Fulltone GT-500

Newer model red version. Boost/OD on one side, Distortion on on the other. It is FET distortion, not Germanium diodes. Toggle switch in the center for putting boost before distortion or vice versa. Solidly constructed 16 gauge steel housing with bright red powder coat paint job, very sexy looking. Nice, smooth control knobs

Well, what can you say. Mike makes a great boost pedal in the Fat Boost, a great boost/od in the FullDrive 2 and a great litlle rock monster in the OCD. This, however, sounds bad. FET distortion just does not have the warmth of germanium diodes in the clipping stage. They are very harsh and edgy, too edgy, I couldn't smooth it out with the tone controls. Did not like

Mike's pedals are solidly built, inside and out. Good components and good qc. Every now and then you get a quirky one. But if it's under warranty, he'll fix it

Emails are a little slow. And I've heard he can be a jerk sometimes, but I've never dealt with him personally, but they did fix my Fat Boost in a timely manner, so no complaints there

If you like a hard, in your face, edgy kind of raspy distortion, this the box for you. I like my distortion a bit more on the creamy side, and this just don't do it

2 separate channels.
15 minutes to dial in.

Both Channels are near perfect for what they do.
The OD is a bit too Fat sounding. (still sounds great)
The Distortion is pretty amazing with more than enough gain.
I take the bass down to -0- on the OD channel & get great results.
The Distortion channel has ton of db separation & so does the OD.
I think the OD side may be the exact same as the Fat Boost 2??
The Distortion side sounds like nothing Fulltone has ever produced.
This pedal has simplified my guitar playing life big-time.
The tones are very vintage.

I don't understand the bad reviews. I guess, no one pedal will please the entire guitar playing world.

There's a lot of gain on the distortion side, don't be afraid to back it off a bit. Fet pedals operate different, they don't have to be cranked to deliver great tone.

I'm sure it will last the test of time.

Fulltone's pretty cool to deal with.

I play thru a 65 Bassman. SG Standard, Tele Deluxe, Les Paul Special.
Rock, Punk Rock, Hard Rock, Southern Rock etc.... It all Rocks!
This pedal makes a guitarist life much easier. I stay busy playing & recording. I own 2 of these GT-500's & I'm selling all of my other OD pedals. I've owned just about every OD pedal sold in the USA. There's no perfect pedal, but this thing does exactly what I want it to do. The fact that it operates as 2 separate pedals is why I like it so much. I'm not a huge fan of most Fulltone pedals. This one is killer. Take it from a guy that only uses OD pedals & nothing else. The GT-500 has great vintage tone. The fact that the Distortion side is called "distortion" does it a disservice.
This is an Overdrive pedal.
It's a 10. I'm just sorry it took me so long to try one out!!

hard to get to know all the features...worht it though

anything you want, it's in here.
Ignore the beginners who slam this pedal,because it sounds crappy with their transistor Peavey or Fender....LAUGH.
This is for a PRO, with real guitars and amps who wants to take them in all sorts of different directions.
Period. Perhaps HC should require clips from all reviewers to establish some , uh, "frame of reference?"
I'll happily comply, in fact you can here me with the GT500 on at least 3 current TV commercials. Yah I know, but it beats your bedroom ;)

it's Fulltone.

don't answer the phone, answer emails fast

the best , most diverse, and complex distortion pedal ever made.
Amazing! If you have been playing for 10 years or less, save your money, get some lessons please.

Features already listed, easy to use, you have to spend some time with it.

The pure sound quality of this pedal is very good IMO. The tone controls offer a very good range of sounds and I found most settings useable. The boost side of the pedal was ok, I prefer the OCD and the Fulldrive 2 Mosfet as boosters. The distortion side of the pedal offers some nice sounds. However, for high-gain distorted sounds I think the MI Audio Crunch Box wins hands down. I own the Crunch Box, and did some side-by-side comparisons. The distortion side of the GT-500 by itself doesn't even come close to the gain of the Crunch Box. I had to use the booster to get anywhere near the amount of gain the Crunch Box has. In addition, I found the GT-500 to be very "polite" and somewhat tame, even with the boost engaged. The Crunch Box screams with harmonics and can be pushed into feedback easily.

