Fulltone '69 Pedal

- The other reviews tell the tale - this is an elusive, retired, germanium fuzz pedal made by that wizard, Mike Fuller. I refused to believe the hype surrounding this pedal, and ended up with many other fuzz pedals while searching for "that sound". I finally gave in and tracked one down on eBay. (a coupon I earned over at PayPal lessened the financial blow) No regrets, I haven't gotten a bad sound out of it.

- It even works well with the Fulltone Clyde Deluxe wah in front of it, dispelling the notion that wah and fuzz don't mix for mere mortals below Hendrix's talent level. Not sure what happens if you try other companies' wah pedals... but the family heritage of Fulltone connected to Fulltone gives no problems.

- Is it worth paying almost twice what it cost new in its day? YES! The bottom line is this pedal just plain lives up to the hype. Mine came with original box and manual, and the manual does explain such things as the subtlety of using the bias knob. Experimenting, however, works just as well as Mike Fuller's suggested settings.

- I run this pedal into various tube amps including EL84's (Fender Blues Junior, Orange Tiny Terror), 6V6's (Fender Princeton Reissue, Rivera Venus 3), 6L6's (Fender Evil Twin, Marshall JTM45 Reissue), and EL34's (Marshall TSL60, Marshall Artist 3203, THD BiValve)

- The trick to this pedal, like any good fuzz, is to start with the cleanest amp setting possible. Obviously, the clean base tone you color with fuzz will vary from amp to amp. Some may like the over-the-top sound of a fuzz pushing the dirty channel of an amp, but I feel the effect is stronger starting out clean, then adding the desired dirt in layers.

- The '69 excels by itself but also works very well as a conduit feeding other overdrive pedals. No surprise it works well in front of the OCD, but I like it in front of the Boss Blues Driver (with Keeley mod) or the Lovepedal Les Lius. For me, the combination of a Tele into the the '69 into the Les Lius pushing the Evil Twin's clean channel (using the LOW input I might add) is the sound of the vintage Deluxe Reverb without the vintage price tag, IMHO. (I make that statement after having played a vintage '66 DR a few days ago...)

- Used alone, I get exactly the results Mike Fuller describes - "leave the '69 wide open and use your guitar volume to give you what you need."

- Sweet, articulate, dirt-on-tap best describes this wonder box. The harmonics and tone of your guitar come thru, enhanced by the coloration of the chosen level of dirt. TONE TONE TONE, period.

- Fulltone products are built like tanks and Mike Fuller's reputation for being a bug for details shows. I own many, many Fulltone pedals and have yet to find reliability an issue.

- Use it at a gig? Not a chance. Not because it will fail, but because now it's too valuable/rare to take on the road. It's like taking a '59 Les Paul or '57 Strat on tour - why? The nuances will be lost live. Same goes for rare pedals. Other fuzz boxes will get the job done live, save the best/most irreplaceable you've got for use in the studio.

- Haven't had any problems with Fulltone gear, so no comment.

- I've been playing old school rock and blues for about 20 years. To get there, I play Les Pauls, Stratocasters, Telecasters, ES-335's, V's and SG's. What can I say? I've spent a small fortune on gear because the tone matters. Now, I'm certainly not knocking the various other fuzz boxes I own from MJM (London Fuzz, Dallas Boost), Electro Harmonix (Big Muff Tone Wicker), Way Huge/Dunlop (Swollen Pickle) and even Fulltone ( '70, Catalyst). They all have their voice/tone... but they just aren't the '69.

- I guess the intangible is the subtlety of the tone. It can go from purr to throaty roar based on guitar volume, amp setting, and player touch. In other words, you play this pedal. It is a very organic addition to your tone, extremely responsive to player touch.

- If I had to nit pick, I don't understand why germanium boxes are still built with positive ground jacks. A minor annoyance, but I guess the tone makes up for that little polarity issue. I'll dock a point for having to worry about such things when reaching for the wall wart adaptor.

- Don't just take my word for how great the '69 pedal is. Read what others say here and listen to YouTube demo's, especially the "shootout" comparison types offered by Gearmanndude. His excellent demos have persuaded me into many of the pedals I own today... without regret. He clearly shows what this pedal is capable of... then, you'll just have to take the plunge ($$$) on eBay to find one.

Leave averything way north and kick it from there.

Soldano Amps only !!!
Noizzz ? comon, I have many Fulltone effects and no one makes noize.
Maybe my Shur Strat with the Frallins in the Spot light on stage but thats not the Pedal.
I love it with my other guitars ( Teles, Paula, Prs etc. ).
When you know whats the trick with a Fuzz, it works wonders for youre sound !

Never had any Probs with Fulltone products. thats pure craftmanship.

Yeah nice people.

I play only high quality gear, becouse my Job needs that.
This is not the only Fuzz I have but one that is work the most.
I love the sound, the quality, the style and vibe I get with this.
Very Road trusty ! Yes it opens my horizon a bit for some sound I need. I dont mind it can damaged, somebody steal it ? Yes, Mike must build anotherone ;-)

I love this pedal! It's ideal for the Hendrix lovers as, it has his sound nailed to the max. The original Fuzz Face that Hendrix used had to be moded by Roger Mayer to work (match up) properly with his Strat to Marshall set up. Mike Fuller has designed this pedal so your can match your guitar, '69 Pedal and amp perfectly. The "Bias", "Contour" and internal "Trimmer" all work to get me to that tone. If I back off the volume knob, it cleans up great (love that feature). It took a little time to get things dialed in but, that's why I got it, to dial things in, HA!

I play a modified '63 Telecaster Custom with a Strat middle pickup (ala Brent Mason) and this pedal definitely loves single coil pickups. I've used this through my '67 VOX TB, '75 JMP Marshall Combo and '60 Tweed Bassman. My fav-rav tone is the Class A VOX. Pure and simple, this pedal smokes. Again, it cleans up really nicely backing off on the volume. I do a lot of chickin' pickin' and love the detailed over tones this pedal delivers as I go from Hank to Hendrix in my styles of playing. I use the '69 Pedal with an old VOX Clyde McCoy Wah and an original Uni-Vibe, what a blast! It does the Hendrix thing but, also has tons of character for any player's personal style.

It's built like a tank, no problems or noise to speak of.

I've had extremely good dealing with Mike and his crew. I'm located in Los Angeles and Fulltone's around the corner in Culver City. I always got a quick email response with questions about their various Fulltone pedals.

I play Hank to Hendix with a lot of the old school British and Chicago Blues tossed in. I've had a guitar in my hands for 40 years so, I also have a '58 Historic Les Paul with Burstbuckers and a '56 LP Special. However, I only use the '69 with my single coil Teley. I have two '69 Pedals, if they were stolen or lost, I'd immediately get them replaced. I got this pedal for that Hendrix sound and it delivered that for me but gave me a lot more mojo than anticipated, what's to hate? I also love the Fulltone Soul-Bender but, that's more of an early Yardbirds tone. I could play on these pedals for hours.

You'll need to spend a little time experimenting with the contour and bias knobs. The written descriptions of these two functions defy translation to your ears. The LED is a bit dim. The fuzz control adds distortion uniformly up to about the 4:00 position. The last, say, 10% of the fuzz control (clockwise) travel adds most of the effect all at once. The same applies when using your pickup volume to control the effect; you'll get full effect at 10, you'll drop off a cliff at 9, then be reasonably uniform down to 1. The '69 offers lots of gain.

This pedal sounds bright and aggressive. It's not particularly smooth-sounding. Lows are a little "farty." Sustain is fair and unremarkable. As others have noted, the effect backs-off very well by decreasing your pickup volume. The lighter distortion you can roll down to sounds good, though not quite in the same league as something like a Fulldrive II. I like the '69 better with single-coils.

PRS Custom 22 Artist, Gibson Les Paul Custom, Fender American Deluxe Strat, Fender '52 Reissue Tele, Gibson ES-335, Mesa Maverick 2x12, Fender '65 Reissue Super Reverb.

I've never had a Fulltone product fail, but the build quality is impressive even to a layman.

Customer support is responsive. They seem genuinely interested in helping their customers get the most enjoyment from their products.

I was a little relectant to opine on the '69, having obviously gone against the grain compared to most of the other reviews. I believe the '69 behaves just as it was designed to, and that my lukewarm review is mostly a product of my own musical preferences and expectations. I didn't have the luxury of playing the '69 before I bought it; I relied on many written reviews and some sound clips. If I had auditioned it beforehand I wouldn't have bought it, but now that I have it, chances are I'll keep it. My best shot at characterizing the sound is "rude and aggressive." I'll keep looking for a smooth, sustaining fuzz.

I would say this is an 8 purely because you obviously can't just plug in and play with a quick set up. You have to finely tweak this pedal to the exact sound you need, that being adjusting the knobs on top and then the trim pot on the inside. A lot of people probably don't try to do anything with their trim pot and then can't find a good sound. Honestly adjust it that's what it's there for I did and no it sounds even better than i thought it did before

Now this pedal (as with any germanium fuzz) has to be run with an amp that is just breaking up or is at the point of overdrive otherwise the fuzz becomes weak and tinny.
I use a Marshall JTM45 set to 6 on the high treble and normal volumes and bridged diagonally from the low bright input to the high input on channel 2
I thought this pedal sounded great without adjusting the trim pot, then one rainy day i decided to adjust and this thing really came alive. I have mine set to about 6 o clock and this is just the right amount of woofyness to sound like my amp is about to be torn to shreds lol
I haven't really tried this with other effects other than my self modified wah which does sound great to get that real hendrix solo boost sound that he often used

It's fulltone... high quality components and in a very tough enclosure. I think that people that take backup pedals to gigs either have serious amounts of cash on their hands or need to lay off the paranoia inducing drugs

I would most certainly gig without backup have gigged it for a year so far as this is how long I've owned it, however this thing has been going for 11 years now so its doing just fine!

Emailed Fulltone when asking about a power supply problem. Fulltone don't make power supplies for the U.K unfortunately, but they recommended a voodoo labs pedal power 2 to sort out the problem. Nothing wrong with the pedal, just a bad power supply i'd bought.

I play a blend of classic rock/blues rock/indie/funk and I use this for the funky solo's and the more let's say lenny kravitz esque songs.

I initially borrowed an EHX double muff from my bassist, this was then replaced by a big muff (which i thought would sound better) but i just didn't get on with at all, it lacked the sustain I needed, and when I ran it with my cranked amp it just sounded terrible. I did a bit of research and wanted a germanium based fuzz and found this

The only thing i would complain about is the LED. it's not bright enough and because of the LED being glued in I can't easily just change it unfortunately! I played a couple of festival slots and couldn't tell whether this thing was on in the loop before i engaged the loop

You must spend some time before getting the right sound though its controls are very easy. The KEY is in the 'contour' knob.

I use it with a Fender super reverb and a Telecaster even if on a DeVille it sounds really fat and great!However the sound is unique,I suggest not to use with other effects contemporary.With the bright mode on the fender s.r. you can obtain the same sound heard on 'Revolution' by Beatles...

I use it with a battery,it seems to be very strong! Just the sound changes a little according to the external temperature!Yes, it's sensitive...

I play indie rock, I use it on 2-3 songs with my band ' myspace.com/glitterballband' I also use a modded RAT and amodded TS9, so I have a wide range of sounds.I'd never sell it even because Mr. Fulltone has stopped the production,and I think it could be very expensive in a few years,becoming vintage. If u need an old style fuzz buy it if any store still got it,you will be satisfied.You could see a video of the pedal on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyWLvmJX3oA
It's me.

Four knobs on a fuzz is a little more than usual. Lots of shades in this box. It took a little while, but I've dialed in the tones that inspire me without too much trouble. As with most fuzzes, it can be challenging getting a tone that cuts through in a dense live mix. This is not a fault of this pedal, but endemic to fuzzes in general. Overall, very easy to use, but it's a fuzz so takes some experimentation.

I play this mostly through my Stratocasters through a variety of amps, including Reeves Custom 6 and Custom 12 combo's, Peavey Delta Blues 1x15, Marshall 18-watt, Germino Classic 45 2x12 combo, Matchless Lightening Clone, Tweed Champ clone, and Blues Jr. Tweed.

Beautiful fuzz tones with all of the above. Does high gain very well, cleans up amazingly well with my Strat's volume knob. The semi clean tones are stellar, giving the lower notes a roundness that they don't have bypassed. Very dynamic to the touch. Very little noise. Does early Hendrix tones perfectly. For germanium style fuzz, this pedal is superb.

Never a reliability issue with this pedal. Open it up and the workmanship leaves me speechless. The box is heavy and solid, big rubber feet mounted with screws, beautiful textured red finish and cream knobs. It's almost as much fun to look at this pedal as it is to play it.

I've had mostly good support from Fulltone. They fixed my Fat Boost quickly. Not all email's get answered however.

I play blues and classic rock, and especially love Hendrix, Eric Johnson, SRV, Zeppelin and Floyd. I've been playing for 24 years and own lots of amps, pedals, and guitars. More gear than talent. I'd buy this again if lost or stolen, but they're out of production now. I love Fulltone pedals for their excellent tone, extraordinary build quality, and cosmetics. If you can score one in good shape, it's worth adding to your fuzz collection.

You allready known this, right ?!
4 Knpos ( cream colour ), one off/on switch simple.
9 points only here becouse the red LED is not bright enough to see on stage or outside, is it on or not.
Mike, change this.
I like the style of this Box becouse you never come close to the dail-knops with youre feet stomping the on/off switch...very praxis like.

Mh, I have it since 2 years, played over Plexi Tops with 4x12 cabs,
Engl Combos with 2x12 cabs and a little Tranny at home. Well, Ever time I start to play, I must give me some minutes to get in that sound. Its beautifull when the fuzz is at 12 oclock or Full dailed in, nothing in between works for me. So, after 2 years I must say that its nothing I want have in my "standart" effect chain. Its nice when Im getting sick of playing my " standart " gear...I also played with the adjustment weel in the inside, it can make it better a bit, but in general the "ground" sound is nothing for me.
My two settings for this 69` are:

Volumen 12 oclock
bias 7 oc.
contour 2 oc.
Fuzz 12 oc.

or

Volumen 10
bias 12
contour 3
fuzz full in

maybe it helps you?

It is true hardwired bypass so perfect when you play beautifull sounding amps. So for quality of the sound i would give it a 10. But for the sound itselfs I would rate a 7. so 8 at least.

This is the best buildet box i ever used.
Look in the inside and you see a perfect handmade work.
The finish is perfect.
Its a big metal Box, perfect.
the Knops, the potis, perfect.
I know many stompboxes but in this leauge Fulltone is a 12.

I writte them 2 times and they answer one day later.
Very nice.

I play since 1990, so Im a kid of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins but also of Aerosmith, Guns N Roses, Van Halen and Black Crowes...
I play sometimes in Cover Bands to earn money I Play also Hendrix, Stones, Beatles, Led Zepplin...to Popa Chubby, Eric Gales or Joe Bonamasa stuff...
My Amps are Marshall 50 Plexi with Marshall Greenbacks 4x12 cab,
Engle Souverain Combo with a Hughes & Kettner 2x12 V 30 cab.
Fender deluxe Tele, Shur Strat, Gibson Paula, Epiphone Casino.
"Standart effects " : Z vex B.O.R., Trex Replica, Roger Mayer Vodoo Vibe, Fulltone clyde Wah.
Klotz Cables.
No I dont would buy it again.
I compare it to EHX Big Muff, Roger mayer Voodoo, Proco Rat...they are all cool for *special* stuff.
The only thing i realy hate is the LED, you cant see it !
No It does not help my make music, for that I only need a Amp and a guitar and my soul. so ;-)

So thats me, maybe you like it for your stuff ?
Check it.

Lots of knobs to tinker with to tailor this to your needs. The "tone" wheel is on the inside, but that's no prob. In my opinion, it's not the sort of thing you'd mess with. Not very useful on a daily basis, just find your spot and leave it. Gets very raspy when maxed (or "minned")? I put it just on the good side of raspy, still enough woof, but note definition is still there.

Overall, fuzzes are a difficult beast to learn how to use. If you set it for deep woofy stuff, then you'd better back off the volume or play single notes only. I think a lot of people get "Axis Disease" and try to make things too fuzzy. I'll explain more below.

Sounds very good. Most of what you'd want in a fuzz. It works best (as most fuzzes do) when not maxed out. On occasion I go nuts and blast the fuzz and bias, but most of the time I have the fuzz around 3:00 and then adjust the contour and bias to get what I'm after. When used in that way, it's very versatile and depending on the bias, almost transparent, especially with the guitar volume down. In order to get the most out of a fuzz, I think you need to spend a lot of time with one, and not killing yourself bending over to your board either. Set yourself up on the desk or table so the box is right at your hands. Spend a lot of time getting to know what it does with different pickups and different amp volumes.

Well build. Strong box and switch.

Absolutely deplorable. I emailed and got no response. From reading different things on the Fulltone website (one example being a shipment of something or other not arriving on time and Mike said "take it easy guys, it's not like an antidote to SARS" or something to that effect). Good products, but I will never, ever consider another Fulltone product again. And I don't think that's cutting off my nose to spite my face. This fuzz is good, but what's to say that there's not equally good or better out there.

I like this thing. After going back and forth and taking it off my board and then whipping it out of storage to keep "testing" it, I can't keep it off the board. It's got what I like, LED and power supply capability. I imagine not using battery power affects the tone or creates noise, but I have everything on my board powered and connected so I don't want to go using batteries and forgetting to unplug inputs. I don't know this is better than any other fuzz face out there. I have a Keeley Fuzz Head, which is a different animal altogether, but still rocks. I had some crappy "boutique" fuzz that just wasn't cutting it, and I haven't had the urge to try anything else. I'm not looking for fuzz to be my savior, so for now, it's good enough for me. I don't know that it's $250 good as that what they're going for on ebay right now, but good nonetheless. I'd say if you can get one for $200, then it's worth it.

Super easy.

I think most people buy this and probably wish they had bought the '70 Fuzz a few days later. This pedal is very nice, but not fuzzy enough, in my opinion. I have owned 3 of these to try out different ones and they all fell into the "distortion" category more so than the "fuzz" category for me.

I really, really feel sorry for all of you who are foolishly paying more than $160 for these. They aren't worth it--trust me. It's a good pedal for the retail price, but I use to buy these on craigslist in L.A. for $100-120 (mint w/box and manual). I'm glad I got this out of my system when they were cheap and no one wanted them.

I had a switch crap out on my and Fulltone finally decided to replace it after bickering with them, even though they said they knew there was batches of faulty switches in early '99. If you're buying one on ebay keep an eye out for the '99 models and stay away.

All of the later ones I owned were fine.

So so in the past.

Great pedal, but not worth more than $120 used. I hope he starts making these again for those of you who are dishing out $200 or more. Try the '70 fuzz or the Octafuzz...both far superior pedals. I think the '69 is the weakest fuzz out of all the Fulltone pedals and maybe the most disappointing pedal out of the whole line.

Fairly easy to use to get a good sound.

Dont need any manual to recreate the Hendrix tone.

I have been playing blues and hard rock for 12 years.
And I had many fuzz/drive effects than anyone I know in the studio.

And this pedal gave me very good impression.
Clears up very well like VooDoo-1(which I die for) and very vintage sounding fuzz that has wide tonal range.
actually its an awesome fuzz to say it shortly for Hedrix, Cream and all stuff. BUT it doesnt nail the 60's buzz fuzz sound or psychdelic sound like Davie Allen.

If you want to get some serious rich buzz fuzz tone.
You should try Fuzzrite or the 100% clon of the Fuzzbrite, FuzzBrite from Ashbass.!
I have 3of these pedals for all different use and its the holy grail of the vintage fuzz.!

For the tone and the ability the fulltone its good but Fuzzrite and FuzzBrite can do more serious stuff! : )

never dealt with Fultons;

For wide tonal range fuzz its a great pedal!
I have 70's too and this thing is pretty much covers the rest that 70's cant do.

Since I have Fuzzrite and 2Fuzzbrites so its not really been up for my pedalboard.

But Fulltone is a keeper for some later reasons!

4 knobs (volume, bias, contour & fuzz), so it's not quite as simple as an old fuzz face (volume, fuzz), but pretty close. The manual is detailed, which would be good for anyone using a real germanium fuzz (as opposed to a distortion or overdrive) for the first time.

Mine's from '98. They've just been discontinued. Had they not been discontinued, I would not have bought one.

This is a clone of the fuzz made famous by Jimi Hendrix, and the manual demonstrates how to dial in his settings with the contour adjusted for some supposed mod Roger Mayer performed on Jimi's pedals. With a strat or duo sonic into the 69 into my modded Blues Junior, it does come frighteningly close to that '67-'69 Experience guitar sound.

Rolling off the guitar's volume knob *really* cleans the tone. About midway down on my Hamer's (basically a LP special with burstbuckers) neck pickup gives a zen-perfect Keef tone, circa. "Exile on Main St." I like that even better than the full-on Jimi fuzz. At about 1 or 2, my amp is cleaner than when the fuzz is disengaged. This is why I love germanium.

I'm more of a tone bender guy, but this may find its way into my setup for occasional use where the 'bender is too, uh, bright. I'll definitely record rhythm tracks with it. The other day at rehearsal I ran my guitar into the '69 -> wah (true bypass & vintage voicing modded GCB95) -> Throbak Stone Bender -> cheap analog delay -> amp ... and just used one fuzz or the other (2 at once is a nasty, unusable overload & probably dangerous).

The '69 sounds great. The low-end response can't be had with the mass-market dunlop fuzz face, or many of the other clones. You can also dial in a better-sounding Big Muff than electro-harmonix can give you ... *** but I really wish fulltone would make their pedals more compatible with non-TB units.*** I own a Throbak fuzz, an SPF boost and modded my own wah for TB and they *never* give any issues to my buffered delay or vice-versa, but the '69 does. I imagine this is a ploy of some sort, but it's definitely one of my big gripes with Fulltone, and I do have a few. You spend top dollar for something hand-made, you should expect it to work *with* everything. Not very user-friendly, unless your rig is exclusively fulltone.

Like I said, it sounds *great*, but a friend owns the Throbak Fuzz Haze, which can do *everything* the '69 can do (maybe better), and which doesn't screw with the rest of your setup.

I bought this used, but in pretty great condition considering it's 9 years old. If I break it out at a gig, I won't have a backup, but I pretty much fly by the seat of my pants on that sort of thing. It held up through a 3-hour rehearsal ...

I haven't dealt with them personally, and I've heard an equal amount of positive & negative about the company. I imagine they're better than the major mass-market folks out there ...

Again, the user-friendliness/compatibility of the product is going to take this rating down, too. If the other boutiques can make great-sounding, true-bypass pedals that work with the middle & bottom shelf stompboxes, Fulltone should be able to follow suit. I really like my $40 delay pedal & shouldn't be punished b/c I cant afford a Tube Tape Echo.

I play in an indie trio very influenced by mid-period Brit Invasion & US Garage rock -- The Who, Yardbirds, Human Beinz, Tommy James, etc. ... so, yeah, it's a perfect match, but so is anything I'd introduce to my collection.

Been playing 26 years. I'm 35. Mostly self-taught. I've been writing songs in all-original bands since 1989. I have 3 electrics, 2 acoustics, 2 modded Blues Juniors, a Pignose Hog 20, too many effects to name and a bunch of analog recording gear.

If it were stolen, I'd plan to buy a Throbak Fuzz Haze at some point in my life, but not immediately. Again, it sounds great, but not crucial to my sound.

