Fulltone Distortion Pro

See other reviews or website for the specs. Easy to use once you get the hang of the unit's fine-tuning capabilities. Read the manual for Mike's tips. Mine is the 2003 version so it has the upgrades - I can't comment on the sound quality of earlier units.

This is a REALLY good distortion pedal. I set mine as follows (o'clock positions): Volume = whatever, Distortion = 12:00, Resonance = 1:00, Voicing = 9:00, Highs = 12:00, Saturation = all the way off. I'm using a Tom Anderson guitar through a Mesa Rocket 4-Forty (4x10 Jensens). George L's cables all the way.

This setting creates a nice distortion for soloing - very warm, singing, not at all harsh, actually a very "clean" distortion if you know what I mean. If you can play guitar well and can control the distortion, it sounds beautiful.

If you can't play guitar well, turn the Distortion and Saturation knobs to maximum and you'll get a sound similar to the modified BOSS DS-1's that Analogman and Keeley churn out. Lots of compression, more sustain and dirt... makes hiding mistakes easier.

The pedal cleans up very well when backing down on the guitar's volume knob.

The pedal has a slightly dark voice, which I prefer to the overly bright BOSS DS-1. It has just the right amount of top end to sound detailed yet smooth with a clean Fender/Mesa. It must sound amazing through a good Marshall.

Open up any Fulltone pedal and take note of how immaculate and well constructed it is. Mike knows his shit.

Never dealt with Mike, and will probably never need to.

I've been learning guitar and playing music for nearly 20 years. Mostly play blues/jazz/funk. I really like this pedal. Nice one Mike!

2003 model. Very easy to use. As said before, you start with setting examples and then adjust it to your taste. Actually to get a bad sound out of it your really have to look for it.

I'm using it with a fender AV '62 stratocaster. This is the best distortion pedal I ever used. What's particularly incredible is that it makes my blues junior for instance sound big, and my custom vibrolux reverb HUGE. First time I plugged it with my band, everybody asked if I had bought a new amp or a new guitar. The is fat, present, very natural sounding. I only use the "browner sound" setting. No need for a 200-channel switching amp.

Bult like a tank, as it has become proverbial to say about fulltone pedals. Don't have backup, clever access to the battery, nice red colour, will look great when 20 years old and chipped and nicked.

Here's the rub, as Hamlet would say. Mike Fuller won't agree to sell his pedals internationnally any more, though I had bought my Fulldrive 2 direct a couple of years before. Why did it work once and not anymore? Credit card seem to be the issue, but I had sent a prepaid money order. So I ordered it through the internet from a very very nice store located in Seattle. An other thing, he wouldn't reply my emails. I know he's busy but hey if I want to spend $999 on a TTE I expect at least a one-sentence answer. Maybe he just doesn't care about some obscure French guitar player. Anyway, I decided to buy other brand's products.

Great for every guitar-driven, rock music. Turns any good tube amp into a Marshall (and a good one). That by itself is a feat. I only wish it cleaned up even better. But the crunch I'm lusting for has to be asked from my amp, and not from this pedal that is build for distortion.

What a great distortion pedal. Fairly easy to use but you have to learn about the fine tuning capabilities to get the fantastic variety of sounds that this pedal can produce. The two large knobs are Distortion and Volume. They have the greatest affect on sound when adjusted. The other four knobs are marked Resonance, Voicing, Highs, and Saturation. It is very interesting how sensative these small knobs are and how they interact to shape the many high quality sounds that the box can generate. Mike gives you a few diagrahms inside the manual for Clapton's Cream sound, an SRV sound, and a AC/DC distortion. The manual is laid out well and is informative without being too wordy. My unit was made in 03, and is numbered in the 2700's, so it has the latest modifications that improved the overall sound of the pedal (see other reviews or Fulltone website). Start with Mike's settings and learn how to shape your own sound. The pedal is simple to use at a glance, but you must experiment to fully understand how to produce the variety of sounds that can be made with this effect box.

