Fulltone Robin Trower Overdrive

This is one of the better ODs I've used, firmly in the basic Fulltone Overdrive family... The OCD and Fulldrive are obvious sister units, although this one has asmoother, power tubier tone than either of the others. Worlds away from the Distortion Pro.

This will no more make you sound like Trower than playing a strat will, but that said, if you like moderately high gain that cleans up well at the guitar and is smooth, not fizzy, but also passes on the Dumbley efforts of the Zen Drive and similar smooth drive pedals (they are GREAT, but don't have a certain growl that I want to hear), this may be worth a test drive. Set everything straight up into a clean or mildly overdriven amp and see what it sounds like.

I play a PRS Grissom, a McCarty, and a 99 MIM strat with cobalt pups into either a Dr Z Carmen Ghia, Maz 38, or Budda SD30 clean channel. Generally run either a Lizard Leg or Jauernig boost in front of it for a gain/volume boost. This is not noisy at all, even when goosed, and sounds REALLY great with the Ghia. It adds an edge to the Ghia and all I do is dial up my lead tone with the pedals on, then twist the volume knob to clean up. This rig cleans up exceptionally, ringing almost acoustically at very low guitar volume pot settings, and allowing the guitar's gradiations of tone to shine as you dial up. An excellent pedal for classic rock and hot country depending on the guitar choices you make. One of the few pedals I've used that doesn't get thin and twinky as you dial your guitar back.

Absolutely dependable. Remember to take good care of your tools. I would never jump off a drum riser onto the footswitch of anything I expected to continue functioning. Step on the pedal, keep spare batteries or run it off DC, clean it off occasionally. And it stays dependable.h

Great match for about anything I play. I job a lot, so I need a dependable, versatile, great sounding overdrive. I have tried most of the major boutique pedals on the market, some over and over, and this is probably the best match I've found for my Dr Zs. I want grunt, but not so much that every country lead sounds like Randy Rhoads, and I want clean, but a girthy clean that doesn't get twinky at 2 or 3 on my guitars. Best pedal I've owned for this.

Volume, drive and tone controls. Pretty straight forward.

Here's my current live setup. Beat up Mexican Strat into Boss tuner, Fulltone Deja-vibe, Vox 847 wah, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Fulltone RTO into my beloved Marshall JCM 800 4104. Just purchased the RTO a few months ago and am still experimenting with it on the pedalboard. Just did a show last weekend and took out the fulldrive and used the RTO with the rest of the pedals, just to see what it would be like. No complaints here. This pedal shines with this setup. Did "Too Rolling Stoned"(Trower)at the end of the second set and people were buying me shots during the break! I think I'll stay with this lineup for a while. I don't think you can go wrong with this thing.

Have owned Fulltone pedals for 7 or so years and have absolutely no problems. Great stuff.

Never dealt with them and probably won't have to.....

Play mostly 60's, 70's stuff. Trower, Cream, Ten Years After, Neil Young, etc. Been playing off and on for 35 years or so. After the Deja-vibe, It's my favorite pedal. Together, they're just plain awesome! Throw in the JCM and Strat and.........
Put it this way. When I first tried out the RTO with the rest of the setup, my wife told me that's the first time I didn't eat dinner in 25 years! If something were to happen to the RTO I'd sell my car and ride a bike to work(12 miles). Do yourself a favor. Go try one with a good tube amp and turn it up a bit. Take it home and forget about dinner.

RTO, this pedal is easy to get a good sound from it whether you use the drive on it or not.
The volume will give plenty of db boost, & it has plenty of drive on it for me as I always use an overdrive to give my driven amps the extra push to obtain a more violin sound from the drive & get the smoothest tone ever.
The tone control is usable within many ranges depending on the amplifier circuit its driving.
I find that it is awesome into a Marshall type tube bass amp of a JTM type of circuit.
A marshall that is short of gain itself but has a wonderful voice & this is where a pedal like this can shine.
It's as easy pedal to use as a tube screamer yet you may find you have to tweak it more to suit a particular amp/guitar combo.

