Fulltone Full-Drive 2 Mosfet

I agree--it's really hard to get a bad sound out of this overdrive pedal. I would recommend starting off by dialing in the best tone you can get from your amp before even engaging the FD2. Important to think about staging gain. Best to use a tube amp (I have a modded Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with JJ tubes and a Celestion Vintage 30). Set your "clean sound" to be as gritty as you can. Most of the time that means turning it up pretty loud so you start getting a hint of natural overdrive. (I'm from the school of thought that says a "clean" sound should never be crystal clean--hence the reason I bought a HRD and modded it to be grittier and warmer). Once you've got your amp's pure sound set, then start with the FD2--set the volume and overdrive knobs to work in conjunction with each other. Then the tone knob is really there to change the amount of brightness/darkness or clarity--call it presence if you want. Overall easy to get a killer sound out of it if you follow this method. It's a high-quality overdrive pedal that's hand-made in the US. You can't go wrong there.

Here's my signal chain: Les Paul Classic with Burstbucker Pro Humbuckers -> Planet Waves Chromatic Pedal Tuner -> Morley Lil' Alligator Volume Pedal -> BBE Boosta Grande -> Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive -> Fulltone Full-Drive 2 MOSFET -> Radial Engineering True Bypass Effects Loop Switcher (with a Line 6 DL4 in loop one and nothing in loop two) -> modified Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (as described above). This pedal isn't noisy in my opinion. I love the natural and warm "boutique-style" overdrive that comes from this pedal. It interacts very well with the output coming from the guitar (determined by the pickups and the player's use of the volume knob). I can leave the overdrive from the FD2 on all the time and clean up the sound with the volume knob on my guitar. It's not a fuzzy overdrive at all, which I love. I typically use my Sparkle Drive for cleaner overdrive sounds, when I really just want to add some kick to my clean sound, and then I'll use the FD2 for the thick overdriven tones. And for leads I can simply step on the boost. It's best in my opinion to set the overdrive knob between 12:00 and 2:00, and then turn the boost knob all the way up (or just short of all the way). When it's set up this way, the boost function is much more effective and there's a bigger difference in the two sounds. I usually have the first toggle switch set to "vintage" and the second one set to "Mosfet" because I like the thicker overdrive tones. One of the best aspects of the tones you can get from this pedal is the maintained low-end. With many overdrive pedals, the low-end is lost when the pedal is engaged. I don't know why, and I've never liked it. But the guys at Fulltone specifically addressed that with this pedal, because it retains that low-end and sounds fantastic. Sometimes, for a really dirty lead tone, I'll engage the Sparkle Drive (feeding into the FD2) while the FD2 is on--incredible clarity and screaming sustain. That's a whole seperate conversation when you start talking about blending the two together for really screaming sounds and staging them together properly. The ultimate setup would be two or three seperate Full-Drive 2 MOSFET pedals in line to be used in conjunction with each other for different amounts of gain. I give it a 10--it's pristine.

I don't have any worries about it failing on me, and you can tell by holding/handling it that it can withstand just about anything you could dish out to it at gigs or traveling. It really is a solid pedal. And yes, it looks great on my board too with the blue metal and cream knobs.

I haven't personally dealt with the company at all. I bought one of the few units that made it to my local Guitar Center (they're always on back-order).

I play a lot of blues rock and classic rock. Sometimes there's a bit of country influence in my playing as well. This pedal works great for the sound I'm after. I've been playing for about 10 years and I'm finally getting around to piecing together the exact sound I've been after--this pedal has been very integral to that. If it were lost/stolen, I'd definitely replace it. My favorite features on the pedal are the two toggle switches. They really expand the range of tone-possibilities. This pedal is great because it helps me achieve the tone that enables me to become expressive in my playing. I can get "that" sound that I'm after, forget about turning knobs, and just play. When your gear helps you in that way, you know you have good gear--no matter what it is. If it does that for you, hold on to it.

For me, this was not an easy pedal to figure out....But, the more time you spend with it, the more you will like it....If you are impatient and need instant gratification, look somewhere else...If you are willing to spend some time tinkering, the investment of your time will be rewarded in spades!!!