Fantastic! My usual setup is a 97 Fender American Standard Stratocaster, into a Boss CS-3 Compressor, and into a 1984-86 Blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb II, all tube amplifier. It was designed by Paul Rivera when he worked for Fender. I only add other effects as needed. I also use the same setup through a 1977 Silverface Fender Princeton, all tube amplifier. I use the clean side of the amp when using the Deluxe Reverb II. The distortion tones that the Distortion Pro generates through either amp just are incredible. Complex, warm, not buzzy or metallic sounding. The Highs knob allows you to cut back the treble and remove shrill sounds even when using the bridge position pickup. You can get a very mild distortion or a very extreme distorted sound, or anything in between. Right now my settings are set for a "Reeling In The Years" tone. The box nails that sound. Also, Robin Trower's "Long Misty Days" sound can easily achieved making my small Fender sound much like Robin's Marshalls. I am really pleased with this pedal and feel better about the cost now that I realize the variety of distorted tones that can be conjured up by turning any of the six adjustment knobs. I can even take my Tube Screamer out of the chain since this pedal can make a great overdrive sound as well. True bypass is a must for every other pedal I buy in the future. With the box off there is no loss to your signal. I was really leary of spending $200+ on a small red box but now I am very glad that I did.

I have used the pedal nearly every day for about six weeks. I play out twice a week, and have used it on one recording in the studio with great results. I place it in the original box and store it inside my effects gig bag after every use and before transporting it back and forth. It is made of heavy sheet metal construction and all of the parts appear to be high quality. This is my first Fulltone box but it seems to be made in a way that will assure dependability. I don't have an exact backup, but could rely on my Tube Screamer if I had to. You wouldn't get the same sounds since the Tube Screamer is different. I will go on other reviewers rating and the Fulltone name. To access the battery compartment you unscrew a small screw with a knurled head. This can be done with your fingers. The only complaint that I have is that you have to completely remove the screw to open the access door. This opens up an opportunity to lose the screw. This is a nit so I will not deduct points. It would be nice to have the screw attached to the door somehow. That way you wouldn't lose it if you accidentally dropped it on a dark stage. Again, mine was signed by Mike and is numbered in the 2,700s. Obviously Fulltone doesn't stamp these things out like doughnuts. This is quality stuff by someone who knows how to play the guitar.

Have not used CS. Sounds like they respond well. Try calling Ibanez or Boss! I bought this pedal at my local Guitar Center. They guaranteed it for thirty days. Just enough time for me to decide if I wanted to keep it. The best part is I wouldn't have to mail it back to Fulltone. My Guitar Center plans on carrying the full line of Fulltone pedals. Keep your eyes open. They lock them behind the counter and let you demo them only with a G Center sales rep. Mike is busy hand building these things so don't pester him without a just cause. It only slows down production for the people that need Fulltone effects. I will definately buy more eventually. Maybe the Vox 847 wah mod is next. Mine is sounding limited.

I play rock, jazz, blues, folk, etc...This is the best distortion pedal that I have ever used. I compared it to MXR's $79.00 small yellow distortion box. Their box sounded great, but the number of sounds that it can produce is nothing compared to the Distortion Pro. I also compared the Distortion Pro to the Fulltone Fulldrive II. The Fulldrive II is very nice, but it is more of an overdrive pedal, and the Distortion Pro wins the comparison due to the variety of high quality sounds it produces. The Fulldrive II would be a great replacement for my Tube Screamer. I like it much better than the TS9 Turbo with the TS808 mod. The Boss DS-1 and Electo Harmonix Big Muff are okay, but still not at the level of the Distortion Pro. The Distortion Pro can do it all. Highly recommended over any overdrive or distortion pedal that I have ever played through. Do yourself a favor and get one of these. Although it is a bit pricey, you will not regret it.

This pedal is a 2002 with the recent Fulltone 03' upgrade. This one takes a small investment in time before the tonal range is explored. The upside is this pedal has many tones lurking within.

