Fulltone Distortion Pro

Just plug in , there is not a bad sound in this thing , though it is a knob tweekers dream , it just sounds great with all my guitars !

Wow , I have been searching all of my 20 yrs. of playing for these sounds , I mean Hendrix , then onto EJ , then how about that Holdsworth singing lead tone , man this is a " Marshall in a Box " too , now I get my amp sounding awesome at lower volumes . again WOW !

I am the proud owner of several Fulltone tone machines , they all have been through hell and back and work perfectly I expect the same from this little armored box

I have had to deal with them for a broken pot that my singer poured beer into and they sent me their quality parts that day , and I also got a few choice tone secrets out of them :) They are so helpful I know they are so busy , but I want to call them everyday Mike always has the right answer , btw Thank You Fulltone

as I said I own several Fulltone boxs , but I did not hear about this one untill I read June 02 issue of Guitar Player mag. Their review was awesome and I got one the next day :) do your self a favor check out this issue , don't take my word for it , I think you will agree !

I was initially skeptical of the 6 knobs because of some of reviewers stated that it was hard to get a good sound out of this box...huh ?
I plugged it in out of the red box (w/ everything set to 12 O'clock), and was completely stoked out of my mind. Then I did some slight tinkering (11 O'clock here, 1 O'clock there, yadda yadda yadda) and have found THE SOUND. It seems to be hard to get a bad sound out of it...Because there are 6 knobs to fiddle around with, and they are all interactive, it does take a few more minutes to find the sound you like best than say a Boss DS-1, but that is made up in the sound quality department.

Wow !!! My set up is simple - Epiphone Union Jack Supernova, VOX wah wah, and Fender Champ 25 12" combo(w/tube power amp). I set the amp for a just slighly overdriven tone (my "clean" setting) and off I go. The amp has decent distortion (it was designed by Rivera), but it is low power and pushes one speaker...

I am striving for a sound combination in the vein of RUSH and TOOL... With my settings I am able to get the cleanish tone I like, and with the push of a button, the thick monster tone...beefy, if you will, The timbre of the effect is sooooo musical.

I cannot understand how previous reveiwers keep dissing this pedal, unless they do not know what the hell they're doing. I had never heard this pedal before, and am a proponent of the "tagibility factor" (see it/try it before you buy it) and took a $219 gamble hoping it would pay off in killer tone - I hit the jackpot. I have not been able to dail in a bad sound. A freakin' $219.00 distortion pedal had better sound good though...

This pedals tone kills my shrill DS-2, and puts my RAT ('81) to shame.

True bypass is the icing on the cake. Every note (with my settings) rings thru - not mushy at all, and power chords are HUGE !!!

I have not had any issues, and the pedal seems to be a little metal shithouse (weighs a ton for a little pedal)...fomr what I have heard from different techs and Fulltone users, this pedal will last a real long time. Again, costing $219.00, it freakin' better...

I haven't had to contact Mike, but th epedal comes with a five year, non-transferable warranty. Again, there shouldn't be any issues.

This is the pedal...fattens up my single 12" combo with a gnarly mean sound that have been looking for. Thru a Marshall 1/2 stack (1959 SLP) it was nuclear holocaust squared. Not a bad sound in this pedal, and tons of versatility. Perfect for what I needed.

I bought this pedal without trying it, and took a big gamble. In general, you get what you pay for. In this case, I did.

SCORE !!!

took about 10 minutes to get a very usable tone, suprising seeing how many knobs there were and how picky i am.

i run a early 70's strat through a twin reverb. effects include morley emerald echo & univibe. responds well to effects. very quiet. i am very happy with the dynamics of this pedal compared to other distortion pedals where everything turns to mush no matter what you play. distorion can get loose at higher gain settings so i choose to set the distortion knob at 10:00 o'clock giving me more gain than an overdrive but with a tighter sound.

this pedal is a thing of beauty. i would gig without a backup.

never dealt with M. Fuller.

i play depressing rock music. this pedal can murmur and it can scream, just what i need. if it were stolen i would have to get a second job to get a new one. these pedals aren't cheap, or maybe i am.
either way i don't want to lose this pedal.

Has Many controls, all very self explanatory:
"Resonance"=Bass, "Voicing" covers Low Mid to Treble, a very linear sweep...very effective! "Highs" is a Presence control it seems, and "Saturation" is AMAZING! This allows you to dial in or out compression, and to bring back in the "string" for a more focused sound. Quite amazing for such a hi gain device to have this kind of clarity. It has internal trimmer that allow for Pickup Gain compensation, and the #2 one is for RADICAL changes in the basic behaviour of the Gain/Midrange content.

