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.