My rating of 9 requires some explanation. I bought this pedal for my rig (57' LP with Matchless HC-30). I could not get a good sound out of this set up, rolled off highs and muddy lows. I gave up on this pedal and gave it to a friend. With his set up (60's Strat with a 50 Watt Plexi) the sound was complex and dynamic. As we played around it apppears it is the Class A power amp stage that the DP does not like. This pedal clearly responds to the equipment you have. Like all pro gear this pedal is intended for rehearsal/gig volumes, if you want to hear this baby sing make sure you are at least driving your power amp stage. It will deliver a wide and impressive tonal range as Fulltone describes on their website.

Everything Fulltone makes is well made. I own several of Fuller's pedals and have been impressed with the quality, consistency and durability.

I have e-mailed Fulltone on several occassions without any response. When they have responded to my questions the response was often sarcastic and non-helpful. Oh-well if I wanted a friend I should have bought a dog.

A great pedal if it works with your set-up. I would suggest you demo this one before you buy. I can say that when it likes your equipment it will deliver an impressive range of tone. I have been playing for a mere 30 years and this opinion (I hope) reflects some wisdom of experience.

mine is a 2003 model. as stated below, these apparently are better than the older ones. with all the knobs, it may take more tweaking than usual on pedals, but the end result is that it is worth it. manual provides good starting points.

i have to say one of the best OD's out there. strats, teles, LP, 335. mostly using fender vibro king sometimes with 212 extention cab. sounds great with all, but humbuckers do change the settings.

had this about 3 months, no problem.

only dealing was i had a knob strip on my fulldrive II. no idea how it happened, but emailed company and they offered new one for no charge. sweet

been playing 25 yrs. mostly southern rock, blues, rock and country. Od is probably over the top for country. play in touring groups for 15 yrs. this is a great "ingredient" in the mix. if you have a problem getting good sound, it is probably one of two reasons. 1- you cant play and don't know the difference. or 2- you probably have crappy gear. it is amazing how much difference it makes. down to the cables. this pedal will really make a good setup sing. i use it with my fulldrive as a boost when needed. awesome. it is not cheap, but the thing about this and the fdII is that although you get the od/ sustain, different guitars still retain their voice which is rare among pedals. true bypass is a big difference as well. i never have personally used a ts9 that didn't suck tone something fierce when turned off.

This pedal is not as much plug and play as the Full-Drive 2 but taking some time to sit and fiddle with the six knobs will result in finding the tone that you are searching for. The manual is extremely helpful in terms of finding a starting point. Usually I do not even bother to look at the manuals but this one helped.

So far I ahve only played it with my Les Paul Classic. There is zero noise with this pedal and it sounds amazing. I am using it with a Full-Drive 2, Ultimate Octave, Mini Deja' Vive and a Budda Wah through a Johnson J-Station set to the Blackface for direct recording. The Blackface simulation in the J-Station is by far the best I have found and I own a Boss GT-6 and GT-5, a POD XT and a Yamaha DG Stomp. I plan on purchasing a Palmer Speaker SImulator so that I can use my all tube Fender Twin for direct recording. I can easily get anything from an Eddie Van Halen tone to a Steve Lukather tone to a flat out Tripple Rectifier.

As with Fulltone pedals, this one is built to last and has impeccable craftsmanship. No concerns here.

I have emailed Mike Fuller and got an immediate response that more than answered my question.

Overall, this pedal has gone beyond takeing care of my high gain needs. I can get as much bottom end as I desire from this all while getting crips highs and an overall tubey feel. This has become my main go to high gain pedal and has become indespensible in terms of getting a great tone.

Distortion Pro (DP-1), built in 10/03/03. The instructions in the Owners Manual are crystal clear.

I used a Gibson Les Paul style guitar (Heritage H-150CM Classic) with Seymour Duncan SH-55 Seth Lover model passive pickups (The SH-55 was designed jointly by Seymour and humbucker inventor Seth Lover. Just like the original 1955 P.A.F.s, the SH-55 utilizes a nickel silver bottom plate, butyrate plastic bobbins; plain enamel wire, an Alnico bar magnet, a wooden spacer, and black paper tape. The SH-55 uses a nickel silver cover instead of brass, which magnetically eliminates too much of the pickup's natural high-end tone. To be completely true to the original design and tone, the pickup is not wax potted. The tone is vintage P.A.F. The neck pickup will warm up even the coldest guitar, and the unpotted covers give the bridge pickup just enough boldness to break up early and really cut), a 10' and 15' Planet Wave cable, and a Peavey Classic 50-212 amplifier (retubed with JJ Electronic tubes: see www.eurotubes.com). I plugged my guitar into the DP-1, then the DP-1 into the, "Normal", input and played in the, "Normal Channel".

