Fulltone Distortion Pro

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!

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.

It has six knobs and for a distortion pedal which at first can be daunting. But regardless its very simple to get an amazing tone. The manual is great and offers up some starting points with it sample settings.

Simply the best distortion pedal by far that i have ever played and i have owned them all. In fact when i first got this pedal i was expecting the holy grail considering how hard it is to get one, and was initially dissapointed.But that was because i was expecting angels to fly out my butt or something. But when it came down to it and I a/b ed this with tons of great distortion pedals that i own this thing blew every single one away. Usually pedals of these variety sound great at bedroom levels and terribly middy and bright when you get into a practice situation at loud levels. This thing sounded exactly the same, full of body and reacts so well to pickup changes and turns on your volume knob. I tested it thru my Tone King comet 40b which is very much like a blackface fender. I used a custom warmoth i have w/ humbuckers and a 335 with p-94s in it. Sounded great through both. Thank you Fulltone for giving my dirty tones life again.

built like a tank

Once again i cannot hold this pedal in higher esteem, a true tone machine.

Ease of use is subjective...dependent on your gear. In my particular case, I'm still tweaking the pedal to find my sound. Different guitars demand different settings...but I'm having a heckuva time finding a middle ground...

For the price & amount of time it took to get my hands on one, it should have knocked my socks off outta the box. It didn't. It's not bad...as a matter of fact it's quite good, but not exceptional to my ears. Not the be-all, holy grail of distortion pedals by a long shot. I can actually dial in the same tones with older cheaper pedals I already have.

Definitely built well.

Never had to deal with Fulltone. Hope I never have to.

I play Teles, Strats & Ernie Balls...with an assortment of pickup configurations (everything from stock singles to high output humbuckers), through Fender amps (Vibrolux Reverb) mostly; on occasion I'll whip out the Riveras (Jake Combo, Quiana). Been gigging regularly almost every weekend since '72. The pedal does what it's supposed to do...that is, it's a good distortion pedal. But there's a lot of 'em out there, & the DP blends into the crowd, sound-wise. I could make it work in my rig...and probably be happy with it, but I could do the same with a much less expensive unit. Overall, nothing really negative...but definitely not the standout I hoped it would be.

Took some getting used too. I think I've got the hang of it now, it came with a 3 page instruction manual with 1 of the 3 settings sounding good with my set up. You have numerous to choose from with the voicing, highs, saturation and other knobs I can't remember, but so far I've only found one that works really well for me.

Okay I got this pedal 8 days after I ordered it from fulltone, I was extremely pleased with the rapid delivery, and having never heard it I was going on the assumption it was going to kick ass. I play it through a 71 deluxe that has been blackfaced, and a crybaby with my clapton strat. For giggles I tried the high gain setting and was rewarded with massive clipping and all out noise. I was surprised but not disappointed since I don't play in that style anymore. Okay, next I tried a lighter gain setting kind of early rush. Once again, clipping was still noticeable and it sounded thin. Now, keep in mind that I use single coils and am using a very low distortion amp so I'm not expecting miracles. After two weeks I finally found a setting that suits me fine, a srv type lead tone that ventures into voodoo child slight return territory. Very cool, but not nearly as versatile as I hoped. I plugged in my friends les paul(I sold it to him) and got that thick distortion sound minus the clipping. Hmmph. Not my style anyway(sour grapes approach).

Seems to be built like a tank, superb design.

Never tried to contact them. I feel the pedal does what it said just not what I wanted it to do....exactly.

I've played 8 years and recently started into the blues. I love the sounds I get with my guitar and amp, but wanted a good distortion tone to boot. I can't say that it's important enough for me to buy another les paul, or another amp, but it'd be cool. I like the tone I get with the pedal, I just wonder if I could've gotten a cheaper pedal and gotten the same sound(Like a 69' or 70' fulltone). I will definitely try out other fulltone products, I can tell by the detail of their work that they put alot of pride into it. I'm keeping the pedal for those reasons.

The Fulltone distortion Pro is extremely user friendly.
Several Tone shaping features and the give this unit a vast array
of tonal possiablitiy's.

