Frantone Sweet

Stupid simple and straight foward. Just read the lables and turn the knobs!

The thing sounds great! It's a ont trick pony but you should expect that from germanium transistor fuzz. It is VERY impeadence dependent so you need to put it in the effect chain where it makes the least noise. If you are not fiamillar with this type of fuzz I would recommend you try it first as it is a very finite sound, and also beacause germanium transistors are varyable and matching is an issue (ie. pedals may vary in sound). I have been able to get some great tones with my modified Vox wah and a maxon compressor in front of it. It seems to like Single coil guitar as it gets a bit dark with humbuckers (think randy bachman in american woman) This is definitly not a heavy metal pedal and it poduces a classic fuzz tone with a bit more bite. I have run this through several combos and a couple of stacks with great results.

SO far so good. I would use it without a backup as I have a multitude of distortion boxes and I could always sub if nessary.

Not a clue, but its seems to be built rock solid

If you want a classic fuzz, this pedal is great. I have 20yrs of playing under my belt and it put a smile on my face. Its is very straight forward and easy to use, find the sweet spot, tune in and drop out....

i bought this pedal while writing a song that needed something nargey. i'm not a heavy distortion user so it took some getting used to. expressive. this pedal can run away from me in a hurry.
but, no other pedal cound be so nasty and still be SWEET!!

i run this pedal with a maxon sd9, moog phaser, tb's vox wah, through a goldtone. WOW! I stuck this thing in front of the moog and she lit up.

i almost abuse my gear. i play regularly. gig a few times a month and play outdoors often. i hate having to unscrew the bottom to put the battery in buy she is built to played. i'm lucky i can afford the first one. screw a backup. buy the right damn pedals.

i haven't dealt with them. good website. looks like they make some other pedals.

i always go looking for something that i don't see every guitar player using. i experimented with a wide range of fuzz boxes looking for something nasty, but at the same time it has to be expressive. playing something nasty with no meaning would ruin this pedal and loose the audience. works well with the nasty funk!! i gave it a high ranking to make sure everyone realizes i dig this pedal! oh yeah, don't forget to try her with a phaser.

Great pedal! How can you go wrong with 3 knobs. There is a manual, but you don't really need it...

I emailed Mia and she told me that it was a very high gain pedal and some people who are used to digital gear are a little thrown. I love the high gain. For a new/old stock germanium type pedal it is quite and the range that the knobs gives is great. Geez, the guy with the other review is a nasty guy! If it is not for you, just say so.

Built like a tank. I've been using mine for about a year with no problems

Frantone has great customer service. Never had a problem and they are honest about the applications of their pedals.

I do everything and anything people will pay me to! That means I like to go from a wedding band to straight noise. IE I am an actual pro who knows that certain pedals are just tools to get the tone you need.
Nothing like a Sweet to make an audience throb with beautiful crunchy fuzz!

Three basic knobs just like a Big Muff. The Sustain and tone controls are fairly limited as to how much they control.

This thing has too much gain for most normal uses. Unless you are looking for a total static buzz, this unit probably isn't for you. Think starting Big muff PI dimed. The fuzz knob(sustain) has little or no effect from 3 - 10 - just total buzz. The overall tone is VERY bass heavy (I mean VERY)and scooped. The tone control goes from muffled to tinny with no real midrange setting. Think "Siamese Dream"++ level drive with no balls, but a "boomy" bass response. The true bypass works flawlessly and removes the pedal from your tone loop completely.

Not sure? The first day I got it the paint started chipping off. Other than cosmetics - no problems. Looks like quality construction inside.

Over the last 30 years I have bought a lot of pedals and dealt with a lot different types of people. Generally I have received good to fantastic service (Robert Keeley definitely sets the high standard). I emailed this company with 2 basic questions and received a one line sarcastic response.

I have been playing about 30 years including some studio work and semi-pro bands. I play Andersons and Paul Reeds through a Soldano. I have owned about half of the distortion/overdrive/fuzz pedals out there. I understand the difference between hype, bedroom use, and live use. This pedal has way too much distortion (and I love high gain distortion and fuzz - come on, I play a soldano...). I just need punchy, usable tone with it. This pedal didn't deliver. I contacted the company to see if they could make any custom changes (because of the overboard bass and fuzz) and was told to "try turning the knobs". Oh well - I tried. Selling this pedal. I'm really skeptical of the other reviews on this product. The thing sounds NOTHING like a Rat. It sounds more like Crate tried to build a heavy metal fuzz. If that's your bag - this is your pedal. No offense meant to any of the other reviewers or the company - just facts. God Bless !