Can I depend on it? It's worked perfectly so far...Would I use it on a gig without a backup? Yes this pedal is an addendum to my guitar sound, not it's lynchpin.

I've been playing African American Gospel music, CCM, C&W, R&B, R&R for 24 years. This is the best distortion pedal on the planet and the first (hopefully not only :) )Fulltone pedal you should buy (see Gilbert Jones' review below).

Very easy to use. Just start turning the dials and you will soon come across many settings that you will like. As with any distortion box, the unit is very interactive with the volume control of the guitar.

I'm using the lastest version sold in 2003/2004 and have to say that it is absolutely the best distortion box on the planet sound wise. I used to use an older version of the Distortion Pro that was the one GP magazine raved about, but it was noisy and had a harsh sound to it. Although the original was good, the latest version sounds much smoother and less brittle, and is definitely an improvement in more ways than one. Comes very close to sounding like a real tube amp.

The new version is so flexible that you can get tones that are covered by other Fulltone boxes such as the Fulldrive II. In other words, if you can only afford one of Mike's pedals this is the one.

It can be used by itself for super distortion or it can be used as an overdrive device to drive an already distorted amp into thicker distortion. It seems to excel at Vox and Marshall sounds although by turning down the guitar's volume control, you can get nice fender sounds as well.

The unit is very quit.

In sum, the latest version significantly out perfprms the old original DP in many noticeable ways. Believe me, the improvement is not subtle. I can't imagine anybody not liking it.

Built great. My original DP never had problems. Expect this one to last as well.

I've corresponded with the Fulltone Service Dept once. They took care of me.

I play heavy metal, rock, classic, and some country. Been playing 20 years plus and have had many Marshall amps, Fender Amps, Mesa Amps, and even a Matchless amp. So I've had the good fortune of playing through some of the best. This pedal is right up there. In all honesty, the sound is so good, I often play it without any pre-amp distortion from the amplifier. By itself, it's as good sounding as an overdriven amp.

It it was stolen I'd buy another immediately. No hesitation.

I fooled around with this pedal alot when I first got it. Turned the internal pots everything. Everything does something on this pedal everything changes. Got it set where it pretty much sounds like a Hor Rodded Marshall stack....even when pluged in to 4X10..1X12..2X12..1X15 combos. Manual is helpful to get you started. I found it hard to leave this pedal alone for the first few months...now I make very small adjustments to it depending on the amp or guitar I'm using. Leave the thing alone and Play Your Guitar!

Most tube like and smooth distortion I ever heard in a pedal. Reacts very much like a tube amp when using your volume knob on your guitar. Almost I repeat Almost disappears completely with guitar volume down around 2 or 2.5. Works fine with my Strats or Teles. When usinig Les Paul or PRS I turn down the distortion knob to get the desired amount of distortion....with singles coils I leave it all the way up. Not Noisy at all. Used with Reissue Marshall Bluesbreaker...old Music Man combos..early 70's HD-130 4X10...RD-100 1X12..RD-100 1X15... I find the RD's cheap around here so I pick them up for a song..I can do a gig with any of them. Soldano Decatone Head in to Marshall 4X12 cab. Don't use the pedal much with this amp cause well you don't need to but it still works well driving the Decatone.

I find the distortion very very smooth. NO Hair Ball or Buzz Bomb in it. YOu can get that by changing the internal pots which I tried...but you lose how it reacts to the guitars volume knob. I like jockeying the volume knob more then i need the grainy distortion.

