Fulltone GT-500

I am the laziest guitarist in the whole world, I want to just plug and play, and this pedal does not enable me to do that. I find it incredibly difficult to get a reasonable sound out of it, and for me I can't get it to cut through a band mix without it being harsh,

I play the following guitars, PRS McCarty, American Standard Tele, Levison Blade and a very old Jackson. a range of fulltone pedals inc OCD, Fat Boost, Fulldrive 2 10th anni mosfet edition, cry baby 95Q, Boss TU2, and the GT 500. Going through an old Fender Hot Rod duluxe. The GT 500 is the noisiest pedal I own.

I am not a fan of the Gt 500, and I was pretty disappointed by this, I am a big fan of fulltone, and the staple of my sound has always been a OCD and Fat Boost, I bought the GT 500 to get me to "11" and for those more shreddy moments. I really feel, for me at least, it fails to deliver this. I think the distortion tends to have quite a compressed sound, is muddy and almost fuzzy, which is always lost in a band mix. The OD section of the pedal is not a scratch on my Fat boost or OCD. As mention I am lazy guitarist, I want to plug a pedal in and withing 30 minutes get a good sound from it. I don't have the time nor can I be bothered to spend a week to get an acceptable sound. There have been times I have spent a day, got it sounding ok then been at a jam and it sounds awful.

It is a pedal that will suit some people really weel, but not me, it is not a rubbish pedal, nor a terrible sound but I have little use for it and it collects dust!

As with all my Fulltone products it is extremelyy well made, I would depend on it always!

Er ok .................

I play, funk, rock, blues, been playing for around 15 years, I have little use for the GT500. I have highlighted my gear above. I will sell this pedal when I get around to it.

Not the easiest pedal for dialing in a good tone. It has two channels (OD/boost and distortion), seperate EQs for both, and the ability to blend the two (OD/boost into distortion or distortion into OD/boost) - alot of variables, and frankly a lot of really bad tones. On the other hand, there are a lot of sweet spots as well. A tweekers delight, maybe, but not a pedal for those who like things simple.

I use it primarily with a MIJ strat and a Crate Palomino series V50 -not a stellar amp, like a classic fender, which Mike Fullertone favors and basically designs his pedals for, but a damn good one for the money. I get the best results plugging directly into the effects loop in jack and bypassing the amp's pre-amp section altogether, thereby making the pedal the preamp for EQ, effects, and volumn. I also have it plugged into a BBE Sonic Stomp, which lets me fine tune the treble and bass, and adds clarity and body to my tone.

Some might wonder why you would want to bypass the pre-amp tubes in a tube amp, but it works, and some of the players who gave this pedal bad review might find that would work well for them to, especially if you're like me and basically like clean to slightly crunchy tones. I'm not a fan of pre-amp distotion and like my crunch to come from overdriven output tubes.

Having said all that, the OD/boost side works great - lots of boost on tap, and a fair amount of gain for Rolling Stones type crunch. The distortion side doesn't work as well - sounds hollow somehow and difficult to dial in. Works great, however, blended with the OD/boost side.

Once you find your sweet spots, and that's no easy task, you'll probably like this pedal a lot, but its not for metal or other highly distorted tones.

I can't give it a 10 because there are too many bad tones and it takes a lot of work to find the good ones, but the good ones are sweet indeed.

Builty like a tank. A 10.

Don't know.

Good match for blues and classic rock. Don't know if I would replace it. I'd probably go with something simpler. All I need is a good OD/boost pedal, and this one has more options than I need and it takes to much tweeking to dial it in. Having said that, however, the good tones that I do manage to get are fuller and richer than than the Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, which I liked a lot until I got the GT-500. The SD stil has its uses, but it sounds somewhat thin and hollw compared to the GT-500.

Lots of knobs, but easy to dial in once you get the hang of it. The manual is a double sided single page. Not much use and not really needed.