I have played the dunlop fuzz face, the DOD classic fuzz and several Big Muffs. This definitely rivals the Big Muff in Low end and blows away any mass-market fuzz face imitator. Again, it's a great clone of a classic stompbox.

I'd say it helps me -- it doesn't get in the way. I really like a lot of what it does.

for the 3rd time, *STOP MAKING YOUR EFFECTS INCOMPATIBLE WITH OTHER PEOPLE'S. THIS IS NOT NECESSARY. IT'S JUST POMPOUS AND RUDE.*

Simple to use. Sounds good on all settings. You can get anything you're after. Nice short instruction sheet with recommended settings.

You can go from Hendrix fuzz to very mild dirt. A lot of effects sound like crap if they're not close to being maxed out. The lower settings are just as good as the higher settings here. Not just less volume or fuzz, but a totally different, sweet sound in itself. I had another "boutique" lesser known fuzz and it couldn't touch this. (read more about that below)

Has anyone ever had a problem with Fulltone?

The best all the way. As I said, I had a different fuzz that claimed to be germanium based. Since Fulltone says the 69 needs to be center pin positive because of the germaniums (just like the Octafuzz) then why was my other fuzz not center pin pos? Makes you wonder. Anyway, here's my theory on effects: you're not gonna find the next best thing from some guy making pedals in his basement in his spare time. Aside from spending obscene amounts of money on Cornish and the like, Fulltone, Keeley and Analogman (and a few others) are the closest us mortals can get to grail tone. Why waste money screwing around with Whatzhisnuts Ball O' Fuzz when you can go Fulltone?

I had a TS9/808 mod, again, from some guy. Probably not a bad mod, but come on, for about $50 more I got an Analogman TS808 true vintage and it was way better. Do yourself a favor, look at what the pros play and stick with the good stuff. Fulltone all the way.

i mostly use it with the fuzz knob full on, bias and contour on about 3/4 and volume as needed..though there are some nice light fuzz chime tones further back on the dial.

i use a Fender Strat with Seymour Duncan alnico pro II pickups, a Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue, and a Fulltone OCD. and can't be much happier with my tone, but i wanted a bit extra for leads and stuff. so i got the '69 and it sounds unreal!...especially with the OCD driving in front of it. now with it full on it will muddy your chords a bit, ah, but such sweet chaos it is! and you don't have to stomp it on and off between phrases because it is quiet as a mouse. my entire life i have craved that early Jimi tone and now it is here in my hand in this little red steel box. the only problem with these Fulltone effects is that if you get one you realize how crappy all those digital effects you got in the past are. and if you try to use them in conjunction with the Fulltone they sap your tone.

i am curious how many generations of my ancestors will use my fulltone pedals?... oh and you really really don't want to drop it on your toe.

i dunno?

if you've never bought high end effects before the price may seem steep, but consider that these pedals are the price of two commercial pedals and they deliver the same solid pure tone as vintage effects that that you can't even find anymore much less afford. i've been playing for 20 years and have been searching for this quality of tone...anyway i just want to recommend going this route instead of buying some digital effects that you eventually get bored with or overpriced reissues of vintage effects that are made with inferior parts.

There are 4 knobs. Bias is sort of an irregular feature for a pedal and some may be confused by it. It controls the impedance of the device; full clockvwise is true vintage original specs (eg, Jimi's Fuzz Face). Other than that there's volume and fuzz and contour, not too complicated. There's also an additional internal trimmer that controls the shape of the distortion, but you dont even have to mess with that. I found it easy enough to tweak myself though.

Keep in mind that this thing is a fuzz... The original concept is supposed to emulate the sound of a ripped speaker... But there is something sonically pleasing about fuzzes, even though they TECHNICALLY are designed to sound chaotic and, well, fuzzy. This fuzz is excellent. Te best circuit I have played through as of yet. This is pretty much identical to the original Dallas Arbiter version circa approx. 1969 (hence the name). One thing about this device is that it doesn't sound very good unless the volume is at around 12 o'clock at least. Once it's there though, you've got a fantastic, thick, creamy, harmonic fuzz with the perfect amount of edge and grind. This thing cleans up great when you roll back the volume on the guitar. Roll it back, add a nice touch of reverb... GREAT SOUND! There's only one pedal I've played that cleans up better than this one: the Electro-Harmonix Muff Overdrive that they just reissued. I have that thing and it cleans up to become THE GREATEST CLEAN TONE EVER!

This thing is almost guaranteed to last as long as you want it to. I honestly think you'd have to try to bust this thing for it to break. It's Fulltone. Those who think BOSS pedals are the most reliable, best made pedals around are FULL OF SOOOOOO MUCH CRAP IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY. BOSS quality is absolutely inferior to Fulltone quality and there are plenty of good, logical reasons for this.

I have not had to contact Fulltone, but I've heard that they're great. Mike Fuller owns the company. Who owns BOSS? I don't know, and you don't either. It's a small company, so the service is going to be better than most. I'm going to say here that the support is good although I don't know for sure.

I play a wide range of styles -Mike Bloomfield to Hendrix, Page to Radiohead, The Cure, Muse, jazz.... lots of stuff. I have always liked fuzzes and the typical Hendrix sound, but don't think you're getting a DS-1 because this is an animal of another sort. It does everything I want it to do and sounds fantastic. The quality is better than it probably needs to be. It's true bypass (I'm sorry Pete Cornish, I side with Mike Fuller on this one. I don't need 300 ft of cable to drive). I have guitars of all types, Les Pauls, strats, teles, 335s, you name it. I have a few different amps, all tube, all good sounding. I've been playing for almost 10 years and I am a semi-professional musician. I gig a lot, record frequently and play constantly. I have an elaborate pedal board and this thing is a valuable part.

Very easy to use, but i have to admit to getting some info on how to use it first. Bias does wonders to this pedal. Really useful feature. The only thing to be aware of is the reverse polirity of the external power connector. It is center positive and might not work with any given power ditributor (dunlop dc brick, tc electronics fuel tank, cioks power supply's...). It will work with the voodoo lab pedal power 2!

I always could get close to the sounds of my favrite artists, because i've already got an amp with a high gain channel. That was not the reason for buying the '69 pedal. I just wantet something nasty and gritty, without mushing up the guitar sound too much. And the '69 does that just the way i want it to.
It's a nice kind of fuzz. Not necessarily to the ears, but always to the guitarsound.

My set-up: American standard strat with a JB junior in the bridge position - Boss TU2 tuner - '69 fuzz - Dunlop Jimi Hendrix wah - MXR phase 90 - Sweetsound Mojo Vibe - Ibanez TS9 (reissue) - Brunetti MC2 Three channel tube amp. I use the '69 only in combination with the clean and crunch channel, occasionally with the TS9 engaged.

It's not noisy at all. Not in comparison with my TS9, and in no way compared to the EHX big muff pi US reissue which it replaced. Had no need to mess around with the internal trimmer, because i could get the sound i wanted the way it came to me. It fuzzes up the sound in a nice way.

Very musical sounding pedal! My setting on the '69 is; Volume 10 o'clock, bias 11 o'clock, contour one o'clock and fuzz at 4 o'clock.
It's a keeper!

And oh yes... I play cover pop-rock-funk in one band and quite heavy funk rock in another...

I got it used and it appears to be very solid. High build quality. The switch also feels solid. Internally it looks as simple as it can get, so no reason for worries in that department. I would and do gig without a backup.

Customer support is great. I live in the Netherlands,and when i mailed them about the reverse power connector and and asked them if rewiring was a good idea, i got a reply within just about an hour! The answer was very correct and it helped me a lot. So thumbs up to Fulltone!

In the cover department it can or cannot fit in to the song. I found some use for it and would not want to miss it. Don't use it that much, but still couldn't figure how to get these special sounds any other way. Definetely an important soundtool. I have been playing since '88, and i'm 38 at this moment. Fuzz came into my life just about four or five years ago in the shape of the big muff. After a while it turned out to be too much in terms of distortion and low end. But i was infected with the fuzz virus rightaway. My other gear is listed above, with the exception of a TS7 overdrive, the big muff, which is still laying around and a danelectro psycho flange. The flanger is also retired... If stolen or lost, i would get it again! No question! Love the tone and the flexibility. Hate the reverse polarity. But in a reply to my question, fulltone stated that it was due to the germanium transistors that the '69 has a reverse polarity. It has to be stated that the device is very economic in terms of battery use, as are practically all fuzzes. So not being able to hook it up to my dc brick is not really an issue. I only compared it by reading reviews on the net, which turned out to be really helpful. I wanted it to sound in the direction of the dunlop jimi hendrix fuzz, but somewhat more flexible. Well, it does just that. And true bypass??? Sorry people, i can't hear the grass grow, so in don't really care about that! Everithing i want a fuzz to be, the '69 is it! It does help me make music, a very impotant tool! But nohting more than that! Could live without it, but don't really want to... It's a wellbuilt pedal with great features that make it worth the price. Soundquality is pristine, if you are into fuzz. One thing more... If you are looking for the wall of sound pedal... This does not do it by itself. You will have to use it with a fat sounding overdriven amp for that.

Easy to use, but spend time to find the sweet spots that fir your guitar and playing style.

The sound is superb. And if you put it between the amp en guitar its great. Only use true-bypass pedals with this baby and it shines. Hendrix, Beck, Johnson, Trower, Clapton. Its all here, and more.

I used this with a Crybaby and it didn't sound so good. To much dirt. But once I added a true bypass wah (The Clyde) the fuzz went from great to stellar!!

If used to drive a highgain channel, hiss must be controlled. It doesnt hiss too much if set properly. But it took me some time to find the right settings!!

Good guitar, '69, Clyde, tube amp = tone heaven!! Really!!

Build like a tank, battery works for months playing daily!! Awesome!

Great support, if you ask the right questions and do your homework first. Good cables, good gear, and a clear explaination of your issues. Got great support when I was A-B ing the '69 with the Fuzzface.

Superb. Musical pedal, classic sounds, new sounds, but very very usable. Work the internal trimmer, but it was set perfect when I got it. Buy a new one if it got stolen.

Once you get the lay of the land, it's not that hard to get the sound that you're after. Volume and Fuzz do what you'd expect. The Bias and Contour controls are a bit harder to describe...Bias kind of adjusts the character of the fuzz (not the amount or the tone of it), and Contour is like a midrange control. The internal trimmer pot is very handy (though you have to crack open the pedal to get to it), and seems to work mostly as a global tone control while adding a little of variety with the clipping and harmonic structure. I've found that once you get the amount and nature of the fuzz you're looking for, you'll probably only touch the Contour control if anything. When the Bias and Contour are turned fully clockwise, there is some drop in the overall signal, so you may find yourself compensating with extra volume (this pedal ahs more than enough) So it's actually real easy to use once you get accustomed to it. And, it's a lot of fun to tweak anyway so you're not going to be cussing at it if you do find yourself turning a lot of knobs. Starting form the "Hendrix" setting in the manual is an excellent place to begin.

This is an incredibly versatile pedal. Everything you dial up retains a bit of a fuzzy character, but you can get such a variety of tones it's unreal. I'm really itching to try this as a cleaned up overdrive pedal (which it can do) pushing a tube amp. You can get Big Muff wooliness (though not as big and thumpy sounding as the real deal), fizzy mosquito attack fuzz, even distorted tones that sound a bit like a Boss DS-1 with a weak battery (I mean this in a good way). There is something for everyone here.

The interactivity between the '69 and your guitar and volume control deserves even more accolades. I've never played a fuzz pedal that let the twangy clank of my Fenders shine through like this one has. And to say this thing reacts to your volume control is putting it lightly; 9 for rhythm and 10 for kicked up leads covers all the ground I need. Just a quick nudge of my pinky gets me to both spots.

To be critical: While single notes and doublestops sing, chords can be a bit hard to wrangle in, even on "rhythm" settings. Tweaking your picking dynamics and volume control can help this, but attempting to figure out what will get results you're looking for requires some patience until you develop a familiarity with it.

I'm using Strats and Teles with a Vox AC30.

It looks very gigworthy, and Fulltone has a great reputation for quality stuff. The quirky thing about mine is that the travel on the knobs is weirdly inconsistent: the volume knob is very stiff, while the contour knob is somewhat loose. This doesn't bother me...I just find it weird. The LED is also very dim, even with new batteries...but that doesn't concern me either.

Classic rock, shoegaze, and blues primarily...with a bit of everything mixed in. I've been playing for 18 years.

I currently own a Big Muff US RI and an Ibanez ToneLoc fuzz and have owned several other fuzzes: a Prescription Yardbox, DOD Classic Fuzz, a Russian Big Muff and probably a couple of others I'm forgetting.

The '69 clearly beats those "other" fuzzes in my book and is probably my go-to fuzz for classic rock and blues because of its savory vintage flavor. I remain a big fan of the US Big Muff with its aggressive low end and wall of fur. The '69 is not going to make me pack that biatch up. But these are really two different beasts and I dig them both. When I want the sound of fuzz, I'll go with the Muff...when I want the sound of a guitar with fuzz, I'll go with the '69.

What kind of surprised me was how much more I liked this pedal than I liked the Yardbox...and I really liked the Yardbox (selling it was not something I wanted to do) Of course, the '69 is trying to do something different than the Yardbox is doing (Fuzz Face versus Tonebender) and maybe I'm just a Fuzz Face guy and never realized it, but for me it's no contest at this point.

Anyways, I highly recommend this pedal. The tweakability is second to none, and most settings are going to give you something interesting or usable. Not only will most find something they like, but you'll also discover a lot of tones that will kill you. Go get one.

The '69 is a PNP Germanium ransistor equipped fuzz pedal that is identical to early Arbiter Fuzzfaces and includes a few mods that were done to Jimi Hendrix's units.

Not that easy to use. You gotta understand some tricks. All the knobs work together.
- Volume
- Contour: adds Midrange, Harmonics and Sustain.
- Bias: takes out the "woofiness" and gives great Overdrive/Distortion sounds when its level is reduced.
- Fuzz: amount of distortion. It sounds best fully clockwise. You can clean-up the sound by turning down your guitar's volume control. And that's the most important thing to understand about this pedal!

Also an Internal Trimmer allows for adjustment of Clipping Symmetry, Harmonics, and Tracking.

The manual is good.

I'm using the '69 pedal with a Fender Strat Standard (Mexico) and a Fender Blues Junior tube amp.

Vintage sound! The best Fuzz I have ever played in my life.

With the '69 and a good tube amp, you get all those Hendrix/Led Zep/Beatles/Cream/Kravitz fuzz sounds.
The '69 is more versatile that it seems at first. You can sound very fuzzy, very warm and also when you turn down the Bias knob you get a great tube-like distortion.

Also, the '69 have True-Bypass to preserve tone when the pedal is off.

Seems to be solid.

Don't know.

I play mostly Classic Rock and R&B from the 60's-70's. You gotta hear the '69 to believe it. This pedal is THE ultimate fuzz pedal to get if you're after that kind of sound (think late 60's, early 70's).

I compared it to the Electro Harmonix Big Muff. They share some similarities, but the fuzz effect seems to sit on top of your sound with the Big Muff, whereas with the '69 it's a whole. They are not in the same league.

It really helps your playing to play through good gear, and the '69 is an amazing product.

If it were stolen, I would definitely buy another one.

easy enough to use. The '69 is my first fuzz pedal so I wasn't quite sure what to expect save for hopefully a good thick hendrix-y tone. Needless to say it didn't take long to find it. The manual was quite helpful in deciphering the meanings of the bias and contour knobs plus giving suggestions as to how to tweak the box for certain sounds.

I tested this pedal in a store against the '70, the soulbender, and some other fuzz pedal whose name I can't remember. by the end it was a close call between the '70 and the '69, but I went with the '69 because its tone felt more musical to me and the pedal seemed more versatile. I brought it home though and I'll be honest...I was pretty disappointed at first. I have a fender twin reverb and I guess I expected to plug in the fuzz and be drenched in thick creamy tone. Alas the sound was bitter, harsh, and unwelcoming. I was looking for an eric johnson/hendrix sort of smooth tone, but it sounded more like the beatles revolution sound (not that that's a bad thing, just not what I was looking for). But I knew mike made good products, so I gave it a chance. For a while I used it with a maxon overdrive and that satisfied my tonal desires to a point but it still wasn't giving me "that sound". WELL, I just got my hands on this great old amp called a kalamazoo. It's a model one, 5 watts, 10 inch speaker, class A...basically a nice little tube practice amp from 1966. In experimenting with it, I hooked its second input up to my twin and ooh la la, what a tone! Then it occured to me, the fuzz needs this kind of ballsy breakup to really shine. Sure enough I put the fuzz in front of the amps and WOW. What a tone. it's like I'm at monterey. It's just so FULL and FUZZY and AWESOME. I'm completely in love with this pedal now...it just took the right gear. And yes, the pedal cleans up marvelously well from your guitar's volume knob...an added treat!

I take it everywhere and I lost one of its little feet over this last summer. I got by with it being an awkward three legged pedal for a while but I eventually found old amp feet that sufficed...no problem. Other than that no problems here

never had to deal with them

as I said, it took me a while to find this pedal's true potential, but now that I've found it I am SO satisfied. I find it caters more to my strat than les paul (maybe it's simply the tone I'm going after) but both sound fine with it. I've found my dream amp rig now and this pedal work wonders with it. If the pedal were stolen I'd first be very angry and upset, then immediately get another one, because for what it is and does it's not that expensive. As everyone says, this is not a distortion or overdrive...it's a fuzz. that's what it does to your tone...it makes it fuzzy. If you want fuzzy tone, buy this. Mike says that this pedal is meant for fans of hendrix's first two albums because he switched from germanium to silicon transistors...blah blah...but simply judging from hendrix recordings, I can get a pretty similar tone to band of gypsys era stuff too so not to worry...just make sure you have the proper gear to work with this pedal and TRY IT OUT FIRST

4 knobs, how hard can it be.

Big Eric Johnson, SRV, Billy Gibbons fan. Play a mix of stuff, no metal, but a bit of Vai-ish stuff. I am not a pedal snob, I'll use anything that's ok.

Brilliant sound quality. A vast range of fuzz is on tap with this pedal. I am not a "fuzzy" sound fan. I like relatively clean overdriven sounds. I (like it seems a lot of people) discounted fuzz as a means to get a really nice tone. I always thought of fuzz as for nasty no tone art rock bands/70's glam. Then I thought if fuzz is good enough for Eric Johnson I'd give it a whirl. This fuzz can be really tweaked with the bias and contour controls. And inside there's a dial which you can use to alter the type of clipping. Superb. Not only that it is incredibly responsive to touch and volume. I can go from fuzz ro clean juast by backing off on my strat's volume a little. I'd say this pedal is more responsive than my tube driver. I'm still using my bog standard DS-1 for now but it will probably be on ebay soon.

My chain is as follows: American strat with SCN pup's - seymour duncan pup booster (just to boost if I am using effects that soak up tone and volume) - boss tuner - 69 - tube driver - (holy grail if I am using my combo at home) - boss ds-1 -boss dd3 - into modded Laney LC15 or blackface twin reverb.

seems reliable, well put together, nicely crafted innards.

I've read people giving the guy who makes the pedals a hard time. So what if he is difficult? That's life. Do people email Boss or Digitech for a chat about their pedals and expect a personal reply from the boss man? The 69's not much more expensive than a mass produced pedal, so I guess if I have a problem I will return it and ask for a refund. Simple really.

Great pedal. Give it a whirl first, if you don't like it don't buy it. I can never understand how people can buy pedals they hate. How can you do that if you try it first?

one volumen, tone, bias, and fuzz poti.
???!!!
simple and flexible.
so, easy 9 points.

Fuzz, a original sound.
its raunchy and dynamic, very musical.
No way to compare it to Tube screamers.
Its not overloaded like my Mig Muff and different as my Rat.
Its very important how you play, it react sensitive in this way.
Its very easy to get Hendrix or Blues tones out of it.
I personally play also Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumkins, QOTSA stuff and this Fuzz works good for that.
Not for Metal sounds, because the big E string has no attac ! But this is normal at a Fuzz. Maybe you need sometime to get closer with this Unit, but what you want ? What you are searching for and what you mind about a Fuzz that is called " 69` " ??!!

My stuff ; 70`Strat/ Std. SG - T.C. Vintage Delay - Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe - 69 Fuzz - Cry Baby 353 Q - Korg DT 10 Tunr. Engl Screamer 1x 12 Combo ( with the Z5 Footswitch )and a Marshall 1x12 Box or London City 69?? Plexi Top + 4 x 12 with a Maxon TS 9.

Oh, I am in Europe and needed a converter for the power supply.
And the only thing Mike can make better ; is to build a brighter LED lamp in it or just a different colour ( red box with a red lamp ?! can suck sometimes ).
Ah, and ther is a trim pot inside the box were you can turn the Fuzz intensity more or less. ( I like the original setting the most ).

Have it a year, no problems here !!
When you open it - it looks very quality like.

I mailed them two times and they answer quick.

they are a small company, so I must wait a month on this unit. but its Ok.

I play nearly 20 years,I play 1 - 10 gigs in a month.
So this is not a job I can get rich with it.
Sometimes I can record my stuff in a professional studio and this works good here. ( I can use ther different amps ).
Mind the bigger and simpler youre set up is ...the more this Fuzz shines !
For the sounds I want out of this box, the build quality, the price and and and, I must give it 10 points here.

Great tone (if you set it up right) It's a npn pedal so it can suck the sound right out of many other pedals, and vica versa. Play around with it and you'll find the best place. It took me a whole weekend to fit it in. The bias and contour knobs are easy to dial in a variety of sounds. Always play with the volume knob!

Great great great tone. I found running it first in my chain (even before wah) gives the best break up tone and just sounds heavenly when the guitar volume is backed off to about 7. Gives the wah an interesting (Edge like) effect. The harmonics, lows, highs, mids, and gain is just beautiful on this pedal. Well worth the time it took me to put it into my board the right way.
strats and pauls into 69, clyde wah, keeley overdrives, volume, ehx memory man, choralflange, into fenders, Peavey classic 50, vox ac30

Germanium transistors are a little 'moody' sometimes. Enviroment can make them sound slightly different from one room to another, but the pedal is built like a war machine, and the wiring is perfect. No need for a backup, but I'd hesitate to let it be the only gain pedal i used in case it decided to sound different some night.

Fulltone can be hard to get ahold of, and if you ask a question that is somewhere on their website they won't even respond. But if you have a real issue, they'll get back to you, and try and help you out... just give them some time. They get a lot of questions.

I play mostly rock influenced pop, blues, and some country. I've been playing a while, full time for about 2 years. This pedal is an absolutely great fuzz, very hendrix, but has inspired many riffs. I love pedals that enhance my tone and give me ideas for music. This is a good one. I expect to be using this for a while. I compared to 70, soulbender, mxr, dunlops, and a few others and this one had the best warmth and 'tone' in my opinion. Not as much gain as others. Hard to beat a homemade fuzz though!! Try em' out, almost all fuzzes are a little different, find the right one!