I use a Univox 1246 to simulate an early jtm vibe, & boy does it do the job with the right type of boost & drive this amp is something for ears to hear.
It works well at giving a fender deluxe more mid to cut as well.
I wouldn't say it's transparent as such as I find it takes a bit of the Fender sparkle & replaces it with more mids that do work but I would have to say that a Marshall is where this thing will offer tear your face cut in the mix, yet turn your volume down & you sparkle up a bit.
This pedla is as voiced to what I like in a gain box as can be with my rig.

I am a strat player & don't use humbuckers for the most part, so I need more balls yet clarity in a drive.

This pedal with an early 80's Big muff & you are indeed in Gilmour land.
I used to use a modded TS10 with my muff but this pedal is less compressed & sounds much more natural yrt cutting.
I had an OCD & I liked it, but it wasn't quite the sound & I got it from a friend who sold it to me for $60. But wanted it back after some thought, LOL.

I now have this & when I tried at the store I couldn't give an honest opinion there but when I got home, WOW.

You will be hard pressed to get lost in the mix with this pedal.

The construction speaks for itself, plus the warrentee.
They are reasonable people to deal with no doubt.

I haven't tried yet.

If one cannot do it all, as far as rock, funk,blues, R&B, or Floyd with an RTO a Muff & wah with a strat.
Into a slightly driven marshall or older fender sweet old tube amplifiers.

Well lets just say it would be a sad day if that ever happens.
It is very pricey but is is a leap forward in my opinion as far as a drive with a mid range character that is musical & a bit different than a tube screamer type mid, because the RTO is not too compressed to hamper dynamics.
But offers tons of sustain & overtones when driving a working tube amp that is pushed a bit.
So I would say it's not a bad value is this is what one is looking for in their sound.

No brainer stomp on it

Sounds Great,This pedal is my Fulldrive 2,s best freind,they sound great together,lots of sustain,and very useable tone contol no icepick in the forehead tone here.I use it to compliment the FD 2,it really adds some good beef to that pedal,Strat into the Fulltone dirt farm FD2,RTO,OCD4 to 65 reissue deluxe.

All Good

Fulltone customer support is limp

Great for classic rock and blues a very dear freind of the FD 2 ,It wouldnt cut the mustard being my only pedal but if you have a FD 2 you cant go wrong,they sound crazy good together,I have been playing for over 30 years and finally clued in to true bypass sold all tone suckin pedals and went true bypass end to end strat Clyde wah ,Deja Vibe 2,FD 2,RTO,OCD 4,Octafuzz,DLS Chorus,DLS Echotap with tuner hooked to the second output so true bypass signal is not intruped, also know as Uncle Ricks really ****in cool idea.I have spent a ****load of money buying high end pedals to fill my board,some had to go Gt 500 is limp, the RTO is not going anywhere its a keeper

Very easy to use (3 knobs for vol. drive and tone), rich dark lower gain overdrive that is made for Strats.

Usual Fulltone expectations were met, superb clarity and transparency. It's excellent with a Wah and Univibe of course - the way it's meant to be used. Once you get an OCD or FD2 and one of these, most of your bases are covered. I only have a Zendrive for the usual D-style moments too. The unit is designed and optimised for heavy strings and detuning a whole step but I tune in standard with 10-46 and it's still excellent (Strats with Rosewood boards and Texas Special pickups or the Alnico 3 magnet ones)

Non of my other Fulltone pedals have let me down and this will be the same - quality parts and build.

The FT website is very informative and the dealers very helpful.

I also have the OCD and FD2 but this is more of a specialist unit that doesn't have as much drive on tap as the others but is superb to leave on all the time and control with just the guitar volume - as it was developed this way. Dark, thick, organic drive that you'll love if you are used to quality sounds and dynamic tube amps at the end of your chain

Got it on special offer as I'm Trower fan and use this with a Univibe (of course). Would buy another!

Very easy to use (3 knobs). It is very easy to get a great sound out of it: It is a very rich OD with a lot of harmonics and you will not be limited to Tex-mex sounds, a problem I have encoutered with other pedals (Maxon OD 808 is a good example of a great pedal with severe limitations). You can really get a fat overdrive by playing on the tone control. It is the best OD I have ever tried. I was just busting some Hendrix 10 mns ago and it..