I've played with Strats and Teles into a Germino Classic 45 2x12, Reeves Custom 6 1x12 combo and a Peavey Delta Blues 1x15. Excellent tones throughout. The boost side gives nice low gain overdrive on higher settings and beefs up the tone considerably. The higher the drive, the more high end. The distortion side is more a crunchy style distoration in the British vein. There's some minor noise when settings are maxed, but this pedal sounds best to my ears at about 1/2 to 3/4, with the volume pushing a few db's above unity. The "order" switch adds compression when in one position and opens up the tone in the other.

With the two channels combined and the volume rolled down / off on my Strat, I was getting some serious Eric Johnson-style violin tones. I've not found a bad tone in this one yet. This pedal offers outstanding tone and versatility.

New, but I own lots of Fulltone pedals. With the exception of a mis-wired battery terminal on my Fat Boost version 1, which they promptly fixed, I've not had a single issue with any of my Fulltone pedals. I would never gig without a backup boost / overdrive pedal, but that's no reflection on the perceived reliability of this pedal. It is solid, well-finished, and the pots feel smooth with just the right amount of resistance. My rating is based on my past experience with Fulltone pedals.

As stated above, Fulltone was responsive to my problem with my Fat Boost and fixed it quickly. Email's to them pre-purchase have been hit or miss. But I think they stand behind their product, which is the most important part.

I play mostly rock and blues and have been playing for over 25 years. It's only in the last 6 years or so that I've become a gear whore. For overdrives/distortion/fuzz, I own mostly Fulltones: 69, 70, Soul Bender, Distortion Pro, OCD version 3, Fat Boost version 1, Fulldrive II, Fulldrive II MOSFET. I also own Boss SD1, DS1, Electro Harmonix Little Big Muff, D*A*M 1966. My guitars are Strats, Teles, Epiphone Elitist Les Paul. Amps are Germino Classic 45, Reeves Custom 6 and Custom 12 combo's, Ceriatone Lightening, Ceriatone 18-watt EF86 combo, Peavey Delta Blues, Fender Blues Junior, Mojotone VibroChamp, Mojotone Tweed Champ.

My favorite feature of the GT-500 is its excellent and articulate distortion tones and flexibility. Beautiful Red metal flake finish with cream knobs. It's a beauty. Compared to the Fulldrive, it has more of an open / British-voiced tone. It matches very well with my British style amps (Germino, Reeves) while I'd say the Fulldrive matches better with my American style amps (Delta Blues so far).

I was actually shopping for a Way Huge and was trying all three but none of them really appealed to me. I wasn't looking to buy this particular pedal, thinking it would be redundant for me, but I was wrong. This pedal gives me excellent distortion and singing lead tone. I would definitely replace it again if needed.

It's no longer the flavor of the month, but it is an oustanding pedal of impeccable build quality and superb flexibility. The price is a bargain for what it brings to the table and compared to what other boutique builders are charging nowadays.

Highly recommended.

Fulltone makes the best pedals. Thsi pedal is diverse and adjustable for all types of gain. I especially liked the separate switchable gain which can be set before or after the distortion circuit. I wish the Drive II had this option. This is not a plug in and play pedal, you do have to twist the knobs to find your tone for that reason I give it an 8, otherwise a 10 for those who understand the basics. A little adjusting and you can find your tone. The High pots are not 12:00 passive, leave them all the way up unless you want to cut some high end.

Fulltone sounds great, no matter what unit. True Bypass, and all that.

Nothing better built out there, the componenets are top shelf.

Fuller is not one to be bothered with hair-brained notions, I am sure if you have a problem they will make it right but they probably do not want to hear your latest idea schmatic for the "fizzle-fuzz-wah-rotarism".

