Fulltone GT-500

I just received mine (low serial number) and did a gig with it. Had no time to get familiar with it and really was a bit anxious. However, I reached down on my pedal board, moved the knobs for a few seconds and got quick levels, then adjusted the gains and finally EQ on each side (Boost and Distortion). Stood up, played a few notes and the band snapped looks over to see what I was playing! More on the sound later . . . The pedal came in a box with a simple manual printed on a single sheet of paper. There was a decal (Nice) and a warning label regarding the DC Power Options "You may run this pedal on any amount between 9 and 18 volts DC as long as the center Pin is Negative... You'll be amazed at the sonic differences!". This unit is so easy to use that it really requires no more than the single page owners manual.

I was playing a Les Paul with Burstbuckers and an Eric Johnson Strat through several other pedals with this pedal being the first in the chain eventually ending up in my 1966 "Blackface" Fender Twin Reverb. The moment I heard this pedal at volume I had a huge smile on my face. This pedal sounded absolutely amazing! Very touch responsive, ear pleasing and tonally rich with harmonics and a very professional sound. When I say professional . . . I mean that this pedal gave me tone like I have always heard the pros have and wondered how they got it, always trying to mimic their setups and never getting it. I know that tone is in the fingers, I have been playing for 26 years and have tried several different amps including Budda, Two-Rock, Bogner, 65 and Zinky. Not to mention the dozens of pedal I have tried including Keely Ultra DS-1, Klon, HAO Rumble, MI Audio Crunch Box, Modded Rats, Chandler Tube , etc, etc. Seriously this pedal with my setup is the tone I have always searched for! It can sound like Michael Landau, Larry Carlton on the OD side to Vai, Satch and EVH on the other side. When both buttons are engaged I can get a jaw dropping heavy distortion sound that gives me what I need to play modern music as well. Every song I played this on sounded incrediable. It makes you realize that you can get the sounds of your favorite artists by playing the guitar a little differently, as long as you have a good fundamental tone to start with. I have always wanted to be a Fulltone fan, I have the ChoralFlange and DejaVibe but never could get a distortion or OD sound that I liked. He has done it with this pedal, I will go on record to predict that this is the top selling pedal during the next 12 months, as you guys/gals start playing and hearing these, you will all want one. A grand slam for Fulltone! Amazing and well done!

Appears to be built very well. No personal signature from Mike Fuller on the bottom anymore, just screenprinted now. Have to remove 4 screws from bottom to change out the 9volt battery. Has four rubber feet that are not stuck on with adhesive, they are screwed on. The small EQ trimpots feel rock solid. The switches are super strong. Just got it so can't say much here yet. Have had and currently do own other Fulltone pedals and have never had a single problem with them. This pedal comes with a "5 YEAR WARRANTY" in the box!!

Have never dealt with Fulltone with any customer support issues.

Once again, I predict this pedal will saturate the market as other players experience it. I play everything for Steely Dan, Tower of Power to Oldies, Classic Rock and even Prog Rock such as Porcupine Tree, Yes, Rush, etc. I am a hard working, gigging musician who plays in several different bands and does a fair amount of session work. Now that I have this pedal, I will guard it with my life, however, if it were stolen I would replace it immediately. I still can't believe the price at $225.00 on these, this pedal would still sell amazingly well at $299.99 + but regards to Mike Fuller for giving the music community a fair price for this pedal. Do yourself a huge favor and find one of these to play ASAP! Absolutely Brilliant!

There's a bunch of knobs to twiddle, but nothing unusual. If you've ever dialed in an amp or a stompbox, then you'll get by just fine.

