Fulltone GT-500

It is difficult to get a bad sound out of this pedal, but just as difficult to get a great sound. Let me explain. You can tweak and tweak and tweak till the cow's come home, but each night in a different room, strange power, acoustics, you will need to tweak.
It never seems to interact the same from night to night.

It's an overdrive/distortion pedal. Turn the knobs and go!

My rig changes every week almost. I have a serious G.A.S problem. But for the purposes of this review I will reconstruct the rig that has lived the longest with the GT500.
Gretsch Powerjet or Strat into Hendrix Wah>Rotovibe>Boss OC3>Octavia>Tuner>GT-500>Loopstation>Analogue Delay>Orange AD30TC>Orange 2x12.
I run the Orange as clean as i can on both channels and use the overdrive side of the GT500 for a bluesy break-up and the distortion side for the high gain thing. The pedal pushes the amp nicely and i can't say a bad word about it. Though depending on the volume of the amp, i have to make a few changes. As i said earlier....tweak..tweak.

The best thing about this pedal is the ability to stack the overdrive and distortion sides on top of one another. Not only that you can choose via mini switch whether to run the OD into the Dist or the Dist into the OD. Versitile personafied.....
I play covers 4 nights a week as well as originals and wouldn't leave the house without this pedal. Real midrange control!!!!

Why would you need a backup distortion. If it failed i would just crank the gain on my amp. I guess if you had a Fender 65 twin you couldn't do that. Fulltone build the highest quality pedals and would be confident that if i dragged this behind my car on the way to the gig, it would still work when i got there.

I have never had a problem with Fulltone but i hear they take a long time to reply to emails. (Sometimes never). But again i have never had a problem, fingers crossed, touch wood, all that.

This is a Pro pedal so you need to know what you want to get out of it. I tried many pedals before settling on this one. Most don't give you enough gain or enough flexability. This delivers in all areas for me. If it were stollen i would jump in the car and buy another one.
The footswitches are perfectly spaced unlike some other dual pedal designs.
I have been gigging solid for the past 14 years and for the past 3 years 3-4 times a week. I'm the type of person the loves amp distortion but it's not alwayspossible at the volumes we are forced to play at. This is the best tool to get your amp singing.
At the end of the day it's all about taste and you got to get out and try a bunch of pedals to see what suits, but if your looking for warm tubescreamer and endless gain I'd try this one first, a few others and then come back to this and listen again.....

You have to work with it a while because of its many possibilities. The Overdrive Section is pretty simple with treble and bass control. The Distortion section is more complicate with treble, middle and bass control. Furthermore it has a switch to change the order of the two sections, Boost/Overdrive before Distortion or Distortion before Overdrive Boost.

I use it with a Haar 60 modern Strat with H/S/S, a Fender Classic Player 60 and a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and a Fender Blues Junior. In combination with the two amps the pedal sounds great, not brittle or harsh if you don't want it to be. But it needs time to dial in the sound you want or it takes time to get used to the sound you get. It might not be at once the sound you expect but after a while you won't play any other pedal. The GT 500 is the most caracterfull pedal i ever played. I played Xotic BB and MI Audio Crunch Box before and they are great pedals but they sound a bit boaring like every other guitarist you like. The GT 500 is much different with its unique middle control and its amplike character. My advice: Give it time and may be you will love it. May be it is not the pedal for everybody, not the mainstream sound like a BB Preamp or the BB Plus, but it is a great pedal with lots of sound possibilities and high quality characterfull tone.

Built like a tank like every Fulltone Pedal

Don't know.

For me it is the best Distortion Pedal on the market and I tried nearly all of the 'boutique' stuff.

PRETTY EASY TO GET UP AND RUNNING BUT TRYING TO GET A GOOD SOUND FORGET ABOUT IT

BRITTLE AND HARSH , BAD BAD BAD SOUNDING DISTORTION COMES ON AT FULL STRENGTH AND CAN'T GET A WARM SOUND OUT OF IT AND MAN I TRIED I HAVE A FULLDRIVE II AND ITS GREAT I BOUGHT THIS FOR A HEAVY LEAD SOUND NOT IT

YEAH YEAH PROBABLY BUILT LIKE A TANK SOUNDS LIKE A TANK OH YEAH BOUGHT IT FROM TUNNELVISION LONG TIME CUSTOMER THEY TOLD ME SEND IT BACK TO FULLTONE THEY WOULD DO NOTHING FOR ME GOTTA LOVE THESE GUYS

THEY DON'T ANSWER E MAILS AND I THINK IF I EVER MEET THIS GUY I,M GONNA BEAT 202 DOLLARS OUT OF HIM CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS EVERYTHING I DON'T CARE IF YOU MAKE PEDALS FOR ROCK STARS I AM A WORKING CLUB MUSCIANS AND WE ARE YOU WILL SUPPORT YOUR BUSINNESS AMEN!

