Fulltone Distortion Pro

The controls are laid out nicely and they seem to do what they say they will.

This always sounded farty and more like a fuzz than a distortion box. Like one of the other reviewers I was expecting more of a Boston, 70s rock, EVH type of vibe, but it sounds more like a fuzz with a lot more bottom end. I could never get the thing to ever get a Marshall type of rock distortion. It always sounded farty to me. But maybe I am using it wrong. The adverts are kind of misleading in that it gets more 60s fuzz than anything. I used this with a JCM800 set to a basic clean (for a marshall) tone and also a Fender Twin. It did retain the bottom end better than any other pedal I have tried, but the overall distortion sound was just to fuzzy and farty for me.

It looks like it last forever. All Fulltone stuff is built well, even though this pedal didn't work for me, you can't knock him for the overall construstion of his pedal.

Hes a little short and opinionated, a little tempramental, but i guess the line between genius and insanity is a thin one!

Pedal didn't work for me. I was looking for a tighter distortion sound, not a fuzz. Might work for some other people. I think I'll just stick with my TS-9 into my JCM 800 for now.

I had a difficult time getting a sound I was comfortable with. I had to adjust the dipswitches quite a bit to get a usable sound. I am still messing with all the knobs. Saturation all the down, Distortion all the way on, and volume about 4 o'clock. All the small knobs are all the way on. The knobs on top of the pedal except for the saturation knob are not all that interactive. I prefer something a lot easier to use, waaayyy too many knobs on this thing. Feels like I am using rack gear with this many knobs.

The sound of this unit is very good after you find a good setting. I am using a Hiram Bullock guitar heavily modified, with a John Landgraff Dee lux amp. The amp is amazing, but this pedal does not seem to do so well with it. The bottom end of this pedal is somewhat muddy, no matter what setting I seem to set it on. The mids and highs are where it shines. Very midrangy with a warm rolled off highend, for lead it rocks. For rhythym it sounds full but the low E tends to be fizzy. I am going to buy one of John Landgraff's pedals to go with this. This pedal does not clean up very well with the volume knob, Landgraff's are 200% better. If you are a lead player who does not mind a fizzy bottom end this may be the pedal for you. I will use it till the Landgraff comes in, then you can buy it.

Seems bullet proof, and I have heard Mike Fuller is good at rtesponding back. Very well made pedal, should last many,many years.

Again I have never dealt with Mike fuller but have heard good things.

I think this is one of the better distortion pedals out there, does tend to let the amps flavor come through. Fizzy muddy bottom end makes this a nonkeeper for me. Fulltone has a great reputation, and I have played several of their products. The true bypass is a big plus, and construction is top notch. Play it before you buy it, may suit your style great.

I am amazed at some of the reviews here... well, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to play guitar - OBVIOUSLY! This pedal has WAY more configuration possibilities than any other Distortion pedal out there - the price is a few more tweaking knobs... and they are EASY to figure out guys... you have to use your ear - to play guitar and to get tone - period.... put your guitars away if you can't figure it out man... sheesh - I apologize - don't mean to sling mud, but it seems that the competition has laced this column with it's advertising crew's reviews... I own almost every distortion pedal of note out there.... I have compared them all... TS808, TS9, DS-1, SD-1, RAT, RAT2 (talk about transistor tone!), realtube, bluetube, Guyatone (a better TS808, btw), and a couple self-built mod'd clones. The DP1 blows them ALL to pieces.