The thing to remember is that this is an overdrive pedal, NOT a distortion pedal....If you're looking for Metallica, it ain't here! However, it has a wonderful clean boost and a quite a variety of mild to rockin' overdive tones....And you will retain the inherent tone of your guitar, which is something I like a lot!!! Again, if you are a person who loves to search for different tones, I think you'll be extremely satisfied! I'll put it this way....Your pedalboard space is precious.....I have a bunch of Overdrive/Distortion pedals....The FullDrive 2 Mosfet Edition will be on that pedalboard as long as I'm playing.....It's THAT good!!!!

I've had this pedal for a year....Not in a band for a while, but I use this pedal 4 to 5 times a week....It is true bypass, so there will be an occasional popping sound when you engage it...I believe that Fulltone reccomends engaging the on/off swich a few times before plugging in!!!

I've heard all the horror stories.....What do you want, Mike Fuller is a genius, I think.....I wouldn't even care if he gave me a hard time if I contacted him....He knows tone, and that's what's important!!!!

AWESOME! Just turn the knobs and listen! Do read the manual to get an idea of the numerous combination of knobs and switches

Beautiful... I'm using an Epiphone Casino (with P-90s) through a 1975 Hiwatt DR504 and it is amazing. The Hiwatt is just shy of amazing overdrive, so this pedal takes it all the way. The only (very small) complaint I have is that the boost isn't quite as loud as I was expecting, but it is barely an issue. I borrowed an older Full Drive 2 from a friend a while back and got addicted, and the Mosfet model is even better!

I've only had it a week, and used it for 2 gigs, but I will use nothing but this pedal in the future. If I ever need a backup, I will get another one.

Although in my week of owning this I haven't had any problems (a good start!), I worked for years at a recording studio which owned a few fulltone pedals and the Tube Tape Echo unit and have dealt with Mike and the co. on various occasions, and it was never anything but a pleasure. Great company!

I've been playing for 20 or so years now in various projects such as rock, blues, country etc. This pedal is exactly what I have been needing!

Easy to use...I mean is a drive pedal. I gave it a 9 because it does take awhile to dial in perfect settings. But all settings sound good. Seriously. The manual explains everything in detail, which was useful as I had no idea what the comp-cut, FM, vintage, mosfet and standard switches actually did, but its not needed to find good tone. You can hear right? If you answered "yes" You don't need a manual.

Only deaf people will need the manual.

Best pedal I've ever used. Period. I was using ibanez ts9, and it sounded like crap. I splurged on this and now my tone is perfect. I use an epiphone casino or les paul and a VOX ac50 amp. The tone is so musical and focused. Its near impossible to get bad sounds from it. Even the settings I don't use sound great. The tone I was going for was kinda like Bayliss and Cinninger's tones (from Umphrey's McGee) and it nails it. I mean with my gear its slightly different, but I don't want to copycat tones. Amazingly good.

Haven't Had it for too long, but it seems built like a rock. I accidentally slammed it into a wall when I was walking around showing people bragging about it and it sounds great still! So I guess its reliable.

No idea. Company seems nice enough tho. The manual is written from first person and seems like the dudes talking to you. I like it.

I play whatever I feel like playing, prog, rock, techno, reggae, jazz, metal, whatever. This will do it all. What do I love about it? Everything. No od pedal I've played comes close, and none of them sound nearly as musical. This things extremely verstile and if i had to go back to my ts9 I'd kill myself.

If I lost it or it got stolen I would cry because I'm a poor college kid. Then I wouldn't eat for 2 weeks so I could save $$$ and buy a new one.

My favorite feature Is that my tone went from meh to jesus in one day. I mean my tone was terrible until I got my ac50cp2, but even then it was missing something. This pedal completes me.

Oh yeah and the boost function. Thats money fool. Just because its like 2 pedals in one.

Expensive at 172 with tax but it evens out because it sounds like the voice of god.