This pedal is marketed as a high-gain device. I would dispute that claim somewhat, I would call it more of a medium-gain device that can be pushed closer to the high-gain range with the boost engaged. I ran this pedal through a vintage Deluxe Reverb and a Mesa Boogie Mark IV head; the unit worked well with both. The only effect used was a Boss DD-3 for some delay. The unit is fairly quiet, even with the boost engaged. Again, nice sounds, but if you are looking for a true high-gain sound this may not be for you. In addition, I thought the lead tones in this pedal were much better than the rhythm tones. You can get some nice round lead tones, but the pedal is too polite for any nasty rhythm work. If the GT-500 were advertised as anything but a high-gain device I would have given it a ten.

Very sturdy, built like a Fulldrive 2.

I have been playing for over 13 years now and am very picky about my gear. I typically like Fulltone products and had high hopes for the GT-500. To be fair, it really is a nice pedal. However, I just do not have a place for it in my set-up. My high-gain tones are covered by a Crunch Box and a 70 Fuzz. My low-medium gain tones are covered by an OCD and a Fulldrive 2 Mosfet. As such, I do not really have a place for the GT-500. I was hoping it would give me a more tweakable alternative to the Crunch Box. A nice pedal, but not a good fit for me. I wish it had as much gain as the Crunch Box, then it would have been an easy 10.

This unit is simple and straightforward. Volume, drive, bass and treble on the OD side; volume, distortion, bass, middle and treble on the Distortion side.

I've been using this as part of a pedalboard with various tube amps: Fenders, a Marshall and an ancient Traynor (a '71). The pedal reacts very differently with the amps: the Fenders (6L6s) have more headroom and a much brighter tone; the Marshall and the Traynor (both small EL-84 models) compress much faster (not so much of an audible boost) and the treble frequencies aren't as biting. This unit throws a LOT of treble into the mix, and if you have the headroom, it'll kick up the volume alarmingly---you've been warned!

It seems to be built like a tank.

I've had no reason to contact them.

As stated previously, the GT-500 is treble-biased and will boost the volume of your amp (if the amp has the headroom) explosively. I have the OD side set with the bass on full and the treble dumped, and it's still plenty bright. The distortion side reminds me of a Big Muff pedal---a real thick, heavy fuzz tone. The pedal also has another trick: when both sides are activated at the same time, there's a switch that allows the OD to go into the Distortion, or the Distortion to go into the OD. My choice is definitely Distortion into OD. I would recommend anyone interested in this unit should give it a test-ride first. Tonally, it's an acquired taste.

With all the buttons, still pretty easy to use. All the controls work like they should.

Great OD sound, and horrible distortion sound. As someone said, Fulltone does overdrive very well, but distortion? Not so much. It sounds like a Boss DS-1. And, that's just an awful thing.

I own a few Fulltone pedals, and they're built well. I doubt I'll gig with tthis pedal though.

I use a Mesa amp, and I wanted a pedal that'll get me more of the british sounds. And, the boost was a plus. Well, it turns out the boost is actually useable while the distortion was junk. This is going on ebay, and I'm going to try the MI Audio Crunch Box.

Very easy to use. Separate eq for each channel, which is very nice (and unusual for dual channel pedals).

Mainly used this with an American Standard Telecaster with Kinman Broadcaster pickups through a Fender Blues Deluxe on the clean channel. Also played around with a Gibson SG.

First, the overdrive channel is very good (to my ears)--I can get a nice fat tubey sound--when the drive is almost maxed out, I get a nice fat sound of tubes breaking up, and it keeps the tone of the guitar pretty well (but not great). The eq is very useful, and this thing never gets muddy and always cuts through a loud mix. As a pure overdrive pedal, I'd give it an 8 or 89

The problem I had with this was the distortion side (I'd give it a 3 or 4 on this side). I just couldn't get any kind of ballsy sound out of it; everything I tried sounded fairly weak, with flabby bass and harsh highs. I could get some nice overdriven sounds with the drive on the distortion side down, and on the overdrive control all the way up, but I couldn't get seem to get great pounding distortion. The distortion pro or OCD seems to do distortion better (but neither are cranked high gain type pedals).

I think the distortion side is either something people are going to love or hate (as you can see by the mixed reviews). With any piece of gear, you should buy it from someplace that will let you return it--I did and bought a Blackstar Dual, which seems to be working better for me so far (have only had it a day though).

Took it back after 3 weeks, but it seemed like it was built like a tank.

Never used it.

Overdrive channel was good for the old-school telecaster garage rock I was playing, but as I said above, the distortion side didn't do it for me.