The pro is capable of FAT NASTY RAW TONE>:~)

WITHOUT A DOUBT(BUILT LIKE A MINNY TANK)

I've only met a few people that take the kind of pride in their work
that Mike Fuller does. A true genious and verry down to earth.

Currently running: Custom Shop fender>PE vibe>Teese Rmc3>Distorion pro
Analogman Clone>Mesa Nomad>Fender blues Deville
This pedal is amazing in any setup

Had a lot of noise at first but after adjusting the trimmers, now sounds very good. I lean more to overdrive than hard distortion, pedal will do both.

Useing this with Fender amps mainly. When I got the pedal, I set it up like the samples in the manual and was disappointed. The background noise was awful, tried other settings and was about to be sick. I remembered the bad review here and was thinking maybe I agree more with this guy but also thinking about the other good reviews I thought I'd give it another try. I looked at the manual and found the info on the trimmers (that are supposed to be left alone) and since they are marked thought I could try other settings and always return it to "stock settings". High settings of the 2nd trimmer effects the noise level and mine was set allmost on full, I backed it down almost a quater and the hum was gone. I also backed the 1st trimmer down like the manual suggested for hot pickups. For me this works very well now. I have a Fulldrive II, the Dist. Pro has a fuller sound. (no pun intended) Sounds good turned down, good turned up, I am as pleased as I was at first disappointed. In the event I find latter I was just not ready for the pedal I can allways change it back.

New but like other Fulltone stuff, dont expect anything but satiafaction.

Never needed it before but would like to talk to him about the trimmer adjustment.

Sounds good but had to "mess" with it. Expect Mike would't approve but this things on my amp and I think it sounds better than when it came. Like I said, I lean more to overdrive and this thing sounds more full and alive than the Fulldrive but I am not planning to give it up. Also the Dist. Pro sounds better than a Rat and I really like a Rat, not going to get rid of it either.

a little to tough to dial in the tone, but worth it... the manual is good. i set it to the brown sound, but since mike fuller uses this on his strat's bridge p/up, and i use the neck/middle combination, i had to adjust the tone so it was bright enough for me.

the sound quality is excellent. i have 7 fulltone pedals--fatboost, preflat mids FD2, suptrem, '70, soulbender, choral flange and the distortion pro. i think this one is my favorite. i set it as follows: vol.: 12 o'clock, dist.: 12-2 o'clock, res.: 10 o'clock, voicing: 12 o'clock, highs: 2-3 o'clock, and saturation : 5 o'clock. with my lindy fralin loaded custom relic strat into my top hat club deluxe this gives me plenty of distortion, sustain and saturation. my board now has an analogman orange juicer compressor>fulltone distortion pro>bareber elctronics tonepump w/out internal bass trimmer>barber electronics burn unit 2 set to british drive settings (one channel w/ burn at 12 o'clock and the other with burn at 5 o'clock)>voodoolab analog chorus set to fast leslie>analog chorus set to slow leslie> boss tu-2 tuner>ibanez ad-9 analog delay.
this is the sound i have been looking for all long. the only thing missing from my set up was a hot, fat, complex distorted tone. i tried a rat, bixonic, tube drive, my FD2 with the boost control on 5 o'clock and i wasn't happy with any of them. the distortion pro sounds like a jcm 900--ballsy, fat, defined, tight, complex and sustained. my friend used it on with his tele with barden's into a allen flame amp and the amp sounded like a great old marshall--only not at ear splitting volume!! Mike, you did it. the wait was worth it! so was the price!!

yes, this looks like the best built fulltone yet. the battery compartment is so trick!! 1 thumbscrew and the door is revolving and holds the battery secure and takes up very little space. the next best thing about this pedal after the tone is the size...for those of us with cramped pedal boards, a tiny pedal with giant tone is a G-d send. If this wasn;t so expensive, i would put 2-3 of them in my board!!

mike has always answered all my emails very promptly and replaced parts that were faulty.

i play blues and classic rock. been playing for 28 years. i mostly use a lindy fralin loaded custom relic strat> into a top hat club deluxe > my pedalboard now has an analogman orange juicer compressor>fulltone distortion pro>bareber elctronics tonepump w/out internal bass trimmer>barber electronics burn unit 2 set to british drive settings (one channel w/ burn at 12 o'clock and the other with burn at 5 o'clock)>voodoolab analog chorus set to fast leslie>analog chorus set to slow leslie> boss tu-2 tuner>ibanez ad-9 analog delay.

the only thing holding this back is the price...