SOME OF HIS PRODUCTS ARE WORTH IT BUT I HAVE LOSS MY FAITH IN FULLTONE TRYING HOMEBREW AND CARL MARTIN

Ease of use eh? See, it's easy to turn the knobs and what not- and it's easy to switch from one channel to both- but, you have to be patient to get certain sounds, this pedal wants some attention, and once you give it to her, she'll rock your world!

I'm going to be writing to what a lot of people are saying: "The Overdrive is better than the Distortion"... I agree with the sentiments about overdrive, and I concur. This is one of the best overdrives I've played. The EQs allow you to cut the highs and give a little more bass response that my particular setup needs. I found that feature really lacking in the OCD and that is why I went with the gt-500, and I'm glad I did....

AND NOW, for the distortion side. I must say that I too was having a hard time getting the sound I wanted from the distortion. However, I spent a good afternoon after tweaking and tweaking for a month...and now? I'm so glad I did. I personally found the distortion side to be a tad muddy- however, the three EQs on the distortion side really allowed me to shape the sound I was looking for...albeit it took me awhile. I think this side of the pedal really needs a lot of attention and for me, I used my guitar's volume and tone knobs to further dial in the tone and sound. I have set the distortion at about 12 o'clock and the volume at 9 and I've really found the sound I've been craving- great clipping and great tone.

So, in summary to my fellow GTers out there- don't give up, keep tweaking and maybe you'll find what I have- a GREAT distortion and overdrive pedal in one!

I trust the Fulltone name- I think they make great pedals.

Never had to contact.

Like I said before- this baby needs a little loving and doting. My patience was rewarded, and now I have found a sound that I rely heavily upon. I play anything from jazz, country, rockabilly to driving rock. My guitars are all single coil and I play into a vintage tube amp- I think with the right setup and time this pedal blows a lot of the competition out of the water.

The two sides to this pedal are really Jeckle & Hyde. I really like the overdrive/boost side- but I find the distortion is really lacking. I have tried and tried to dial in the right sound, but have yet to do so. I figured having three eqs on the distortion side would help me shape my sound- but I have found that it hinders.

I have the sound is really different to me day-to-day on the distortion side. I really love the boost/OD side- in fact I was contemplating getting an OCD, when my local guitar guru- said to give the GT a ride. I wish I hadn't bit. As I mentioned earlier- the distortion side is what fails for me on this pedal. Even the toggle switch is a great idea- it allows you to switch which circuit comes first when both sides are engaged, but it really doesn't live up to the hype.

I think for me- I utilize the OD side much more- the distortion sounds very stale and sterile. I really wanted to like it- but it doesn't really inspire me. I would rate the OD side a 9 and the distortion side a 4- thus I have given the rating a 6

I don't know- it seems to me that the sound changes from day to day- I have no worries about the pedal itself- it's built like a tank.

Haven't dealt with them

Overall, I would again rate the OD side better than the distortion- I really think the sound is inferior to a lot of other pedals out there. I have really spent a lot of time tweaking and have finally settled on a sound that is just...okay.

The Boost side is easy to use of course but the Distortion side requires a LOT of tweaking to find a decent tone if there is one to be found.

I play Telecasters, Am Deluxe Ash and Classic Players Baja. Initially I used it with a good solid state amp and didn't think the pedal added much to the OD channel of my amp alone. OK, it's designed more for a tube amp. I plugged it into my tube amp and heard some improvement using the Boost/OD side but the Distortion side still didn't impress me with any quality tones no matter how much I worked with it. Also, either side of the pedal was always noisy (hissing) when used in conjunction with another pedal. Then the pedal got noisier and the distortion side would only provide gain but no distortion. All right, this thing is a lemon.

My experience with it has shown it to be very unreliable based upon the above detailed malfunctions.

After it developed the above described problems I attempted to contact Fulltone for warranty service. They require that you have a return authorization from them for warranty service. They do not provide a telephone number, just an e-mail address and a caution that they are real busy and etc., etc. Well excuse me for interupting your busy day but I dropped $200. for your P.O.S. pedal and it doesn't work. I took the time to purchase your hyped up product and I don't think it is too much to ask for some customer service. I sent them a detailed e-mail and requested warranty repair, replacement or refund. That was a week ago and I haven't heard from them yet.

I play blues, classic rock and some country and have been playing for 40 years or so. This particular pedal has been a big disappointment. If it were lost or stolen I certainly would not care and would replace it with something else (as I probably will anyway). I was seriously considering the purchase of additional Fulltone products but due to my experience with this product and Fulltone's lack of customer service to this point I don't think so now.

This is my first Fulltone product I had my eyes on OCD - but my local GC was out of it and they recommended me GT500. My OD/Distortion setup was Boss Metal Zone and Ibanez TS-9 (Analogman Mod). So I did have a OD/Distortion combination setup. Well when I decided to get it GC were out of stock on this too - now I really wanted. I saw some video on YouTube - was impressed. Pretty simple setup - actually video on YouTube got me good idea on how to use it - also some of the posting on HC.

