Fulltone Full-Drive 2

Well ladies and germs, I finally got my hot little hands onto ones of these "newer" versions of the famed Fulldrive 2. I bought mine back in '97, so this was the pre-Flat Mids version that I only new so well. I was really skeptical about this "newer" version, I thought "How could you improve on perfection?". But with my older version I did notice a big mid range hump when stepped on.

Let me tell you guys, if you want a pedal to preserve your original tone, this is the one! When you step on the pedal all you get is a "louder" version of your amp and a little grunt with it. This I use as my "clean" lead, now if you want more "hair" move on over to the "boost" and you got it, plus a little mid bump to put you over the wall.

I do have to agree that that this one inherently does lack the "hair" of it's predecessor. But this is a good thing, less cut means less ear bleeds in the audience. I am retiring my older one in favor of the new baby, but I'm not going to forget it or sell it. It's still a keeper. Maybe I'll have it modded to be both pre-FM and well...FM. And thats how I see it.

Lefty-

http://www.geocities.com/lefty6l6gc

This is an update to my previous review. I had mentioned a flabby sound when using humbuckers with this unit. Mike Fuller saw my review and e mailed me about it. He offered to replace some components (JFET Transistors)that he believes will solve my dissatisfacion. All that I have to do is mail my unit to him and include a check for shipping and he will mod it for free. How many companies large or small do you know of that would respond to a customers needs so promptly when the customer didn't even contact them directly? Fulltone's customer service is peerless.

I previously gave this a 5 but after the mod i'm sure it will be a 10

stomp away

The most excellent there is

Four knobs. Two ways to use it--with or without comp-cut. In normal position, it's like a lovely distortion pedal to which you can add more overdrive and distortion with the other footswitch. Pull up the volume knob, and it's a volume-boost, which would be handy for gigs, as well as playing with other guys who are trying to drown you out because they don't like you. And, it's blue.

It sounds great. It's got a lot of versatility. And most importantly, it looks cool. If you have a multi-channel amp, you'll have a lot of sonic options, especially with the comp-cut. I play through a boogie, which obviously has a great palette of overdrive sounds, and the fulldrive2 basically doubles the number of good sounds I can get from my setup, including clean ones. It's shiny.

Tonight, I'm going to drop it out of my sixth floor window. It has a lifetime warranty. We'll see.

Mike Fuller responds to e-mails. He answers his own telephone. Because of this, folks seem to expect him to be their new buddy. They want to get into philosophical debates about part numbers and technical crap. I appreciate his bluntness, his terse answers, his cutting to the chase. It's a refreshing change from the BS approach one usually receives from the pony-tailed losers you typically find in a Sam Ash or Guitar Center. I don't need his validation, just his products.

If you have a good electric guitar, and a good amp, this box is a must. It is a core piece of gear. It has application for both studio and stage, and is completely transparent when switched off. All my other stompboxes are optional. This one is mandatory. It sounds great, and enables me to gig without multiple amps. And, I can use it and still get that straight-to-the-amp sound without compromising. If the comp-cut was footswitchable, I wouldn't hesitate to give it a nine. If it still works this well a year from now, I'd even consider giving it a ten, but since I've only had it about two months, I'll give it an eight. Nothing wrong with an eight. Based on this scale, Danelectro, Dunlop, DOD, would be lucky to get better than a five......

Easy to get a good sound, but you can tweak it and get great sounds. Overall, very easy to use. Mike Fuller gives you a couple of basic set up ideas in the manual. This is nice, but I think if you don't know the tone you are after you probably shouldn't be purchasing a $200 overdrive pedal.

Have a classis blues/rock set-up. SRV-Strat into '76 Twin or a '67 Bandmaster Head w/2-12 cabinet. Also use a Vox Wah and TS-9 (808-mod).
Very simple yet effective. I also have a PRS Custom 22 but the preferred guitar with this set-up is a Strat. Don't worry, the PRS sounds great with this type of set-up. I just prefer the Strat.
This unit is a phenominal piece of equipment that allows the user to capture the tone you have probably been looking for if you are a Blues enthusiast. The true bypass is the real deal. I can really tell the difference when comparing other pedals. This pedal gives you 2 basic sounds (actually 3,I'll get to that): 1. smooth overdrive, the inbetween tones that are hard to find. 2. A very full sounding, smooth medium gain, but very harmonic distortion that is to die for if you are searching for that classic rock tone. 3. There is also a comp/cut push pull switch on the volome knob that will knock your socks off if you aren't careful ! (this feature makes the pedal react like a Class A tube amp). This is awesome but you have to do some tweaking if you want apply this feature. You have to change this setting manually and during gigs it is somewhat impractical. Don't get me wrong, this is a feature I would rather have than not, it is that good. This pedal is also very quiet. Just an awesome sounding pedal.