This pedal is the one. Throw away all your other distorion pedals - you don't need them anymore! Including those containing 12ax7s. Once again, I am amazed by some of the other reviews here. This pedal is so dynamic, it FEELS like an awesome tube-pre to me... and I own one. My current equipment: Mesa-Boogie Triaxis, T.C. Electronics G-Force and Mesa 90/90 tube power amp; a small, much-modified tube10 (Epiphone) with pedalboard; and a solid state Peavey "TransTube" thing... 60 watts or so. I play Les Paul/EMG;Les Paul/Gibson;Strat/Rio Grande;Hamer/Duncan;Charvel/Lynch S. Demon; Strat/Rio Grande HB's.... a wide array of guitar and amp-ability I think...
I have played the DP1 through pretty much ALL of the above... with a little tweaking here and there, I get awesome, useable tones, from dripping molten distortions (EVH, etc..), to in-between and to SRV-like gutsy neck/middle blues singing. My "sound quality" rating is based mostly on the tones I get out of the little tube amp and the solid-state (with emulated output tube compression and drive) sound of the Peavey. So, leaving the Boogie stuff OUT of the equation (with which the DP1 plays VERY nicely I'll add), the DP1 - through plain, not-too-gainridden combos, tube and solid-state, set for a nice, semi-clean blues tone to start... absolutely sings.. I can get any tones I could want with just the DP1 and a small, clean or slightly overdriven power amp... the controls allow for me to dial up pretty much anything. I feel that the DP1 lives up to ALL of Fuller's claims.

I own a Clyde-Deluxe as well as the DP1. These things are unquestionably the toughest enclosures I've seen. People complain about the price of these things - yet every piece is custom made... not just some circuit in a generic housing with a carling 2PDT switch on it... these cases are steel, welded into the perfect shape... that you could drive your car over (god forbid someone do that with these real works-of-art though)... You get what you pay for, guys! Even the switch is a Fulltone 3PDT - REAL full-bypass, LED's, case built for the circuit (rather than the other way around), custom or TOP-Grade components (no shortcuts in these things, guys... down to the resistors and capacitors...)... You can pass one of these pedals down to your grand-children's grandchildrens' grandchildren... and it'll still work!

Only dealing I have had is this: Dealer advertised in-stock (the Clyde Dlx)... but it wasn't... his webpage was outdated... he made a call and Mike Fuller sent it direct from Factory to my house in 3 days. This was an exception - these pedals are in high demand, and every dealer Mike knows is almost certainly calling him around the clock trying to get special favors... wonder why his rep. is that he's annoyed? He probably is ; Success yes, but these folks work their a**es OFF trying to keep up with demand and make everyone happy.

From SRV-like blues to Schenker/Lynch/Satriani styles... this pedal will allow me to carry my Triaxis/90-90 around in a small bag ;) I am amazed... I thought transistor/analog circuitry had gone as far as it could go... with the distortion/saturation controls... this pedal is about 1000% above any other pedal I have heard (and that's alot of pedals)

First I gave it 1. But after some effort I now would
give it 8.

Trying to make this thing work properly in my small home studio room was a totally negative experience. None of the manual suggested settings did help me out eather.
Desperatly i brought my gear to a normal size live stage for a last try, to let the amp (DC-30)and box work at proper levels in proper rooms ! So everything happened and I just felt stupid.

Some of the early fulltone effects had bad switches, but I believe
that is history.

My FD-2 had a bad switch, I sendt a mail to the company
and one week later the new improved switch was in my mailbox here
in Norway. Fastest way to do it.

I have been playing different distorionboxes since 1968, and this
is my man. I don't want a box to sound just like my amp. The DP-1 can really take the output tubes to other levels. That's why I love it
and would by it again.

I could not get a consistantly useable sound out of it. The manual was a little more than the usual one pager, and offered some sample settings that I could not even get in the ballpark with.

Decent gear, I think. I bought it for use with a Top Hat Club Deluxe, but it was far too harsh and fizzy. The TH is very unfriendly toward almost all distortion or overdrive pedals, so I also tried it with my Mesa Mark III and Budda Superdive; it sounded a little better, but still far too buzzy and thoroughly lacking any natural sustain. I got some good power rhythm tones out of it while gigging with the Top Hat, but it completely mushed and fizzed out for single note playing. I A/B'd it with my 2nd generation mid-80s Rat and the Rat was a whole lot more useful for my kind of playing.