I had it for 2 weeks. I had some issue with my Pedal Pad Board I was not able to officially put it in to my board until last week. I thought I needed to get rid of Metal Zone and Tube Screamer due to spacing on my board. My set up is Fender EJ - Boss Noise Suppressor - (EB Vol - Dunlop Wah - TS-9 - MZ - Digitech Delay) - Boss Chorus - Fender DRRI. ( ) Pedals are inside NS10's loop. I still had my hopes on TS. So I crammed in GT500 and TS which turned out to be great. Basically replaced MZ for GT500 It gave my TS extra gain that I always thought was lacking. I always had TS8's gain all the way up. Now I got it about it on 12 and level on 10 (clock hand position) tone 11-12 not too bright. I can use TS alone for rhythm crunch and then use GT500 Boost/OD to kick in more gain. This set up makes my EJ Strat sing.. even get a slight feedback on long sustain notes. smooth and really brings out the TS9's character out.

Distortion side - I am still stuggling. May be I need a Humbucker PU for this side but. I wanted different distortion than what MZ gave which was harsh - gain. Although MZ is very quiet and very responsive and does have wide rage. My personal taste had issue with it. with gain up high pass 2-3 - there is this fizz. boosting midrange and cutting treble helps a little bit but.. the fizz does not go way. I used to own a 1/2 stack marshall early 70's head with master vol - forget what model - but it had that fizz. So I am figuring distorion side is remenence of Marshal/Vox type over drive. Now I can back off on my volume and fizz calms down..actually I loved the tone with distorsion on with volume backed off a little. Is this a single coil thing. With distortion setting on 9 - it is better managed.

I am totally sold on the OD side.. a simple solution to problem that I had for years

Built like a horse

????

I still want to try OCD.. everyone say this is totally diferrnt so

Although I'm not sure where the cutoff was, I'm pretty sure mine has the modified tone circuit. It was easy to get a good sound...I started with everything flat and it didn't sound bad...I'm happy the distortion doesn't work like the Distortion Pro...I hated the controls on that one. This is simple.

I use a Tim OD in front of this. I removed Tim's boost circuit and connected a loop to the boost footswitch. Now, with the GT500 in the loop I can select Tim, GT500, both or neither very easily. I'm playing Les Pauls into JCM800s. The combinations of these guitars, amps and pedals work together really well. I've set the amp at early breakup, so dialing the guitar back just a hair gets clean sounds, Tim is set for a good rhythm crunch, Tim+GT500 boost is heavy crunch or solo, and then I can add the distortion (set really low) to make it feedback easily. This is one of the things I really enjoy with the GT500: the feedback is really musical. I didn't have that with the MI Crunch Box I was using before...it just squealed. The other thing is that the tone controls on the GT are unbelievably wide-ranging. The Boost channel is voiced wonderfully. The distortion is too compressy for me by itself, but in the above config, it works great. I'd give the distortion a 6 but the boost is certainly a 10. Still, don't let the former stop you from trying this pedal...the boost alone is worth the price for me.

I expect no problems

n/a

After 30 years, I've been through a huge graveyard of pedals. This is certainly one of the best. It would have floored me if it was two boost channels...maybe someday!

Controls for each channel are basic and aptly named. It's not that difficult to dial in great sounds.

I use this with my Gibson Les Paul Classic and a Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue. My main use for it is as a boost on the overdrive side of the pedal to drive my amp; however, there are myriad possibilities on both channels for some seriously great tones. In my opinion, this pedal works particularly well for humbucker-equipped guitars. The Fulltone Fulldrive 2 is better suited for single-coils.

Built like a tank.

I play most styles from classical to jazz to rock and everything in between. This pedal works very well between my guitar and amp and immediately fulfills my need for that cranked sound at lower volumes. I look forward to experimenting with it to get all sorts of tones, both beautiful and utterly horrible. This pedal is capable of producing any overdrive or distortion tone imaginable.

Very well designed but obviously more complex that your average booster/OD pedal given the two-in-one design and the ability to alter the sequence of effects. Very well made like all Fulltone product I have every seen/used.

1989 Strat Plus Deluxe with Van Zandt Blues pickups and reissue '52 Ash Telecaster >> Boss TU-2 tuner >> Thro-Bak Stonebender fuzz >> George Dennis wah >> MXR Phase 90 >> Lovepedal Karl fuzz >> Barber Direct Drive OD >> Fulltone Choralflange >> Boss reverb and delay pedals >> Victoria 5112 and Fender Pro Junior with 1x12 extension cab. I was disappointed. This pedal takes the sweetness out of your tone. Everything sounds compressed/flat and dense. It certainly offers up tons of gain/volume and you get a very aggressive, focused, "pushed-forward" tone. If you want what I guess may be described as a more "modern" tone, I'm guessing the GT-500 would work well. But for classic rock tones, I think this pedal misses the mark.

Built like a tank.

No need for it on this or any other Fulltone products I have owned.

I have been playing for 20 years and like mostly classic rock. I'm going to try a version 1.0 Fat Boost (the old gray box) and stick with my Barber Direct Drive -- it sounds much better for the sounds I am going for.