The GT-500 is a good pedal. Depends on what you are looking for. I recently redid my entire board, trading in everything I had and my sound closet horde. I am very particular about my distortions and I am looking for some rather specific tones and a lot of versitility. I tried out the GT-500, a fine pedal, nice boost, switchable, versitile, good distortion. It really did not suit what I had in mind. I traded in my OCD and I wanted something to replace what it was doing for my Trower tones and I also like a really high gain controllable musical distortion. I traded the GT-500 for the FullDrive II which replaces my OCD and does a little more for my tastes than it could do with it's limiting three knob approach. For high gain I went for the Boss Metal Core which rpelaces my Keeley mod MT-2, again a good pedal no problems. I just find the Core produces what I liked from the Metal Zone without having to tweak so much to find the exact mid, high and low combination. I of course use my high gain tube channels but I also like the Core through a clean channel which I find very useful as well. Both sound great and I am after verstility. The GT-500 is a great pedal, I just happened to like the MOSFET Drive II for what I needed which is more a preamping OD sound, OCD Trower-like. Nothing outgains the Boss Metal Core for the ultimate musical distortion. It;s good to have all ranges of distortion and tube melt. The GT-500 is a good distortion it might be what you are looking for, my tastes ran a different direction. I detailed my new rig in the Drive II review.

As with most things if you do not read the manual and understand the controls and theory behind what the designer has done, you might go the rest of your life thinking all tone controls are created equal, they are not. After understanding how the controls work and what they do you might consider what it is you are trying to do. Also a bad amp and not so great guitar is not the judge of a pedal, no pedal can make crap sound good. Fulltone is made for tone mavens, the ones who will understand what they are doing who most often have decent high high end guitars and amps already. such is the case with the GT-500. All that said there are few controls here and if one realized what they were doing it makes life easier. Yes, you do have to tweak on this pedal to conform it to your gear. Although no matter what it was set on, one could get something musical out of it. Guitar player is pretty picky on pedal tryouts and they realized this is a very musical pedal. They gave it their users pick award.

I recently traded in all my gear for a new batch of pedals to update my board and reduce the number of boxes I was using and the loading they provide. Even true-bypass is not always the answer in the tone forest of problems. Sometimes a good buffer makes for a better tone in your line, the Morely Vai Wah's being the case. Anyway, I digress, the GT-500 was obtained to replace my OCD ver3 pedal, which worked well for the tones I was expecting to get from it (pushed tubes without too much fizz, Trower type distortion). It did this well, I think better than the OCD personally. Still, moving ever on-ward. I chose the GT-500 to replace my current OCD and my distortion pedal, a Keeley MT-2 that is highly tweaked for my tastes. I discovered my amp was really so good (Carvin V3) it could gain the distortion level of the MT-2 with tubes and a without the pedal clipping that I worked so hard to EQ out. On the GT-500, I found I can set the boost side of the pedal to mimic the OCD drive I had, as well as better cleaner options. My amp has two clean boost foot controlled switches so I do not need the clean boost, except, here is the option of running this boost into the distortion side of the GT-500 instead of after it thereby increasing the drive of the distortion side. So right there are four or more tonal options I have in one pedal. The High control is a high end rolloff not a flat at center knob. The mid has a special band pass filter design which drastically alters the tone to suit what sort of gain tone you want. The bass seems to boost above mid. My amp already had so much low end presence I do not need more. At any rate the unit produces tones which make tubes respond better and with more tonality and headroom. If you have a cheap or small amp this is not your pedal.

Fulltone makes the best, sometimes chips or electronics fail and sometimes they can last for decades, one never knows. It's always a matter of components not the unit itself. The only thing I have had fail in 30 years of playing is a power supply brick which was bad. twice, when I got them out of the box.

They will fix any problem you might have I am sure, but they have no time to talk crap on the phone or listen to people's ideas which are largely baseless most of the time. Fuller is a genius and his products are the best pedals out there, if you have a little amp or a budget guitar do not spend your money on them, improve your basic setup first. This stuff is for high end tonal players not for those who toss their gear around and plug bad cables into crap not concerned with adjusting knobs.

Fulltone is the best. I find the GT-500 to deliver what I need in terms of a useful overdrive on clean or dirty tube settings, the distortion is very musical and adjustable. It is not a fizz or fuss distortion it is a tube pushing gain enhancement. You can switch the boost before or after the distortion side for more options. I like it, and I like few things. I only use and keep the best. I would not hesitate to add any Fulltone pedal into my board.