Having 6 knobs adds a little effort to the necessary tweaking. However, it does not take long to dial in several good sounds.

I give this pedal a 9 for TONE. Great vintage sounds. Very quiet. PERFECT fade outs - no breakup at all when the volume dies away. Very sensative to guitar volume knob and pick attack.

Set up: G&L Legacy Special-->Line6 MM4-->MXR Dynacomp-->Ernie Ball Volume Pedal-->Fulltone Distortion Pro-->Switchbox (looped into Mesa DC3)-->Line6 DL4-->BOSS Chorus-->'68 Fender Bassman

Putting the DP in front of my modified Mesa DC3 produced an AWESOME tone. By itself, the DP gives serveral great tones.

I am not wild about the actual distortion and sustain of the DP. But the TONE makes this pedal a keeper.

Only had it 1 month. No trouble yet.

I give Mike Fuller a "10" for quick response. He has answered every e-mail I've sent him within 5 minutes.

I've been playing since 1969. I'm a serious guitarist - played for a living for many years & studied guitar at North Texas State. I could not get this pedal to produce the tones described at the Fulltone web page, however, I am very happy with this pedal and plan to keep it. One more thing - many distortion pedals make your guitar sound smaller, this one makes your guitar sound really BIG. I do wish the pedal produced better sustain.

It's easy to use. It's a distortion pedal. Any distortion pedal is easy to use and understand. Very cool layout and look to it. Cool color too. Getting a good sound was a different story. I'm not giving a rating here, because it's easy to use, but the sound ain't so hot, and mom always said if you can't say something nice.....

I mostly use a '66 strat all original and various amps Marshall and Budda. This pedal is advertised as a distortion pedal, but to me sounds more like a fuzz pedal. It's got that super loose fat bass sound that most fuzzes exhibit, and it's also got that thing where one note will lose out to another. In other words, the notes don't bleed together well. Sometimes one note will get chopped off because of another stronger signal. I hate that in a gain pedal. It IS extremely smooth as advertised. I guess a fuzz is a distortion pedal, technically. I think of them as different effects. I was expecting something like a Brian May or a Marshall kinda tone. Some old EVH style would be nice. The website says high gain sounds ala Boston. Well, there ain't no Boston or EVH or Queen stuff in that pedal. I don't know who's listening or defining those tones at Fulltone but they need to learn to hear differences in tones especially when trying to describe them.
It's misleading to call this a "distortion pro", it's border line fuzz with a hollow smooth sound and farty cardboard bass. It has a lot of nice controls and it looked like I could get a lot out of it, but it retained that farty bass no matter what the knobs were at. I was quite excited about this pedal for a long time comin' and this is what took years of refining?!! I have always hated fuzz pedal tone. I love old Marshall type tones like Michael Shenker, Gary Moore, Brian May and old VH, and old ACDC. So that is where I'm coming from. I was looking for a pedal to help get those tones when using clean amps like Fender twins. This pedal is a fuzz. If you like that fuzz thing, you might love this pedal. Low rating for misleading ad. I didn't want a sloppy fuzz.

Sent it back

I emailed the guy about a defect on the Fulldrive II switches and he sent new ones out. Very short and too the point when talking on the phone. Made it seem like I was wasting his time. So he's busy, so was the guy at Budda or at VHT but they were very helpful and polite. I called them several times.

I decided to give a review because I hate when I'm looking for honest opinions and find something with mostly all "10s". I guess I'm more critical on gear. I rarely if ever find anything that deserves a 10.
I wanted to give a little balance to the reviews here. I know that this being a LONG awaited hot distortion box, people are going to rave on it. This is my view. Because imo, it's advertising is misleading, I'm givin' it a low rate.