No opinion, because I think I was just unlucky. I'll have to wait and see. Had to send the first one back but I wasn't upset. The boost footswitch went bad. I bought the unit from Rock-City Music in Spokane WA. and they took good care of me. The unit they replaced it with was newer (dated 10/99) and had slightly different switches. By the way, each one of the units is signed and dated by Mike Fuller.

The dealer was great. Have not contacted Fulltone as of yet.

This pedal is a gret match for blues and classic rock. Been playing for a long time. But within the last ten years or so have become aware of the types of tones I want to achieve. I love Fender amps and I think they are a perfect match, along with a Strat, for this pedal. I am in the process of trying to find a 40w Blues Deluxe to make gigging a litle easier, the Twin is great but I want to scale down and make life a little easier. This pedal will make you late for work ! Trust me go out and buy one if you are serious about tone and have a clue as to what type of sound you want to get. I can't stress that enough. I have wasted a great deal of money searching for the right equipment. This pedal will make your other overdrive pedals seem like toys. (except for my TS-9, which I still truely enjoy).

There are a lot a settings for this unit. at first I did not like this pedal. I tried it with a hot rod deluxe, a boogie DC2. but the best sound is with a clark beaufort. but it sounds so good that I dont want to use up the tubes HAH so I use it with the hot rod deluxe and use this sound just about all the time to record with a cheap boombox(hey, the big shots write songs this way)

Now I can use this with any guitar, a tex mex strat and a jimmie vaughn signature strat. by the way these guitars are tremolo blocked and they stay in tune really really well, and I pull on em, use ernie ball 11's, movin on up next year to 12's when I can find a decent distributor for good strings. now this fulldrive just doesnt work for me on a low wattage amp. I use two different 2 12 spkr cabs and when I use the push pull comp feature (up) the tones LISPS. it sounds very crummy, so I usually leave it down and use volume up high, tone about 3 oclock, od at 12 oclock and dont use the boost. this gives a very satisfactory tone and I love it. can anybody give me some pointers on this thing as far as settings ? I would love figure out how to use this pedal better , but this comp cut thing is really eluding me, and I have been playing 30 plus years, billy gibbons style rock, new gospel Jesus rock and blues (yes, it exists). I like this pedal I have a morley jerry donahue pedal that really sucks out your tone, it means well but it just wont get it. so far this is the one for low volume blues rock.

eats up batteries

have a terry mcinturff polaris pro, use it with the fulldrive and a hotrod deluxe, two fender strats, two fender teles, one fender tele pro tone by the way that at 275$ was a steal , they should have kept makin em, I saw an ad for Porter Wagonners guitar player with one so I bought it through the mail HAHAHAHAH. the beaufort I use with an art reverb unit and for portability there is nothing better for me. this fulldrive pedal I would not want to be without,,even though I havent figured out good settings using the push pull "up" feature, its too harsh and it lisps my speakers, even when three spkrs are used oh well, the basic setting is great to get a good big sound at low volume

This is the powdercoated blue one with the pull comp-cut. It is very easy to get good sounds out of this pedal provided that you choose the right gear to go with it. The manual is simple and straightforward but not alltogether needed as it is simple to set up just use your ears.

I was running this pedal between a strat and a super reverb and occasionally a tele. It yeilded sweet tones for blues and rock without the comp-cut engaged. With the comp-cut enabled it sounded excellent and could see a good use for it to brighten up the clean sound of a darker sounding amp ie: mesa boogie types. All was well till I put it to the test with a Les Paul and a PRS. With the comp-cut inactive single note lines sounded sweet and fat but I noticed that while playing chords on the low E string there was a flatulent sound as the chords were struck. I thought that the combination of guitar and amp may have been at play so I plugged into my mesa boogie maverick combo with 2x12 configuration. The same flabby sounds were present. So I plugged my PRS in and,although the single coil setting were sweet sounding,the same flabbiness appeared when striking lower register chords. There could be a problem with my pedal or the sound may just be the nature of this pedal I'm not sure. Had I only played this pedal with a strat this mark would be a ten. However I switch between a few guitars and dont like to have a floor full of pedals to trip on. So I am unsure if this pedal will stay in my rig or not.