This isn't my first fuzz, but for me it was a lot harder to get the hang of than my other one- a Voodoo Lab Superfuzz (also a great pedal). Just because it takes A LOT of knob-diddling doesn't mean it's a bad pedal though. There are tons of sounds to be had from this little red box, and it took me a couple weeks to find mine. It is definitely worth toying with the internal trim pot- I'm not going to lie, when I first took it home I hated the sound of it. After a little while of being frustrated because I couldn't get enough fuzz out of it, I remembered Fulltone puts those trimmer things inside. THANK GOD! I went from wanting to throw it out the window to wearing a huge shit eating grin in the space of about ten minutes. I'd heard Germanium transistors were tempermental about things like temperature, and this is something I noticed right out of the box. Playing at night in Victoria where it cools down quite a bit as opposed during the day when it's scorching hot made for some extra knob turning, but I eventually got the hang of it to the point where I know exactly where all my best settings are. It's a good idea to mark down your settings right on the unit with a sharpie or something once you find the sound you like the best. The manual is simple, but gives some good suggestions, a la keeping the fuzz knob maxed- you likely won't get enough gain out of it otherwise (though I guess if you're not looking for a ton of fuzz it won't matter).

My guitar is a re-issue Gibson Les Paul Deluxe. Great sounding guitar. When I first bought the pedal I also had a re-issue Fender Telecaster Deluxe. Horrible guitar, weak pickups, basically not meant to be played with anything, least of all this pedal. I live with my buddy who's got a 2000 something Gibson SG, a Fender Highway One Strat, a Lite Ash Tele, an Ibanez 335 look alike, a '65 Blackface Showman with matching 2x12 cab, and a Marshall AVT 2x12. My amp setting are always the same- treble 6, mids dimed, bass 8. All of his guitars have been put through this pedal, and since I don't currently own an amp of my own, I use his. Through the Showman, it is REALLY boomy sounding. Definitely on the smoother side regardless of how the trim pot is set. Through the Marshall it's more on the crunchy side- when you crank the output of the pedal it's enough to overdrive the front end of the amp a little. I read a comment from one of the other reviews for this pedal that said it got a good "No One Knows" (pre-chorus anyways) kind of sound. That's definitely a good way to describe it. Depending on how you have the internal trim pot set, it can get pretty Muffy sounding, to pretty fuzz-less. Most of the Muff kind of sounds were got through the Fender though, so I guess it's pretty dependant on what amp you use. With the trim pot completely anti-clockwise, even with the fuzz knob dimed you're not going to get a hell of a lot of fuzz out of it, though I did notice it made the sound a lot more boomy and bass heavy. The overall fuzz increases as you turn the trim pot clockwise, though what you gain in fuzz you lose in low end. Completely clockwise it sounds a lot like the guitar solo from Janis Joplin's "Summertime." Super nasal, kind of a warped squashy sound. The trim pot is key to this pedal's character. I have mine set at about 7 o'clock, and combined with the Les Paul I can get some sweet Billy Gibbons (my favourite guitar player) "La Grange" esque sounds. I also dig QOTSA pretty heavily, and I am a huge fan of Adam Nutter of The Music, hence the Les Paul Deluxe. The tone on this pedal kills once you find a couple good settings. "Sweet" is what I would say if I had to use one word to describe it. It is very pleasing to the ears. Even though it's apparently an Arbiter Fuzz Face copy, I wouldn't say I'm getting any Hendrix sounds out of this pedal. Then again, I'm not looking to emulate his sound. He was a great player, but his sound has been done by umpteen million pedal makers and by now is pretty generic. This pedal is VERY quiet when used alone, but there is some noticeable hum when you plug other distortions into it. I usually have a Boss SD-1 running into it to augment the distortion. This pedal is NOT an over the top distortion machine, but with tone like it has, it really doesn't need to be. It does what it is designed to do and it does it well. I prefer using medium to high output pickups with the pedal standing alone. Mini-humbuckers aren't huge in terms of output (fortunately they are in tone), hence the SD-1. It is very likely you're going to get a lot of shitty sounds out of this thing until you find your sound, but I give it a nine because I've found mine and I love it. Be patient and it will pay off.

I've had this pedal about two months and I'm still using the battery it came with. The light still lights and the switch works every time. Haven't gigged with it yet, but I play at least four hours everyday (when I'm not working anyways). I've played the shit out of this pedal in the short time I've had it and it performs beautifully. I've opened the thing up to fiddle around inside, and everything is solid. There's a huge difference in quality when things are built carefully by hand, and in this aspect Fulltone is practically flawless.

Haven't had to deal with the company.

I play and listen to a lot of different things under the huge umbrella of rock music. I love everything from Portishead (which is trip hop, but the guitar on their records is actually the reason I started to get into fuzz pedals). I love blues rock like ZZ Top and early Zeppelin. I love Black Sabbath, QOTSA, Kyuss, The Music, Oasis, tons of different stuff. I tune to either D standard or drop C for the extra low end. The tone of this pedal is amazing for playing the blues, and surprisingly (for me anyways) even slide guitar. It definitely suits drop tunings well. I'm not too fond of single coils, so I only use this pedal with humbuckers. It's a match made in heaven. Single coils just can't get the amount of fuzz I'm after, but a Strat neck pickup with this pedal reminds me of "La Grange." This pedal cleans up really well, so it's worth it to keep the fuzz knob dimed. I'm 18 and I've been playing for four years now. In that time I've owned an Epi SG, three Les Pauls (one Epi and two Gibson), a Fender Mexican Strat, a Gretsch Jet Special, and four different valve and transistor amps. I'm glad Long and McQuade is good about trade-ins; I wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. As far as pedals go, I've still got a Boss DS-1 and DS-2 leftover from my Nirvana phase, an SD-1, an old DOD Thrashmaster I nicked from my old highschool, the Voodoo Lab Superfuzz, and this. I'm not a huge effects freak in general, but I HATE the sound of valve distortion on the gain channel amps come with (my friends think I'm an alien), so I've been searching for the holy grail of distortion pedals for a couple years. So far the fuzz variety seems to be my favourite. When I bought this, I was actually looking for a Fulltone Soulbender like one of my buddies had. I loved the sound of it, so even though the store didn't have any in stock, I figured I would try something else from Fulltone. Man I'm glad I did. Bit pricey, but so is most other gear in Canada. If it were lost or stolen, I'd be pretty pissed off. Truth be told, I'd probably buy a Soulbender just to try something different, and I probably will anyways. It's not lost or stolen though, and it sounds like god. I'm definitely content to rest on my laurels with this one.

The 69 took a little patience to get the sound I was looking for. Fun to just start tweaking the knobs and see what happens. I didn't get a manual with mine since I bought it used, but it's not too hard to figure out. You need to know what you're looking for...

I'd like to give this a ten just because it's such a versitile unit. The fuzz can be fairly clean to mighty raspy. I like to use effects that enhance the tone of my guitar and amp, and this definitely does! Units that color or disguise my tone get the boot immmediately! Love the way it cleans up with the volume control of the guitar down. Love the way it pushes my other OD/Distortion units. A very useful tool to shape my tone the way I like it!! After a week or two of playing around with this my big muff was e-bayed without hesitation. This is definitely a cut above!
My tone preference runs to a fairly clean state of affairs. My setup runs like this: Gretsch falcon>voxwah847>69>boss od-3>Keeley bd2>Keeley ds1>EH memory man>Fender concert 112 combo or blues jr.

I've only had this a short while, but fulltone makes products that weather well. I have no hesitation about gigging without a backup. I don't anticipate any trouble. A 9 for the germanium thing....

All e-mails were answered quickly and informatively.

Quite possibly the best fuzz box out there. For me anyway. I play mostly contemporary worship, bluesy/jazzy, old school rock type music, and this is a great match. Been playing about 30 years and have owned a lot of guitars, amps, effects, etc. This one shines in it's category. Ubetcha I'd buy it again if it was lost or stolen! It's an integral part of my setup! The more transprent and cleaner, the better.(although you can get it to mimmick the big muff pretty good) You'll hear more of your guitar than the effect, and that makes a winner in my book!

4 big Knops, easy dailing.

Wow, it?s a Fuzz. I like that sound, I can only compare it to the BiG muFF and its not that wooshh mudd sound, its more cleaner, dynamic, and is mega flexible, great for that QOTSA ?no one knows? sound , are you gone go my way, Paperbackwriter,?its all in there.
As I say; its just a Fuzz so its sounds like a Fuzz ;-) Test it.
I play a mix of Hendrix meets Aerosmith, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Metallica, In Flames, Pearl Jam and Alanis Morisette and they cover songs from Bob Marley sound !!??
I use it one Stage, practise at home jamming in the studio and it works everywhere.
I cant get a bad sound of it, so this is difficult to find ?yourown? sound.
I have the feeling in my ears that the sound is changing sometimes a little ( very little ) bit, but still sounds great , maybe of that germanium T. ! I don?t really care?.
My main SET UP:

Gibson Paula, Fender Strat, Esp M II, in a Holier Grail - Digidelay - 69 - Jekyll & Hyde red - Korg Dt 10 tuner for live gigging. In the Studio + Phase 90, Vox v 847, Tremonti Wah, Replica delay , Multichorus.
Marshall Plexi, 4x12 Vintage 30, Mesa Lonestar 2x12 Combo, and a little Hughes and Kettner Edit Blue 60 for Home toilette practising?.sounds all good with.

I use it with a 1 Spot and reverse polarity pin !!! Because Batteries are S***

The only bad think is; that the red led light is not very bright and at ?normal? daylight its hard to see if its on or not. But you will hear it ;-)

If you like Fuzzes test on of these.
Im still standing in my shoes, so this is why it get a 8.

solid metal box, strong switch, and big knops ::::
have it a year and have no problem.

USE THE RIGHT ADAPTER !!!!!!!!!!!

I mailed them two times and they answer serious and quick.
Nice Folks.

I play 16 years the guitar, It is a inspiration because it does not
sound like a normal ( standart )overdrive / distortion !!!
Its a Fuzz.

Due to the nature of Germanium fuzz pedals, they are not that easy to use. You have to know how to play with it.

The '69 has many options so it can take you a while to get a great sound out of it but the tone is there.

My rig:
Gibson LP/ Strat>>Voodoo Lab Proctavia>>AnalogMan Sunface>> Fulltone '69>>Cry Baby Wah>>FD2 Mosfet>>OCD>>Keeley DS-1 Ultra>>Digitech RP-50>>Dunlop Univibe>>Fulltone ChoralFlange>>Fat Boost>>Option 5 Destination Phase>>Line 6 Echo Park>>Stereo outs to Marshall VS-65R and Soldano reverb-o-sonic.

Not noisy at all, considering it is a germanium gain device (with everything maxed out, my Proctavia, another germanium box, sounds like the radio station from hell....).

After tweaking with the 4 knobs and the internal trimmer, I got a fantastic, full-bodied yet well defined fuuztone, very reminescent of Hendrix. Back off your guitar volume and it really cleans up.

My Sunface has a tad better tone and cleans up better but is not as versatile as the '69, so they are both more or less equivalent.

You can throw this at your enemies, knock them unconscious, pick it up and plug in. Tank.

Great CS, very helpful and attentive.

I play classic rock. 'Nuff said, this pedal is a great match.

The great thing about this fuzz is its versatility and top quality sound. Every Fulltone product I have tried has that same multi-dimensional aspect to its tone. The '69 is in the same vein, full, rounded, musical tone.

the only player in the same league that I can think of is the AnalogMan Sunface NKT275. I have them both in my pedalboard and use them for different kinds of fuzz.

Not easy to get your sound but good sounding at any setting anyway

I'm using a rivera r-55 and a fender standard and it sounds great.

It's a tank

Just buy one, be sure that is what you need.

Contour and bias can make this pedal a little bir confusing but after a while you begin to discover how they work and react with other pedals you can get prettey good tones.

79 ash body, maple neck strat > Dunlop 535q wah > 69 > Fullfone FD2 > Voodoolab micro vibe > TC Electronic SCF chorus > Boss DD20 delay > Marshall JTM 30 2 x 10
Very versatile for a fuzz. It is the best thing about this pedal is that it offers a wide range of tones, from classic fuzz to mild overdrive.
Set up is Volume 3 o'clock, Bias 9 o'clock, contour 1 o'clock, fuzz 4 o'clock. Especially when the FD2 is on, it cleans up really nicely as guitar volume turns down. Now I basically use it on most of the times and use the volume as a main tool.
One problem is that I could not get a nice fuzzy univibe sound from it. First I tried the Microvibe before the fuzz but it was horrible. After I put it after the 69 and FD2 it sounded better but still not best.

Never had a problem so far

Asked for ome explanation and suggested setting for the internal trim pot but I have been sent the soft copy of the manual which I already had. Anyway it was not a big deal but disappointment...

I play hendrix, SRV, eric gales type of blues and rock. The 69 is a nice tool for me

This pedal is one of a kind. It doesn't take very long to get the tone you are looking for. Basically 2 knobs that adjust your tone "Bias" & "Contour", the other 2 are "Volume" & "Fuzz".

"Germanium" transistor...which basically means "good days & bad days". Don't get me wrong Germanium transistors are the 'tube amp' of transistors, warm and full. I compared this one to my brother Fuzz Face reissue and this is a similar tone there, but they are different.

I would probably bring a 70 Fulltone along for the ride if I were giging. Love the hard metal case. Wish I could put the guts it in a Fuzz Face box though :(

Mike is great to deal with. I've emailed him a few times & he has emailed me back within 10minutes or 1 business day.

I would recommend this pedal to anyone that loves that full, bright, warm, nasty, fuzz of back in the day. If it were stolen I would probably consider a 70 Fulltone.

It does a LOT. 4 knobs plus internal pots-- hey, leave everything alone, its totally easy. But here you have CHOICE as well.
All sounds were quite good.

The 69 blows away every other Fulltone fuzz pedal I tried, as well as the Seymour Duncan Tweak.

Well, I REVISITED the SD Tweak today, after first impressions at home, with nothing to compare it to.

I took it to the guitar shop, and compared it right next to all the Fulltone fuzz pedals-- primarily the 69 pedal, but also sould bender, and 70 pedal.

The 69 blows them all away. The SD Tweak sounded one dimentional next to it- the fuzz "sat on top of the guitar tone" rather than being an integral part of the tone like on the 69. The 69 was MUSICAL and enjoyable to listen to. The Tweak just added fuzz buzz. No way could I use the Tweak after doing this comparison. Its a no brainer.

I've listened to many vintage clips, and I remember how my vintage Univox Superfuzz sounded. The 69 is a fully dimensional MUSICAL sound-- totally nasty if you want, but it has DEPTH, full range, character, you here GUITAR-- not just buzz. Plenty of sustain- okay, its NOT a Rat pedal or a muff-- it has depth to it in contrast. DYNAMICS.

The Univox was a comparitively compressed, buzzy tone with, if I remember correctly, a ton of noise. The 69-- I don't remember hearing ANY noise (neither did the Tweak)

I tried the Fulltone 70, and the Soul Bender, as well as the Octavefuzz. None of these pedals came close to the fullness of tone, the huge variety of tones available on the 69. I give the 69 a 10-- the others, no more than a 5 or 6. The Octavefuzz- oh DONT EVEN BOTHER. How did Fulltone come to offer that piece of crap anyway. The Octavefuzz is horrible, doesn't do what it should.

I bought a 69 pedal immediately after the test.

Probably you could run over it with a tank.

Don't know.

This is what a guitar pedal should be all about- versatility, great tone, well built. What else is there?

Why crap up your tone at any price?

Fairly easy to use. Internal trim pots are very useful.

This pedal has not found a permanent place in my rig which is typically as follows, usually a PRS soapbar, Fulldrive 2, FD Choralflange, FT TTE delay, Divided by 13 Switchazel AB/Tuner split into a Badcat Blackcat, Dr. Z Z28 or Matchless Chieftain. Tuner used is a Peterson Strobe.

This pedal sounds very bright to me and it has a cutting quality to it that I don't love. The way it responds to the vol pot on the guitar is not linear with a change in tone and volume boost at the end of the rotation.

So this pedal doesn't seem to bring out the best in my rig so it's more of a novelty that I might use for jams with another guitar player to get different tones. I have a seven piece band and am the only guitar player. I've got many other pedals and use what complements the amp I'm using the best. I have an old Superfuzz pedal that sounds a lot better excpet for the tone loss and flakey switch. It actually sounds like a tube amp whereas this box doesn't.

I've not had any problems although this doesn't go to gigs. I never use a backup for anything except guitars for string breakage.

I obviously like Fulltone products and I guess I'm not a fan of Fuzz in general.

I've never had a problem with any Fulltone pedal and don't expect any although the switches may fail over time.

I play loads of latin rock, funk, blues and jazz. I even play several Hendrix covers but never use this pedal. An FD 2 through a Badcat amp is a tough tone to improve on.

I'm not saying this is a bad pedal, it's just not for me. The tone I go for is not in the same universe as this box. I did not compare it to anything although I own many other ODs including, Tube screamers, FD OCD and a Barber DSS.

Anything on my pedalboard that doesn't add gets removed as I like my signal chain simple and as short as possible.

Nice pedal but not for me. I could futz with the pots more and maybe get it acceptable but think the general character will still be lacking. I go for natural tube OD and this Fuzz just sounds weird, ok bad to me. I'm a little surpised everyone loves this so much which is what prompted me to write this review. Putting this in front of a top quality amp seems like a sin. I know Eric Johnson and many other greats may use these but I'm missing the whole deal on this unit.

I'm finding all of these posts to be a little to positive. Most of the reviews I read things are getting 9s and tens. Those reviews are not helpful for artists folks. I do my best not to be influenced by what others write although these glowing reviews have gotten me to by stuff that doesn't help me make music. I'm learning to take all reviews lightly. I do play out about 90% of the time so I go with what works in a live setting.

The Fulltone `69 is very easy to use if you are familiar with "Fuzzology" but not otherwise i.e. you`ve got to know where to place it in the signal chain and how to set it.TIP - NEVER put your Fuzz BEFORE your wah, it does`nt work!! The manual is great, giving you two basic settings which do what they say spot on.It would be good if tips were given about altering of the internal trimmer and what Amp settings to use tips.

I use a pair of Carvin Legacy heads with my `69 Fuzz and a load of other pedals.I use this pedal with a Dunlop 535Q and MXR Phase 90 most of the time ( at the moment ) with a recently aquired Eric Johnson Strat`and the result is superb.Think Hendrix,SRV,Trower in tone terms.The`69 works very well with the Wah,but you do have to keep the Bias control turned down ( as it says in the manual ) to avoid the pedal being "overdriven" by the Wah.The `69 is not noisy at all,just the best "Fuzz Face" type Fuzz I`ve ever owned.I owned a real `60`s "Blue" Fuzzface when I was a teenager, and the Fulltone `69 is WAY better than that ever was!!!

I am sure I can totaly rely on it,it is me that I need to work on with remebering to play in tune etc.I`m sure this pedal will last longer than me.I would use this on a gig without a backup,but then I always have 3 overdrives of some kind on my pedalboard!!

Fulltone are a great company.I own three Fulltone pedals now ( Ultimate Octave,Dejavibe & `69 Fuzz which are all amazing )and shortly intend to ( hopefully )be the "very proud" owner of three more.These are to be `70 Fuzz,Distortion Pro`or OCD, and the ChoralFlange.I have never had any problems,and I`m not expecting to have any antime soon.But it`s obvious that customer service is a priority anyway...Long may they continue as I want to own them all!!

I play a wildley varied mix of stuff from Satch`/Vai type(ish) instrumental stuff,classic rock,SRV type Blues and good old `60`s Psychodelic hippy/hendrix stuff.The `69 is there for when I want to go to the wild strat man zone ie SRV/Hendrix/Trower etc.Step on the `69 and the Dunlop Wah and away you go!!...lovley!!! I have been gigging since 1976 and playing since `69 ( but i`m only 42!!).I use various other pedals ( Keeley Ultra DS1,Wammy,Morley Power wah,TS9DX,Boss T-Wah,etc etc etc).If the `69 were lost I`d get another and it helps me make my music.I chose the `69 `cos I loved it the moment I plugged it in ( as happens to me with all Fulltone stuff !! ).If all pedals were this good,we would ALL sound a lot better!!.........

I?ve been wanting one of these forever. I finally got it 2 months ago. Right out of the box this thing sounds great. It has a volume, Bias (essentially Bass), Contour (Mids and Highs), and Fuzz. There is more to the bias and contour controls than just highs, mids, and bass, but that?s a good starting point for what they do. To be honest, on stage I haven?t strayed too far from the Hendrix setting that the instruction suggest. In regards to pull back your guitar volume, the ?69 is just like everyone says. I cleans up beautifully and never looses the character of your guitar?s sound. I?m finding that just a small tweak hear and there and I can go from Jimmy Page to The Black Keys.

The sound is exactly what I was looking for. All my life I?ve hated fuzzes. That was b/c I wanted them to sound like overdrives. They won?t. They?re fuzzes? and they sound great. I wanted to get the late sixties sound of Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, Duane Allman Fame Studio work, and middle period Pink Floyd (Meddle, Ummagumma), but was frustrated with trying to coax it from the TS9. I had no problem finding the first three. I haven?t zeroed in on the Pink Floyd or the Duane Allman sound, but am getting close.

Guitars:
1991 Custom Strat Plus, 1980 Aria Pro II PE 1000, 1949 Gibson BR 9 Lap Steel

Amps:
1969 Fender Super Reverb

Effects Chain:

Ernie Ball Volume  standard Jim Dunlop Wah  Ibanez TS9  ?69  Boss DD 3

As to the internal trim pod, I haven?t messed with it yet. I?m still figuring out cool sounds with the way it is now.

No problems yet. The germanium transistors are notorious for changing sounds in the heat. I just got it ion November so, no heat problem yet.

I originally had the ?69 before the wah. When I tried to put it after the wah it made a horrible feedback noise. I emailed Fulltone?s customer support. They wrote me back that day and suggested I put it after the TS9. They said it was b/c of an impedance mismatch thing between the fuzz and the wah. They suggested that I needed to put a pedal with a built-in buffer (like the TS9 or the Boss). Fulltone was very quick and friendly to work with.

LOVE IT!

Maybe I'm not the brightest bulb in the vibe pedal but this took me a long time to get a "good" sound out of. I messed with placement in the effects chain, tweaked the knobs, and tweaked the internal trimmer for days and days but I finally found what I was looking for.

The guitars that I use with this:
Japanese Strats(2) into Vox Wah into Fulltone Full Drive into '69 into Big Muff or Dunlop Double shot distortion (sometimes) into Visual Sound chorus/delay into Morley splitter into Peavey Delta Blues (2x10) and Early '70's (71/72 they think) Twin Reverb (no master volume)
I don't think it's really noisy at all other than the noise one gets from fuzz. After finding what I liked, it always sounds rockin'.
I can kind of "get the sound of my favorite artists'" (Ala Hendrix) when I want to but I think to sound like Jimi you'd need the equipment he used and to be able to play like him. Which I don't have nor can I do.
I found that after I messed around with the pedal, I ended up with a sound that I like very much. Here's the thing though, I had expectations of what I thought the pedal should sound like and the pedal sounds like it sounds. There really isn't a huge amount of gain (get the '70 for that but there is a price to pay in overloading the signal and that IS a noisy pedal in my exp)but if one listens to early Hendrix, he really didn't have huge amounts of gain on the first couple of records. I went back and really listened and this was my experience. Anyway, if I want more out of this pedal I'll stomp on the Full drive (not the boosted side) and have them running simultaneously. Especially with some chorus and it's a really good sound. I give it a ten when I want FUZZ. THIS IS NOT A DISTORTION PEDAL. It's an AWESOME fuzz pedal.

So far so good, I've had it for a year and a half. I've never had a problem with it. I also live in a cool/cold climate in the mountains so I don't know about the heat thing that others have sited. I've had my Fulldrive for three or four years now and it's pretty much on if the amp is and it's never given me a problem. Hell I change batteries like once a year. I say that to say that my experience has been really good quality wise.