Every sound is useable. With everthing at noon, it's friggin' loud and bright. However, once you dial it in a bit, lower the highs, raise the mids, lower the volume, up the gain or lower the gain, up the volume, you start to hit a some sweet spots, and there are many to be had. I'm running the distortion first with gain at 11:00, Level 9:00 (unity with my amp), Bass 12:00, mids 2:00, Treble 11:00. Then on the boost side, Level and Gain 10:00, bass at 12:00 treble 10:00 used as a lead boost. My other effects are a vox wah, phase 90, meistersinger chorus, dd-20 delay, into a Deluxe Reverb. I play a fender strat and a gibson les paul. I've gone through many, many pedals from vintage to modern, cheap to boutique, and this is one of the few times I've felt compelled to write a review. It's great. Lot's of sustain. The only issue I have is the lack of compression on the distortion side. I play a maple neck strat as a my main guitar and usually favor a more compressed overdrive sound which the gt-500 seems to lack. However, it's still new to me, so maybe I haven't found it yet. Oh hell, it's still a 10!

Well, I've had fulltone stuff before and have only exchanged them to get new ones everytime fulltone decides to change the components until I finally gave up on losing money. Well, I can't imaging improving on this one. I think he got it right.

Somewhat helpful, rarely friendly.

I've been playing in a cover band for a couple of years, and have been playing guitar for twenty years. I've had tons of equipment and mostly go through various overdrives. My favorite feature is the boost feature being able to follow the distortion. We are two guitarists in my band, so I needed a volume boost. I like that with this pedal, I was able to consolidate some space on my board. The only thing I wish it had was a bit more compression and maybe not so transparent sounding. I love tube screamers, and this has nothing in common with one. It's like plugging into the high gain stage of whatever amp you're playing through, and that's not a bad thing.

Pedal Number 161 replaces my Fulldrive 2 Mosfet. It comes in a sturdy case with separate Boost and Distortion channels, each having their own tone controls. It will run on tip negative AC power from 9 to 18 volts, or a battery. The battery circuit is disabled with AC power, so you can leave it plugged in on a pedalboard. A one page description and suggestions for use is included that tells you everything you need to know. Priced fairly. It's very easy to get good tones from the unit, you just have to be careful with the volume, especially when running 18 volts.

My current set up is a Dr.Z Route 66 and a Soldano 50 watt Avenger routed thru a Radial headbone amp head switcher into a 2x12 closed back cab. I use the Z for clean and rhythm and the Soldano for leads. Being a one trick pony (and a VERY good one) the Soldano does not need any boost or overdrive. The GT-500 is used to vary the tone of the Dr. Z from clean overdrive to nasty. It does the job well. Interestingly, I can make the Z sound exactly like the Soldano using the GT-500...clean, articulate notes with harmonic sustain. I don't need to do that, but it's a nice way to make your rig sound like you have a high end amp head for 200 bucks. The unit is not any noisier than you would expect. It's a versatile nice souonding improvement on my Fulldrive 2...and I really like my Fulldrive 2.

The only Fulltone product I've ever had problems with is the Tape Echo, which was related to me being an idiot and taking a tape echo to gigs when it needs to stay on the shelf in the studio next to my noisy old Echoplex. All the pedals from Fulltone have been solidly made and I have never had to call Mike about them. It runs on tip negative power. I use 9 volts because it's safer and warmer sounding, but it sounds very nice with an 18 volt AC adapter. I don't think you could fry it if you plugged the wrong adapter in (I didn't try this) but you could easily crank this unit up to the point that you could overload your amp input.

I have dealt with them for another unit and they were quick, businesslike and helpful.

I've been playing gigs for about 40 years, 35 of which as lead guitarist. I can finally afford good equipment to partially compensate for my arthritis and high tone hearing loss. Our current group has been together a long time and we play primarily R&B, blues and rock. I won't bore you with my pedalboard details, but I try to own quality, sturdy equipment that will sound good enough to allow my playing to make heads turn. We frequently record our live gigs in 16 tracks and the guitar tracks rarely need any work. The GT-500 is a nice unit and it's a bit more versatile for my needs than the Fulldrive. It's a keeper.

I found it easy to get great tones right off. The boost side is incredible. It can be very transparent in terms of maintaining the sound of your guitar and amp while boosting output. It also does a great job of taming or boosting the highs and lows a bit while keeping the overall sound just as happenning. I've had many, many, many distortion pedals and virtually all of them sound way better with a good booster pedal in front of them. Fulltone is not the first to combine the pedals into one box (Demeter's FOD pedal is one and Pete Cornish and John Landraff build duplex boxes for big money). The two pedals linked together are very, very satisfying. The ability to change the order really changes the sound. The tricky part is that adjusting the volume, gain, treble and bass can be accomplished from either side with different results. It will take some time to learn how to get the sound you might want quickly. After using the pedal for about an hour and getting very good sounds in the range I was after, I found a better way to get it by radically changing the volume controls on each side.

