Fulltone GT-500

Very easy to use

I have no explanation here, this thing sounds terrible. The OCD and distortion Pro were pretty good. Go figure. Some people are going to have trouble accepting this because so many Fulltone products are great. This must be a case of "it looked good on paper it surely will sound great"

I've never had problems with any of my many fulltone products

no experience never had a failure (knock on wood)

Did not buy it---I wish it lived up to the hype--- but hype is 85% of the pedal market

Pretty straight forward. Very easy to get the sounds I was looking for. Manual covers basics well. TO me, the beauty of this pedal is in the stacking possibilities.

This is a very natural sounding pedal and you can maintain your amp tone with the EQ section throughout the different gain levels. Both sides were easy to dial in the sound I was looking for. I went back and tweaked the settings a little after stacking the two sides in both directions to get 4 very different and very usable tones. I never had a Fat Boost, but I did have the Distortion Plus, which I felt was very dark and not natural at all with my rig. However, I love the distortion side of the pedal as well as the booster side, although I prefer to dial up the gain to about 3 o'clock on the Booster side.

Most reliable stuff out there period!

I have emailed Fulltone on several occasions. Always got a very helpful and timely response.

This is a no brainer. $200 for this pedal seems like stealing. I have tried the Klon, Eternity, Tonebone, etc., but none of them sounded natural through my amps. They sounded very good, but had too much coloration to the basic tone of the amp. I think the EQ section helps alot in this respect. I love the stacking idea. It's like the ZIM(another great pedal) but higher gain. A great idea Mike. Now, how about a FD II/OCD combo pedal. You could call it the OCFD. I bet you couldn't make them fast enough.

Straightforward to use.

I have been searching for the perfect distortion unit for ages - now I've finally found one that suits my needs! Absolutely wonderful, and the Booster/OD adds to the versatility of the pedal. I also liked the booster into the distortion, but then one needs to lower the gain. Yummy!

I had some issues the first day or two, with some crakling, noises, and total disappearance of sound at times. However, that seems to be gone now, and I have no clue what happened. Maybe the circuit board mounted potentiometers makes the contact between the chassis and the print board problematic?

I have owned Fulltone in the past that I didn't like: the Distortion Pro is a total waste of money. On my way to find an acceptable distortion stomp box, I've owned a whole bunch of pedals, also some legendary stuff like the Keeley Modded DS-1, a Blackstone, and the overhyped Krank Distortus Maximus. All of these are inferior to the Fulltone GT-500, and I think my search is finally over.

It's simple for the most part , straight forward In/Out's , LED indicators , but it has many EQ options and is rather complex . it's designed that way . Giving unlimited control of tone , gain , and boosting functions .

Without a doubt the best boost / distortion pedal I have ever used ! Nearly endless tonal options and EQ'ing available , I found it worked well with all of my amps and guitars . It also works perfectly with other pedals , no loading at all . Just powerful , articulate tone , with complex overtones and a sweet beautiful chime that I have never experienced in a pedal before . Simply the best midrange control for a guitar that I have ever heard ! Well Done Fulltone ! Awesome !

It's a tank ! Or a Battleship ;) And the battery seems to still be as new after a few months use . It's U.S. built and has a great warranty . No worries here .

With so many good pedals available and many available from Fulltone , this pedal stands out . It has many useful and original design elements and is a welcome upgrade to todays sea of basic , limited and rehashed offerings . A recent magazine review said it best , If the sounds aren't in here , maybe they don't exist . I think it's the best Boost/drive machine to come out in years !

Not your average plug and play pedal but not rocket science either.
Once you get to know how the eq's work its easy.

Very amp like, thick and natural overdrive to blistering distortion. You can get so many sounds out of this. I'm running an ac-15 with a Tele with great results. I've found the best results were achieved by switching off the bass eq's as the gt-500 has a lot of bottom end. Lovely!

built like a tank

not needed

I play a lot of different styles of music and do the odd bit of session work. I've been at it for around 22 years and own al ot of gear. This is a pedal you really need to work with but once you get there it's a beautiful thing.

The Fulltone GT-500 is very straightforward, and on the surface has more than enough control capability. On the boost side there is volume and overdrive along with low and high EQ. On the Overdrive side there is volume and distortion along with low, mid and high EQ. The mid control contains a wah inductor that allows tonal shaping from totally scooped to honky midrange. This pedal has TONS of boost and gain capability. In my use of the pedal, I never had the volume over 9 o'clock. So if you like the overall tone of the pedal, the control capability is very good.

In a word, disappointed. I own a 10th anniversary Fulldrive and really love it. It is my go-to box. I bought the GT-500 based on the Guitar Player review thinking it would be nice to the combination of boost, and a heavier overdrive for certain songs. While the boost feature certainly has a lot of gain, you really have to crank the dial to get any grit. But the EQ is nice to take the edge off higher volumes. The distortion side is loose, fizzy, and covers the range from too much to useless distortion. Once again the EQ controls are very good but the basic tone is non-musical. Such a contrast to the Fulldrive. I am playing G&L guitars through a Seymour Duncan Convertible 2000. This amp has a pretty sensitive preamp and can also be coaxed into great natural overdrive. The GT-500 covered up the tone of the guitar and amp with a mushy, carbonated sound. In the end I pulled out my old Sparkle Drive cranked up gain a lot and added enough clean blend to retain some definition. Granted it does not have the tone shaping of the GT-500, but a heck of a lot more musical. Honestly I think Guitar Player won't give a Fulltone a bad review, much like they love anything with Mesa on the front. I will be more skeptical next time.