I think I could depend on this pedal to gig without a backup

I have e mailed Mike Fuller and he has always answered promptly although he is a busy man I'm sure and his answers to my questions were short

I play blues and rock and a little jazz and classical. I have played for 15 years. This pedal is perfect for blues and most rock. It compliments single coil pickups well and if you want that stevie ray tone its here to be had. It also has that boost mode to add that extra grit and/or volume for more rock type tones. If you plan on using a humbucking guitar check it out with one before you purchase this pedal. Like I stated before it could be that my pedal has a fault that is causing the flabbiness. I'm not trying to complain I'm just telling it like it is.

Extremely easy to use! All info needed is provided in the short and to-the-point manual.

I use an 84 American Standard Strat through a 2x12 Fender Deville. The only other pedal I use (besides tuner and volume pedal) is a Fulltone Supertrem (highly recommended). The tone is amazing! If you want to preserve the tone that you have and add gain, this is the pedal for you. With true bypass switching the pedal will not color your tone at all in the off position. I like to use the pedal in the comp-cut setting because of the awesome volume boost it offers. I catch myself attempting all my "Stevie" riffs once I hit the boost. With my strat in the neck position any blues man would be impressed. My only gripe would be for a bit more gain, but after all, it is only an overdrive pedal, so just turn it up. I friend of mine plays a LP Custom through a Boogie combo with the Fulldrive and the pedal is amazing in that context as well. The pedal is not noisy at all. The only other OD pedal that I would even recomend would be the Clon Centaur, but this pedal really stands out as an incredible device. If you play in a situation where you need to get an overdriven guitar sound at low volumes, you need to own a Fulldrive2.

No problems so far. I wouldn't throw it off a train but the construction seems to be really solid.

I e-mailed Mike and I got a reply within an hour. He was incredibly nice and informative.

I play a few different styles of music and the fulldrive2 allows me to be creative in all genres. From my hardrock band to playing church gigs, the pedals allows for expressive playing. I really enjoy the harmonic series that the pedal offers. I have been playing for about eight years now and have finally found the holy grail of tone.

The Fulldrive to is one of the easiest pedals to use! Within 2 minutes after taking it out of the box I was using it. All of the info I needed was in the instruction manual.

This has got to be the best overdrive pedal in the world. It has a thick, warm, harmonic tone thats great for any type of music you play. For my main blues and funk setup I play my 69 cs strat-MXR Dyna Comp-Fulldrive2-DD5 Boss delay-Fender Twin Reverb amp. When it comes to my heavier rock setup I use a Marshall 74 JMP 50w head, the Fulldrive2, and usually my 88 HM strat. This is (personally) the best sounding distortion w/out getting a cruddy sound. With this pedal and different settings on my JMP I can get an Eric Johnson to Joe Satriani to heavy shred metal tone without getting a cheap thrashy processy tone. Instead I get the sound of the Fulldrive2 though a Fender Twin Reverb, but more gain and richer harmonics.

I would have put a 9 here because one of the switches went bad, but after talkin to Mike and getting them replaced this pedal is unstoppable(unless the power goes out and I dont have any bateries). When I get some more cash I'll probably buy another one, but as far as reliability goes I don't need a backup.

Mike Fuller has got to be the nicest and most ingenious guy in the world! On my Fulldrive2 one of the ddpt switches went bad and after talking to him I got both replaced for a great price! He must have apologized 20 times. He is a very smart guy and knows the sound and qualities he wants from his products and does a hell of a good job doing it!

I play all kinds of styles of music and this pedal is with me all the way. I'm 15 right now and I've been playing scince I was 4.
Equipment
amps-Fender Twin Reverb/Marshall 74 JMP 50w head
guitars-Fender American Standard Stratocaster/Fender Custom Shop 69 Stratocaster/Fender 88 HM Stratocaster/85 Gibson ES-335/89 Fender Telecaster w/ Bigsby Bridge/Ovation Ultra
Lots of effects
Studio-Tascam 488 mkII 8 track portastudio/Alesis sr-16 Drum Machine/Alesis Point7 monitors & RA100 PA/Tascam 302 dual tape deck 2 track recorder
If my Fulldrive was stolen I'd buy another as soon as I could. I've compared it to tons of ather overdrives and by far its got the biggest, thickest, and warmest tone ever! I would love it if Mike made a pedal that sounded just as good as the Fd2 but with more gain(distortion). This way I wouldn't have to combine it with another amps preamp gain and I could play it through the twin and get just as good of a sound.