I have found lots of great pedals and amps and each have their own character. The best ones I've found are the Landgraff DO and MO-D, Pete Cornish P2 and G2, Bogner Shiva, Toneczar Openhaus, Badcat xtreme tone and the best bargain I've found so far is the SIB Varidrive. I've tried so many and believe most fall short one or more of the following - harmonic range and depth (low end), clarity/note definition, a pleasing dynamic response, harmonic complexity. I've tried and owned a Custom Shop Fulldrive 2, Distortion Pro and 69. The GT is way better then the other Fulltone units in my opinion. The difference is the wide dynamic range and better note definition. Harmonic content is very good and playing dynamics and volume clean up is nice. Is it the ultimate distortion pedal? For some it will be. I think it is in the upper ecehlon. I don't think it is as complex and sweet as a Landgraff MO-D but it is surprising in the ballpark and will cost less than half what a new Landgraff will run. Considering it is a two for one proposition where the boost half is worth the asking price by itself (Fulltone should consider releasing the boost side as a stand alone pedal) and the two halves combined can produce so many outstanding tones, it is a steal. I highly recommend the GT for its boost side and for its higher gain tones. This pedal shines in both regards.

This pedal is heavy. Moreso than I expected. It is so well built and intelligently designed that I can't imagine having any trouble with it.

Mike Fuller will stand behind his products. I've found them very responsive and helpful in the past. They have gotten to be a pretty big company and hopefully are still as good in this regard.

The GT really is a fantastic value. The boost is awesome and the distortion tones are the best Mike Fuller has crafted. Great for rock, hard rock and lead playing. Easy to get great tone but it will take time, patience and experimentation to find all the pedal can do. You will need to tweak and try different volume and gain levels on each side to find the sweet spots (write them down!)

There are alot of sounds in this unit, not always easy to find them but at least it is marketed as a tweaker's delight.

Really great feel on this pedal. I won't say great tone because it doesn't have very much of its own tone. Instead, I find it serves up a helping of sustain, breakup/hair or fatness (with the boost). It really stays out of the way of your guitar & amp tone. Now alot of pedals have tried to do this before, but what impresses me is the feel with which all this is done. The dynamics are insane, just as good as the OCD and volume knob cleanup is ridiculously good. Dig into the strings and the breakup gets more intense, exactly like a tube amp. I'm not just saying this! I have owned many of the top pedals in the infamous search and this unit is really a very strong performer. You want high gain, singing sustain? It's a breeze with the GT-500. What it is NOT: it is not like other pedals. The crunch tones are not like what you get with traditional opamps or even tubes. Instead, this pedal really seems to have been designed to work with your existing setup and dial in hair or girth or sustain at will. If you have a Marshall style amp, the midrange signature stays the way it is, even with extreme settings. If your Fender style amp is super clean, this pedal will not make it sound like a Plexi! It will still sound like your Fender but with mysterious breakup or sustain coming out of nowhere. It definitely is voiced bright and I took issue with that until I tweaked it just right. Again I want to reiterate that this is not a very traditional pedal at all and I think it will have a dedicated following when word gets out that it is a very flexible high-quality tool for your music. Yeah it sounds a bit hi-fi, but that only matters if your rig sounds too sterile already. It will effectively work like an eq when your amp is cooking but an eq for breakup, sustain if that makes any sense. It seems as if you can control those parameters at will for the first time using this little guy. It also does not really compress, which is odd considering the sustain that leaps out like magic.

Looks very solid.

I'm not a Fuller fan but that's irrelevant. He's putting out some real good equipment.