Hey there folks! I'm going to get down to it. This pedal is a great pedal. I didn't originally have the same opinion I do now, however. At one time I thought it sucked and wondered what everyone was so excited about. As far as ease of use is concerned, this pedal is pretty straight foreward. It could be misconceived by some that the Mosfet function only applies to the boost, however, and this is not the case. It applies to both gain stages. Mine is the new edition of the pedal (the one with the "blanket taken off the sound" according to Mike Fuller). The pedal has two programable sounds so editing patches is not that big of a deal. It is better if the gain is not turned up much past 2:00 if you want a distinct difference between the boosted signal and the un-boosted one.

This is the updated edition. Knobs: Volume, tone, compcut/fm/vintage mode toggle, overdrive, mosfet on/off toggle, boost volume.

What setup are you using this with?
I am using it mostly with teles and strats but also a Gretsch 6120 about 15% of the time. My signal chain runs as follows: Guitar, Fulltone Clyde Standard, Fulldrive 2 Mosfet, Fulltone GT500, Xotic BB + Plus, Keeley Compressor, TC Electronic Nova Modulator, MXR 74 Vintage Phase 90, Arion Chorus EWS mod, TC Electronic Nova Delay, Boss TU2, Amp. The amp is usually one of 3: A Vox AC 30 CC1 loaded with Celestion Alnico Gold Speaker, Fender 59 Bassman reissue, Traynor Guitar mate from 1972 (22 watt el84 based amp).

This pedal can be slightly noisy if the boost function is maxed and the overdrive is up, but no more than any other pedal. I would say less.
I must say that I originally found the pedal to be weak. I thought there wasn't enough gain to it. What I ended up realizing was that it depends on how you set your amp and what kind of amp you have.

I also realized that this pedal is more transparent than most overdrives in this category(e.g. The TS family). It is much less compressed which may initially appear too clean.

I have tried a variety of other pedals in this category. I have tried stock Tubescreamers including 808, 9, and 9dx. I have also tried the maxon ones. I have tried the keeley mods and own bothe the 808 with 1982 chip and 9 DX Flexi. I have also tried the Xotic family of effects and out of all of these, at least for a transparent lighter overdrive, I found it to be the best. This pedal has allowed me to get the Stevie Ray tone I have been looking for all of these years and really serves well at enhancing my amp.
I am able to get very convincing blues, country and lighter rock sounds from this pedal. If you want something more gainy or more compressed, check out some of the other pedals I mentioned. They too are good, but for different applications.

This thing is built like a tank and the LEDs are nice and bright. I would definitely use it without a backup.

I dealt with the company a couple of times with some of their other pedals and found them to be reasonably prompt and helpful. Never spoke with Mike Fuller. I know a lot of people don't like him, but they might be part of their own problem.

I play a lot of different styles of music including, Rock of varied kinds from soft to heavy, blues, country, Jazz, latin, and blue grass. This pedal is a good match for most of the lighter kinds to medium amounts of gain.

I have been playing for 13 year and am turning 25. Most of my frequently used gear is listed above, but there is more. I would prefer not to list it as it would take too long.

If this pedal were lost or stolen, I would definitely buy it again. I like the transparency of it and the way it enhances my amps' best qualities. I also like the boost function and the toggle switches, which allow for some interesting tonal variation. I mostly keep it on vintage mode, however. What I don't like is the way the overdrive knob is not as interactive as many other pedals I have tried. The level of saturation doesn't have a wide enough variance.

I compared this product to the keeley tubescreamers, the xotic ac plus, the Diamond J-drive TR and MK3, and Fulltone OCD. I own or have owned all of those pedals except the ac plus. With some pedals you have to take them home and play around with them for some time in order to decide what you think. I sold both J-drives and removed the other pedals listed from my pedalboard.

If I could have something else for this pedal it would be either an 18 volt converter inside and a switch that allows the pedal to change from between 9 and 18 volt operation. I would also like a clean boost to go after the pedal for a simple volume boost for soloing instead of only a gain boost from the boost channel. I would like to see a 3 stage version.

This pedal does help me to make music. Off the cuff, I have been coming up with exciting new music that my band and our audiences seem to love.

On top of all the things mentioned above, this pedal is a real looker. It is very attractive looking. I've always been reminded of some sort of air plain console when looking at it. Nice blue paint and now available again in cream knobs which look sweet.