I've been playing for about 15 years.

Very easy to use, however the levels of the tone knobs can't be seen on stage.

Using with Genz benz Black Pearl, Fender Amps and Rivera combos.Strats and Cole Clark guitars, plus Ernie Ball Sillhouette Special.The Booster is great, the distortion is brittle and easily bettered by FoxRox ZIM.The ZIM is also configurable, with various cards that can be installed.The other issue with the distortion is that it cannot be wound back.When the Gain knob is a "zero", it still distorts.This is the ONLY pedal in 35 years of playing that does this and I ask "WHY?"...why would anyone design a pedal that does this.Guitar Players Oct 2007 review stated this is "Possibly the most musical two in one distortion box going". I hope all you guys out there test this for yourself.I think this is one of the reasons why there are so many available cheap on Ebay...in my view th MI Audio Tube Zone, MI Crunch Box & Neo Fuzz along with the FoxRox ZIM kill the distortion side of the GT500, which gets few variants and is just harsh,too harsh for Hard Rock and not enough grind for Metal.Mine is going on Ebay.I also prefer the ZVEX box of Rock, also a better unit.Fulltone should redefine this unit or get rid of it.Fulltone does not know how to do distortion, only overdrive.

Extremely reliable, but then why not?.Fulltones are always well built.But this only matters to people who will use it a lot.Not me.

I emailed Fulltone twice with a question about a GT500 mod he stated he had, I received no replys.So I would say zero for support, but given he has already sold this thing why give a toss about replying to some guy in Australia that has a question.Better to spend time on "growing the business of Fulltone"

Playing 35 years, not a good match, I wont be keeping it as it does not fulfil intended function.If stolen I would just let the turd have it.What do I wish it had?....tone buddy, tone.It gets a 4 because I paid too much for a booster.

It's simple to use, just not simple to get a sound I like.

The OD eq circuit rolls off way too much bass, so the resultant sound is pretty thin. The bass boost pushes the low mids, but still there's no real low end. The low strings tend to be flappy, lacking punch and clarity.

The dist. section tends to be on/off...no middle ground, and no dial-in with the guitar volume knob. The distortion is just plain buzzy.

On to Craig's List it goes.

I opened it up, and the construction is absolutely first rate.

Have to give it a 5. It's a beautifully built box. I just don't like the way it sounds.

This is a very simple unit to use. There isn't anything overly complicated about it.

I use an Ibanez H/S/H as my primary guitar, and a 1979 Korean made Strat with Jeff Beck hot fender replacement S/S/S for my secondary guitar. Both of these went straight to the GT 500 and from the GT 500 straight to my fender tube amp. The amp gives no real destortion even on the dirty channel with the gain cranked wide open.

My findings were that my Strat didn't have enough output to really drive this unit well. It sounded good, but both sides of the unit were lacking when used in conjunction with this guitar. On the other hand, my Ibanez sounded like a dream. I have to agree with some earlier posts that this unit doesn't give a large variation in the destortion sounds, but if you want a good tube amp sound and a very professional tone, this might be the unit for you.
My only real complaint with the sound would be that it needs more range. The overdrive could go a bit higher, and the destortion side too could deal with a boost. That being said, both have wonderful tone and great sound and offer a good range over-all.

I had always been looking for a good dynamic tone with a professional sound like a wide open cranked tube destortion. This unit provided that. I found my rig sounding like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in minutes.

This is my first Fulltone product. I've not owned it long, but I wouldn't expect any problems. It does look to be well made.

I have been playing for 27 years. I don't play professionally, but I do play in my church band as well as giving lessons to others. I have owned many destortion units, and have never really cared for them much. I've always found an amp's built-in destortion to be better and gives a wider variation of sounds. I've owned most of the Boss overdrive/destortion pedals as well as many other brands.

This is the best destortion pedal I've ever found. I could wish it had a bit more variation or a wider range on its gain settings, but I love what it provides, and it seems to provide a lot.

I play anything I can get my hands on and trick my fingers into doing, but I tend more toward rock in its various forms. Metallica and Trans-Siberian Orchestra are two of my favorite bands, and this unit really works well for playing their songs.

My only real criticism of this pedal is when both sides are turned on. With the overdrive running into the destortion, the gain goes up, but it also takes on a fizzy sound. This could be due to my not having played with both sides enough to work this issue out, however.