I tried to explain my experience with this pedal after about 2 weeks with it, playing at every volume and with all my guitars. I do think it might be a somewhat misunderstood pedal at first, but it will surely find a following because of its range/depth. I sure didn't get what I expected, I just bought it when it first came out because I was really impressed with the OCD. It is NOT an OCD on steroids, in fact they're nothing alike except that the touch sensitivity on both is amazing, and the boost is not like the Fatboost. Also the price is very low for a boutique quality pedal that can do so much! Eat your heart out Lovepedal. There's no need to spend $330 anymore!

2 pedals in one, easy to use if you think about it this way:
left side is the best clean boost I've ever played, and I'm a Klon owner and a Zvex owner.

anything you want from clean to the Highest gain, but with an unbelievable clarity, and then there's that wah inductor Midrange control!
Then there's the middle toggle that allows you to switch the order of the 2 effects. Unreal.
I can dial in ANYTHING from jangly Vox to raging Marshall, forget the Box of rock baby, it's sold.
This has retired 3 pedals off my board.

it's a Fulltone

emailed with some q's and got a clear answer in 10 mminutes...beat that

$212 for the best clean boost and distortion pedal ever? =Duh.

Relatively easy to use...although the rangeof the tone controls are a little too much.

I cannot get this unit to sound good. The tones have an almost Hi-Fi sound to them...not very natural or organic at all. It does have tons of output, but if the tone is not there, who cares. This unit might work well for a very modern tone where a bright and clear distortion is what you are going for.

The unit seems very sturdy.

I really wanted to like this pedal, but it is not to be. I own and regularly use a number of this builders pedals...namely the FD2, the Soulbender and the Tape echo. The other units

Plug in and play. It won't take long to get a great sound with this thing. The problem will be which great sound to go to. This pedal really could be all that someone needs (with a good guitar and tube amp). Instructions are direct and to the point. Mr. Fuller wants you to play with this pedal, and find your own way. He does warn you that the pedal packs a lot of power, so be careful.

Out of the box this pedal was ready to go. The variety of sounds available is overwhelming. It's new, so I will likely play around with it for a while. The boost is warm and loud. It really fattens up single coil pickups (if you want it to). I used it along with my OCD to push the OD a little harder. On its own, it also works as a nice OD pedal. No need to compare to the OCD, they are very different. Truth is I love them both, and will use both. The distortion is very versatile. The control over the mids is fantastic. You really get such a variety of sounds, it's almost difficult to describe what this pedal can do. With both sides on, the tone is rich and full (no mud). Again, each person will get a different sound out of this pedal because there is a plethora of available settings. I'm running with the distortion before the boost. Over time I'll continue to explore the different tones when I play with the series select switch.

I have Keeley Comp, Analogman Sunface, HBE Germania44, Roger Mayer Page 1 and Boss Giga Delay. I also have a Fulltone 69, 70, Deja 2, and OCD. Notice all the Fulltone stuff? These things are built very well.

Emailed Mike once with a question (re: 70 Fuzz), and he got back to me with an answer. No problems.

I play rock, blues, jazz and some metal. I've been playing 26 years. I've owned a lot of high (and low) end gear. I have two Fender CS "Time Machine" Strats and a CS "Time Machine Tele at present. I wanted a higher gain distortion, and the GT-500 fit the bill. It is far from a one trick pony. It can help you boost and round out your clean tones. You can also get a very mild drive out of it. If you want more dirt, it delivers! Great response to picking dynamics and lots of sustain (cleans up well with your volume too). As I stated earlier, it produces a lot of variety in the clean-OD-distortion market. It's a little difficult to write a review for a pedal that will sound different in every players hands.

Two pedals in a row. Everything you know about a boost/distortion and swapping order applies here. Just as expected. Plus, I thought the mid control might be annoying based on what I know about wahs, but is isn't! That was a pleasant surprise!

Wow. Different than either of the two fulldrives I have. I can't believe how much the boost makes my '65 DR sound like it's cranked! This pedal could be the cure for living room recording. The distortion is great too... but, the overdrive is very realistic. Nice.

Never had a problem with Fulltone pedals. This seems the same... but let's let it get some miles.

Never needed customer support.

Aahhh... oh well... 10.. Why not? It's only $200. Try to do better than this. Wow... what a nice pedal... ok, have to play..