Returned Z.Vex Box of Rock (BOR) and got this. Many more knobs than the BOR but all are easy things to understand so no problem. Currently I have all the EQ knobs set to mid (5) and the sound is fine.

One thing I like is that the pedal is not small like the BOR so I don't have to worry about hitting the knobs with my foot, the knobs are easy to adjust and it doesn't flop around when you step on it....... like the BOR. I also like that the jacks are on the back so it takes up less room on my board.

My set up is Strat or Tele to Boss TU2, Boss Auto Wah (AW2?), Boss OD3, GT500, Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue. At first I bought the BOR to use with my OD3. I wanted a pedal that I could add to my OD3 and have a clean boost and a distortion. This way I could have OD, Distortion, OD/Dist combo and Boost to any of the three sounds. (may amp has no distortion or boost channel).

The BOR was my first non-Boss pedal and Boss didn't make a 2 in 1 pedal like this so the BOR and the GT500 fit the need. As I said, I had the BOR at first but found that it wasn't giving me a different enough sound from the OD3, so I ended up returning the BOR and getting the GT500, but before I returned the BOR, I had the chance to test drive all three pedals (OD3, GT500, BOR) at home alone and in a rehearsal.

I found that the for OD sound I kept going back to the OD3. This pedal just sounds so transparent to my ears. The BOR made a really nice replacement for the OD3, but I was after a distortion not another OD. I just couldn't justify putting a perfectly good $100 on the shelf to replace it with a $250 pedal. The BOR was a little more warm and thicker than the OD3 which was nice.

OK, on to the GT500. The Boost section makes a really good OD pedal, a good replacement for the OD3, but I want to keep the OD3 in my chain and use the Boost as a clean boost. When playing alone the distortion sounded kind of harsh to me and I was leaning towards keeping the BOR. Then I tried the distortion in the band setting. It sounded perfect. Now I'm set up good. I hit the OD3 for an OD, classic Fender sound, which I can boost for solos using the GT 500. When I need distortion, I turn off the OD3 and turn on the GT500 distortion giving me a good rhythm crunch or distorted lead, using the boost to get that extra solo volume. And finally if I want to go over the top, I hit the OD3 and the distortion side of the GT500 to get heavier distortion.

Very happy with this setup now. The distortion is just right and the boost is pretty transparent. Plus, I can use the boost as an OD if I want to.

Don't forsee any problems. Seems well built.

No idea, site seems pretty good. I have no reason to give a lower rating.

In my current band, we play Blues, Funk and rock (not classic). This pedal suits my needs really well. Nothing bad to say about it. I would like to get the BOR again some day maybe but it's hard to justify.

I've tried the OCD, the Fulldrive2 (totally don't get that pedal), the BOR, Sparkle Drive, a few other boutique pedals and many Boss pedals. I was looking for distortion (not OD) and wanted a clean boost. This pedal was a perfect match.

This pedal has an intuitive layout. The ability to select which stage is first in the line is very useful, and the switch is right on top (yet out of the way). The tone controls are small, but that is a good thing. The volume knobs seem to maintain a unity when set to equal values. All of the cables plug into the same side (the back-- facing away from you).

I couldn't think of a way to make it anymore easy to use.

I play a PRS McCarty into a Fargen Custom Shop VOS.

The distortion stage is biting. I've seen alot of negative reviews about this, and that is too bad. It is a FET-based distortion, so it was not surprising to me when I plugged this pedal in at the store. This pedal is a bit noisy on this side, but that's also to be expected. I play some heavy parts, but nothing like deep-metal thuds, so the biting midrange in this pedal is ideal. Pinch harmonics really jump out.

The boost side does slightly color no matter what. You may as well assume that from the fact that there are tone controls (only treble and bass on this side). This is also an OD stage that is useable to get that barely breaking-up sound when you dig in. Cranking the gain in this stage will get you a nice amount of saturation that is appropriate for studio work (trust me, less-is-more when tracking saturated tones). This stages saturated tones are much more tube-amp like than the distortion stage.