You can't get a bad sound out of it but it's not easy to get the sound you want. The suggested settings are very helpful.

I'm using this with and Ibanez Prestige and Fender amp. This baby sounds so sweet and really, you can't get a bad sound out of it. All the knobs are very interactive and offers you a wide range of sound and combination. Love the boost function. It gives more growl to the overdrive. And is responds extremely well to picking dynamics and guitar volume.

I have this and a Diamond Pedals J-Drive MK3. Both are good and offers different kind of sound. I admit I do like the sound of the J-Drive more. So do try out both if you only want one.

Built like a tank. Bring it to war and it still can come back and work perfectly for you.

Never dealt

Excellent pedal. One of the should have pedals for a great tone. If stolen I would definitely get another one. It just makes my solid state amp sound like a tube amp. Warm and sweet. Love this pedal so much.

Okay now .... i'm not going into all the relative basic detail that others have already written about ... so as to not take up any more page space of rehashed mentions.

At first , i had a hard time lking this pedal's OD section 'cause it is way too bright for me (however perfect for any dark sounding amp).
i did right out da gate dig its Boost section when setting it for clean gain.

Now the the mojo .... for myself i have found the best way to use this pedal. utilize both stages (OD + Boost). you're thinking many here have already detailed that and then some. yeah , they have - but here's a bit more to the equation - the secret ingredient if you will. Get yourself a VL Pedal Power 2+ and use the SAG control feeding the FullDrive 2. that's right - lower the voltage going to it to taste. it's like doing the variac thing to an amp. you'll also need a separate loop switch unless you wanna do the Mexican hat dance at stomping several switches on / off with each engagement.

I'm telling all of you there's a wonderful refinement when using this pedal this way.

If you can't get a good or great tone out of your setup with this pedal then there's no hope for you. The pedal is very versatile.

You really don't need a manual with this unit.

This is the best overdrive that I have ever used and has a boost switch that really makes your leads sound excellent. I used a Fender Stratotcaster with HS-3 and YJM pickups, a Marshall AVT275 amp, and used it in conjunction with a Boss GT-8 multi-effects unit. I have been playing for 30 + years and have played professionally so I have some idea of the differences between 'good' and 'GREAT' tone. I've tried 100s of overdrive and distortion pedals and currently have several including ProCo Rat, EH Metal Muff w/Top Boost, Boss Metal Zone, and Boss Metal Core, several Tubescreamers, EH Big Muff (old school). Listing all the different types of overdrives and distortions I've used in my time could take years...;)

In summary, the Fulltone overdrive is very warm and smooth and works very well with other distortion pedals. I used an Electro-Harmonix Metal Muff Nano with it and got killer tone. The difference in this overdrive pedal is that you have excellent clarity and sustain and the sound does not get muddled as with other overdrive pedals.

No problems. Built very well and looks good too.

Have never had to use customer support

I play rock (alternative and classic), country, blues, gospel, and jazz occasionally. This pedal works very well with all of the types of music mentioned but may not be suitable for metal. I first bought a Fulltone GT-500 which all the salespeople said was great (and cost more) but found the distortion too fuzzy and muddled for my taste. If you like good clarity and sustain this is the pedal for you.

As I said before, I've been playing for over 30 years.

If it were lost or stolen I'd buy another one in a second.

I love the tone. Nothing I've tried sounds this good. I decided on this unit after researching over 75 - 100 different overdrive and distortion pedals. After doing quite a bit of research about the type sound I was after, I decided that what I really needed was a good overdrive with a boost that would work good with other distortion pedals that I have. I've found that using subtle overdrives to color your sound with a good distortion pedal is the best way to get great tone.

Iv'e had the pedal only a short time, but in relation to my Keeley Modded Sparkle Drive, Keeley Modded Blues Driver, and Mesa Boogie V-Twin, I will say that it is on par with the rest of my overdrive pedals in the way of that luscious smooth tone. As a previous reviewer stated, I don't necessarily know if it presents my best clean/crunch rhythm tone BUT with the proper tweaking I believe it can be. The Keeley Modded Sparkle Drive is great for a smooth rhythm/lead tone within a clean gain envelope. For whatever reason I prefer my Sparkle Drive with humbucker equipped guitars, and the Keeley Modded Blues Driver with single coil guitars, and the Fulltone Full Drive 2 Mosfet with both pickup types.