Probably extremely dependable. Good components and built like a stone, I'm sure.

Not necessarily friendly, but very efficient and timely any time I've needed anything on other pedals.

Not a good match for me. I really lost patience quickly and don't qualified to make any sweeping judgements other than: Audition this pedal before you buy. It may or may not all be hype, but I REALLY wanted this pedal to be a wonder pedal, and I'm terribly disappointed with it. I don't think that it was all because of my high expectations.

No Manual, two internal tweek knobs, six external tweek knobs, good enough casing, cheap feet. The unit emulates a 'sans amp' saturating device with almost as much tone. It DOES NOT emulate tube distortion very well, but DOES emulates several other 'cheap' pedals well enough. It costs $199 and is worth $75 tops. Good Luck, as with all the Fulltone products, there never seems to be enough of what they're trying to sell in the pedal for the money they're asking!

VERY noisy and too distorted, even for metal!

It's built well enough, too small of a case though!

It's not THAT easy to use -lots of tonal variation in there, so some tweaking is needed to find the best settings.

This thing sounds really good, and alot of people have alot of things to say about it. I think the only other pedal that has had so much hype around it is the Klon. You'll notice there are a few reviewers who say that they are disappointed but that it's a really good pedal, so they give it a 5/10. To them I say MAKE UP YOUR MIND! I think too many are expecting one thing, and the reality is another, so they get frustrated. The long waiting lists didn't help at all either... Back to my experience, I wanted a heavy distortion sound. Up until I got it, I only had a Fuzz Probe, a Tube Works 901, a Klon, and my amp's overdrive (amp is Allen 80w. Tonesavor with 2 12" Fanes, 2 Weber 10's). I was playing mostly heavy metal-type stuff, and none of the above pedals could cut it. So I did my homework (like you're doing now, good boy!) and went for it. I got mine in 4 days (Thanks Terry!). I have had it for about a month, and feel I know what it can do. I play a Les Paul Classic with Rio Grande Texas/BBQ's, a Strat Ultra with Van Zandt Blues, and a stock Gretsch Tennessee Rose. Other pedals are Teese RMC-1, Univibe, Bad Stone, Purple Haze Octavider. The tones this thing can conjure are big and of high quality, but there are alot of mediocre sounds possible too. Naturally, the first thing I did was set the gain all the way up, then all the way down, and doing the same thing with the saturation knob in the said positions. It took me a while to recognize that the bass, mid, high knobs need to be fiddled with. I never did get to the internal trim pots, and I might, because I find there is a tad too much gain the way things are now. I get a big, crunchy tone with the distortion knob low (like 7 o'clock), and the saturation just above 12 o'clock. Crank the highs to 3 o'clock, bass at 12, mids cut a bit to 11. This is my favorite sound so far. I put the volume up a bit too. Loads of sustain, crunchy, tasteful distortion! Just what I wanted, anyway. For the heavier stuff, lower the saturation, and you enter some harmful monster distortion, and turned up, you CAN (with the right EQ settings) sound pretty tubelike/natural. Oodles of gain on tap, and all usable because there's alot of bass and it's a quality pedal. Watch the EQ however -some is too dark, some too mushy, some just not satisfying, but it's great to have alot available in one pedal. A 100-lb violin? I'm not sure about that, but if you don't have a channel-switching amp, this is a GREAT place to get yer high-gain sounds.

Nicely built.

Fuller got back to me fast about the major amplification of single coil hum, but his response was curt. It would have taken no more time to be classy, but I guess we're dealing with a "rocker" here or something.