Using the stages together is just awesome. There are so many combinations of tones.

My amp is a single-channel masterpiece. This pedal helps me exploit all of its greatness. I'm not sure I would like the pedal's tone as much without my amp. With the stages being used together I have a three channel amp.

For $140 I couldn't beat this pedal's sounds (there are more than one). It is not the best at any one sound, but it is very useful for getting multiple usable sounds.

I have dropped this thing while setting up for a gig. It produced such a loud thud that people in the crowd actually gasped. It worked fine after that.

I also had a cup of tea sitting on my speaker cabinet while tuning. I forgot about it and started playing through the amp. The tea shook off and spilled all over this pedal... I dried it off and let it sit until the next day. Plugged it in and had no problem.

Seems good.

Never dealt with them.

I play in an original band that is fairly progressive. I need to get a lot of sounds out of my single channel amp, and this provides that opportunity for me. I can tap without the distortion getting mushy or unclear. I can play 7th chords through the OD and not miss out on the complexity of the chords. I can use the boost to simply drive my amp into brown-sound-town.

I have been playing for 13 years. I don't own a lot of gear currently, as I have stripped down my rig. This pedal helps out a lot with that.

If it were stolen I would probably buy this again.

This is very useful for me, I laugh at the negative reviews.

The pedal is fairly simple to use. It has knobs to control distortion and volume level and some eq for both the overdrive and distortion sides of the unit. What can be a little tricky is dialing in the settings on your amp, overdrive, and distortion so that you have several good and distinct tones that compliment each other. The eq has such a wide range that this can take a long time to decide what you like. One feature that the pedal needs though is center detents on the eq pots so you can know where the middle of the eq is. You can definitely tell by ear, but that would be a nice feature nonetheless

The sound on this thing can be best described as being conceptually like a Mesa Boogie, it has several incredible mind numbingly good tones, but it takes a lot of effort working the eq to dial them in just right. People who give this pedal a bad rating probably are used to plug and play pedals. This pedal is definitely one that is a sonic chameleon that can cover a lot of grounds, but also requires you to be careful with the eq.There are several "wrong settings" that will result in squeeling or just unusable distortion that has terrible tracking. But if you take the time, you can dial in almost anything.

This pedal is built like a tank, I have dropped it couple times and not even a ding or little scratch in the paint. It has smooth feeling pots (don't worry about the crackle on drive pot, that is supposed to happen) and the mini pots for eq, though small and fragile looking, are actually remarkably durable and realy don't accidentally slip very easily

never had to deal with them for repairs, but they answer questions by email REALLY REALLY fast and seem to stand by their product. I also don't think I'll have to considering how well made the product is.

I have been playing for quite a while and have many many distortion pedals and this pedal is amazingly able to nearly take the place of many of them (boss ds-1, dod 250, big muff, and proco rat can all be emulated by this pedal) The only things it can't copy are fuzzface, tube screamer, and rangemaster tones (and it can't really do metal zone tones but it can do a metal tone that sounds much better than any metal zone)

One thing that you have to try with this pedal if you own a tube screamer is to try this pedal's booster going in to a tube screamer, or try having your tube screamer go in to this pedal's distortion and the distortion going in to the boost, these combinations yield great tones when eq'ed properly

Using the pedal is easy. Getting a good sound out of it is a whole different story. The controls, especially tone controls, are difficult to find good settings with. The gain on the distortion side, especially, seems to really be one sound that differs from more ear-piercing to more muddy/fuzzy.

Probably the only really cool thing about this pedal is the ability to put the boost before or after the distortion. Though it only works so well when the distortion isn't very good.

I really expected a lot more from this pedal.

The Overdrive/Boost channel sounds weak when it finally reaches overdrive on the gain control, and the boost is incapable of not coloring your tone. Wherever you set the tone controls, they impart some tone on your signal, which tends to work great when you are looking to use it as simply a clean boost. However, use the boost after distortion or overdrive for a solo and you'll notice it either makes the tone fatter and slightly duller or thinner.