A lot of sounds in this box, very old Marshall, Dumble sounding.

Like all Fulltone stuff, over engineered, built to last

Mike's always there when you need him. I have a different view of customer service myself....I don't call a prolific, busy businessman and ask him what amp I should buy of what order I should put my Boss effects in. I email him when I have a problem..period. And I can't fucking BELIEVE the whiny little highschool snots who cry that they didn't get their 20 minutes on the phone with Mike. For Christ Sake, these other boutique Frantones, Landgraffs, Barbers, etc etc cloning Mike's stuff have NOTHING but time on their hands, of course they want to talk to you for hours. They aren't supplying over 100 stores with top notch product. Get over it! (rant over)

Great pedal, especially if you use a quality Clean amp and want the most CONVINCING Marshallesque tones.....a huge pallet of tones!

With six knobs you have more to deal with of course. I don't like this pedal, so no... I don't think it's easy to get a good sound out of it. If you like this pedal, yes... it's probably easy to use and it looks cool!

Okay, I just think this pedal is way too aggresive. I mean when you turn the distortion down to zero and it's still very distorted there is a problem in my opinion. This creates a lack of flexibility big time. I think this pedal wants to do one thing and if you don't want to go that's too bad. I don't like to be dominated by a pedal. I have a great hardtail Strat and a Singlecut PRS as my main guitars. Mostly Fender and Marshall amps. Main amp. is a reissue Fender Bassman with a Hoffman point to point board kit, E.H. tubes, Fender stand alone Reverb Unit. I guess I'm a Tube Screamer guy. I don't like the E.J. Brian May ploy. That's just trying to sell a bunch of pedals which it probably has. I like the Fulltone line though!

I'm sure it's fantastic like most pedals....

Probably better than a big company....I don't know. I hear it's moody.

I didn't find the knobs that interactive. The saturation control is just mush. Why not call resonance, voicing, highs...lows, mids, and highs? I didn't think there was anything transparent about the pedal. It just wanted to be a club fisted brute with a ton of sustain. There's a place for that but that's all I thought it did well.

Regardless of the fact that it takes more time than usual to find the sound you want out of the pedal, it IS EASY TO USE. I say this because if at anytime you want it to sound slightly different, you can! Unlike most other pedals, this pedal has a WIDE array of tones.

Alot of people are saying that this pedal sounds fuzzy, well.... it does when the SATURATION control is past 1 o'clock and the gain is past 2 o'clock. But this changes to an EXTREMELY DIFFERENT sound once you turn the saturation control clockwise and you have to change the tone controls. But if you go from a 'Metal' or 'Fuzz' sound to 'Rock' you have to change to totally different HI/MID/LOW settings on ANY pedal. You have to have a TUBE AMP to get a good TUBE sound, and I honestly don't think that Mike was implying that you can get an exact Brain May sound without very similar equipment. I think what he means by "More tube sounding than any 'tube' pedal I've heard" is when it drives a 'Class A' clean amp, because if you drive a 'Class A' tube amp with a tube pedal you are 'OVER TUBED'. He built this to drive a GOOD tube amp, he told me himself, but it CAN drive a good solid state like a Roland JC-120. If you have a medium amount of patience, this pedal will give you the DISTORTION sound you want(Don't forget-a distortion pedal is not meant to sound like an overdrive) if you don't have a decent amp or want something other than a DISTORTION sound, don't submit a review!!! He is not claiming to be a Voodoo DOCTOR if you don't have a decent guitar, amp, and other effects don't expect 1 pedal to make you sound good!!!

Almost all of the reviews got a 10 since Fulltone changed their supplier of 3PDT footswitches, and think about the amount of good reviews of all Fulltone pedals. Now, think about how many people that have bought Fulltone pedals and have not submitted a review. The reliability average of all Fulltone effects submitted to Harmony Central is 9.5(I did the math) You tell me, can you depend on it?

Mike Fuller is HUMAN!!! If you spent all of your time building effects pedals, you would too would have a temper ranging from Bitchy to Angelic. I submitted a review on the 'Deja Vibe-2' with all 10's, Mike called ME when I emailed him and fixed a problem I had with a dealer, having a new DV-2 to me within 3 days(and this was on the weekend). Mike talked to me like a fellow guitar player, and he was calling me in Connecticut from south California, responding to my email within 18 minutes. To me the guy is a gift from 'GOD' after dealing with all of the con artists I have dealt with in Music Stores. If you have a problem with an attitude he has, keep in mind you are taking up his time and think about the demand on his pedals. I went to Manhattan and none of the 15 music stores I went to had the DP-1, that included Rudy's(the only fulltone dealer in NYC) and that's NYC, the biggest city in America!! Read the reviews, even if he has an attitude he still gives you valuable info. Fulltone gets a 12 for this from me, if he is snappy, give him the benifit of the doubt, he is VERY BUSY and is not trying to Con you.