simple - vol, sustain (amount of fuzz), tone

This is one of the best fuzzes I've tried. it's layout is like a bigmuff but the sound is definitely smoother than a bigmuff. in fact it's so smooth i sometimes wanted a tiny bit more bite. but i always prefer less bite than more, so i'm still really happy hith it's sound. On extreme settings there is some noise which is to be expected of a fuzz. noise only seems to be bad if the pickup is noisy. noiseless pickups really cuts down any noise the pedal.
it has great sustain and awesome ability to feedback. i really like how a single note will began to "motor" at extreme settings. i've only had this pedal a few days but i just keep thinking that hendrix would have loved this pedal. i'm certain of it. i'm very happy that it sounds good for rhythm and chords as well as single note runs

time will tell... but the build quality is impressive. really nice jacks, switches, etc. wiring of components inside is hand done and it looks really well done. Frantone really have made a quality pedal. I'm pretty happy to pay the extra price of this pedal

Any guitarist in his right mind would have to love this pedal. I searched high and low for and extreme fuzz that sounded good and this satisfies me for now. i think the fulltone octafuzz is as good and the zvex pedals go way beyond your imagination. i tried the voodoo labs proctavia and it was just not good enough sounding. but this pedal sounds good in all positions and impressed me no end when i first plugged it on. the sound and build quality make it worth the few extra dollars

Very easy to use. If you've had a Big Muff, it's kinda the same setup...only smaller. The manual was one little page but that's all you need. Volume, Sustain, Tone.

I use the Sweet with a Clapton Strat, Vox Wah, Turbo Tube Screamer, AnalogMan Bi-Comprosser into a 68' Super Reverb or Pro Jr. It can be noisy but it's a FUZZ.....that's what they do! I usually rotate my fuzzes just to keep it interesting but I think I'll be using this one more than the others. It's got a Big Muff vibe to it. Really fuzzy (just like I like it), really ratty (ditto). You can get a lot of diffent sounds by twiddling the knobs and spending quality time with it. I use the TS in front of it and it can't be beat. Cuts through the band like a knife. I love it!

I've only had it for a few days but I don't forsee a problem. I've taken it apart and it looks to be built really well. I can't afford a backup so I'd probably have to go back to my Big Muff. I wouldn't be happy about it, though.

N/A. I got it through PedalGeek.

I play all kinds of music and I use FUZZ a lot and this one is the best i've come across. If it got stolen, i'd cry a lot. If a duck dropped from the sky carrying $175, i'd buy another immediately! I really do like everything about it. It's not for everyone. But it certainly inspires me like all good tone should. I have lots of FUZZes and this one seems to do what they do and more....and it has a lot of gain!

lots of knobs: level tone sustain - on/off

reminds me very much of a ramshead muff pi. sustain is endless, it's total rock. i just don't get why some people complain about a little noise "when all controls are set to max"... it's a fuzz, not a gate. it sounds great in all positions. it's huge - gain is awesome, and it's the only thing i ran across yet comparable to an old ram's head muff. i use it with a super reverb & a 63 jazzmaster and i can't wait to plug it into my plexi when it's back from repair. inside it says rev.3 - i heard they had a problem with noisy switches on the first edition, mine (the switch) is silent. i use it in front of a vox or colorsound wah and it's sheer fun. i have the feeling (paranoid ears maybe) that the tonal range of the sweet delivers for a better wah (vocal like) sound than anything else i've tried. it has very nice mids. i don't know how to express my fascination with this thing, it's just totally awesome old school mayhem.

just got it, no experience with that. but it looks reliable, the pots and the knob have that "sucking feel" to them that you find on the most expensive stereos (maybe a stupid example). the inside is beautifully handmade workmanship. all other effects i use are vintage and considered those tin foil thingies lasted 30 years or so i guess this unit won't give up too soon. if it should i'll definitely swear a little (considered the price tag).

i contacted them about the switch issue and response was quick & informative. i don't know about repair issues, so i can't give a rating on that...

i'd rather listen to led zeppelin, captain beefheart or the stooges than puff daddy or metallica, so it's a match.
i considered buying a reissue muff as a replacement/backup for my old ones, but i found the reissues just didn't "feel right" sonically, (apart from the cr*ppy reliability of the new e/hx stuff). i like it even more than my fuzz king.

This is a simple fuzz with volume, gain and tone knobs. All positions on all knobs are useful.

Two tiny complaints: 1. Almost all three knob o.d. and distortion boxes put the tone in the middle. This one puts it off to the side, so you have to think about it. 2. Black knobs on black box mean you can't see where they're set on a dark stage.
It gets an eight because of these factors.

This might be the best fuzz ever made. This unit produces the rich fuzz off Electric Ladyland that you only think your old Fuzzface used to do 30 years ago. This is a high gain unit, so anything more that about one on the gain produces loads of fuzz, and above about noon it gets ridiculous sustain, but it's always controllable. Even with single coils. It doesn't clean up as well as a 'Face or a Fulltone 69 when you back off the guitar volume, but you didn't buy it because it was clean. It doesn't mud up on the low end. Or shrill out on the high end, unless you turn the tone all the way up.

This fuzz is better than anything Fulltone, Roger Mayer, Z.Vex, etc. makes.