For this review I used a 66' Fender Blackface Super Reverb with Tone Tubby 10"s. It's a rough looking condition amp, so I decided to make a sleeper of it. The SR has 2 x 10" Alnico Hempcones and 2 x 10" ceramic hempcones in a "X" pattern with a ceramic and alnico 10" above and below. The amp has a new set of GT 6L6's, a Sylvania NOS GZ34, and NOS preamp tubes, a 70's Fender Silverface Super Reverb reverb pan, and has been recapped. Other than the tolex looking rough, this amp absolutely KILLS tonewise, it's the ultimate Fender tone with no limitations to the speaker frequency range whatsoever, unlike other paper cone speaker counterparts. These Tone Tubby speakers haven't even been broken in yet but still sound PHENOMENAL. The guitar is a custom made lefty Surf Green strat with 38 year old righty staggered Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro strat pickups which also provides a PHENOMENAL sounding tone (for pics of guitar see:)

http://www.warmoth.com/gallery/images/strat/thumbs/gregg_nickens_sml.jpg

Hopefully I won't ever have to call on Mike Fuller for any pedal issues, as I've heard he's a real bear to deal with.

Same comment as the "Reliability" column.

I'm from the 70's generation, so I like to play classic rock and blues. I do enjoy good jazz although it's not my forte as a musician, that being said I still wouldn't use this pedal for anything but blues and/or classic rock.

Takes a while - that's not a bad thing - and like all pedals you don't really find your tones until your in a big room with sound bouncing all over, etc - what I hear in a smaller practice space never holds up in a bar. The manual does help - just enough info.
markers on knobs easily visible in low lite - small toggles - but once you know them it's not difficult to change settings on the fly.

My review is only about stratocaster into pedal into amp - cover dance band. I don't know anything about humbucker tones, or recording tones. ( sometimes think there should be separate reviews for recorded sound ) If you play a les paul or care about recorded tone you should ignore my review.
vintage style strat >>> full-drive ( 18 volts ) >>>>> Keeley mod blues driver >>>> Ibanez anolog delay >>>>> British AC15.

I'm really not a fan of any particular pedal maker - in fact I did not like my distortion pro at all. But I know this company is about strat tone and I play a strat....

what this pedal is NOT good at - rhythm crunch, growl,aggressive - for all my bridge PU rock, old school rhythm tones the modded blues driver is absolutely my favorite ( after 40 years and probably a hundred pedals). It is also NOT the 'holy grail single pedal outstanding rhythm tone then step on the other button for leads' pedal.

what's really good about it: the sweet, stinging strat tone - both FM and vintage are great. This is as good a TS clone as I have ever heard and for a good price.


WHAT THIS PEDAL IS AWESOME ABOUT: The mosfet boost tone in combo with the overdrive ( both lights shining at you ) is absolutely wonderful !! great squeels with pinch harmonics - blooms into controlled feedback nicely ( this is a challenge with a strat - easy with a humbucker but doesn't compete with the complex harmonics of single coils so I don't care ) This is my bridge PU lead tone for a long time now. BUT - I switch off the Keeley and stomp on the fulltone in one clever foot move. - I'm not willing to give up the Blues driver rhythm tone - previously I kicked in a carl martin hot drive for leads ( I used that for at least 5 years ) - the mosfet has replaced it. It has a nice 9 volt sweet tone also - 18 volts squeels better. It is noisy but so what?

I'm not worried about it - solid.

Have played 40 years - now in cover dance band playing all the goofy stuff people like to dance to I HAVE OWNED WAY TOO MUCH STUFF and don't see any end in site.

I am really thrilled with the lead tones from this pedal with my strat and AC15 - like everybody says though - you need a basic good tone before you add pedals ( strat + this vox has made me happy )

very fair price

question: what if somebody manufactured a small single pedal stand alone mosfet boost pedal? just wondering...