4 knobs: volume*, tone, drive, boost. The volume is a push/pull pot which when pulled, the pedal can be used as a clean boost (all other knobs work the same eay except the drive will not distort the sound as much). 2 buttons: bypass, boost. The bypass allows you to, well, bypass the unit all together. The boost activates the boost channel which the boost knob sets the amount of extra volume desired (the extra gain is preset). 2 LEDS show the mode (regular or boost) and the status (bypass or on). Basically, just dial in the sound you're looking for and you're there.

I was using a Blade T2 (tele style, 2 single coils) and now I'm using an Ibanez Custom Shop (2 Humbuckers). The amp I'm using is a Fender Hot Rod Deville (2x12). This unit sounds great with both guitars. It's not noisy at all and the tone it produces is very natural; doesn't color the sound of you guitar or amp, just adds drive. It pretty much sounds good in any setting. I don't use the volume boost much though (volume knob pulled). It can get that heavily saturated Santana tone or that violin-like, smooth Eric Johnson tone. I use it after a pan pedal and I also like the sound of 50% pan to the FD2 and 50% pan to just clean (or 50% FD2, 50% Tech 21 Tri-OD). It works with other pedals very well. I'm reluctant to give it a 10 in this catagory because it only gives overdrive (much like that of an Ibanez Tube Screamer except hotter) but will not enter the distortion zone - not completely versatile.

While mine was being repaired, I borrowed another from a store to use for a gig. Please take note that every FD2 unit sounds just a little different. I did the settings a little different and I was all set. But it was just a little different. I guess while it's transparent, it does have a little character to each of the units - something that's very hard to describe!

I've only had one problem with it (pot going bad). Other than that, everything seems rock solid... from the steel construction to the heavy duty buttons. It's not a wimpy pedal and it's hand made but I guess every batch has a rotten apple and I got lucky. Along with true bypass, you can be sure it won't corrupt your tone on stage even if something happens to it.

Mike Fuller is awesome! All this products come with a lifetime warrantee. I emailed him about the problem, I got a respond back the same day. I mailed the unit to him, he fixed it and mailed it back to me - no charge. The only thing was that it took a bit longer than I anticipated but personally I can understand since it's a small company that he's running (and he does everything).

I play a lot of different styles. This pedal suits almost everything I do. But I have to use another pedal to get the heavier distorted tones. I've been playing 11 years and this unit is the best drive pedal I've heard so far. I would definitely get another if something happened to it! I use it for blues, some rock, jazz type licks. I love the amount of sustain it gives in boost mode... great for solos. It's bigger than your average Boss or DOD pedal though so stage realty is a consideration. I tried to play a gig without it, I tried to substitute it with the "fender" channel of the Tech 21 Tri-OD... not even close!

Extremely easy to use. 4 knobs - Volume (w/ pull compression cut), tone, overdrive and boost. 2 switches, one to turn on the overdrive channel and another to kick in the boost channel. 2 LED's. Its impossible to get a bad sound out of this.

LP>Zvex Fuzz Factory>FD2>twin reverb. The sound is simply incredible. At first i was worried that this pedal was only a blues guitarists pedal and that it wouldnt cut it for my crunch needs but i was wrong. This is the perfect overdrive pedal. Very transparent, beautiful sound. Perfect for blues and rock. I compared it with a hotcake, Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde, Rat, Dual Sound...this blows them all away with its incredible sound! Its true bypass as well which is good. I play everything from Kenny Wayne Shepard to the mancs we love to hate (oasis) and its perfect for everything. I hate giving things 10 because it seems like im trying to justify spending 200 dollars on it but thats not the case at all, it is honestly worth of a 10 at least.

Built like a tank! I would definately use it on a gig without a backup cos this thing is solid.

My first experience with Mike Fuller was not a good one because i started a little arguement with him but ill take the blame for that. Once we got past that little glitch i realized that he is very helpful. Warning though, he can be very blunt and to the point in his emails but thats just his style, nothing to worry about.

I play everything from blues to shoegaze to noisepop and back around again and along with the fuzz factory i can cover everything i need. Not only does it sound amazing but its built like a solid rock and it looks great as well. no complaints at all. i highly recommend this to everyone but metalheads.