I've not had to deal with them too much, I emailed them a question about my fulldrive and never got an answer but I did get one on a question that I emailed regarding my '70 pedal.

Style of music: Lots of stuff, blues, really like spacey slow stuff, would love to play rockabilly if I had a faster picking hand, heavy and slow. This is a good match as I love to rip off Hendrix sometimes with my old band but it's more than that. I like to record with it as well because it cuts through a lot of my bassier distortions. Would I get another? Probably. If I didn't it would be because I'd want to try another Fulltone pedal. I compared it to the Dunlop fuzz, a rack mount, and some other stuff but I bought it sight unseen due to my affinity for Fulltone.
I'd just like to say: If you are looking for fuzz, I think this is your dog. Don't buy this looking for thrash or gobs of gain. It's a shot of good Italian espresso and not a crappy cup of Denny's coffee. If you're used to Denny's, you may hate this at first. I say if you buy it and don't like it, keep it for a couple of weeks and mess with it. Give it a chance. I'm really glad that I did.

Easy to get a good sound right out of the box. To get great and unique sounds however, one will need to spend some time with it

I'm an old fart thats been playing since the Beatles hit the shore in the 60's. My first pedal ( it actually plugged straight into the guitar ) was a Sunn Buzz.....a little black box that nailed the Inngadadavida and Satisfaction tone, but not much else. Second was a Maestro Fuzz.....not the triangle one, but the big ol hunk of plastic with the wheels for vol and fuzz you turned with your feet.

I had pretty much forgot about fuzz pedals over the years and relyed on various overdrives for my dirt wankings. When a freind sent me his 69 pedal to use, a whole new world of cool tones I had forgotten about emerged.

While not everyones cup of tea, this 69 is one of the finest sounding, most tweakable fuzz's I've had the pleasure to use. From adding a nice fat texture to your tone, to aping Norman Greenbaums "Spirit in the Sky", various Trower and Hendrix tones, to all out aural sonic blitz, the 69 covers it all and covers it well.

One of the things I really dig is running the 69 into a tube screamer type pedal or an already cooking amp. Lordy! Throw away your pick man.......legatto staccato here we come! I ran it in to the crappy overdrive channel on an old solid state amp the other night and I'll be damned if I didn't channel Allan Holdsworth! OF course, it was Allan Holdsworth with a broken hand and on a dose of slow pills...... but I digress....the fluid, cello like lines that emerged would make an ebow blush!

I've yet to delve into the trim pots on this thing as I'm still exploring the tonal possibilites with the top mounted knobs. Bias and contour add much to the sonic delights of this pedal.

Is it the best fuzz out there? I don't know. I've tried the Soul Bender, McFuzz, FabFuzz and a few others. I'd love to try the Sun Face, Fuzz Head, London Fuzz, Peach Fuzz, Cats Eye Fuzz and 36 other germanium loaded boxes, but alas, that will never ( unless some nice botique builder would like to take pity on an old, broke guitar playing fool! ) happen. Suffice to say, the 69 is a toneful, versitile fuzz.

If you are not familiar with what a good fuzz pedal can do for you, I would highly suggest spending some time with one. I mean, really spending some time with one. While good tones can happen right out of the box, the deeper you delve into these antiquated noise makers, the more you will be rewarded with new/old inspiring tones.

I really thought I had no need for a fuzz and my dirty tone lust could be satiated with various overdrives and distortions. HAH! How wrong I was!

Not only do they add much to your sonic pallet, they are fun ( FUN I tell you! ) to use. I love kicking it in during and overdriven solo and surprising the crap out of unsuspecting listeners! They are like..."What in the hell was that??!!" Get one and you too can laugh to yourself while nodding knowinly to the gear heads in the audience......that, my friends......is THE 69!!

OK, I usually don't give out 10's, but for the tone this pedal has and it's vesitility.....it gets a big fat 10 from me.

This is one sturdy, studly pedal my friends! I understand that germanium equipped fuzz pedals can be somewhat tempermental, so if I was gigging again, I would probably have a silicone stuffed backup...but as it is, I've never had a lick of problems with this one. The owner of the pedal keeps in the box when not in use and I do the same. It's probably 5-7 years old and looks brand new. I do not forsee any problems with it down the road.

Never dealt with Mr Fuller, but I understand he stands 100% behind his products. I'm sure if there were a problem, it would be taken care of in a prompt, helpful manner.

I play a variety of music. Blues, classic rock, country, worship, jazz, reggae, altered tunnings....whatever. I like most music. Well, good music. Some of the crap that passes for music these days I would just as soon not hear....but who am I to judge!

While I will never be a world class guitar player, I made my living for many years playing professionally. There are many players ( big time and locally ) I admire and I try to learn something from everyone I come in contact with. I still do some gigs once in a while along with helping people on recording projects. I've got good ears and some nice new and vintage gear. I know tone. So, believe me when I tell you this is a fantastic piece of gear.

Is it for everyone...well, no. Also, it's not something you're going to leave on all the time or use even 50% of the time.....well, I guess you could if you were in the right situation.....but for the most part, it's a nice pedal that will add depth and substance to your tonal tool box.

Very easy to use. Just dial the knobs or start dialing from the suggested settings in the manual. I got great sounds right away when I was testing this fuzz in the store. After hearing all kinds of mediocre fuzzez which were hard to get a good fuzz sound with, this one sounded great no matter how I turned to knobs.

I haven't heard everything out there, but I compared this fuzz with the keeley fuzz-head and some of the pedals of electro harmonix, MJM, diamond pedals, and this pedal was still my favorite. I think it's the bias, contour and internal knobs which give the pedal so much range in sound. The sound is always full of character, defenately not lifeless as some people say, raw, authentic and because you can tweak it so good; surprisingly heavy or chiming if you want.

Have it half a year now, and it still looks like new. Very solid and precise build.

not needed

The perfect fuzz for me so far, I couldn't recommend a better fuzz; it's a very basic design yet very broad in range, and it sounds terrific.

one experience from me;
If you are new with fuzzez; don't buy the fuzzfactory first like I did, but buy the fulltone 69 instead, you won't regret it.

Mine is a new pedal (July 2005). Lots of options for tone shaping including internal trimmer. Manual is brief but tells you all you need to know plus gives some useful hints and tips and a couple of sample settings.

I was glad for the warning about the positive centre pin requirement and I decided to follow Mike's advice and stick with the battery option. It would be difficult to change it mid-gig but there you go.

Two guitars and two amps - a Fender Custom Shop Clapton Strat and a PRS 20th Anniversary Standard 24; Cornford Hurricane and Cornford Harlequin run clean/wet and dirty/dry respectively; Fulltone OCD, Dejavibe and Tube Tape Echo; Keeley TS9; Dunlop 535Q wah (true bypass) and an MXR Noise Gate.

The fuzz does what it says on the tin and gives me what I want: a late 60's fuzz a la Hendrix. Very quiet for a fuzz; the bias control enables it to work well with the wah. Best fuzz I've had for my setup and needs.

All the Fulltone effects I've had/have are excellent, solid and dependable. I would use it without a backup and my sound is not so dependant on the fuzz that if the battery went during a gig I couldn't carry on (although I might need to change the set list a little).

No experience at all - I haven't needed it (so far...)

I've been playing 20 years and play mainly rock from the 60s to present day, some blues, classic metal (NWOBHM), Beck, Vai, Satch, Gatton etc. etc.

If you want that Hendrix-type fuzz sound, the 69 is as good as it gets and it will do a lot more if you want to fiddle with it. I've had a Zvex fuzz Factory (wacky, excellent, cute, but too noisy, unpredictable and not easy to mess around with on stage - unless you're Matt Bellamy and have it built into your guitar), Homebrew Electronics UFO (great sound but broke down too frequently sadly). The best fuzz I've ever used.

It ain't exactly cheap but you do get what you pay for; there is a good five year warranty so I'm happy.

4 knobs
volume and fuzz are easy (all the way up)
bias and contour are completly different animals..but fun to tweek & have lots of variable sounds

running first in line, or a true bypass wah in front
It has typical germanium transistor noises...isn't that why we bought it?
brings grit, tr3ble, and stank to my otherwise midrangy carvin xv112
I'm pretty darn satisfied
I use it for hendrix, led zepplin, and wilco covers W/ my band
(www.thehermans.com)

looks good, and i baby it. yet i could see myself breaking it at a drunken throughdown.........and i scared for the day i have to play it outside in the 100+ montana sunshine

picked it up in near mint condition @ a pawn shop..super score
emailed mr. fuller & he said he'd fix it if i ever needed it
good enough for me

best fuzz i have ever used, but i am interested in trying more

Depending on your definition of a "good sound", which is an absolutely personal pursuit, the '69 delivers any number of top-shelf variations. I immediately fell in love with the tone. My amp/guitar combination is rather unusual and, at times, a little stubborn. The '69, however, has offered a new universe of texture that I have been aiming for most of my career, and has done so without compromise. It's as easy to use as any pedal requiring your attention for several hours to understand what your going to get from it. I've never, repeat: never, aquired a pedal that didn't require some serious study be given to "mining" its potential. Nor have I ever purchased a pedal that, before buying, was completely familiar to me. Where is the fun, not to mention the buzz, in that? Any pedal worth a purchase should demand some time be invested in learning the nuances and subtlies of its design. Mike Fuller of Fulltone is definately one of those builders and he knows he's on to something good. Take the time to get inside the new tone, regardless of the purchase you make.

My '69 is in front of a '59 Tremolux. It sounds as natural to this vintage amp as anything I can conjur up without the pedal. When it's off, it's absolutely off. When it's engaged, it runs with a fairly low noise floor (depending on your gain setting, of course). I'm after a percussive, spanking, but mild overdrive and that's what I get... even upon first plugging it in. Now with that said, I've spent days and several gigs with this pedal, hours of tweaking and listening to get my stubborn setup to deliver what I'm after. I am willing to spend the time to do so. I believe, as Santana once said, that your tone (whether it's guitar, horn, voice, etc.) is linked to your soul. Your playing is that direct channel so why not take the time to get all aspects of it in shape. The '69 is very versatile, very "vocal", making it a highly detailed and personal tool in my guitar rig. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND WORKING WITH THE INTERNAL TRIMMER TO DIAL IN A VERY SPECIFIC TONE. In my estimation and experimentation I have found that the internal trimmer seems to operate quite simply as follows: Fully counter-clockwise delivers a more mid scooped EQ. Fully clockwise delivers a flatter, perhaps rolling off the top end, thus smoothing out the overdrive/fuzz - sounding more like my Sparkle Drive. Settings throughout the range are subtle but quite varied. The level of Bias, Contour and Fuzz naturally effect the tone differently depending on the internal trimmer setting. Again, invest the time in understanding these tonal options that Fulltone has made available in the "69. It is a very "musical" pedal.

I do depend on it and would use it without backup. Though switches in both this and my Fulldrive 2 have been replaced. Hey, mechanical things break down eventually, no exceptions.

I immediately dealt with Michael Fuller at Fulltone because I had ordered the FPS-2 adapter and had some problems. The problem seems to be related to the wiring in my home and, thus my studio. I cannot use the pedal with the adapter because of some very, very funky noise that occurs when the pedal is engaged. However, battery operation is fine and so far it seems to operate normally at gigs. I suspect a grounding issue in my home. The adapter is a positive tip, which means you cannot use typical Boss style adapters for this pedal or Voodoo Labs earlier power brick. Seems to be a trend with some high end builders; specifically regarding fuzz and overdrive pedals. I'm not certain if it has to do with the Germanium transistors or what. Michael Fuller, at first was almost resistent to the idea that I was having significant problems with the adapter. However, he soon warmed to the idea upon letting him know that I had done my research and troubleshooting BEFORE contacting him. DO NOT CONTACT FULLTONE WITHOUT FULLY INVESTIGATING YOUR ISSUE FIRST. He can be a little "off-putting" at first simply because, as he told me, 85% of what he gets back in his shop for repairs is simply not the pedal but some other link in your setup ( non "True Bypass" pedal such as Boss and Ibanez will cause noise issues, bad cables - he specifically does not care for poorly "built" George L's, etc.)He clearly stated that he does not have the time to trouble-shoot poorly cared for or designed pedalboards, amps and so on. In my case I prepared a list of my troubleshooting scenarios that I went through, which were thorough, and eventually an MP3 of the noise problem. I documented and closely followed his suggested trouble-shooting tactics, as well. At that point he was thankful for the thorough follow thru on my end and we are still both puzzled by the issue. It is my opinion that Michael Fuller is confident in his design and manufacturing process. In my previous experience regarding the switches he was most cooperative and quickly service the pedals, returning them immediately. It should also be noted that his order placement and fullfillment was very, very quick. Top notch business practice for professional musicians. Period.

It is my opinion that the '69 is a perfect match for vintage amps and vintage fuzz tones, as well as some more extremes. It cleans up nicely without a dramatic loss in volume when rolling the guitar volume back slightly. It reacts to your attack like a tube amp in many respects. It should be noted that I'm not after vintage tones exclusively. What I want is clean, defined grit without sacrificing the low end. I've not heard any pedal, other than Fulltone products, leave the low end of the signal fairly untouched. The '69, specifically, does a great job of allowing the bottom end to pass through. I am after and I've dialed in a big, round sound and a subtle bluesy breakup. I have or have had several overdrive type pedals including Ibanez Tube Screamers, Chandler Tube Drivers, Sparkle Drive, Fulldrive 2 and others. I would replace the '69 in a heartbeat. Nothing has done the subltle fuzz, "breakup" tone better than the '69. I own various high end amps including Rivera, GT and vintage Fenders and this pedal into my '59 tweed is the favorite tone of my career. The tonal control of the '69 is it's most enduring feature. Learning to balance the internal trimmer against the external controls is highly recommended. In fact, I might go so far as to say it's critical in fine tuning the pedal for your personal taste. The '69 has many, many variations and the tone is "musical" and defined. If your in to plug and play pedals, it's a Fulltone afterall - so it's capable right out of the box. But if you are a player looking to define your "fuzz" and overall tone, this pedal can deliver on many levels.

Basic controls: an on/bypass switch, volume, fuzz as well as extra "modded fuzzface" features including BIAS which reduces the woofiness of the pedal, and CONTOUR which adds brightness to the sound.

I'd just like to say to people trying this pedal that anyone looking for an authentic fuzzface sound should start with the "stock fuzzface" setting which is: VOLUME around half or so, BIAS fully clockwise, CONTOUR fully counterclockwise, and FUZZ at full and then make your tonal adjustments from that point. All the classic fuzz sounds you've heard on record are in this setting.. the "Hendrix" setting in the manual doesn't sound quite right to me...

I was initially very interested in this pedal, but I would always use a little of the BIAS and CONTOUR features- which, although making the pedal a bit less muddy and more "refined" sounding, always seemed to sound somewhat bright and harsh, making me less and less interested in the pedal, making me think I should have gone for the '70 pedal instead...

Finally, I tried the "stock fuzzface" setting for a bit... and there it was! That "authentic" fuzz tone I was looking for, the sound that inspired me to get the pedal in the first place!

Sure, at it's stock fuzzface setting, it sounds a little muddy, a little unrefined... That's the whole point of this unit! If you're after a really refined tone, try another pedal. If you're used to overdrive pedals, well, that's not what this is for, really... it's a FUZZ tone! It's supposed to sound a bit wild and out of control!

Check out Eric Johnson's solo in "Desert Rose". First he uses his Tube Driver pedal, getting his typical, refined voilin tone... then he switches on the fuzz face... his tone is a bit muddier, a bit hairier, but it absolutely RIPS! To me, that's what a fuzz tone should be...

Instead of dialing in the BIAS feature to make the pedal work better with wahs, I'm thinking about modifying my wah pedal instead and see how that goes...

I've actually written an earlier review of this pedal, where I stated that I wasn't able to get what is probably my favorite recorded fuzz sound- that being the Eric Johnson fuzzface solos on "Desert Rose" off his album "Ah Via Musicom"- and all the other fuzzface leads he plays on that album. I was never quite able to nail that warm, sustaining tone...

Well, with my new discoveries with this pedal (of just sticking to the stock setting, not using the BIAS and CONTOUR features), I've actually been able to nail that sound, easily. Hendrix tones can be had quite easily as well, of course, with the "stock fuzzface" setting, which seems to sound closer than the "Hendrix" setting listed in the manual. A little amp drive helps in adding intensity and sustain to the sound. You don't need a cranked Marshall plexi (although it probably wouldn't hurt), but just a little power amp drive from a good, fat-sounding tube amp (I use a little Fender Pro Junior!)

This pedal looks really well built, but there are issues, I guess, with the germanium transistors and how being outside in the sun causes them to not work...

If you're looking for the classic fuzz face sound in a newer, well-built pedal, this nails it, absolutely.

Great sound, seriously awesome tone out of this litte monster. For ROCK guitar, i dig this pedal a lot, more than my analogman sun face even. Sunface has more clarity and hifiness, but the extra bias and contour knobs on this are EXTREMELY useful. Let you voice it to get what you want out of it. the analogman suffers on leads sometimes because it'll have too much low end woof and not enough mids. This pedal solves that. would be cool to have two knobs to switch between rhythm and lead settings... but that'd be cool on every pedal so whatever. like i said, clarity isn't as good as the sunface, which seems to be the Hendrix fuzz to beat, so i kept the sunface and sold this one. BUt this one is a great deal if u can find it used on ebay for about 100 bucks. does clean up well w/the volume, not as well as sunface tho. overall, it's a very small difference in clarity, the extra features make up for it if you're playing loud rock, make sure you've got an amp to crank this baby with

seems wonderful.

i dunno.

Overall, this baby gets a 10. GREAT FOR ROCK. DON"T BUY A CRAPPY FUZZ. GET A GOOD FUZZ. This one is good!!! there ya go. sounds authentic to the Hendrix sound, if you dropped this in front of a plexi, i'm sure it'd be awesome. seems like his custom made transistors work pretty well. I sold it to keep the sunface, so it depends on what you're looking for and if u have the cash to buy more expensive gear. This works 'cuz it's a great pedal and there's tons of 'em out there so buy one cheap. mike's gotta focus on churnin' out ocds so don't distract him from anything else at the moment.

Is it easy to use - sure. Only a few knobs. The manual explains everything. It's great. The manual could be filled with more sample settings or more information on how the internal trimmer works, but most people can figure this stuff out anyway.

The sound quality of this pedal is stellar!!!! OMG! What a warm and lush pedal. But the best part of this thing is that it is incredibly flexible. You could record a whole record with just this pedal and yet cover a huge sonic territory - so much so that any guitarist would swear you must have used a bank of overdrives, fuzzes and distortions. For example - this pedal gives one a huge range from sweat subtle clean tones to mild overdrives, crunchy overdrives, thin scratchy fuzz tones, thick bassy fuzz tones, warm balanced fuzz tones, rich smooth distortions, ragged crunchy distortions, balistic crazy fuzz weirdness, bottom heavy fuzz thunder, harmonic fuzz sounds and bleep bloop noise making. Finding the cool tones is easy - just tweak the dials and MOST IMPORTANTLY your guitars volume control and you will discover an array of overdrives and fuzzes - all with a rich warm amp like authenticity that really holds up well in the studio. It's a studio jewel that I now can't live with out. And then you can get fun. The pedal will actually enter weirdness land - full of crazy scratching, noises and harmonic overtones reminiscent of an octavia if you drive the input with another boost or overdrive pedal. I use a Fulldrive II. There is another pedal out there made by ZVEX called the fuzz factory. I got the 69 thinking that while I was getting warm usable sound sI would not be able to conjure up the sonic weirdness created by other boutique fuzzes like the Fuzz factory - wrong. The 69, when driven by another pedal, can achieve all sorts of weirdness and noise! Tons of fun. And unlike the Fuzz Factory, which is more of a gimick or toy, the 69 is a serious piece of gear providing serious tone. If out of control fuzz is not your thing, worry not. The 69 is all about warmth, realism and quality. It can cover the sonic territory explored by other "weird" pedals but can also bring home the goods for those of us who actually need their guitar to sound "great" sometimes.

Personally I hate those reviews that say things like - "easy pedal to get a good sound from," or "it took me too long to find a good sound." For me a pedal is junk if it can only do one thing. I need something versatile, both as a performer and an engineer. I value pedals that I can play for years and still discover new sounds and textures. That's a mature tool for me - one that keeps on giving, and the 69 is one of the most "giving" pedals I've ever had the pleasure of using.

Full Tone pedals are made to last without issue - and they do. I gig regularly and have never had even the slightest problem with any full tone pedal.

Haven't needed any yet.

For the money this pedal is a jem in the audio world - a work horse in the studio - a best friend on stage and supreme bang for your buck. It is both more versitile and more usuable (better sounding in more situatins) than many other boutique fuzz boxes costing any amount of money (and some are very expensive.)

If you own any other fuzz device - a big muff, a fuzz face, a superfuzz what ever, you need to check out the 69. It just may replace half your pedal board.

I found this pedal quite easy to get a good sound from, just mess about with the knobs untill you get somewhere.

This is what im loving about this pedal!
The '69 is a fantastic fuzz, although it's allot lower gain than most fuzzes, i found this thing works wonders on an overdriven Marshall.
Works very well with my modded SD-1 sitting after it

I have the '70 fuzz as well which is a bit more aggressive and bassy.

I enjoy looking inside this pedal at how much better it looks than the mass produced stuff! Heavy casing, smooth controls & really neat layout inside the pedal.
I've had the pedal for around a year now & used it quite allot, no problems at all.

I bought this pedal from musictoyz.com
They were really good to deal with & i would definately deal with them again

Top piece of gear, everytime i plug it into my old JTM i find myself smiling at how good this thing can sound!

I was a total novice when I bought my '69, and had a good sound in no time.

My first rig was a Alvarez Tele with EMG pickups through a solid state amp and I still got a decent sound. Now I play mainly humbucker equipped guitars through various Gibson Skylarks, Falcons or an all-tube Music Man head through 2-12 cab.

The only time I ever had problems was during outside gigs, in direct sunlight. I realize these are not ideal conditions for any electrical equipment. The pedal would totally shut down. Other than that happening twice, I've never had any problems.

N/A

This was my first fuzz/distortion pedal I ever bought in 1995, and I realized shortly afterward that I had unknowingly made a very wise choice. My '69 Deluxe is #187 from Aug. 1995, and I don't think my musical experience would have been as good without it. I think the on/off switch is smaller and not quite as heavy-duty as the new ones, but it still works perfectly after nine years of loving abuse.

This attractive, solid, red fuzz box has clearly printed beneath each of the four knobs "volume," "bias," "contour," and "fuzz." Nice font. The knobs' influence on the tone is consistent with their names. Bias thins out the tone, contour thickens it, fuzz fuzzes it. Setting up gentle to all out fuzz tones is a breeze. There's even a trim inside for further settings.

The '69 Pedal sounds better in my Fender Woody than my Orange AD15. The Orange gets muddied pretty fast. The Fender responds nicely. It's a surprisingly excellent fuzz sound. It blends nicely with my analog Maxon CS-9 chorus. It creates a frenzy of distortion with my Keeley fat mod BD-2. An MXR Phase 90 also lends a nice, rich quality. A little Fender tank reverb...and it's a happening piece. Even at low volumes and with the fuzz cut back, it puts out nice, convincing tones. At band practice, my drummer compliments the new sound. The hype about germanium PNPs seems right on. There's really no reason not to give it a ten other than the hiss. And that, I believe, is the byproduct of a fuzz box. As this is not a modeling device or digital, one pays for authenticity with a bit of hiss. Very warm, adjustable, cool tones.