1. It sounds better than the others.

2. It's very wah friendly! Sounds totally cool with a Fulltone Clyde ahead of it. Try that with any other germanium fuzz! Try that with a 70 pedal, you'll just get depressed. How does Frantone do it?

3. Non-bypass pedals ahead of it don't seem to rile it up like they do other similar fuzzes.

4. It sounds best with single-coils, but also sounds quite good with humbuckers, unlike many fuzzes which are heavily strat-biased.

5. It never gets anarchic and weird like Z. Vex fuzzes do. If you want your fuzz to be a rebellious child, buy a Vex Fuzz Factory. If you think you're the Michaelangeo of Guitarists and want the fuzz paintbrush, buy a Sweet.

6. It's not picky about battery type. Alkalines sound just fine.

As a general rule, you should take 10 ratings with a grain of salt. Kids rate their $40 Chinese units ten all day long. But I've tried 'em all, and this might be the best one ever.

This is Hendrix in the studio, Summer '68. (The Frantone Cream Puff fuzz is Hendrix onstage at Monterey, June '67, more or less.)

The Sweet is truly awesome. No kiddie, metal or recto tones here. Just tons of useful retro-fuzz.

Well made by hand in America. Cast aluminum box, top quality pots and jacks, true-bypass with LED. Bakelite knobs! If you are familiar with Fulltone construction, this is similar. Unlike Fulltone, which uses a three-pole switch to switch the signal and LED, I was astounded to find a tiny relay in the Sweet which is actuated by the stomp-switch. There might be something similar in some other stomper, but I'm not aware of it. If the relay holds up, the system should be reliable.

Word on Frantone is that it's some women in Brooklyn, NY making these things. Pretty amazing. I sent an email and they sent me white bakelite knobs. Not that I'm a bedroom-playing gear-goober that worries about the color of knobs, but the white ones are easier to see. I have a feeling that if I had a problem, they'd dispatch a lady to come down here to Texas to fix it. (Then again, maybe not. Who would come down from Brooklyn to Texas and want to go back there?)

The Sweet is as cool as it gets. Loads of smooth retro-fuzz. It's a pleasure to pay $200 for this thing. Every guitar player older than about 40 needs one of these. Every guitar player that appreciates the magic of the late 60s and early 70s needs one of these. Quit reading all this drivel and go out and buy a Sweet.

The Frantone is fairly simple. The classic three knob fuzz configuration. It is actually a very versatile pedal. You can change the tone and nuance of the pedal with small adjustments to the gain and tone knobs...which are interactive. If you've ever used a fuzz or distortion or overdrive before, you can get a good sound out of this right away.

Nonstandard AC adapter jack. Its the only pedal I've had that is younger than 20 years old that doesn't have a 2.1mm barrel jack. Its incompatible with my power supplies, so I almost never keep it in my pedal lineup.

I have used this with a variety of different amps, tube and solid state, and with a variety of different guitars. Single coils, humbuckers, hollow bodies, etc. It is quite useful for all of the above, though it exacerbates single coil hum, so it is usually best to use with a humbucker.

It has the finest rhythm fuzz tone that I have heard. Power and tightly voiced chords sound both warm and well defined. They have the fuzzy, bassy quality that you undoubtedly seek if you are using a fuzz, but they don't sound muffled and dull.

higher notes become a bit more muffled and less defined, and they tend to be a bit less consistent. Higher notes sound different than lower range notes. Leads tend to blend in with the mix when recording, and this is difficult to correct since the signal with The Sweet is highly compressed and quite midrangy.

Not a bad fuzz at all, but it doesn't seem to be the do it all of fuzz.

The pedal seems to be very well built. Typical hammond-style box configuration.

I have no experience with them.

A Good fuzz...Great for just fuzz rhythm, but overall just good. I got mine on a trade, I would never have shelled out the nearly $200 that this pedal frequently sells for. There are plenty of fuzzes that are much cheaper that are as good or better.

The Sweet is almost plug and play. The Sustain and Tone knobs are somewhat interractive with each other, so a tweak of one requires a tweak of the other. Volume knob can go up on a clean amp, but turn it down on a dirty one. Most fuzz pedals don't like amps that are already overdriven, but this one adds a whole new character to my Boogie DC5 combo. Not much of a manual, so I'll shave a little off the points here.

You can see The Sweet with my entire setup at www.cvansickle.net/peds.htm.

I bought this pedal because I wanted a maniac fuzz unit. I use other distortion and overdrive units too, but everything else is too tame. The Sweet has all the gain of a classic germanium fuzz, like a vintage Tone Bender or a Foxx Tone Machine (without the octave). Very old school sounding.

The Sweet works and plays well with all my other effects too. I love it in combination with my Fulltone Clyde wah.

Built like a tank. 'Nuff said.

More like 10 to the tenth power! I exchanged e-mail with Mia at Frantone for months before I bought this pedal, and she was always super helpful. She also helped me straighten out some power supply issues, since my Sweet has the old design mini phone plug adapter input.

I love this pedal!