Great cosmetics and my Fulldrive has been solid. However my first GT-500 arrived with a dead boost channel and had to be returned.

No direct experience with the factory. I returned the defective pedal to Waterman Guitars (bought on eBay) and they sent me a new one right away. So Waterman is cool anyway

In the end I sold it. For the level of sound quality, I just could justify the space on my board. So I have a very simple rig: Fulldrive, Morley Bad Horsie Wah and the Sparkle Drive.

It's not the quickest pedal to get a hang of but it isn't rocket science either.
There are many things this pedal can do so you need to look for what you want out of it.

This is a loud dynamic pedal with lots clarity, lots of grunt if you want it but it can be subtle as well. There are so many things the GT-500 can do. I use Tele through an ac-15 with excellent results.
I have the od side set at a slight break up, the dist side a slightly heavier sound and I have both going for lead sounds.
Don't be scared to really mess with those eq knobs!!I've had it for a few weeks now and I've used at many gigs and I just love this thing. It's the only drive pedal I need.

built like a tank!!

not needed. don't know.

This pedal is very unconventional so I can see why some people haven't bonded with it. I love it! it does want I want.
I've been playing for over 20 years now, I play original power pop and also make a living in cool cover bands and some session work.
I love the small compact size. I sometimes wish is wasn't as loud as it is as the volume controls are really sensitive. Apart from that this is a succesfull, original product from Fulltone and great value!!

This thing is quite simple to use. I don't understand people on here giving it low reviews, if you can't figure out how to use this pedal, then maybe you should play piano.

Finally, a real DISTORTION pedal. I play in a band, and I play rock music. I don't play Jazz, Blues, Country, Twang, Bluegrass, or rock like Nickleback or Fallout Boy. I play straight forward rock, with a little pop influence (think Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Saves The Day, Muse, etc.) I am not looking for a TS-808 sound to drive my amp over the edge. This pedal delivers flat out distortion, and that is a good thing. I use it with a Gibson Les Paul Classic and Fender Telecaster through a Fender Twin Reverb 65 Reissue, and it sounds soooo good! I tried it with a Keeley Compressor, and it actually sounded better uncompressed (and don't get me wrong, I love Keeley.) I noticed a lot of people on here give it low reviews, but then notice what they're playing through (Peavey solid state amp?) You get what you pay for.

If you are looking for a full, bassy, crunchy distortion, this is your pedal. Don't buy it and be disappointed that it doesn't sound like a tube screamer, cause this is a totally different pedal. The boost channel is great for solos and leads.

Fulltone is great. Fulldrive was a good overdrive, and this pedal takes it to the next level, and its a level I love!

Haven't had to deal with them yet.

This pedal compliments my sound perfectly. I understand its a different type of pedal, cause people aren't used to an actual distortion pedal. This pedal is easily the best distortion pedal I've ever used, and I plan on using it for quite a while.

Don't bash it cause its not just an overdrive. It's good to finally have a distortion pedal with balls.

Pretty straight forward dialing in sounds. It's a pedal with 4 knobs....cmon.

Here is my problem with this pedal. My thoughts are there are two camps of guys (gals)that buy distortion/boost pedals. The ones that play them all the time almost with every sitting at their amps and the ones that can live with putting em in a drawer and pulling the one pedal that they didn't quite think was super hot at the time, but felt it had "potential". I'm kinda inbetween. If I don't really get on with the vibe/sound but also feel it may have an application down the road (at least a few times a years worth) them I'll keep it as long as it doesn't break the bank.

Bottom line: This pedal does not make it even in my utility drawer. I returned it today for a Fulltone 2 MosFet. I'll review that one later. The best part of the GT-500 is the boost and even that was not that great. I like my Xotic effects RC booster much more. The distortion just did not get along with my Marshall JVM 410 combo or my Bogner Shiva. A lot of midrange harsh buzz if you ask me. I'm sure there's an application for that....somewhere...

Did not break in the few weeks I had it.

I play Blues, Rock and a little Country. This pedal is probably not going to make people jump up and go shit!! This thing is amazing! It is a little sterile and harsh IMO.

This is a much less muddy sounding pedal than the OCD. A little complicated because of all the tiny knobs, but if you're a tweaker that's a good thing. A little hard to zone in on a great sound because it is fairly unforgiving. The distortion is very much in the mode of the big Warren Haynes Soldano tone. A lot of clarity, a lot of available high end, and not much compression or sponginess.

There are loads of sounds. The boost channel is one of the bestter boosts I've seen, going from a mild clean volume boost to a crunchy AC/DC type OD when the drive is dimed. The overdrive side has plenty of gain (at live levels with a clean amp 9:00 gives me plenty of grunt) for just about anything you'd like to do. Not noisy at all.

Like most Fuller pedals, it's a brick. With Fuller's new method of the controls it might be good to wait a bit and see if any issues develop, but I doubt that any will.

Always a-ok. Never been unpleasant with me, but YMMV.

A versatile pedal, but not all that. I play Dr Z Maz 38s with G&L Comanche or Hamer Sunburst guitars, have used dozens of ODs. For about the same price the Jauernig Gristle King or Diamond J Drive are both very similar, a tad easier to dial in, and will give you a great variety of tones. This one is on my grab and go board for now while I continue to work with it.