Tech support promptly explained why my Godlyke Powerall would not work, even with the reversed polarity jumper. It shuts down the power chain. It needs its own power supply.

I've recently reviewed the Ultimate Octave. This fuzz suits me a bit better. The Ultimate was an all-or-nothing pedal. This is highly responsive and can be adjusted quite specifically. I enjoy this pedal every time I play. I wouldn't use it for metal, but players who would already know this. Although, I imagine it could be layered, if not in realtime, then at least in studio. I recommend this pedal for players in search of a modern twist on an old, reliable sound. I'm also not going to complain about it needing its own power supply. I'm just happy that it works; the sound is satisfying enough to have faith that positive lead to ground/reverse polarity is part of the reason the tone is so real. So... tack on another $22.00 for the power supply and you have a really red gem.

The '69 is very easy to use. Four medium size knobs that turn ever so smoothly to some of the best fuzz tones you will ever hear. You can also clean up the fuzziness by backing off the volume on your guitar (easy on a strat or tele, a little more tricky on a les paul).

This pedal works very nicely in a variety of set ups. All Fulltone pedals are made to preform and this one does just that, giving astonishing tone to leads. You may have to back off the volume to play rhythm, I use a Ernie Ball VP jr. to control the sound of the pedal. 1st I set the pedal for my lead tone, which is a bit louder than rhythm anyway, 2nd just back down on the jr. untill I get the desired tone for rhythm. It's that easy.
I play mainly Les Pauls, but also use a tele and a custom strat ran through a EB VP jr., Crybaby, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, Fulltone '69, Ibanez TS9, Boss DS1, EH Small Clone to a Mesa Rocket 440 and a Ampeg Reverberocket.

This pedal was made in 2001 and is still in perfect all-around shape. No problems.

I e-mailed with a few questions and had a response within a matter of hours.

I play mostly contemporary christian music as well as popular blues, rock, and country. The list of gear that I own or have owned goes on forever, mainly because I have been playing for around twenty years. I believe any equipment you get your hands on is worth a try, some works some don't, but it's all a lot of fun trying to make a fit. If the '69 ever died I would probably get another very quickly, however, I would still see what else is out there, especially in the used rack at the local guitar shop. Try everything - Buy once.

Using a Fuzz is different than using any other type of OD/Dist. pedal
Once you get the hang of tweaking your guitar volume just right this pedal will perform better than any Dallas Arbiter FuzzFace I've heard

I use this pedal with Strats & Teles thru Fender Amps. It is quiet and gets that late '60's Fuzz sound perfectly. The internal trim will help you dial in exactly what you want to hear.

Oh yeah, this pedal is housed in a tank of a shell. I use it without a backup (kinda of expensive so that's not really an option for me)

I managed to crack the shaft of the footwitch and it broke off (my fault) I've had the pedal for over a year and I contacted Fulltone telling them what I did, they sent me a new footswitch & installation directions all free ( they paid for the shipping to boot !!!) these guys answered my emails immediately, this is a great company.

I play in a Swamp JamBand, we do our own stuff and remakes of covers in a swampy voodoo style, this pedal takes me to the edge sonically, I can get incredible vintage tones and then bizzare cutting edge stuff (especially in drop D tuning)effortless controlled feedback too !

no problem at all to use.

sounds excellent. i recently ordered a 1987xl plexi reissue and was hoping that they would both arrive at the same time. unfortunately, the amp and cab didnt show up yet, but i was able to use it on my 65 super reverb and a 60's reissue strat. i wasnt sure how it was going to sound but gave it a shot anyways. used the hendrix settings, tweaked the amp a bit and wailed away. through the 65 super reverb, i wouldnt say that it nails the voodoo chile tone but does nail red house to a T. i just got the pedal 20 minutes ago, so i'm sure that there are many great tones available. i will have to say that i didnt like the pedal the first lick that i played. that is because i'm not used to fuzz. i had one of the dunlop fuzz faces a long time ago and hated it. after i realized the '69 was doing exactly what it was supposed to do, i fell in love with it. ps - you might want to keep an eye out on the classifieds because a number of my pedals just got replaced with this on.

too soon to tell, but i've heard nothing but good things about fulltone and seems to be built extremely well.

no idea

hands down one of the best pedals i have ever played through. i do suggest that one buys the power adapter too. i almost didnt and was just going to use an extra ts-9 adapter. there is a sticker inside the box that specifically states not to use that adapter.

after i get my plexi and play it through that, i will post another review. i'm sure that it will be amazing!

Very easy to get the hang of..... I am very happy with the whole early Hendrix tones you can get with this pedal. With the added "contour" and "bias" knobs....you can set it just right....depending on your amp and guitar. Comes with 2 suggested settings.... Hendrix circa '67..... and smoother distortion or fuzz and many shades inbetween are there for the tweaking EASY !!!

I cant imagine finding a better sounding pedal for early Hendrix Killing Floor...Rock Me Baby....the 67 era of Jimi It all there and so tweakable .I am using it mostly with a woodstock Strat ( 68 Hendrix artist series re-issue) yes the upside down Olympic White jobbie into a Dr Z Route 66 head and cab I SOMETIMES use the new Fulltone Fat Boost ( the 2004 model) after the 69 pedal as I sometimes use it at lower volumes at home with a THD Hot Plate attenuating the DR Z and the Fat Boost adds some extra clean whoomph to the amps overall sound ,,,puts bac ksome of the sound the Hot Plate bleeds off It sounds like Jimi well as close as it gets YOU BET !
My dealer accepted my Soul Bender back after a week or so of trying it and allowed me to get the 69 instead That was the right thing to do...as I was after the early Hendrix tone and the Soul Bender is NOT a Hendrixy sounding pedal nor was it desgined to be ( NOT COMPARED TO THE 69 !!!! of course. Of note.... IN A NUTSHELL If you want the early Hendrix sounds....get the 69 by Fulltone. If you want Hendrix at Woodstock get the Captain Coconut 2 I have the CC2 and it sounds so much like Woodstock....with my 68 upside Strat and DR Z with those wonderful KT 66's. The Fulltone 69 is considerably better at Hendrix Monterey type sound. If you cant afford both.... I dont know what advice to give as the above 2 pedals are similar but different animals and I dont own Fulltone's Deja Vibe etc... so youre on your own for completing the Hendrix pedal chain using Fulltones products . I do know that the Captain Coconut 2 is a dead ringer for the woodstock sound ( Star Spangled Banner) and the Fulltone 69 can easily mock Killing Floor and Rock Me Baby and so many other tones from Jimi's early days and YES I am generalizing Both these pedals can do infinite things inbetween these sounds as well

Mike Fullers pedals are built really really well and DESIGNED extremely well tooo Mine ..must have had a bored assembler putting it together He doodled a star inside and some other squiggly stuff very artsy lol pretty neat I know this pedal was tested before it shipped as it came directly from Fulltone through my dealer ( box not opened) and the knobs were set just right for a great sounding fuzz face clone
There is also an internal trimmer...that is marked in black ink for a reference point I havent tried adjusting it yet Mine is set at 830 on the dial

I think Mr Fuller is very busy...I have asked some pretty dumb questions admittedly...but I have never heard back from him with any questions except the first time I bought a Fulldrive 2 off of him ...and his answers were sorta tongue in cheek I think Fulltone customer service could answer the peoples questions a bit more Be a littel more helpful and available

I am a gear slut....and a hobbyist. I play at home Ive only been playing 3 and a half years but have all manner of good amps and guitars
Hendrix is God

It took me a day or two to get the hang of this pedal and I have to admit that at first I thought I'd made a mistake purchasing it. Not now! I love it. It's the best Fuzz Face clone I've ever owned and I like it better than any REAL Fuzz Face I've tried. From what I gather, maybe 1 out of 10 of the original Fuzz Faces really deliver the smooth warm fuzz Hendirx got. The Fulltone '69 NAILS the tone I was looking for...especially driving a Fulltone Clyde Wah Wah. It takes some knob twiddling, but I like the tone better than the tone from my Experiance Pedal...and the '69 is easier to use. I'm going to give it a "10"...just because once I got the hang of it, I found the '69 very easy to use.

I've been playing my '54 Tele with Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots through a '69 Pedal and Fulltone Clyde...into one of my '59 Fender 5E3 tweed Deluxes with an old Vox Bulldog 12" speaker. Awesome tone! But I brought it over to my buddy's and tried it with his rig: Jimmie Vaughn Strat and an old Sears Silvertone Twin Twelve amp. Also superb tone. Great for Hendrix Voodoo Child stuff.

Haven't had it long enough to comment. But yeah...I'd use it on a gig without a backup. Is that worth "10"? Sure...why not?

Mike's a busy guy and from I understand prefers working to chatting on the phone. So some have found his replys short and not overly detailed. Still, I can understand that...I feel the same way myself.

My own experiance went well...

I've been playing since 1962 or 63. I love Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, SRV and all the Kings (BB, Albert, Freddie...) I am 100% satisfied with this product and wouldn't change a thing about it. I LOVE the way I can turn my guitar down to about 5 and the tone cleans up...even nicer clean tone in some ways then when the pedal is switched off.

Four knobs and an inside trim pot that ends up where it was when I got it.
Not hard to tweak if you know what you are looking for. The 69 is not a high gain fuzz and if you are looking for a lot of fat gainy fuzz it aint there but if you want a very natural sounding smooth breakup blues tone with no fizz and rich germanium harmonics this pedal is the stuff.

At max settings it can be a little loose on the bass end and but the bias knob will dial out the flubbiness. The contour will add some upper mids or take them away and the fuzz knob cntrols the overall fuzziness of the tone. Volume of controls the overall output of the effect. I'm using this through a MAZ 18 jr 2/10 set pretty much clean with a slight edge of breakup when the guitar's volume is maxed. My 69 is set at: volume-11:00 bias-9:00 contour-12:00 and fuzz-between 3 and 4:00. I don't use the 69 to get over the edge Hendrix type fuzz but a creamy lower gain blues tone is what I use it for and it shines. I was going to sell it but it found it's spot on my board for a medium gain tone. It cleans up with about a 1/4 sweep of the guitars volume knob but retains the highs when it cleans up, it pretty much darkens up as you roll up the vol on the guitar.

It's Fulltone and I have no worries about it's reliability. Fuller makes roadworthy stuff, hands down.

I e-mailed him about the transistors in the pedal when I got it because I had suspected a repair because the trannies were different looking but he assured me that the pedal was stock and the particular configuration made for some sweet fuzz tones. He was right. No matter what his reputationI never had a problem getting an answer to a question from him.

I play classic rock. my rig must produce anything from clean to overdriven 80's marshall tones and the 69 covers my mid gain needs with no issues except for the fact that germanium transistors change tone when the temp is hot out but like single coils hum, it's something that you have to live with. I step on the pedal and 99% of the time it sounds just like what I want it to, like a tube amp pushed a little with creamy harmonics and no fizzy decay or flabby bottom end and if I wanted any more than that I would look for a different pedal.

Simple as can be!

I run the '69 with the volume at 12 o'clock, Bias at about 2 o'clock, Contour at 9 o'clock, and Fuzz just about all the way at max thru a Badcat Cub II reverb (an improved VOX AC clone) with my amp cranked at slight breakup...WOW! The tone thru the '69 with my Strat made me cream my pants! Thick, silky smooth, slightly punchy tone that is just amazingly good. This pedal sounds best when the tube amp is pushed a little...So if you are a bedroom player who hardly ever pushes his amp past "2" - you will not be able to truly appreciate this pedal. Something about the combo of this pedal and a tube amp on slight breakup is totally FANTASTIC! A vintage tone that SURPASSES the original Arbiter in my book!

Built ROCK SOLID!

If you can appreciate a GREAT fuzz and the old school rock sounds of the 60's and 70's, then I highly recommend this pedal!

BUT its best if you have a TUBE amp and you have a space where you can play fairly loud! The pedal will not sound so sweet at low volume - it works best with the tubes pushed at least a lil' bit! The louder you can crank it the sweeter the tone gets.

This pedal has a lot of range to it's sound so you need to explore the dial settings, but it's pretty easy to dial in extremely interesting and usable sounds. Much easier than other pedals I've tried to use. The only way to make it easier to use would be to limit its versatility so that it only made a few good sounds, and that would be a bad idea. The paper work gives you some ideas on where to set the two "extra" knobs (bias and contour) but you should trust your ears.

I was knocked out by how good this pedal sounds. Whether I'm using a dual humbucker Les Paul type guitar (1981 Ibanez Artist) or a Strat or Tele, I love what I hear. These days I mostly play through a Hot Rod Deluxe, though I also have a bunch of old Fender combo amps and a Marshall 50w plexi. I can dial in overdrive type distortion that makes it sound like I'm cranking an old tweed Fender Deluxe or make it scorch ala Hendrix Are You Exp and Axis. It's reasonably quiet. I couldn't ask for more.

Build like a tank and out of the best material and components. Since I don't think there's much chance of a steamroller running it over, I wouldn't bother bringing a backup.

Haven't had a need for any support (see other catagories to understand why).

For the record, I play R&R and R&B and electric blues and I've been playing guitar since 1965 and B-3 since 1969. If I lost this pedal I'd buy an exact replacement in a heartbeat. I love the way it's made, looks and most of all sounds.

Its pretty easy to get a good sound from this, follow the manual and keep the fuzz maxed out, using guitars volume control to create various shades - keeps the high end intact even as you back down the vol. The reason I give it an 8 is that there are more knobs to tweak than a standard fuzz face - the bias and contour can have a profound effect and so can adjusting the internal trimpot ( mine was set just fine ). Remember that its tip positive for power supplies though.

This pedal sounds ace, period - all you guys out there who say it doesn't have enough gain are possibly are not familiar with the classic Hendrix style fuzz which this pedal emulates. Everyone who hears mine thinks its shit hot. I also have the '70 which is a really good unit but the '69 has precedence on my pedalboard due to its versatility. I earn my living as pro musician - fulltime, all the time, and this pedal is possibly the best piece of sound production gear I have come across since I began playing in the early 80's . With a strat it nails the first two Hendrix albums,as well as BBC sessions,just remember to use your vol. control like Jimi did . I use it mostly with an 80's US standard with Texas special pup's, though for some reason my new Highway with its cheapo Mex pickups actually sounds better ( but noisier ). It also works great with a Santana SE. Two amps used - my old JCM 800 and a new AVT275 -sounds different, but great with both. I still dont think it works great with a Wah even after using the bias pot as instructed on the manual, as decreasing this seems to affect how the fuzz saturates. The answer is probably to Mod the wah to match the impedence of the '69. I can't take a mark off for this as the unit functions as it should. There is a guy here in the UK that does Wah Mods which would alleviate this - spoit for choice for this sort of Mod in the USA I would think. All you guys who want the Eric Johnson tone ( who wouldn't ? ) go for the '70, even though on Mike Fullers site there is a quote from Eric saying he prefers the '69. The 70 absolutlely rips with a humbucker equiped guitar ( just as Johnson would use eg. 335, Flying V). One thing though, although it sounds great all the time, some days it does sound even better ( especially if its been left on, or used a lot ). I dont know if I am nuts or its the Germanium components inside ???? Possibly both. Just to bore you this is my pedal chain - BUDDHA WAH - MAYER OCTAVIA ( Rocket one not new one )- FULLTONE '69 - FULLDRIVE 2 - LINE 6 DELAY MODELER DL4 - MAYER VOODOO VIBE - MORLEY ABY - MARSHALL JCM 800 COMBO 2x12 - MARSHALL AVT 275 2x12.

Had it for over 6 months or so and no problems. Would rely on it with no backup but then I am a lucky bugger in that I have the '70 also so I guess I have the ultimate back up ! I use a power supply and Voodoo Labs pedal 2 can even have the positve tip accomodated.

Very helpful once you know where to e-mail - NOT the address that comes on the manual, use the website TECH SUPPORT. I didn't have a manual for the 70 when I bought it and Mike Fuller e-mailed me one that day as well as anwering some of my questions on the expected life of the germanium transistors in the '69 - 40 years in case you just had too know !

Buy this if you are into Hendrix, Doyle Bramhall etc. Its expensive but worth every penny - I might even but another one in case they stop making them ! I sold my Big Muff after buying the '69. This is now an essential creative tool for me and coupled with a Fulldrive 2 I have all the distortion I need to play classic rock / texas blues / 60's stuff etc. I didn't compare it to Roger Mayer's fuzz stuff as we dont have a retailer in North Scotland, though I guess they are good value, but bigger to fit on a board - I do use a VoodooVibe and Octavia - both are good and work well with the '69. I bought the '69 blind mail order due to the Fulltone reputation and have been absoultely chuffed with it. If It worked well with the Wah it would be absolute fuzz perfection but then again the Wah can be modded for this - Mayer MUST have done this for Hendrix. Just bear in mind that playing with a fuzz pedal like this might take some time if you are not used to this type of sound - its not as 'round' a sound as say a RAT and depending on how quickly you play it might not track evenly( though you can adjust this with the internal pot ). However, what you get is a transparent, dynamically responsive bit of kit that should last 40 years.

I've owned (and in some cases still DO own) 60's fuzz faces (some modded, some totally original), Roger Mayer and Caesar Diaz Fuzz face germanium based fuzz face variants. Those guys are HOT. I've also tried, gigged, and played around on the MJM London, the Jaques Fuzz Face clone and just about every othe pedal of this type. This pedal is (here it comes) without a shadow of a doubt, thr best germanium based fuzz face variant I've ever heard! Hands down. It is stable, smooth and ballsy and sings with a woderful soulful voice. It may not have as much "fuzz" as some of the others, but the tone and sustain is right there. It even beats my Pete Cornish modded 1966 FF! Try a few first - they are all good, but some are extra maxi good! I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Mike Fuller is the don!

I don't trust Germaniums, so that's why I also run some silicone diode fuzz face variants. This one I trust more than the rest, and I trust it enough to gig with it (and I've never trusted a germanium unit enough before). It's not failed me yet.

Fulltone customer support - ultimately helpful. Email them and provided it's during the day someone has always emailed a reply (or replies) within the hour. These guys care, and that's good to know.

I like both germanium and silicone diode units. This one beats the hell out of the Fulltone '70 that I have (but i think that it's a bad one). I prefer it to my old FF's, and I dont have to wrap the circuit in a plastic bag inside the pedal, or tape it together before or after a gig. If I were to rate all the FF variants I have heard then this would be no.1, and the Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz would be no.2. These are expensive in the UK, but you get incredible tone, and the feeling of dependability that you don't usually get with similar and original units. I love the classics and those sounds and enjoy the search to attain them, but more and more I go now for pedals that aren't old "originals" or faithful exact replicas, but that are their own thing (sometimes an old idea reworked or without the "bottom line" mentality), and that allow you to do your own thing whilst not sounding like some kind of guitar clone. Fulltone produces pedals which are perfect paradigms of this philosophy - they just help me tell my stories.

The 69 pedal is based on old germanium fuzzfaces modified for Hendrix. Along with the Volume and Fuzz controls it has a Bias control to reduce the low-end woofiness of the fuzz (and make it work better with wah pedals) and a Contour control to dial in some high-mid frequencies. There's a footswitch to go from on/bypass with an LED indicator light. Inside the unit is a little trim pot that you can adjust to alter the character of the fuzz, but I think that it's stock position sounds best. On the back is the Input and Outputs jacks as well as a jack for a power adapter. The 69 does not use the standard wall-wart type adapter that BOSS pedals and the like would use. I just cover that power jack with tape so it doesn't get accidentally plugged in.

I was looking for that warm, dynamic fuzz tone heard on Jimi Hendrix' records, and especially the tones on SRV's cover of "Voodoo Child" and Eric Johnson's fuzzface solo on Desert Rose (listen and you can tell when he switches from his Tube Driver to his Fuzz Face). I haven't nailed the EJ fuzz tone yet but I don't own a Plexi Marshall so... I HAVE been able to nail the Jimi and SRV fuzz tones however. It almost takes away from the magic of Jimi's tone when you can press a button and get a tone similar to any of his recordings, even if you're just a hack like me. I use the 69 pedal with a Strat with Texas Specials and a Fender Pro Junior amp. If the amp is clean the fuzz effect can be a little weak... the 69 is really meant to be used with a tube amp that's getting some power tube distortion already. That's how you get that dynamic tone and fat sustain. Like it says in the manual, just set the fuzz effect to full or near full, then use your guitar's volume control to control the level of distortion. The volume control on your guitar can clean the tone up really well, plus the pedal adds a bit of presence so you still get a nice bright clean tone.
I didn't get this pedal to be a Jimi sound-alike, I just wanted that Fuzzface character in my sound. Luckily, this pedal can do so much more than just cop the Jimi tone, it can really get a wide range of overdrive sounds. Actually, the "Jimi" tone settings are fairly extreme as far as the range of sounds this pedal go. "Typical" settings are a little warmer, less raucous than what Jimi generally used.
I took a risk and bought this pedal without ever trying it, but I did a lot of research into it beforehand, and it totally delivers on getting the kinds of sounds I wanted to get from it.

This pedal is top-notch, sturdily built, although I'm not sure how fragile those germanium chips inside are- for instance how they'd hold up on an outdoor stage on a hot summer day....

Haven't needed it...

Killer tone. Worth every penny.

Whats to say here! It sounds great right out of the box!

Fuzz is always a 2-edged sword. It sounds great but can be noisy but this pedal seems less noisy than my Fuzz Face

Built like a tank! I suppose anything can break if you dont treat it right but if its built good to begin with then that is a good sight of how much the builder cares about quality and Fulltone has chosen high quality parts over much cheaper ones.

I emailed Mike Fuller with a question and he answered pretty quickly. I didnt even own one of his pedals then. I know he has his own band as well as his product like so im sure he is very busy. I wouldnt expect an answer every time and I totally understand that. As long as the warranty is in effect, who cares!

My sound is a miss-mash of styles from Hendrix, SRV to Chicago Blues and Carlos Santana and Wishbone Ash. I started playing about 25 years ago. At this time im using a 99 american standard strat and an early 90's Jap FotoFlame. All have the Texas Specials but I have a Lace Holy Grail in the bridge position to help eliminate HUMM when I kick in the Fuzz. I use two Fender Hot Rod Deville's with the 4x10 configuration, into a TS-9 brown modded by Guitar George. I also have a Line 6 DM-4 and a stereo chorus. I use George-L cables which really boosts the signal over regular cables. I have a BLUE FUZZ FACE modded by Alphonso Hermida which sounds very good but I wanted the flexibility to control a bit more than just fuzz and volume which is why I bought the 69 pedal.
Check out my website for sounds of this gear at;
http://www.markarbogast.com

You have to work with this pedal. You can not put this on an ultra clean amp at bedroom levels. You must drive your amp to break-up, or use slight overdrive on the amp. It is very flexible for a fuzz, lots of variation in the settings.