I like how you can retain some of your guitars tone with this pedal. I don't know about the 1000 pound violin and the Eric Johnson tones. I love the fact that it sounds like a Cranked Marshall and it fits in my guitar's gig bag. On my regular gig in a Soul,R&B, Funk band I use it for solos only. But at the weekly blues jams or open mic nights I never turn it off all night. I love how people scratch there heads when I use the same Twin they just used with there Tube Screamer or whathaveyou and I go from clean to slight breakup to more drive and more drive and more drive ect.ect.ect....all on a volume knob. There is some thing almost Hi-Fi about the tone of it...to good to call it distortion.

ps...every once in a while that 1000 violin sound comes out all by itself

It's a Fulltone. Use a lot of there stuff. Out of of 7 or 8 Fulltones only had one switch fail. That was long ago and probably caused by not have a hard case for my pedal board. Never worry about a back up for any of them.

Not to go in depth here....I have no problems with Mike or his company or his products. I love Fulltone and Fulltone loves me.

I'm your typical Jack of All Trades Master of None type guitar player. I've beening learning how to play for 30+ years. I say that cause I find myself still learning new and different things a lot lately. One day it's Wes Montgomery and Coltrane the next it's Hendrix(again), Trower, Marino, then it's Muddy, Buddy, Clapton, SRV. Oh let's not forget Joe Pass, Holdsworth, Eric Johnson. I still have so much to learn. I play a lot of covers from 50's Rock and Roll and 60's Soul/R&B..70's, 80's Rock...what... ever. Love to play straight blues in the right time and place. Gee I forgot Jimmy Page, Tommy Bolin, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Nolen, Nile Rogers,Vernon Reid,Danny Gatton, Roy Buchanan,Zappa,damn and oh Chuck Berry,ah Carlos Santana,,ect.ect.ect...

With all the different hype or likes and dislikes on here it's hard to make a dicision. All I know is the other night at a jam everyone was checking out my rig (68' Tele, $80 Music Man RD-100, DP1, Clyde) instead of the other guys Gibson Custom Shop 335, $3000 Two Rock in to JBL loaded cab. I can honestly say my tone was every bit as sweet fat round sustaining and singing as his. With a stock Tele no less.

Walk softly but carry a DP1 in your pocket.

This is a review based on the upgraded version. Fairly versatile pedal, there are so many reviews here that I'm not going to get into everything this pedal can do, but in short you can dial in any amount of lows, mid, and highs you want and with the saturation dial in a full compressed sound or back it off for blues or whatever.

My current set up is Les Paul Custom into clyde deluxe wah,into distortion pro,then choralflange into 50 watt Germino Rockgrinder with Groove tube KT66HP's and tube rectifier. My cab is a Germino 2x12 with one greenback and one Rola G1280. The reason I'm listing everything I use is because I think like most of us it has taken me years to find the tone I have heard in my head for thirty years and to maybe offer some advice to those who have listed negative reviews about this pedal. First and foremost is that tone starts with your amp. Then a good guitar, high quality cables, good pickups, a vintage cab or at least a cab that is made the way they use to make cabs. If you don't have any of these, how can you possibly fault the pedal. It even is stated on Fulltones web site that the afore mentioned thing's are almost a must to enjoy what this pedal can do to your tone. Nothing is a miracle in a box, it is simply a piece of the tone chain. If your tone chain sucks then you will continue to right bad reviews about most things you purchase! My goal here is not to piss people off because I did the same things for a long time. As far as the sound quality, this thing is absolute butter Period! No grainy distortion, it's almost as if there is no distortion, it's that smoothe. Very transparent and pure, tube tone. The best of the best out there today!

The old cliche" built like a tank and have had no problems with it. I just make sure I put a fresh battery in before I play out.

I sent my pedal on the 15th and UPS took seven days to get it ther and it arrived at fulltone on the 22nd, and Mike was going on vacation the 23rd so I thought it would be well into the new year until I got it back. Well I got it back on the 28th. They must have upgraded it and sent it the same day they received it. That's customer support!

I have been playing for 30 years and would replace it without question. I have tried the mass produced pedals and they aren't in the same class, not even close. It is dead quiet, and has True bypass and retains volume, clarity and power throughout the entire gig. It just adds to what already is a great tone. We play classic rock and with the right equipment you can nail, Cream, ACDC ZZ Top thge list goes on and on. Bottom line is Buy One!