The pedal gives you excellent distortion and I said DISTORTION! It works excellent with the Fulldrive-2 as a boost. I play all styles and if you combine the DP-1 with the FD-2 or other good overdrives you can get almost any sound. If you try this out in a music store, try it with your kind of amp first, then a good tube amp(if yours isn't). If you bring it home and WORK with it, you will get a good distortion sound.

It's got a lot of knobs so a little time needs to be invested to get the best out of it. The controls are interactive so that changing one entails changing another to compensate. For example, if you increase the saturation you need to increase the volume or if you decrease the highs you may also need to increase the volume. But on the plus side the extra controls allow for some crucial fine tuning and they aren't overly sensitive so it's hard to get a bad sound.

I've only had this a few days but I've been testing it with a Schecter Strat with Kinman traditional pickups and a Tele with Joe Bardens into my hot rodded Vibro Champ. The DP-1 generally covers the territory of the Fuzz Face, Big Muff, Rat, etc. only with a lot more finese. When the guitar's volume is rolled back the effect cleans up, but not as radically as a Fuzz Face. It's a more natural attenuation. I can roll my guitar volume back to 5 and get a nice rhythm tone then raise it to 10 and wail. I don't understand the reason for all the negative reviews as I love this pedal. I've been playing for about 38 years and I've had my share of distortion and overdrive foot pedals. I think that some of the previous reviewers may have been put off by the Eric Johnson, Brian May comparisons. From my limited experience I'd say it's closer to Hendrix, AC/DC, or even EVH. I really don't know why it matters unless someone's trying to EXACTLY imitate a particular artist. Anyway, I believe Eric Johnson's tone is hard to get because he uses extreme gain with an incredibly light pick attack and it's nearly impossible to acheive for us ham fisted blues benders. There are also a lot of very interactive controls which may be hard to negotiate for a quick try out at a music store. I like the resonance control almost all the way CCW. This minimizes the "loose bass". It sounds pretty cool to goose it's input with my Fulldrive 2 to put it over the top then step on the Fulldrive's boost to send it into very controlable feedback. This is a FUN pedal to play..very dynamic and versatile. I can get a lot of very different and useable sounds just by changing pickups and adjusting the guitar's volume. Oh, and it's VERY quiet.

Fuller had a problem with his supplier for 3PDT switches a few years ago, which he will quickly replace, but that's the only problem I ever heard of with any of his pedals. They are built like tanks, but then again I'd take a backup anyway. But that's just me.

I've had a few dealings with Mike and they were all positive. He responded quickly and fairly. Far better customer service than you will ever get from some huge multinational conglomerate.

I've been playing around with blues, pop, rock and whatever for 38 years. This is a welcome addition to the arsenal. I have no "buyer's remorse", it's a keeper. Some folks have posted negative comments about the high price of "boutique" pedals. As for the Distortion Pro, the custom chassis alone probably cost Fuller more than the total manufacturing cost of an Ibanez TS-9 reissue.

The thing I like best about the DP-1 is the carefully chosen design parameters, meaning that the six external knobs all cover USEABLE territory. There are no really hideous sounds waiting at the extremes of the potentiometers, whereas most multi-knob pedals have the dubious distinction of being able to take one into sonic screeching and booming hell and only with carefull fiddling can one occasionally find one or two decent sounds.

Turn knobs and listen,....... not too bad

Bogner Metropolis, PRS Mccarty, Suhr Classic, asst fulldrive pedals, old TS-9, Klon, Maxon 808, dm-3 etc.
I just got it a few days ago after having demoed it against some other dist pedals. I liked it the best by far. More transparest and dynamic that another almost $300 dist. I too did not find EJ's tone but I found one of my own that I like. The bottom is a little loose for my taste but useable. So far I like it.

Mike's pedals are built like aviation parts, very rugged, meant never to fail

Mike is funny (peculiar). I have talked with him about 6 times. One day he is a huge prick and the next he could not be nicer or more generous with his time. I prefer the generous Mike.

I have a pretty nice array of high end gear to much to mention. Suhrs, L-5, PRS, Mcinturff, Bogner, Victoria etc.