GREAT FUZZ/distortion. I play an Ultra strat with Lace sensors (single and hum with coil taps) through a Fulltone Clyde Wah, Ibanez TS9 w/ 808 and brown mods, '69, to a new Blackface Fender Pro Reverb(amazing classic sounding amp with channel switching and tube tremelo). At bedroom levels I put the '69 on top of slight overdrive on the dirt channel of the amp--sounds FANTASTIC. Live, I turn my clean up to very slight break-up (6-7) and the '69 sounds even more FANTASTIC. Very complex & natural. I keep my amp attenuated at 12.5 watts (great feature of the amp) all the time which really helps get the quality break-up that is necessary for this pedal, otherwise the pedal can be bright at low, super clean volumes. You must have a good tube amp for this pedal to work, and then it REALLY works. I could never go back to boss pedals or the like. I've owned too many in the past. The two fulltone pedals I own not only sound a billion times better, richer, fuller, but also are made of high quality components (incl true bypass). The modded ts9 is also a must have--so round, present, organic.

Fulltone? C'mon. They are TOP quality. Appears to be as reliable as can possibly be. I've only owned for 3 months though.

He puts sound clips on his site which is great. I left a message (email) once, but didn't hear back. It wasn't that important of a question anyway. I could care less about support. His pedals are TOP QUALITY in sound and build quality.

For classic, organic, rich, full fuzz, this pedal can not be beat. I would definately buy it again. No question. I really don't need to compare it with anything else...It's perfect when used right (see above). It inspires.

I think the Fulltone '69 pedal is designed for good sounds, so you don't have to tweak too much to get a good sound out of it. Because of the internal trimpot the fuzz is very adjustable. It's a great copy of the original fuzz face from the sixties, but with the added contour and bias pots this pedal works great on EVERY amp, normally fuzz pedals don't work very well with Fender amps because they're very clean (they're designed voor marshall-style amps), but this pedal works terrific with my '75 Twin Reverb.

With this pedal I can get the exact sounds of Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Doyle Bramhall II. I run the signal thru an old Dunlop Crybaby, then thru the '69, then thru a Ibanez TS9 with 808mod and then thur a Dunlop Univibe. Although it is a fuzz, the pedal isn't very noisy, but I think that also has got something to do with my noiseless Kinman Blues pickups in my strat. I ordered a set of Fralin P90's for strat and I think everything will get noisier now.

My favorite setting on this pedal is:

Volume: 3 o' clock
Bias: 2 o' clock
Contour: all the way up
Fuzz: 2 o' clock

The internal trimpot is opened for about 25%.

Until now the pedal has always worked properly and I would gig with it without a backup.

I bought this pedal used, and I haver never dealt with Mike Fuller's products before. I sent him an e-mail for a couple of times if he could send me a downloadable manual, but i didn't get no reply.

I mostly play Texas blues and Hendrix-style rock, the pedal really fits my playing style and when I turn my guitar volume down it totally cleans up. I am 15 years old now, have been playing the guitar for 2 years now, and being of the youngest blues guitarist in the Netherlands you don't always have the money to buy the gear you need. So far I got this gear together:

Guitars:
2 Fender Strats
1 Gibson Les Paul Studio
1 Yamaha FX310 Western

Amp:
Fender Twin Reverb '75 Silverface

Pedals:

Dunlop Crybaby
Ibanez TS9 with 808 mod
Fulltone '69
Dunlop Univibe.
(check out my website for pics of my gear: www.keeponbluesin.cjb.net)

If my '69 were stolen I think I would buy it again if I could find one for the right price secondhanded. Fulltone is very rare in the Netherlands.

I didn't really have the time to compare this pedal with other fuzzes, but I heard it a couple of times and I was really amazed by it. I love the variety of sounds you can get from the pedal and I love the way it cleans up when you turn your guitar volume down.

In 1 word FANTASTIC!!!

Turn the fuzz all the way up and adjust the volume as needed. The contour knob adds grit, going from an Eric Johnson type fuzz to Hendrix fuxx. The internal trim pot helps to dial in the 'color' of the fuzz, too. Really easy to use pedal, and simple to get a great sound out of

I use it mainly with a Strat through a silverface Fender Pro Reverb. It's great for bluesish sounds, and 60s-70s rock. It's fairly quiet, except hum increases when you turn up the contour knob. They say not to use non-true bypass pedals after true bypass pedals, but I use an Electro-Harmonix Poly-Chorus after it, turned down almost all the way, and I get a really smooth fuzz, distortion. Turn off the chorus though, and the fuzz reminds me of Black Crowes. I found it sounds best when I have my amp on about 4, with the fuzz all the way up, and volume way up, then control the amount of grit with the guitar's volume knob or a volume pedal. With the volume lower, its like a mild overdrive, and sounds great.

I think this thing would withstand being sat on by a very large man, but I don't like that it has a weird AC jack, so I have to keep changing batteries a lot. With the germanium transistors, its easy to tell when something is going funky with your batteries.

I haven't dealt with Fulltone personally, but I've been to their website and it's very helpful.

I really like this pedal. It creates a nice fuzz, at full volume, but it cleans up and doesn't cut out the guitar's tone as you decrease the guitars volume. It's also really sensitive, in that it's cleaner as you play softer, but gets grittier as you jump on it more. It does help playing through a slighly overdriven tube amp, and keeping the pedal loud, or it can sound a bit thin. It's great for lead stuff, because it doesn't muddy up like other pedals, but really articulates the notes. I originally went with this one because I was looking for a smooth fuzz face, Eric Johnson type sound, but realized once I got it that it is much more versatile and is great for many different styles. It sounds awesome 99.5% of the time. They say this is the closest to the original fuzz faces, but I think I'd rather have a well-built new product with true bypass.

I got it without manual but was a able to figure out the controls based on trial and error and fulltone's website. The Bias knob seems to control the amount off fuzz applied to the low frecuencies increasing it clockwise, the Countourn knob increases mid clockwise. Fuzz and Volume are self explanatory

Fender Am Std (Kinman Warm Classic Pups) -> '69 -> Clyde Wah -> BD-2 used as a Booster -> Classic 50 Bright Channel (Celestion Modern Lead Speakers and other subtle mods) -> eFx Loop -> CE-5 -> DD-3.

My fav setting for the '69 is: Bias 12clock - Countour 12clock - Fuzz 3clock - Volume at 2clock(just a bit of boost).

This is a very "civilized" Fuzz box. Is more like a vintage overdrive at the settings mentioned above when played thru the C50 clean channel. It is inspiring and beautiful. Incredible single note definition in those setting. Try playing the progrssion (Em, Dmaj6, Cmaj7, B7) I feel in love when I test it with it. I play my blues progressions and vintage classics with it and appreciated it for its overdrive qualities as much as Fuzz. I notice that from 3 o clock to full trotle there is a big sudden Fuzz increase that adds some noise and is not as balance. Yet it allows me to get aggresive by just turning one knob when the song does requires it. If you are looking for amore aggresive Fuzz, I did try the Boss one and the Voodoo Labs HyperFuzz but those where Wayyyyy to fuzzy and did not blend well with my guitar and amp. It was like having just one setting or maybe two Fuzz and More Fuzz :)

Final vederict: If you like vintage tones and blues you are bound to discover beautilfull tones with this box. Single coil heaven here!!!

Tough metal case and big knobs. Yet it contains germanium trasistor that are a bit temperamental by default. I have had no problems but I really take good care of my equipment. Dont know if it would wistand a single, collage guy, giging around that don't give a damm about his equipment or just give a damm about girls. I guess only Boss pedals can take that abuse.

Beautiful vintage tones. True Bypass and good quality components. In my book its a ten, yet it may not be perfect for everyone. Note that if you are looking for something more aggresive you may have to look else where.

This is a very user friendly pedal , from my experience , I know a good fuzz is very user interactive , you set it with fuzz on 10 and control everything with your guitars volume this gets the most out of the pedal , this pedal also has a very useful feature with the bias control , the manual says it controls" input impedance"... to work better with other pedals like wahs , this is very effective in getting the right tone and Feel .

I own 2 early fuzz faces both cost over 250 bucks both sound good , so I compared all and I am sure if I covered them I might not be able to tell the one I have on ! there are very subtle differences , each one has its own special voice .Thats it , the real thing so complex and so touch responsive , I use a strat and a les paul and a prs , a fulltone wah and dejavibe and fulldrive 2 I wont list all but just about everything fulltone makes I own and use I also run into a echoplex then into a marshall 4 input and sometimes for smaller gigs I use a BluesBreaker combo , for me this is the true fuzz face sound I must keep adding ,it has the" feel" that is the magic with these old fuzz face pedals when you turn it up and down with your guitars volume you can go from awesome fat rythum sound like hey joe ,and full on lead like manic depression , if you want Jimi tones , this will get it !!!

well I own many fulltone pedals I mostly get them to replace my vintage collection to keep that at home while using the fulltones to gig. while expensive in their own right they are about half the price of a vintage pedal and way more healthy , my 20 yr.+ old pedals have needed a jack or wire or something replaced, no worries with fulltones , and Mike Fuller has nailed and perfected and improved these old vintage pedals with top construction , parts and modern improvements , for the sake of reliability .

They are the Best , I had called many times over the years , about you name it , Tone Tone Tone , I have enjoyed talking to them , They are no nonsense there and always helped me fast , I view Fulltone as a company that stands behind its products with confidence , strength , and honesty , at a time where most companies have gone to off shore cheap products and production , Mike Fuller does it the hard way , Made in the U.S.A. by hand one at a time ,and one look inside proves it all, top quality and years of trouble free use.

I have always gone for vintage tone like Hendrix and Clapton ,Jeff beck and Page ,My Guitar Heros, The great classic tones .I realized early on that their tone came from their hands with the help of some gear , and the gear they chose was very responsive to their hands , SO... if you choose the right gear for job you will get what you are after , and if it is vintage tone machines you want then go to Fulltone !

could need some tweaking.

you are able to get some authetic sounds out of this box.
but they are very special, for people who want to imitate hendrix...
this pedal is not recreating an overdrive sound as mentioned.
it has a definite transistor sound, like when you crank a roland jazz chorus. no smooth sustain at all.
tried it on fender tube amps.

pots were noisy.

i guess it is a good copy of a 60's fuzz. I was looking for a more
natural distorted tone which this expensive toy can in no way provide.
what the highly overestimated ts 808 is to the srv devotees this pedal is to the hendrix fans. remember that none of these two effects were
substantial parts of their tone and playing.

Very easy to use. As with any fuzz pedal, if it distorts too much, than you need to turn your guitar's volume control down. Both of the suggested settings in the manual work well with the exception of the 'Hendrix' setting which required me to turn the bias control CCW until I could obtain a good sound. A minor tweak that resulted in instant great tone.

Absolutely exceptional fuzz tones. You easily get anything from Hendrix to the Black Crows (Listen to Southern Harmony and Musical Companion for a good comparison to this pedal).

Completely dispels the myth that you need tubes to make good sweet and musical distortion. Simply not true. This pedal stands well by itself without added distortion from your tube amp. In fact, I prefer to play it with my amp set clean. This pedal is also extremely touch sensitive and can easily be manipulated for various playing situations by simply adjusting the volume control on your guitar. It really sings as you alter between picking lightly and picking hard.

This pedal is fairly quit. I'm using it with a Matchless Chieftain which I am sure adds some nice warmth to the sound as well. To my ears the distortion from the '69 sounds better than the preamp distortion built into the Matchless. And keep in mind that Matchless distortion is considered quite good.

I bought this pedal because I was looking for a fuzz face clone after I got into the guitar sound of the early Black Crows. This pedal delivers completely in this respect. Also, as fuzz face clones go, this one really shines since Mike Fuller does some special matching of the Germanium transistors in the thing. Apparantly the matching is needed in order to get the thing to sound like the best of the fuzz faces from the sixties. The bad sounding fuzz faces were alleged to have transistors that weren't matched correctly according to some technical stuff I read on the topic.

Built well. No problems yet.

It's built well and am not expecting to have problems.

I've been playing for 20 years and have always loved all types of distorton, with the exception of extreme death metal. This pedal delivers. I also have a fulltone Distortion Pro which is also a great pedal but sounds more like a Marshall plexi than does the '69. The tone from the '69 is certainly sweeter with better definition than the DP, while the DP is better at creating a solid wall of sound much like a Marshall stack with less touch sensitivity. Both are great pedals but do different things. This pedal is as good as it gets for what it does.

Easy to use.

One of the best fuzz face clones out there, with more versatility.

Just wanted to post my experience with the reliability of this pedal. It's a great fuzz, but I wouldn't give it a high rating for reliability. I've had mine for three years. In that time I've used it on maybe 8-10 gigs, and the rest of the time it just sits in my studio. I hardly use it unless I just really need that Hendrix fuzz sound, which it delivers in spades. Anyway, last month I plugged it in and when engaged, the LED would come on but no sound came out at all. If I switched the pedal off, I got sound. I emailed Fuller, and he wrote me back promptly that the switch was bad and he'd be mailing me a new one. About a week later I got the switch, installed it, and the pedal works fine now.
Bottom line is the components in these pedals must be pretty cheap, or I just got a bad one, because this thing really didn't have many hours of use, nor did I abuse the switch in anyway. I have BOSS pedals I've owned for ten years that endured years of gigging, stomping and being thrown around that never failed and STILL work. (Even though I quit using BOSS pedals because they suck tone big time, unlike the '69) So if you have a '69, I would recommend you be gentle with it.

Mike replies to emails within a day and takes care of business.

Great sounding pedal, but cheap components for such a high priced stomp box.

I live in Holland and got mine used thru Ebay. Of course I started tweaking it straight away. It takes a while to get used to the different settings. Contrary to the usual two-knob volume-fuzz configuration of most fuzz pedals the added 'bias' and 'contour' knobs provide a range of tonal possibilities that take a few sessions to figure out. And then there's the internal trimpot to have fun with!

As other people have reported the manual is in fact a very useful guideline. Mike gives two basic example settings: the early Hendrix fuzzface-style one and one that produces a smooth overdrive. Ultimately, though, the whole idea is to do like people like Hendrix, SRV and Doyle Bramhall II, to experiment and find your own ideal sounds and settings. So it's wise to really sit down and explore this pedal's many possibilities. Make sure you include rolling down the volume and tone controls of your guitar as well as the pedal's position in the effects chain in the experiment!

I agree with everyone here who refers to this pedal as being very musical and second the notion that it should not be used by crummy players with crummy gear.

I play a reissue '57 Strat with Lindy Fralin P90 Strat-size pickups thru 2 vintage blackface Super Reverbs, sometimes in combination with a Fender Vibratone guitar leslie cabinet. Both Supers have been biased to make them even hotter and I replaced the original blue alnicos with Celestion Vintage 10 speakers. I use the Celestions because they are more powerful and can be driven harder, plus have more midrange and give me a more hybrid Marshall/Fender sound. I'm considering adding a more British EL34-type amp with 12" speakers to my sound.

Supers sound great on their own but I find that effect pedals, particularly fuzz pedals, don't always blend in too well with these amps. Very often a fuzz thru a Super will come out one big howling mess, i.e. dull-sounding and lacking in definition. This is where Mike's added 'bias' and 'contour' knobs come in handy. You can control the effect's woofiness with the bias knob and add midrange and clarity with the 'contour' knob.

I discovered another trick to make this pedal sound good with a Super. It's often been said, and Mike Fuller mentions this in his manual as well, that you should simply turn the fuzz knob all the way up and control the amount of fuzz with your guitar volume. That's one way to go about it. Another approach is to turn the amount of fuzz down on the pedal and turn the pedal's volume up. This will produce a similar amount of fuzz (which can still be controlled by your guitar volume control), the difference being that by sending a really strong signal from the pedal to your power tubes you allow the tubes to do most of the work instead of the pedal. This gives you two advantages: 1) you add brightness to the overall sound of the pedal by turning up the pedal volume and 2) because the pedal boosts the signal coming from your power tubes it provides a more natural addition to what's already coming from your amp, thus making the fuzz effect sound the most transparent. Remember that the pedal will sound best with the amp at breakup point (in the case of my Super Reverbs with the amp's volume on 5).

Here's how I set my '69 pedal: volume 3 o'clock, bias 1 o'clock, contour all the way up, fuzz 2 o'clock. Again, this is based on the concept of using the pedal to boost the power tubes. Stevie Ray and Doyle Bramhall II have been known to do this as well. This setting gives me the same creamy fuzztones I hear on the records of Doyle Bramhall II, i.e. that brown edge that makes single notes sound almost like double stops (does this make sense?). There is one drawback, though: by using so much volume on the pedal your amp also amplifies the hiss that comes with all fuzz pedals. This becomes particularly audible when you roll back the volume on your guitar.

Here are the pedals I currently use, in the sequence I have them lined up: a Roger Mayer Octavia, a Menatone Red Snapper, the Fulltone '69 pedal, and a Dunlop stereo Univibe. I go for pedals with true bypass switches only. One guy remarked on this site that the RM Octavia sounds really great with the Fulltone '69. He's right! Also, I find the Fulltone really takes kindly to the Menatone (which I also use more as a boost by turning up the pedal's volume, by the way).

One last remark on this subject: after playing around with the pedal's internal trimming pot I came back to its stock setting to produce the warmest, fattest fuzztones. This guy Mike Fuller really knows what he's doing, folks.

I haven't had it for long but it looks like it will outlive me! The thing is solid as a rock and I'm perfectly confident I won't need a backup.

Like one other reviewer who bought the pedal used with no manual, I emailed Mike Fuller to get a manual. Mike replied the same day and sent me a downloadable manual! I haven't dealt with Mike yet to get an upgrade (no need for it either) or have it repaired (if it ain't broke don't fix it).

I guess by now you know the type of players I'm influenced by. I've been playing for 17 years and come from the Texas-blues-big-strings-and-high-action tone school. Over the years I have gravitated toward a more late '60s/early 70s oriented psychedelic rock and funk approach, much like SRV in his later days and, of course, Doyle Bramhall II.

The '69 pedal matches my style and sound to a T. I have no need for more fuzz, since I like the basic crunchy sound of my tube amps being complemented, rather than overtaken, by my effects. The '69 pedal is the first and only fuzz pedal I've come across that is able to do just that. I've always liked the warm sound of the original fuzzfaces and it's just great to be living in an era where all this stuff is coming back new and improved. The 'bias' and 'contour' knobs and the fact that it's true bypass are a vast improvement over the original design. I really like the Roger Mayer fuzzes a lot too, but can't get them to sound right with my Fender amps. Sorry, Rog, but Mike wins this one hands down!

I'd replace this pedal in a heartbeat if it were stolen. The only problem I have with it is a common feature of all fuzz pedals: they are not very quiet, i.e. they produce a lot of hiss (just turn your guitar volume all the way down with the pedal on and you'll know what I mean). But then this is a prehistoric overdrive so I guess it comes with the design and I have to take the bad with the good. And believe me when I say there's plenty good about this pedal!

I can recommend the Fulltone '69 to anyone out there with a big tone looking to make their sound even bigger. The same comment goes for the Menatone Red Snapper. The two really are a match made in heaven and I can't say enough about these pedals! I'm now hoping that Mike Fuller's next pedal will be an analog Echoplex-in-a-box with LONG delay time. That would really put me in stompbox heaven!

Ease of use....nothing too complicated, a few knobs. After a few days of tweaking and playing, you can find your sound. the unit varies from guitar to guitar so you can adjust for each instrument slightly if you wish to get just the right sound.

Pretty cool, pretty good. It is the sound of the 60's so it's obviously not that tube crunch with the metal edge, its more of a distortion sound. You can get the classic "flubby" over distorion where the notes start to turn into that thick less distinct thing that just yells "60's". Listen to the turn around riff of Hendrix doing "Hey Joe" live and you'll hear this sound. I play some decent strat copies - self built - through a Budda Super Drive 30 combo amp. The pedal sound real cools while on the amp's the clean channel..you can get a real 'bassman' slight break up tone while in the clean channel of the amp. The overdrive channel on the amp plus the pedal can deliver a thick tone - careful or it's too thick to easily, especially on the neck pick ups. Best part is using the volume knob of the guitar to control the distortion. I give the sound quality an 8 (not a 10) only because it varies so much from day to day. The reliability is not good however.

YOU CAN'T AND I MEAN CAN'T depend on this pedal for a reliable sound or any sound at all. I have to rate it a "1" on this category. Take this puppy outside when its over 80 degrees - hey, practically any summer day, and it just quits working. I wrote an e-mail to the company and the reply was the transistors are very temperature dependent. And indeed they are. I have had three outdoor gigs and have not been able to use the damn thing once for more than 15 minutes. Its craps out and sounds like a bee's fart after 15 minutes and by an hour there is NO sound coming out at all. In my basement I can wail away with this thing. I am afraid to take it into clubs where the audience is more discriminating as perhaps even a few bright par lights on a hot evening would make this thing stop working. Buy it at your own risk, it's not reliable in that respect. I wish I did not buy it because of this and think the Fulltone company should put this weakness in print for all to make more informed purchase. The guy who runs Fulltone seems pretty verbose and cocky on his website but he's not telling everyone the truth on this pedal. Nuff said.... use it in the studio and carry a backup - one that you like cause you will end up using it.

They e-mailed me back and said 'yep, the temperature sure affects that pedal". Guess thats better than no service.

I play rock/hard blues. Have been playing 30 years. I own a few boss pedals including a metal zone, a roland sde 1000 delay, a fender tube reverb unit. I play some self built strat and tele style guitars. The tele is equiped with fender pickups, the strats (2) have kinmann and fralin pickups repectively.
I rate the pedal a 5. It sounds great but is unreliable
If it were stolen, I hope the thief doesn't get mad at me and come back to key my car cause it doesn't work in higher temperatures.

Very easy to use. There are two examples in the manual and that's where I started.

I bought it to get the early Hendrix tone but (surprise!) I can get dirty mean garage-punk and Lunk-Wray sounds as well.
I use it with a G&L Asat Special and an Asat Z3. The Z3 drives the 69 slightly harder. I think the 69 is more suited to play with a single coil guitar. I use a Vibroverb RI and/or a Pro Junior.

Built like a tank. I don't expect it to break down

Never dealt with Fulltone but it seems a no-bullshit company to me which is good.

Even better than I expected it to be. The only negative aspect is that I need a separate cable to connect it to my Pedal Power device.

This is an amendment to my review of this pedal I made on 1/8/98. Wow, talk about a change of heart for the better. Anyway, on to the review. As I stated in my first review, it's a pedal, a chimp could operate it. Briefly, Volume, Bias is a tone control, kinda. Contour adds midrange and gain. These two controls make this box way more versatile than your average fuzz box. Excellent! Fuzz is your gain control. This has an internal trim pot that changes distortion shape. Have not used this.

In my original review I was dissapointed in the sound of this box. It could have been the amp I had at the time, I belive it was a Blues Deville which I liked very much. Or it could have been I wasn't hip to what fuzz pedals are about. But gear combinations can very funny in a not so funny way. Without being too technical, this thing kicks! I'm playing a Warmoth Swamp Ash Strat through a Reverend Hellhound combo. The Strat has Fender Fat Fifties in the neck and middle, and a Duncan Lil'59 in the bridge which is coil tapped via 5 way Meagswitch.
The 69 sounds great and is not noisy. It will be replacing my current fuzz which sounds good as well but this is more versatile.

I bought this used it was made in April of 2000. All the Fulltone stuff I've check out looks really well built. I don't forsee any problems. I'll give a 10 on reputation.

I have dealt with Mike Fuller a couple of times via e-mail regarding wah parts I purchased for my Crybaby. Always got quick response, no problem.