IMO very easy to use. So it's got a lot of knobs-did you get perfect tone out of your guitar amp the first time you turned it on or did you tweak it some? We're guitarists, which by default makes us tweakers. We're all looking for perfect tone or you wouldn't be reading this.
The controls are interactive so it does require some adjustment to bring out the best distortion for your amp/ guitar setup. With a little use, it's easy to figure out. The instruction sheet has some suggested settings which are all good and a great place to start.I haven't heard a bad tone yet, some are just better than others.

Using this with a Hamer Artist and Studio. Both have "traditional" PAF pickups - Seth Lovers in the Artist and Al II Pro and Pearly Gates in the Studio. Main amp is a Mesa Boogie Mark-IIC. Since it has true bypass, there is absolutely no signal loss when the pedal is off. The pedal gets slightly noisy when the distortion is maxed. There are two trimmers on the inside which allow for more gain, but also makes it noisier so I haven't messed with them. These are preset by Mike and crew and mine sounded fine without further adjustment.
Pure distortion tones from this baby. MUCH thicker and meatier than a DS-1, which was my old reliable until I got the DP-1. Somewhat reminiscent of an MXR Distortion plus, but much better. I've heard it compared to a Rat - never had one so I can't comment. Very crunchy and Marshallesque. I've seen people ask over and over "What's the best Marshall in a box pedal?". Well, here it is. Great for AC/DC rhythm, Rush-style riffs (nails Limelight), Free, you get the picture. To me the best feature is that the pedal has great sustain without any fizz. The note retains it's clarity and isn't masked by the effect. I've never heard an effect do this and I've owned 40+ pedals through the years.

It's brand new, but since it's Fulltone, I know it's reliable. My FullDrive had a switch go out after a year, which was fixed free of charge by Fulltone. IMO switches are the weak spot on any pedal. Anyone with the most basic soldering abilities can easily replace one on Fulltone pedals - a plus in my book.

Haven't dealt with them on this pedal, but have had nothing but the best experiences in the past. I have spoke with Mike over the phone on several occasions as well as many e-mails and while his replies are sometimes short, he has always replied personally. A couple of years ago I ordered a '69 pedal from Fat Sound (great on-line dealer,BTW). They were out of stock at the time and when my pedal was ready, Mike called me personally so he could send it directly to me instead of having it go to Fat Sound, then to me. That's exceptional service in my book.

I play mostly classic rock / blues rock. For pure distortion, this is the pedal for me. For smoother OD, I prefer the FullDrive and for the occasional fuzz, I like the PE Experience. I'll keep my DS-1 as it does have it's place and sentimental value.
I would replace the DP-1 if it were lost or stolen.
Mike kept us waiting a while for this one, but I think the wait was worth it.

It was easy to use, like a ham sandwich. There's that footswitch thing, and when I stepped on it, I was playing guitar! I did find that some of the complexities came from the sheer number of footswitches and knobs and what they did, but once I realized that I could turn them both ways, it was exciting, and relieved myself.

It sounds so freaking good. That's what's exciting.....the pure pleasure of playing it and feeling the totally stoked vibe of being jimmy page or mike fuller or brian may or even the captain. I own and play 27 guitars, most of them lunking specimens of 1970s living room history. Each has its purpose. So far, I've already plugged a couple into the DP, but I'm still looking forward to getting my hofner plastic strats into it but that'll be good, I know two of the presets will work well with those old 60s pickups. Forgive my excitement, I am just learning how to play the blues. Not that I haven't read manuals. It's taken a bit of time to figure out what each knob does to the tone. Marshall JTM-45, Fender Deluxe, Fender Twin, a few Ampegs I love, oh you know.

I have no idea. It's pretty new, right?

So super. Thanks bunches.

I play funk to flower, chunk to power, have been at it a while. Most musicians have experienced envy and compromise. Maybe now they can instantly plug into something that delivers like a nutritious meal. Distortion Pro is pretty special. Even though I'm not a "rock musician" per se, I do dig what it does to my signal before I run it to either of three amps I use during weekly gigs begging. Double Nickels fans rejoice! I can't support it any better than that. My stable of cheap junkers are so happy to be plugged into something that costs more than any of them. So super.