A mighty fine distortion pedal. Better than any Boss I've heard, and everything out there seems to be overdrive or fuzz, wheras this is undeniably distortion, and I like it. This won't be much good for blues tones, been playing 6 years, favorite feature is the versatility (no it isn't THAT versatile -it's only one pedal for crying out loud). It does for distortion what the Zvex Fuzz Factory does for fuzz (I know it doesn't do as many sounds as the FF, but alot of the FF sounds are mediocre anyway, just like the DP-1). You can twiddle a few knobs and get something totally different for a bit of variety. Would concievably buy it again.

takes a fair bit of time to get used to how it works, and it is pretty sensitive to small changes. i think this is an asset though, well worth the trouble.

using an esquire, sg. jr, jazzmaster, guild sf-4 all through a matchless dc-30, 57 and 61 deluxes and it sounds great. lots of weight to the tone, compresses really nicely, is fun to play through. i think it's really a great pedal, and i haven't had any of the fizzy tone problems other people have complained about, even with an esquire through a matchless(no shortage of top end)

never had previous fulltone problems, can't see it happening on this one.

no idea

great pedal. lots of richness, weight, grease. tried a gazillion OD pedals and have fallen in love with this one. about as good as a pedal OD can get.

Lots of knobs outside, a couple of trim pots inside...but I haven't been able to nail the sound I'm hearing in my head. Everything seems to be so interactive, that if you adjust one knob, you have to adjust another, etc. The instruction manual has sample settings, but they are only a very basic starting point. Definitely a "tweak machine", but I'd rather spend more time playing than adjusting.

I'm using mainly a modified Tele (HD S90 bridge pup, Rio Grande Muy Grande Humbucker Neck, wired for coil tapping, etc.) thru a '69 Vibrolux Reverb. I get good tones with the DP. (But honestly, I've gotten the same tones with pedals I already have, & with a little less effort.) The internal trim pots really have a big effect on the sound...a little turn goes a long way. Out of the box, higher gain settings were a little "phizzy", if you know what I mean. It does have a great bottom end, something unique in my experience with distortion pedals. I think I've got it tamed where I can achieve a smooth, yet edgy distortion. It's about as noisy as you'd expect a gain pedal to be. It's definitely a good sounding pedal, though, in my opinion, not exceptional.

It's solid. Workmanship is excellent.

Never dealt with Fulltone.

Seems this pedal was built to cover a lot of styles. It is versatile; has the capability of producing a wide spectrum of tones. Only thing is, it's only come close to what I want...I wasn't able to nail it. I did A-B it with a couple of other distortion pedals, & decided to let the Distortion Pro go. Don't misunderstand me...it's a very good distortion pedal. Maybe I haven't given it enough time...and then again, maybe I shouldn't have to...

I have always scoffed at reviews that claimed a pedal is hard to use...until now. I'll say upfront that I bought this pedal hoping to obtain that amazing reed-like tone of Alan Holdsworth. After two weeks of fiddling with the DP-1, I feel confident that this pedal is good but does not meet the advertised claims.

Though is has six knobs, there are fewer useful sounds than I expected. I tried every concievable combination and, similarly to an other review, could not obtain tones that replecated Alan Holdsworth, Eric Johnson or Brian May. I have been a fan of each of these artist for nearly twenty years and know there tones intimately. I should have known better than to expeect a small FX pedal to re-create all of their gear but hey, Fulltone made the claim himself this thing was a "100-pound violin." When I think of a 100-pound violin, I want something as resonate as Yo Yo Ma's cello.
Now, it's not all bad. Once you stop trying to convience yourself that this thing will do what Fulltone claims it does, you can get some pretty good rock tones. I also own the Fulldrive II and find the gain a little sweeter and creamier than the DP-1. The DP-1 tone is thinner and more cutting than the Fulldrive II. My recomendation; If you are only going to buy one "gain" pedal, buy the FD II. If your like me and already own that than go for the DP-1 for a more gain option in your pedalboard.

Appears very well built

Ive been around too long and played with to many incredable artist to put up with a sourpuss. I have never talked to Mike Fuller but his reputation seems pissy at best.

Not the holy grail it claims to be BUT may still be the best thing out there.