I play all styles of music and have been for 26+ years. Would definitely buy again. I love the sound of this thing and as I said previously, the Bias and Contour add much versatilty. These are expensive and could be mass produced and sold cheaper. But, they are hand made and being a hack builder myself, it is very time consuming to hand build even a simple circuit. Is a hand built pedal better? My opinion is not necessarily. If something works for you, a few extra bucks doesn't matter anyway. I'm not trying to pander to Fulltone, but I had to retract my first review. Remember pedals sound different with different amps. I had Stamps Drive O Matic that was awesome through a Rivera R55 and terrible through a Blues Deville. Check this out.

It has 4 knobs- Vol., Bias, Contour, & Fuzz. Its really easy to dial in a sound if you have the manual. Mike Fuller gives a great explaination for the Bias & Contour knobs, and he throws in 2 suggested presets to start with. Without the manual the ease of this pedal might be a 7.

The 69 takes whatever you've got and adds a thick, warm tone that ranges from a smooth boost to Hendrix fuzz. What I love about this pedal is that the fuzz is MUSICAL. This is not a wild & snarling EH Big Muff Pi. This is perfect for THICKENING your sound, not masking it, i.e. this is a pedal for experienced or professional guitarists, not young rockers trying to hide poor playing with noise.

While the fuzz is amazing, what pushes this thing to a "10" is the "Bias" knob. It works almost like a "Mix" knob between your dry and wet tones (though it isn't exactly that) so you can get the perfect fuzz & wah or fuzz & whatever combination!

Like I said before, this fuzz is very warm. From my own experience, and from talking with other players, the '69 works best on BRIGHT amps, which would be your average Fender type amps. If you've got a dark, bassy, or muddy amp/speaker setup, then get a '70. Its made to be extra fuzzy & extra bright to bring a heavy Marshall into outer space.

Finally, I think the perfect mate for this pedal is the Roger Mayer Octavia. If you find that thickening your tone isn't enough, the octavia will let you CUT! Ouch!

Hand made & metal housed. True-Bypass. Mike Fuller fixes it if its broken. I can't think of anything else to make it more reliable.

Never personally contacted Fulltone.

This fuzz is so musical you can't help but play with it for hours. At the full price of $169 I think I got a bargain. I guess I should be a little critical here so I give a well-rounded review. A metal-head won't want this pedal for any kind of "crunch" riffing (although using it for solos would probably work). There is no tight distortion on this pedal. If you want WILD fuzz, go straight for the Big Muff Pi, that's my other fuzz. It goes 10x lower & 10x higher than the '69, but its simply a fuzz BOMB compared to the Fulltone. And as I mentioned before, grab an octavia if you need to get a booster over the fuzz.

pedal is easy to dial in a good tone. comes with suggested settings in manual.has four knobs. volume bias contour and fuzz

i am using this pedal with a lone star strat and a 68 super reverb amp.i use the vibrato chan. on my amp whith bright selected trb. on 7 mid. on 5 bass on 7.5 reverb on 4.5. guitar selected on the neck pickup. 69 pedal set with fuzz almost all the way up, contour the same, bias rolled back, and volume to suit. the key to a good clean thick dynamic sound is the volume knob on your guitar set it on about 7 or 8. the louder the volume on the amp the better it sounds. with this setup i get a really good thick dynamic clean sound. very similar to hendrix and srv on some of his later tones. the only complaint i have is i get a really bad humming sound when i try to use this pedal with boss and ibanez type pedals.fulltone and boss ibanez ground differently. even when i use batteries in the fulltone i get a bad hum. i think this problem can be solved by a voodoo labs pedal power. fulltone used to make one like it but stopped making it.even though i havent remedied this problem this is an awesome pedal.NOTE THIS IS A FUZZ PEDAL NOT DISTORTION. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SHREDDING DISTORTION THIS IS NOT THE PEDAL FOR YOU. otherwise its a winner

very good construction. true bypass switch. fulltone doesnt build junk

i havent dealt with the company, but i have hard the are good to respond to all questions and repairs

i play blues southern rock type stuff good pedal for that.been playing for 15 years. i own a bunch of pedals. if this were lost or stolen i would get another one.

This pedal was very easy to use. Manual is simple and to the point.
I had no problem getting the exact tone that this pedal is advertised as having.

It is VERY important that you use the right gear with the fulltone pedals. People having unsatisfactory results need to perhaps take a look at their own gear. This pedal is designed to give you the early Hendrix fuzz face tone, I had no problem setting the pedal to the hendrix fuzz face settings in the manual and getting that tone. However I am an older and tone wiser guitar player, I've come full circle as far as what gear I use. I've owned them all and for years played through boogie gear trying to find a multi channel amp that does everything....guess what, it doesn't exist. The best way to get a good tone is start with a great amp. I now own a DR.Z original MK2 MAZ 38. But in testing this pedal I plugged into an old four input JMP for which I bridge the two channels. An 87 japan strat plugged into the 69 and then into the Marshall instantly gave me the tone on "Foxey Lady" and "Purple Haze". It was a tone I had loved for years. This pedal is also good for the inbetween tones though I just got it today and need to experiment more. It is true when turning down the guitars volume knob the 69 cleans up with a fender like vibe. It is a bit noisy but geez it's a friggin fuzz face for chris sakes.

Fulltones seem to be very reliable.

Don't know but hear good things.

An excellent pedal and does exactly what it is supposed to do.
I bought this pedal on ebay without even hearing one, when I got it home it sounded exactly the way I expected but better it is very flexable as well, you can tweak this baby quite a bit.

I found this pedal fairly easy to master once I played with it for about half an hour (and isn't that part of the fun?). All of Fulltone's pedals are "players' pedals" as far as I'm concerned. By that I mean they don't knock you on your ass at first, but once you play some crappy pedals, or play Fulltones in a variety of settings, or do some recording with them, you realize their incredible subtleties, versatility, consistency and durability.

Setup: Gibson Les Paul + BOSS stage tuner + Fulltone Fat Boost + Fulltone Fulldrive 2 (orange) + '69 + Hughes & Kettner Tube 20

I have found all of the Fulltones to be completely transparent. I mean that's what you pay for. When using them all in a chain, with no other brands thrown in, I find they sound the best (as to be expected).

This pedal has been absolutely reliable and is of solid construction. The settings hold up well when the pedals are thrown into my gig bag in haste after shows. Yeah, it beats up the finish a bit, and it's certainly not recommended treatment for these pedals, but I'm a plug and play kind of guy and for actual playing in clubs, set-up and tear down can be hectic. The heavy metal casings and heavy nobs are really helpful.

Have had no contact with the company

Style: Indie guitar rock - Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Superchunk, Swervedriver, etc.

This pedal, while it took a little bit of fiddling to really suss it out, is incredibly versatile. I know most of the other people who give reviews here are blues folks, but they tend to be tone freaks, so why not trust 'em.

As I mentioned before, this didn't bowl me over at first, but I had a little faith based on the success of my Fulldrive 2...and I'm glad I did. Distortion is a subtle thing (for the blues and for the type of music I play). I actually used this pedal to replace a busted overdrive switch that came with my amp. After breaking 2 of them I picked up the '69. I have read a lot of people talking about the Hendrix distortion they get from the '69, but I also found it gets that growl found on Exile On Main St. and lots of other great early records.

After playing with it in the mix of my band, the '69 really came through. I mostly play rhythm and our lead guy takes the noodling. In the mix of a live band, this pedal provided the separation in its growl to show through and not become a thinner sounding buzz or hum that weaker distortions can create live.

I have yet to play this in the studio, but have done some pre-production recording with it. In a recording situation, the distortion (with no real treatment given to it) presented as being thick and BIG. My old overdrive switch that came with my amp, on the other hand, seemed smoother and less dense when put under that microsope of recording. The '69 provides a much more "pro" sound with much less effort.

Easy enough for me. The instructions were helpful. Basic rule: Leave the FUZZ at the maximum at all times and control the grit with your guitar's volume control. There is a lot more you can do with the internal trimpot and the bias and contour knobs, but you will not go wrong as long as you remember that your guitar's volume knob is the most important control on this box.

If you have a non-master volume tube amp turned up to just where it starts to break up, and a good strat, this thing is the bomb. You can really play it with your touch the way you would play a really responsive amp. No pedal I have ever used is so touch sensitive. I you love Hendrix (and who doesn't), this thing simply kills. You must own it.

I have had mine for about six years and have used it alot. No complaints. I always use a battery but you can get an adapter.

Don't even try to get the real Hendrix sound with a Tubescreamer. That pedal is cool, but it can't do what the 69 pedal does. The Tubescreamer is all midrange sounding and has no dynamics whatsoever. I have a Tubescreamer and I like it for some things, but the 69 pedal is much better.

Facil de usar. Mas existem muitas combinac?es que podem ser feitas, inclusive ajustando o TRIMPOT no interior do pedal. Junto com o pedal vem um manual e que da algumas dicas e exemplos de ajustes.

Meu set up e: Strato/Les paul > wha wha > 69 > effects > peavey classic 50.
O 69 n?o e barulhento, mas amplifica bastante o sinal da guitarra, algumas vezes faz barulho, principalmente com o wha wha, mas n?o e nada de mais.
O som dele neste set up e sempre legal, muito bom. Ja testei um um Soldano e tb ficou muito bom, mas em Marshalls e amplis transistorizados fica uma merda.
O 69 e um puta pedal de fuzz, mas depende muito de seu set up se ele vai ser legal ou n?o, principalmente o ampli. Com efeitos ele fica muito bom tb. Ligue-o antes de flangers, phasers, octaves e surprenda-se com o resultado.

Ainda n?o e um pedal fundamental pra mim. E um puta som, mas sempre anda em conjunto com um bom valvulado.

Super bem construido e resistente.

N?o tive nenhum problema e acho que n?o terei.

Toco rock anos 70 (Hendrix, Cactus, Zeppelin, etc...) e este pedal e uma excelente opc?o. Toco guitarra a uns 6 anos e ja toquei com ts9, boss od, boss blues driver, tube king e acho o 69 um puta pedal. Ou vc gosta dele ou o odeia. Portanto quem quiser comprar um... se arrisque. Certamente compraria outro se algo acontecesse ao meu. Dizem que um 69 pode diferir muito um do outro devido ao transistor de germanio que integra seu circuito. Ja ouvi dois 69 distintos e achei o som bem similar (bom igual). Acredito que a Fulltone mantenha um padr?o de qualidade, ou seja, seu pedal nunca sera ruim, mas talvez n?o seja o melhor.
O 69 da asas a criatividade, muito versatil e com um lindo som (limpa quando abaixa o volume da guitar).

If you know anything about fuzz faces this is so easy to use. I have to kick my old one every few mintues. And use a fresh battery every 3 hours 15 minutes 13 seconds. With the 69' pedal every setting sounds good.

I have a original 68 fuzz face and I can't tell the differnce with my eyes shut. I wanted to hate this pedal to prove that everything old is cool this is not the case. This sounds good with my old vox, fender and marshall amps! Wow!!

I can depend on this pedal for every gig. You will have to take this pedal for my cold dead hands if you want it!

I play blues/rock and country. I have been playing 15 yrs. I have 35 guitars 30 amps and over 200 vintage pedals.If it was lost I would buy another one that very day. I love how it colors my tone to get the saturation at love volumes and high volume. I hate nothing about this pedal. I just did a CD with my fuzz face and I'm going to lay all my tracks again with my new fulltone! I could not sleep last night because I have to make a new pedal board and order MORE fulltone pedals! WOW!

Not so easy to use because of the bias knob which just gets in the way. I have been told that there are trim pots on the inside of the pedal which only complicates things further. Four knobs instead of the usual two or three is a lousy choice for a distortion pedal.

Sounds very weak- theres no gain or sustain at all. I demonstrated this pedal side-by-side in a music store against the Austone Textone and the Textone won hands down. Even the salesman admitted that the Fulltone '69 did not have enough gain. Its also very noisy no matter where you turn the bias knob.

Looks alright but again I have heard there are problems with the switches- that they fail. One store told me they wont carry the Fulltone line because of these problems, and I had a hard time finding a store that did carry these products.

They never responded to my e-mail requests for basic information. Thats why I decided to not buy any Fulltone products, including the Choral/Flanger. Sorry but I dont spend money where I get ignored totally.

I didnt buy this pedal after extensive testing because its a weak effect with very little gain but alot of noise. Not worth the money in my opinion.

There are numerous shades of great O/D and distortion to be found under the hood, but they are not as easy to get, as say
from a TS-9, which sounds at least OK on almost every setting.
This germanium powered device ( like all such germanium and silicon driven fuzz pedals) is very input sensitive. The setting you use for your single loaded Strat, won't work ( won't sound good)
with a hot humbucker loaded LP. If you use active pick-ups, like
High out-put EMGs, don't waste time with this pedal, it's probably not for you. I plugged an EMG loaded SG into this pedal
alll it did was generate harsh static. Also if you use play a guitar
with the volume left on ten most of the time, this pedal wiil not work for you. I start with my guitars volume on 6-7. I set the pedal just to give me a warm volume boost with that much input. They I gradually increase the volume listening for the graduated distortion plateaus from just a little O/D to an impression of an amp exploding.

I have had the experience of playing 6 vintage fuzz faces. "Are you
experienced". They all sounded quite different. Two of them made unmusical 'throat clearing noises" with the gain maxed. One of them picked up alot of radio signals. One of them was just plain ratty sounding. They other two sounded great. One of them sounded absolutely bloody brilliant.
You will note when seeing Fuzz faces for sale, they all sell, for $400 and Up- if they are original. The sellers don't bother to mention "... not a very good sounding example, coughs like a mule with coaldust lung." My Fulltone 69 , that I bought new in December 1997, sounds 95% as good as the best vintage Fuzzface I've heard and better than the other 5. It was $169 U.S. not $400. I've had four years with this pedal and it gets better for me all the time, as I get better at working with it.
It's not an OFF/ON device like a light switch or a Boss Metal Zone. It's like a like a motor vehicle with an accelerator. It can go fast or slow depending on how hard you drive it and how well you know how to drive.
Finally it sounds best going into an amp that is already distorting a bit. People with solid state/clean sounding amps,
or modeling amps will probably not like this device.
Used with vintage output pick-ups (Less than 9K ohms)
played into a hard working tube amp, by a player who likes to use the volume knob on their guitar for dynamic shifts,
this pedal is absolutely the Bhudda, giving up a total righteous
array of driving tones.

Like a rock. I had trouble with an Fulltone UO, which Mike Fuller
fixed quickly and professionally.

If you want someone who is always there for you, and who listens carefully to everything you have to say , get a Dog.
If you want to deal with someone who backs their product with
customer service as good as it needs to be, buy a Fulltone product.

I play this pedal into either a Silverface Deluxe Reverb or a Silverface SuperReverb, with a variety of guitars, with vintage
output pick-ups. It sounds absolutely terrific in this situation.
Remember to start with your volume knob on 6-7.

The same remarks can be made and the same advice given,
for the Fulltone 70 and Soulbender pedals. Play into a good amp, with vintage pick-ups, and use that volume knob.

I have it set one way, and leave it on all the time. The effect is then controlled by the guitars volume and how hard the strings are hit.

I was after the Band of Gypsies sound, and this got it for me. I have a 100 watt Marshall Super lead (with a vintage Mod by Don Butler), a Sweetsound Ultravibe, Vox Reissue Wah (with a vintage Mod by Don Butler), the 69 pedal, the Fulltone Octafuzz, a Crowther Hotcake, and an Ibenez delay. It sounds like a lot but really isn't (oh yeah, I use the HTD Hotplate 16ohm). The Ultravibe, the Wah and the Octafuzz are the only effects that are put on or off. The sound is what I was after. I can play a CD of band of Band of Gypsies and to my ears the sound is the same. I tried a number of effects, but nothing worked. I tried the Fulltone 70 pedal but it wasn't what I was looking for, it was a bit thick, and not much room to control it from the guitar volume. Most distortion or Fuzz effects seem to overwhelm the guitar-amp sound. The 69 won't be on thick until the guitar volume is at 10. It would seem that Hendrix wasn't there except for a few times on the original Band of Gypsies album. The usually nice crunchy stuff (Like on Who Knows) is at lower guitar volumes. I tried the 69 pedal because many reviewers said it was close to the original Dallas-Arbiter Fuzzface. The behavior and sound I'm getting match the descriptions of how the original Fuzzface behaved. I am very satisfied with this pedal, but will only give it a 9 as I have not heard a real vintage Fuzzface.

All Fulltone products are built well, and you can open them up and see how they are put together.

Mike Fuller sometimes answers e-mail, and a friend of mine got him on the phone. He is a nice guy, and seems sincerely interested in his products.

Well, I can play the Band of Gypsies album, and usually play through it for exercise if I don't have time to get into anything else. I don't have the sort of rig that does light Jazz or Dumble stuff. I play my own style, but it is Blues rock in the Hendrix/Trower/EJ territory. The 69 pedal is a vital component of this type of music, as it not only give the correct sound, but is dynamic and responsive to the guitar volume, and how hard the strings are being hit. I think the ability to play a soft line, then pick a little harder and invoke more of the pedal is wonderful, and allows a wide range of expression for me without my having to stop playing and play with a bunch of switches. Everything is controlled pretty much from the guitar and the guitars volume.

I think for any somewhat experienced guitarist who can take an amp and extract his/her basic tone from it should have no problem with tweaking this pedal,.. Just read the instructions so you know what each knob does. Newbies, who really don't "get" how gain and master volumes interact with each other or who really don't understand which pickup/pickup combinations are being selected (and what tones can be expected from them) will probably have great difficulty with this pedal. The pedals knobs are volume, bias, contour, and fuzz. Like I said they are fairly easy to tweak, you just need to keep in mind what this pedal was designed to do, your tone you are after, and what each knob really does when tweaked. As for "I own this/that therefore I am! ANDY" down below, I am not sure what happened with him,...I really want to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that he got a defective unit or one that didn't have properly matched germanium transistors. If he is who he says he is, and has the experience that he says he does, and the equipment that he claims to possess, then he should have known better than to buy this pedal if he was truly going to hate its tone,....This pedal was never designed for massive gain. It really only supplies the type of gain found in an overdrive pedal and NOT a distortion pedal. Here again you have to NOT be a newbie and truly understand the difference between overdrive pedals and distortion pedals,.....The '69 pedal really behaves like a very dynamic and articulate overdrive pedal while you are cranking your guitars volume from 1 on,.....once you feed the pedal with enough gain (from you guitar), and this varies from guitar to guitar, the fuzz kicks in! On my strat its around 9 on my volume knob where the overdrive ceases and the fuzzy tone takes over.

As I was just getting into under the "EASE OF USE" heading,....it really is a versatile pedal,...within your volume knob's range on your guitar exists many shadings of overdrive and then the fuzz hits you once you have driven the pedal enough,...My fuzz I am getting really is not like Jimi got becuase I am NOT using a marshall amp that is fitted with non-standard tubes but the fuzz still is in the same ballpark, is useable, and in my opinion is just as "quality" as his tone was,.....I didn't mention yet but you can turn your guitar volume down until the tone is almost clean,...It really depends on where you have your amps settings at, which determines how clean you can get it. I think its best to set your amp to where its just starting to overdrive and break up,...If you set it to a squeeky clean setting then the '69 may not sound that great but then again, it may to your ears...The pedal does add some hiss to the amp though,....I didn't think I would take even a point for that because the pedal uses a circuitry that was originally designed in the 60's and uses germanium transistors,....not exactly state of the art stuff here,....My settings are not as extreme as they could be and the hiss is not that bad,...When possible, turning the guitar to an angle away from the amp almost eliminates the hiss. I am very happy with the tone and usually use the pedal somewhere just below the "fuzz threshold" for some really great overdriven rock tones. Even though, as I mensioned, the circuit is really simple, I think it is still worth the price,....In some way or another, Mike uses matched pairs of germanium transistors for a more consistent tone,....Back in the old days, you had to try out many Arbiter fuzz faces until you found one that by chance had a good matched pair of transistors in it,.... I think his quality control is worth some value even though the sum of the actually components may not add up to all that much.

I think because of its simple design, you really can't get any more reliable than this pedal,.....that being said, sure pedals can break especially their footswitches so if you can afford it, then backups can't hurt....

I really have no experience here to make any type of comment

I play rock style music somewhere inbetween todays metal/grunge crap trash and 80's metal,...I favor a classic rock tone (more like what was used in the 70's)which lets me be dynamic in my playing. This pedal is very musical and has really help me achieve the tone I have been after,....I am perfectly happy with my amps inherent tone (without using this pedal) and I think this helps things out. The pedal lets me fine tune my tone to exactly what I wanted,... The pedal doesn't add any offcolor to my tone,....I still hear my strat and amps tone but now with the benefit of the guitar's volume controlling the overdrive/fuzz provided by the pedal,...I think one guy was complaining that his amp still sounded like his amp and the pedal added nothing, yeah, duh, that's a good thing usually,..only he didn't realize the extra control over his amp that he now could have with this pedal and if you drive the pedal enough, the fuzz should be something of an extra, (its really what the pedal was designed to do) the fuzz should be noticably different than the overdriven/distorted tones your amp on its own can get.....

Very easy to use.

the pedal has a hihg quality sound. I use a tele with a modified humbucker switch and a Seymour Duncan 84-40 tube amp. Every setting is great. Ver y good for vintage rock tones. Beutifuly built. Looks great. I love the internal bias. Great idea. I love the Soul Bender too!

Can't say yet.

They seem very helpful so far.

I play mostly rock. It works great for what I do. Been playing for over 20 years. I would replace it immediately. I love the sound and look. Love the bias knob. Do not dislike anything. Helps me be very creative, yes! Keep up the good work mike Fuller!

Just a few knobs on this pedal so it is pretty easy to use. It's just hard to get a good sound out of it.

I think the pedal SUCKS. I can't find any redeeming qualities in it.

I've been playing for over 20 years. I have authored over 15 transcription books for Hal Leonard publishing, so I'm not exactly a slouch guitarist, but I must say....WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL WITH THIS PEDAL?????????

It must be an "emperors new clothes" phenomenon. It doesn't have much gain, or distortion. I'm a big fan of a mild overdrive, but you can't even classify this as an overdrive. I don't know why everyone carries on about it.

Anyway, here is my rig:

* SADOWSKY strat
* STEINBERGER GL4T w/Trans Trem (the good one)
* MARSHALL JCM 800 from the early 1970's, moded by John Suhr with great mullard tubes.
* PACIFIC cabinet with 2x12 EV's
* VISUAL SOUND Jeckyll & Hyde Pedal
* PRESCRIPTION ELECTRONICS Experience Pedal
* PROCO Rat
* FULLTONE Deja Vibe
* ROLAND GP-8
* DANELECTRO Reverb

I'm sure it is reliable. All fulltone pedals are made well.

Sorry, I don't like it.

I got mine without the manual, and I had a little trouble figuring out the knobs. Set the Bias to full on; set the contour to full off; set the fuzz to full on; and put the volume wherever you want. If you set the knobs like that, you get a great fuzzface sound.

This pedal has a great fuzzface sound. It's a little one-dimensional, but if that's what you are looking for, then you'll love it.

My pots got scratchy very quickly, but otherwise the pedal seems very durable.

Fulltone is excellent for customer support. I e-mailed them for a manual, and they sent me one to download right away.

If you want a fuzzface, I think this is the pedal to get. Unlike the original, it has a true bypass, and you can use it with an AC adapter.

Easy to get a great fuzz tone.THe trimmer inside the pedal is where you can taylor the way it breaks up!I've always wanted to see that in a fuzz pedal.I hit the big e string on the 12th fret on the neck pick up of my les paul,let it sustain and turn the trimmer to hear the different shades of fuzz.I twisted the trimmer until I found the sweet spot i was looking for,and i found it.I set it to sound fat,bright and ROUND!!!!(at last)This feature is one of my favorites.The bias control is also cool because it is the ONLY fuzz that I've tried that actually works with a wah thanks to the bias knob.