The Distortion side is even more difficult to get a good sound from. The use of a wah inductor for a mid control was a good idea, and maybe someone could use it as a tone control, but not this pedal. It can make you sound like either you've left the wah pedal on or you cut the mids completely. The treble control seems to do its purpose the best of any control on this pedal. The bass control on this side does very little...even with it cranked and the mids and treble set low, this pedal is still horribly and painfully shrill. Friends and band mates have repeatedly referred to the pedal as "ear-piercing," "shrill" and "abrasive.

And now, before someone dismisses this review as being someone with a "crappy transistor amp" or "Squire guitar," I'll tell you that I'm using great gear that sounds excellent with everything else. I am using a Fender Princeton with a 12 inch Tone Tubby ceramic speaker and a 2x10 extension cab from South Vintage Valley Amps (using two Weber 10150F speakers (I think that's the right number), along with a 1965 Gibson ES-330 with Lollar P90s, a Fender American Deluxe Strat with Kinman Woodstocks, a Fender Tele with Seymour Duncan Antiquity bridge pickup and Lollar Special T neck pickup and a G&L ASAT Jr. None of these guitars sound good through this pedal. I also was using a Dr Z KT-45 through a Marshall 1960AX cab (with English-made Greenbacks) but, due to the massive volume required for this amp to really shine, have since sold it. Big surprise, the Fulltone sounded awful through that amp as well.

Short of wanting pure abrasive fizz or muddy fuzz, there is NO need for this pedal. Even when I find a good sound, I quickly am reminded by a band mate that it sounds shrill farther from the amp. There is no winning with this pedal. I've had it for 11 months now and have tried time and time again to like it and to find a great use for it. But I can't deal with it anymore.

So far I've never had problems with this pedal. However, I bought the Fulltone cables prior to this and the tip actually broke off of one of them. Both the Fulltone cables and GT-500, along with the vast majority of other Fulltone pedals seem to have won Guitar Player Editor's Pick Awards...amazing. That is, until you realize that Fulltone has advertised in every issue for years now. I work in advertising and marketing, I know how it works...you advertise regularly with a magazine and they show their appreciation with glowing reviews. Don't think this doesn't happen in real life.

I emailed Mike once. His response was rude and condescending. All I wanted to know was more about what pedal would match a certain amp/get a certain sound.

Overall, I have little use for this pedal and, even when it sounds good, I end up not being able to find the same sound again simply due to the smallest of tonal changes (say the amp volume increased from 4 to 4.5, etc.).

The best things about this amp are the od before or after dist switch and the size...now if only the sounds contained within this compact, space-efficient pedal were as good as it should be at such a price.

You can get usable tones pretty quick.

Here's the good first. The 2 channels cascade rather nice.
The Not so good! Channel 1 the OD channel would be killer if it didn't have so damn much low end. I play through a Bassman head & a Matchless Clubman. It doesn't matter which amp I play thru there's way to much low-end, even with the bass rolled off. If it had less bass this channel would rule.
The God Awful.. Channels 2 the Distortion/Gain channel is basically unusable. It squeals, it's over saturated even with the distortion rolled off. Worst of all, it Can not & will not cut through the mix at rehearsal or at shows....

I'm certain it will last forever....

They are cool to deal with..

I really wanted to like this pedal & ride out into the sunset using it. The idea is there, but the execution lacks. To have 2 separate channels that almost deliver is genius.. I really don't know why they didn't just put the OCD or something similar on the distortion side..

And why any OD pedal needs that much freakin low end is a mystery to me. Just because something sounds good in the bedroom, living room, test facility etc, doesn't mean it will ever sound worth a damn in a live band setting.
I run a channel amp rig, at low gain settings. You'd think the distortion side would eat it up with tons of volume separation from my normal amp setting.? NO!!!! It just gets buried & dies into a sound wave mess that is inaudible..

I'm not going to say this pedal is crap, because it is not. Maybe Fulltone can do some more research in the field before releasing a pedal to the masses.

After 4 months of fighting the tone of this thing it's going to a new home via Ebay.. Maybe someone else can dial it in....?