lo-Tone Classic Fuzz

Three knobs, very accurately named. Not much of a problem there.

Here is the problem. The pedal is unusable. My rig consists of a vintage 70s SVT going into a vintage SVT 8x10 and a vintage Hiwatt DR201 going into a newer V-4B 2x15 cab and an American Fender Jazz bass with Aero Design pickups. The closest I come to something that has enough highs is when I turn the bright switch on the Ampeg to +, but even then, it doesn't sound good. Otherwise it?s a fartmachine, even with the "tone" knob turned all the way up.

Seems solid enough.

They answer emails.

Maybe they've changed something in the past few years, but my experience with this pedal is not what the other reviewers had. Maybe the pedal doesn't sound good with tube amps. I dunno. I do know is that I would have been upset if I paid $50 for a Boss pedal that sounds like this, much less the $200 that I paid for this pedal. I was looking forward to trying their Bassweet pedal, but I'm not going to now. Thank God the store I bought it from takes returns.

Easy as pie to use, and very easy to control. I got mine from Pedal Geeks.com cause they answered my e-mail, unlike some others. It came with a nice little card showing full product line, and a card explaining the Classic Fuzz operation, not that it was needed. Also a little draw-string tote bag. Nice touch there.

Quality of sound is very high, and the unit is never noisy. I like to set the fuzz knob at around 9:00, the tone control most of the way up, and volume just above unity. This gives me a super-thick tone with just enough fuzz-cut to stay above a live mix. There is also enough fuzz and gain available to go gonzo if that's your bag. I've moved the Lo-Tone around in my signal path and finally decided to keep it at the end of the chain, after a Boss CS-1 and a Sans Amp Bass Driver. I also own a Z-vex Woolly Mammoth which is great for a more edgy, industrial sound, but the Frantone gets the call more often. Even so, its a fuzz box, so I don't flip it on too often. But when I do, I'm always impressed with the smooth, singing sustain.

Frantone pedals are perhaps the finest being made today. I own pedals made by Z-vex, Blackbox, Atomic, Tech 21, Voodoo Lab, all great stuff. But a close inspection reveals a higher order of build quality from Frantone. A visit to the Frantone web site paints the same picture.....top drawer stuff.

Sent a bunch of e-mails off to Frantone, asking questions, some dumb, some dumber. Always got friendly, informative answers back really fast, even on weekends or late at nite. Impressive. The gal who handles this task is named Mia. She claims to also be the janatorial engineer at Frantone. She plays out, jazz I think, so her opinions on Frantone gear have added value.

The Frantone Lo-Tone Classic Fuzz(theres a mouthful, huh?) fits in nicely with the blues-groove stuff I like to play. It has a mellowness about it, and yet gives a sense of understated brute force. Mine is the newer cream color model, which I'm told is voiced to have more "growl". The former green one alledgedly has more "definition". I'll be scouting e-bay for a used green one, as they are out of production. While hand made pedals are never cheap, Frantones are an excellent value for the sheer quality with which they are built. I have to give high marks across the board, because I just cant find anything wrong with this pedal or the folks who make it. Thanks for reading.

3 knobs: fuzz, tone, volume.. true bypass footswitch

It is difficult to not get a good sound out of this pedal. I feel that virtually every setting will yield a useable tone. I give this a 9 only because it seems that I need to play slightly harder to get a good consistent fuzz sound with every note. Not really a huge problem.

I typically set the fuzz on full, volume to where I need it and use the tone knob to adjust how extreme it sounds.

I play a fretless Musicman Stingray 5 and a Peavey Fury fretted 4 (with Dimarzio Model PJ pickups installed). My amp is an Ampeg BA-115 on which I set the EQ nearly flat. My signal path is: bass --> Frantone Fuzz --> Maestro Stage Phaser --> BBE Stinger --> amp. It sounds great with both basses and I can get some really cool sounds with combining it with the phaser.

The best way I can describe the sound is big, fat, and warm.. yet still very articulate. It can be heard when used with the band but it is not muddy or thin.

My favorite setting is with the fuzz and tone knobs maxed. It's a very nice thick sound. With the tone knob rolled off most of the way I think it gets a very nice Paul McCartney "Mean Mr. Mustard" sort of sound.

The lack of muddiness is what really sets this apart from most other fuzzes in my opinion.

Very solidly built, inside and out.

I've heard good things but have not dealt with Frantone.

It's hard for me to pin down my musical style.. but I'll say that I play rock. With the band I use this pedal for an odd sounding break in sort of a funkier original, a Beatles song, a Sean Lennon song, and a Ben Folds 5 song. I can't really imagine a fuzz sounding better for this stuff than the Frantone pedal.

I tested this against a Zvex Wooly Mammoth when I bought it. I enjoyed the tweakability of the mammoth, but the Frantone was better at producing the big fat sound that I wanted. If I could add anything to this pedal it would be some sort of control like the mammoth's "pinch" knob. I still love the Frantone as is. If I had a control like this I'd more than likely only use it for messing around with weird sounds.. probably wouldn't get too much use from it in a band.

I would probably buy this again without much hesitation.. though I would like to try a Prescription Depth Charge.

I give this a 9 because I wish it was just a bit more versatile. It mainly does variations on one sound (but what a sound!!). I think a 10 should only be given out if the product is absolutely perfect.