Like I said,that bias is sooo usefull with your wah,but when you adjust it to work with the wah,you have to turn it down(counter clock)and when you do that,I find you lose some of the characters of the fuzz that I liked.It is not to say this is bad at all, it's just an observation.It cleans up very well and still keeps a fat round tube tone.Man,I was impressed.This thing feels very alive and very musical.I've tried alot of other units that don't even come close to this kind of responsivness in dynamics.Very dynamic.If you like fuzz tones, look around for this one.I give it a 8 because I wish it didn't lose that fat/thick character by adjusting the bias knob to work with a wah,but hey, it actually works with a wah,I'll give it a 9.

It looks solid.I don't think I would need a back up but if I did have a back up I would like to try the 70'

I never dealt with the company.

I play all kinds of riff raff stuff,and I wanted a good fuzz tone,well I got one now.I've been playing about 15 years or so and I play different kinds of music.I play "geetar music" obviously,like everyone else,and I like the old guitar stuff like most who read this sight.I like to play weird spacy stuff to so....the 69' is perfect for what i need it for.I had an old Univox SuperFuzz for awhile,a Dunlop Fuzzface(impulse buy)and I've tried some Prescription Electronics Fuzz and I liked my old SuperFuzz better than all of them.Until I tried the 69'.The Superfuzz had that extra chip for the octave effect,I miss that,but it didn't work out for shit with the wah pedal.I don't over use it,but hell,when I want to use it,I want it to good,at least.The 69' fills the gap.It sounds awesome and works with other effects.Plain and simple.

Basic Volume and Fuzz Controls with the addition of Bias and Contour pots. One you understand what these two controls do, they are very useful in shaping the sound you want.ie.. extra midrange and clarity.
You don't have to read the manual to get a good sound, but it helps you to understand what the nobs do.

1999 American Standard Stratocaster with Maple Neck and Custom Shop '54 pickups. Currently use a POD for recording and live situations. Not my ideal amp set up but for now it is necessary. Fro me, this is the Holy Grail of Germanium fuzz. Mike Fuller has created a masterpiece!! I've tried and owned many fuzzes...Voodoo Labs SuperFuzz, Dunlop Reissues (both Germanium and Silicon) that were modified, Line 6 DM4 , DOD Flashback Fuzz , Boss Fuzz, Big Muff. Some, of course, were better than others, but they left me wanting of something they couldn't provide. The '69 is full, fat, sassy, thick, rich, creamy , bitchy and then if you back off on the guitar volume you get shades of clean well defined overdriven Fender amp sounds. This is not a one trick pony. I find it very dynamic to pick attack and pickup selection. Want to get a Cream, Hendrix , SRV, Gilmour , Eric Johnson sound? This box is it.

Very well built. Don't expect any poroblems except extreme temperatures do strange things to ALL germanium transistors. Can't afford to have a backup right now. I will probably invest in the 70's (silicon version) next.

I don't expect or anticipate needing it. However, I have every bit of faith that Mike Fuller stands behind his stuff.

Overall? The '69 is more than I hoped for. I've been looking into them for a year and half because I didn't think one fuzz box should cost $150. Now I know the difference. For what it does for my sound and the inspiration it provides for my playing it is worth twice as much.

Enough has been written about this pedal but in any case, it is easy to get great sounds and the suggested settings are perfect.

The most musical fuzz out there. I have or have owned the following fuzzes: Fulltone's Ultimate Octave; Z-Vex Fuzz Factory; Line 6 DM-4 (that has several fuzz settings); and the 70 pedal. I love the 69 the best. It's the most transparent and also the most versatile. I copied someone else here who wrote a review and used it in conjunction with the fulldrive 2 when using a clean amp (the 69 on a completely clean amp will not sound good). Excellent sustain and extremely musical when used together (just don't the volume too high on either or it gets too noisy). Alone, the 69 sounds great with a slight overdrive on the amp.

I buy Fulltone because they look like you can hurt someone with it. Solid and very heavy. My oldest Fulltone is my Fulldrive which I bought about 2 years ago-I haven't had problems with it.

I e-mailed Mike just to compliment him on this pedal as well as all the other pedals I've bought from his company. He e-mailed back right away even though I certainly did not expect him to return my e-mail. Essentially he has to be a very busy person and I assume he does not have a PR person, so unless you have a very important question, I would not expect him to respond. Because I have not really dealt with him, I'll won't put down a rating.

Excellent. I love all of the Fulltone pedals I have (Clyde, Fulldrive, Ultimate Octave and Supa Trem). I thought the Supa Trem was the ultimate Fulltone pedal until I played this one. As stated this pedal is so versatile and musical for a fuzz (I expected a one sound pedal). Fulltone in my opinion makes the best pedals and this is a clear example of Fulltone's superiority compared to the mass produced brands (the prices are fair for boutique pedals too).

Fairly easy, i dont really like the knobs inside the pedal, i wish they would have just overflowed the surface with a butt load of knobs but ohwell, the example settings are nice. Its not hard to use, just an inconvieniance

Sounds like a fuzz face that was hot rodded by Roger Mayer. It has a germanium transistor too, it accomplishes the old fuzzface sound really well. NOTE: if you dont like fuzz, dont get this pedal, its not distortion, more of an early hendrix (experience and axis:bold as love) fuzz. It does what its supposed to do and does it well and sounds better (imo) than the old dallas arbiter fuzzfaces and sounds a hell of a lot better than the new dunlop fuzzfaces.

No problems yet

if the pedal dont break then there's no need for customer service, in that case i give it a.......

This thing cost a lot of money, i usually spend $50-$70 on a distortion but in this case, i had to reconsider and say "the hell with my budget" and im happy with it. I play ALL kinds of music, bluesy rock, soft rock, ballads, psychadelic rock, hard rock and pop rock. Needless to say, i use this for my psychadelic rock and some of my bluesy and hard rock and soft rock too. If there were no knobs on the inside and didnt cost so damn much id give it a 10 but in this case it gets a 9, remember, 9 is actually a really friggin good score.

It's incredible once you get used to holding back from all the maximum levels (instrument side as well as the effect side). You can get good fuzz between the -6b to 0db levels. In my case I'm at war with this computer monitor and have my back turned to it as I record at home (should get a LCD display). What's cool is when you get change the dirty noise to some white noise. '69 alone I don't think will do it but can contribute.

Yes I play in quite a noisy environment. The culprit is my 17" computer monitor which I use for graphic design work. I've added a Carl Martin Noise Terminitor in my effects chain which does a pretty good job in filtering out some of the ugly noise from the monitor without distroying my sounds.

As far as sound quality is concerned I give '69 a thumbs up. I use various strats, telecasters and a Les Paul and at the moment go from
Guitar to Deja Vibe to '69, to Full Drive to the Carl Martin Noise Terminator, then to a Replex and a Maxon Anog Delay. Another route will go to a Varidrive or a V-Twin etc. I have other effects such as the Deluxe Memory Man which I have not included in this chain. I use them when I'm looking for some special effects.

If I can afford it I would like to have a back up. It seems sturdy enough but because it been added as a major sound in my chain, backing up will be an important process. To say the least, I will buy some switches.

I've been a keyboard player for over 20 years. Switched the main instrument to guitar about 2 years ago etc. - it's the usual long story.

You need a little time to get aquainted with this pedal. If your new to Fuzz boxes you need to understand how they work. Mike's manual and sample settings are excellent, and the box comes set up pretty well from the start.

SRV Strat & Classic 50's Strat w/Vintage Noisless pups, into Crybaby 535Q Wah into '69 pedal.(I'm unable to decide which order I like better-wah-'69 or'69-wah),into a Fender Hotrod Deville 410 w/Svetlana 6L6's. I can duplicate Jimi's sound from his first two albums and SRV's 'In Step' tone. You can roll back the guitar volume and it cleans up nicely, giving way to a beautiful Strat tone.

Built like a tank.

I emailed Mike when I got the pedal just to tell him how pleased I was and he emailed me back THAT NIGHT!! So I don't agree with the other reviewers.

I play Blues now, I used to be in a trio that played all Hendrix, SRV, and Cream.This pedal is the missing link. I've been playing 25+yrs.I own Tubescreamers,Univibes,Octavias,but I'm playing Blues now. I'd replace it if stolen or lost.My favorite feature is the tone it gets.
I have a real 1969 Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face and it seems flabby on the low end and ratty compared to the '69. Any of the other pedals (besides the Roger Mayer ones) don't compare.

Easy to use - 4 knobs - self-explanatory

American Standard Strat, Single Rectifier combo. Not the best sound from the Mesa combo. Used it with a Mesa Mark and Marshall 4X cab and sounded great.

Very well built.

ordered a few things from Fulltone and haven't had any problems.

Looking for hendrix sound and found it in this fuzz pedal. Must use a Marshall type head and 4X cab to get hendrix sound out of it.

Fairly easy to use once you read the manual and get the hang of the Bias and Contour controlls. Having to have a special adapter to power the unit is a pain (uses a positive tip instead of a negative tip like every other 9v adapter out there). I might not have as much of an issue with it if there was an explaination in the manual as to why it was designed this way.

I've been playing guitar for 15 years. I play mostly noise pop and vintage rock, surf, country etc. For amps I use Marshall and Fender reissues, Hiwatts, Orange and Sound City. For guitars, it's American Fenders and Hamer USA.

As far as fuzz pedals go, this is a really good one. I've owned many as I love fuzz and overdrive sounds over straight distortion (I plan to submit a Full Drive 2 review as soon as my Klon arrives and I've had a chance to compare the two). Over the years I've owned a Boss Hyper Fuzz, Fuzz Face reissue, Russian and American Big Muff reissues, Danelectro French Toast to name a few. My favorite fuzzes are the Fulltone 69, American EH Big Muff, and the Danelectro French Toast Fuzz. I like each of these for different reasons. When it comes to Fuzz Face type fuzz, the '69 pedal can't be beat. You get the standard Fuzz Face sounds and thanks to the Bias and Contour knobs, you get even more tonal versatility. If you don't know what you're doing or if you use this pedal with crappy gear, you will find it difficult to get a good sound with this pedal. This pedal is also not for every style (i.e. modern metal/rap metal etc.), but if you would normally use or consider using a Fuzz Face in your pedal lineup, then you will find that this pedal really fits the bill quite well.

It seems sturdy enough. In the last 3 months that I've owned it, I haven't had any problems. I know that germanium transistors can have problems so I might have a backup if I was touring or something like that, but for practice, studio work or day to day gigging, I would use it without a backup. I use mine in a MIDI audio switching system so I expect that it will last a long time.

Here's where I have a real problem. I had just purchased a Full Drive 2, '69 pedal and a Supa-Trem pedal all at the same time. This was quite an investment on my part and a statement of the appreciation I have for the sound of Fulltone pedals. I was so pleased that I intended to buy a Deja Vibe and a Clyde wah. I sent Mr. Fuller an e-mail complimenting him on his pedals and a request for the dimensions of the Deja Vibe and the Clyde wah as I was putting together a pedal board and I wanted to leave the space open for his pedals. After spending a ton of cash on 3 other pedals, I figured this wasn't too much to ask. After several weeks went by without a reply, I resent the message. It's been 3 months and still no reply. Now I know he can get my e-mails because I ordered some 3dpt switches and a adapter for my '69 pedal from him and I got them right away and an e-mail receipt. I was pretty disappointed, so much so that I decided to buy a Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe and a RMC3 wah pedal. These items were of similar or better quality than the comparable Fulltone pedals and I found that I was able to get e-mails within a day or two from their manufacturers. I will gladly give my money to whoever makes the best pedals even if the customer service is bad, but when it's a close call on the quality I'll go with the company that gives the best customer service.

Despite the not so good customer service, this pedal is a winner. If you are looking for a good fuzz in Fuzz Face territory, this is your pedal. If it were lost or stolen, I'd try some of the Roger Mayer fuzz pedals before buying this one again, but my guess is that the '69 is more versatile than the Roger Mayer Fuzzes and you can get sounds out of the '69 that would take two or three different Roger Mayer units to get(the Voodoo Vibe is very cool however). On sound and build quality alone the '69 gets a 9. Factor in the customer service and it's an 8.

I wrote a review a while back on this thing and I dogged it pretty hard... I think the problem is me, not the pedal.. I'm looking for a real creamy fuzz that is like Eric Johnson's "Ah Via Musicom", and I don't see how he gets this sound with this pedal. I don't own a Marshall, that might be the problem.Also I think I'm looking for a sound that this pedal isn't intended to make. My '69 pedal does need a little work at the moment because when I turn the fuzz all the way up it has a high-pitched feedback sound that won't go away.

Right now my set is like this: Various Strats with Fender CS P/U's, a 50's RI Tele with CS P/U's, a late 50's Harmony Strat-O-Tone, and a 64 Gibson SG Jr.->RM Octavia->Fulltone 69->Fulltone Clyde Wah-> Maxon OD-808->Klon Centaur->Fulltone Supa-Trem->Fulltone Deja-Vibe->EH Deluxe Memory Man-> Line 6 Delay Modulator->Vox AC-15 and a Fender HR Deluxe. I've tried the 69 between my guitar and overdrives and between my amp and overdrives and it's just thicker and a little warmer on the guitar side.... If it's closer to the amps it's way too gritty and bright... This is my opinion that it sounds better on the guitar side... I personally think it sounds better with the Maxon with a little bit of gain...

I won't get into this... Most of my Fulltone stuff hasn't had a problem but this one has given me shit since I've bought it...

He has his moments... =]

If anyone would like to EMAIL me on tips I should know about to make this sound better, please feel free ....

It comes with suggested settings, and there is a lot of possible sound combinations you can get when you started to fiddle with the bias, contour, fuzz, volume, and the internal trim pot. Since you rarely adjust the trim inside, the pedal is basically consists of just 4 knobs that really makes your fuzz whatever you want it to be.

Ok let me say this - this is my favorite pedal. I first bought the '70 pedal and did not like it so i sent it back in exchange for this. between the period from when i sent the 70 to when i got the 69, i listened to tons of mike's songs online where he used the '70 pedal, and i kind of regretted not keeping it. with the bias jacked up on the 69, i can get it to sound just like the 70 at times, and i love it. and i dont even have a tube amp (the 70 does not sound good without a nice amp). as long as you have the volume beefed up on your amp and pedal, then this pedal kicks butt (hence if you are using a solid state on low volume, it doesnt sound as good). i use strat->fulltone wah->fulltone 69->fulltone dejavibe->fender princeton chorus (im a hendrix fan), and this is no doubt my favorite pedal. i love the way it cleans up when you turn down the volume on the guitar...its beautiful.

I dont gig much, but if i did, i would not use a backup for this puppy. i haven't had this pedal for too long, but so far ive had no problems with the reliability. so i really dont have much of an opinion for this category.

ive never called fulltone for help. all i can say is this: i sent back my 70 pedal saying "didnt like it", and i got the 69 pedal no questions asked.

i play hendrix, srv, and funk, and this pedal is so damn good. if i lost this or something i would by the same thing without a blink. it sounds and looks good. it definately helps me make music and does not get in the way. all i can say is: if you want band of gypsys or woodstock or srv blues or purple haze, this pedal whoops 100% ass. my body feels all good and fuzzy every time i see it.

Pretty easy, but you can do a lot of tweaking with the bias, contour, and trim pot. Got the perfect Hendrix sound with Mike's recommended settings. Didn't take long to get David Gilmour, Eric Johnson, and SRV's "In Step" tones.

Sounds just as great as I expected. It's a little noisy, but it's a 30 year old fuzz design. My rig is usually Strat>Crybaby>Tubescreamer>'69 Pedal>Lexicon Jamman>'68 Bassman head. Can't use the Crybaby with this thing. I use the tubescreamer if I need more gain. Very transparent for a fuzz. Tubescreamer tones are there if you mess with the trim pot. IMHO, simply blows away the Dunlop. I tried one out and it sounded horrible, but I think it was an early one with silicon transistors. Woofiness is easily dialed out of the '69 pedal with the bias pot, and the contour pot makes getting feedback, even at LOW volumes easy. For a fuzz unit (YES, a FUZZ unit, not overdrive or distortion!), I really couldn't think of a way to improve this thing.

No problems yet, but it's new. I'll be gigging with it every weekend, so if I have trouble, I'll keep ya'll posted. It's built like a tank, though. Doesn't look like there's anything in there that couldn't be easily replaced with a soldering iron. Switches and pots are high quality.

Haven't had to deal with them, but it's cool that Mike Fuller signs every pedal he sells.

I play in a classic rock/ country band right now, but I enjoy playng all types of music. I was very happy with my rig, but wanted something with a little more "umph" for solos. I also wanted top cop some Hendrix And Gilmour tones, an things got 'em. No, it's not gonna help you get Hetfield's sound. If that's what you want, look elsewhere. If I lost it, I would definetely get another, and I can't wait to try out more Fulltone stuff.

The sound is either too "woofy" or too high gain grit but otherwise it was simple to fiure it out.

Mainly strats for guitars... All other pedals are Fulltone... I'm using Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 1966 Fender Bassman with 2-12 Cab and a Sovtek Mig 60 with 2-12 cab.

The damn switch has gone out on it three times in the year I've owned it and I bought it new.

Mike's great...Basically I can't wait for the Distortion pro to come out and replace my '69.

Rock-Blues... It wasn't like I thought it would be.

pretty easy to use...4 knobs.....easy to get a fuzz sound, turn volume and fuzz up, then mess with the contour and bias knobs

first, to comment on other reviews that slam this pedal....it is old technology, Fuller makes these things exactly like the old ones....they are not perfect, they fart out, make weird noises and are not perfect in their design....you get the good with the bad with these pedals, the way it was when Ivor Arbiter made them. second, people who can't get a good fuzz tone out of this pedal are not using the right amp! if you want a Hendrix type of sound buy a marshall (plexi thru jcm 800 series will do) and turn the thing up loud! the fuzz beefs up considerably and there is that sustain and sweet tube like fuzz on the Hendrix records. i know amps and i know fuzz faces, fenders and all the rest sound raspy with one of these in front of them, for some reason marshalls really take to these pedals, i don't know why.

dependable.....yes

fuller's a god guy from what i can tell

it's a good pedal, i have a dunlop reissue that sounds IMHO a little thicker and punchier (i modded it) than this pedal,but,i got it to see what all the fuss was about.....

This pedal is note as easy to use as some overdrive/distortion pedals. The reason being that rather then having your standard volume, tone, and fuzz knobs this pedal has volume, bias, contour, and fuzz controls. The end result is a very flexable fuzz box. As all us geetar players know, you can play something at the store, get all excited, buy it, take it home, hook it up to your rig and your first words are "what da ...". But a minute or two of of tweeking the bias and contuor knobs and you can get some great tones. Maybe not excactly what you got at the store ( all rigs sound deferent ) but great tones. You can also use the bias, contour controls to make your wah pedal work better with this box ( a problem with some other Arbiter Fuzzface clones I've tried ). Also, all the controls are interactive.

My setup is Fender ri strat with Lindy Fralin pick ups, Vox wah (with fulltone mod. A must IMO, and easy to do.) '69 pedal, Prescription Electronics Overdriver (another great pedal), Voodoo Labs Micro Vibe, Top Hat Emplexidor head (based on '69 marshall plexi), custome made 2x12 cab with Weber p12b blue dogs.
I"ve always wondered how did Hendrix (when playing live) go from a crisp but fat clean sound to that beutiful fat overdriven lead tone with out a huge volome boost. Well this pedal does just that. Just leave the pdal on and use your guitars volume knob. Heaven. Even with the volume and fuzz all the way up this pedal is still very organic and dynamic. When you get the amp work'n, the tubes glow'n, and the speakers pump'n there's only one word for the sound "powerful". No mush. Just big. Maybe not the best pedal for metal, but it all depends on your style. It sounds like a Arbiter fuzzface with bais and contour controls. IMO it's more of a kick @*! overdrive than fuzz. I set mine with volume 3 o'clock, bias 11 o'clock, contour 3 o'clock, fuzz 4 o'clock.

Fulltone stuff is hand built and very well made. This is my second fulltone pedal. No proplems.

Ive talked with Mike Fuller a couple of times. He was very helpful and friendly and lives to play guitar.

I play blues rock and funk. I've been playing for 30 yrs and have a small recording studio. I'm into quality gear and the fulltone stuff fits right in. If it were stolen I would buy it again. Ilove how dynamic and natural sounding the fuzz is. Great tone. Makes me want to play my guitar even more, if that's posable.

A little more complicated that most fuzz boxes due to the internal trim pot, but its nothing a five year old can't figure out!

This pedal had absolutely no useable sounds, I've had $10 boxes that sounded better than this. I tried every useable combination and adjustment and its still was one big piece of you know what! BTW, I used this in conjunction with a Custom Shop Strat and a '62 Fender Bassman.

Very well built, nice sturdy box, switch, and jacks. I cant believe they charge this much for this circuit though. The parts on the board probably run around $5!

Never had to deal with, so I dont know!

My overall rating is extremely low. This pedal had no sustain, very little real fuzz, and no tone. My Big Muff RI has a ton more tone than this dog. Save you dough and stay away from this pedal.

There are four controls on this unit. "Volume" and "Fuzz" are pretty self-explanatory. There are also "Bias" and "Contour" controls that are a little less intuitive. However, it is these controls that separate this fuzz unit from others, allowing a degree of fine tuning of the sound not available from other similar units. It only takes a few minutes to dial in some decent tones (assuming of course that the basic sound produced by this unit is really what you`re looking for). The instructions included with this unit are a great help in understanding the uses of the "Bias" and "Contour" knobs.

I use this pedal with a left-handed American Standard Stat and a (right-handed) upside-down parts strat copy with Texas Special pickups. My amp is a 50W 2X12 Marshall Jubilee combo circa 1987 that I use pretty much only with the (highest) gain channel. The sound with this set-up is pretty much what I was aiming for. The fuzz of the 69 combined with the gain of the amp produces a singing sound with a lot of sustain that recalls the lead sound of Jimi Hendrix. Of course its not exactly the same but it is definitely in the same ballpark. This is the sound that I wanted with this setup. I also own a Dunlop Fuzzface reissue that in all honesty delivers a very similar sound, but is probably a bit more trebly. In the context of a full band with another guitar, bass, drums and vocals the two units are probably not very distinguishable from a listener`s point of view. But we guitarists hear things differently from others, right? (or so we like to think). Once again, the "Bias" and "Contour" knobs offer a dergree of fine-tuning that allows one to get rid of the "gritchiness" associated with notes on the lower strings. For a different type of sound I use an Ibanez TS-9 reissue instead of the 69.

The unit seems fine. I wouldn`t see anything breaking with the unit aside from the footswitch, which seems rather rugged.

I had heard a lot about this pedal, mostly on this site. I`m a huge fan of Jimi, and this pedal allows me to approximate many of the sounds heard on his records. I think one of the biggest thing about approximating sounds is when non-musician friends say "that sounds a lot like the record". Like I said, the Dunlop Fuzzface isn`t all that bad, despite the mixed reputation that pedal has. However, the 69 offers a very good fuzz sound and a degree of control over certain parameters. In view of the outrageous prices for older vintage Fuzzfaces, I believe the Fulltone is a reasonable (if not quite outstanding) value. I would probably buy it again.