There are more knobs than the typical distortion pedal, and they are interactive, so you will have to experiment. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Here's where it gets tough. Fulltone's website advertises that this is your ticket to Eric Johnson, Brian May, etc. tones. With a Strat, I couldn't get any useable tones out of it. There's lots of gain on tap, which is good, but the bottom is ultra-loose, the mids and treble are fizzy and buzzy. With a strat and a good Marshall I could only get buzz and fizz; with a Les Paul there was one generic fuzz sound that was pretty good, but I couldn't produce any other tones that I would use in front of an audience. I tried every setting. I was surprised, because all the other Fulltone pedals are very musical. Fulltone claims it cleans up nicely as you turn the guitar down, but it just sounds more constipated. I have to give it a one on sound because not one tone was pleasant to listen to. Really, it was useless.

Built Fulltone-tough. Should last years and years.

Never needed any. All Fulltone boxes have component names and numbers either obscured, or buried in big gobs of gray epoxy. This inhibits circuit thieves and modifiers, but if it ever quits, you can't get it fixed.

I can't recomend this pedal for any style of playing. It's too harsh for rock and blues, too loose for metal, and every tone it makes is done better by some other pedal. I was really disappointed. It's not like I'm here to dump on Fuller, because his Fulldrive-2 and wah are mainstays of my tone, but this unit doesn't do anything that he claims it will do, or anything any guitarist with any musical taste would want it to do. It sounds like a $29 pedal they sometimes blow out at Mega Geetar Chain. All the tones are harsh, fizzy, buzzy, and ultimately, not useful. It instantly makes a good rig sound bad. If you want to make a good amp sound bad, get a DOD Supra Distortion at Mega Geetar Chain on sale and save yourself about $190. The DP1 going back for a refund muy pronto. I can't imagine what Mike Fuller was thinking.

Overall rating is 1, a hunk of junk. I'm sorry but it doesn't matter how well it's made or how much tone range it has, if it doesn't even produce one useful tone, it's not useable. This is Fulltone's first bad pedal.

For years we've heard complaints about distortion pedals. Not one company it seamed, built a box that truly created and aided distortion. Most boxes out there seam to be color boxes with a few transistors thrown in the way of your signal. Well Mike Fuller certainly seams to be trying to create the end all amp-in-a-box with this red, bad boy. It is more diffocult to figure out than say a Pro Co Rat or a Tube Screamer but that's the point. This pedal acts like a good tube preamp. It is almost transparent, asuming you tweak it just right. This is a tweakers pedal, but I found that after I messed around for a while it became easier to operate than my clunky Rat ever was. The only sacrifise is a steep learning curve. Remember that all the controls are interactive, so boosting the mids changes the quality and level of distortion much more than say adding lows highs. This makes sense if you think about it as the midrange frequencies are what the ear picks up most.

Like I mentioned earlier, this pedal doesn't change the overall tonal characteristics unless you really try to make it do so. You will find it hard to make a Fender blackface sound like a roaring Marshall wall, but it is possible. Try to remember that this pedal will maintain the tonal properties of your amp and guitar as well as whatever other signal processers are in line. I found it near impossible to get Eric Johsons tone with this thing, but I'm not using a Marshall or an Echoplex(and I don't have his fingers which are the crucial ingredient). Ultimately you will find this to be the most natural sounding, brilliant distortion around. Since I figured it out, I haven't had any trouble getting cool tones instantly. With a little effort, I managed to get Dimebag death tones with a Strat!(not a replacement if you have a gigantic hunk-o-wood guitar and a monster fuckin' amp.) I found it much easier to get massive blues drive, and the sweetest, tallest, most moutainous lead sound I've ever heard. This is the one! One thing: try not to use standard Alkaline baterys. They discharge power differantly than theolder carbon-zinc kind. You find Danelectro Brand batery in many guitar stores. Use them! Use them in every distortion, wah(any gain effect at all), and try them out in your delays and filter effects. They will enhance your tone in subtle ways and just make more pleasent to listen to. Even if pleaseant is not what you are looking for in a tone, trust me on this, use your ears, and hear the difference.

Everything Mike Fuller makes will last longer than your average cock roach population. Construction is imaculate with an incredibly clean interior and true-bypass switching of course. Knobs are big and sturdy and turn easily(which may be a problem if you don't know how to use this pedal and wanted to preserve a certain tone which you just lost because you tossed it into your gig bag like a...). This pedal won't survive repeated blows with a sledge hammer, well the pedal probably would but the switch wouldn't. In any case, this pedal is reliable and Idon't worry about it.

Very prompt and to the point. I think Mike handles every case personaly.

I have played on just about every style of music at one time or another(I'm working on a trip-hop/dub project right now) and have found applications for this box for everything. I would definately buy it again if it were stolen. This pedal can aid you in your music making. This is the one!