Very good quality. Very solid box. No noise I could notice. Works great with my Gibson LPs and Fender Custom shop. You can get really a tons of sounds, from rock to blues rock to many other styles. You can also use the pedal as an awesome booster. It sounds great with delay as well.

As I said, solid metal box. Built to last

N/a

Really amazing pedal. If you need one OD/Distortion peal, get it. You will be able to get Hendrix, Trower, Gilmour... sounds. It is not limited to Trower fans ( I like his music but I am not a crazy fan)...Get it!

The Fulltone RTO is your basic basic 3 knob tube type of overdrive. That in itself makes it a no brainer. The trick is finding the sweet spot in the interaction between amp and pedal. I don't think however this pedal could make a bad sound though unless you reall tried.

Alot of people would say it's a cross between an OCD and a fulldrive and I can understand why they would say that. It does share characteristics with both, but I feel this pedal has its own personality. Alot of these overdrive pedals borrow from the Ibanez TS stock anyway, so they're all related. Kinda like a twin versus a deluxe, or plexi versus JTM; they sound different, but they still sound like a Fender or Marshall.

With my Les Paul, this would be my pedal in a 2 guitar setup or with a keyboardist. It cuts through the mix very nicely and the upper mids are very smooth but with punch. Very good clarity! It blends with a cranked amp just right and gives off a kind of growl that kicks ***! Pluging into my Eric Johnson Strat, I said "HOLY ****"! This actually might be a marriage made in heaven. I've been looking for an overdrive that suited my ideal of a "good strat tone". I was blown away! The two work incredible together!

I've never had to service any of my fulltone pedals, so I imagine it's just like the rest. SOLID! Of course, I will be gigging with it.

Dunno,. never needed it!

I've only had this pedal for a couple of weeks. But as of thus far, I'm very impressed! It sounds great with a Les Paul,.. but with my Strat though,.. Jesus! It picks up all sorts of nuances that have been eluding me in my whole stratocaster experience (I'm more of a Les Paul player). I have been forever looking for a pedal for my strat. My drummer was asking me "why don't you ever take your strat out?" I would tell him "I hav'nt found the sound yet".

Everyone would laugh call me a prima-donna. When I saw this pedal, I knew Robin Trower had good tone and after reading about it I thought "hey this can't miss". I was right! It was well worth the money and I'm very happy. If it were stolen, I would cut that person's testicles off and sell them on the Chinese black market! That would be after I got another one! :-)

Very straight-forward, Volume Tone Drive. Very easy to use, and yes I have to agree with the RTO's ability to interact very well with Fender and Marshall tube amps. Thus far the pedal has been tested through a 66' Fender BFSR amp and a Marshall 2061 20 watt tube head with matching 2061CX cabinet using my custom surf green lefty 57' Strat to spectacular results. I have used the RTO through a 20 watt tube Traynor Club Mate 1x12 combo (70's?) amp, and it didn't have the same magic as with the Fender or Marshall hookups. I am using .011's through .052's Fender Nickel Bullets, and as Mike Fuller of Fultone had commented, the pedal was designed taking into account Robin Trower's heavier guage strings, higher action, and slightly heavy handed playing style. This was the way my strat was naturally set up, so my strat it is in keeping with Mike Fuller's set of parameters used when he designed the RTO pedal for Robin.

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This overdrive is not MASSIVE in that it doesn't overwhelm. Going from the 12 O'Clock position to max on the Drive control doesn't result in a noticeable crunch gain as with some other overdrive pedals. The pedal is nicely subtle but very sweet at the same time. I would say that the RTO has less gain than a standard tube screamer, but more nice clean balanced sustain throughout the tonal spectrum. I was concerned that it would be another Tube Screamer clone as I already have a Keeley modded Sparkle Drive and Keeley modded Boss Blues Driver-BD2 and didn't need another pedal with similar design and tonal qualities. I was pleased that it didn't, and upon careful consideration I personally think that the RTO pedal is just great by itself. Some may prefer another overdrive pedal used in conjunction with the RTO, as I have read other users comment upon the RTO's ability to interfaces with most overdrive pedals due to the RTO's inherent buffering.

I just purchased a Creation Audio Labs Mark.4.23 boost pedal which is an extremely dare I say "transparent" boost pedal. The RTO is a very "transparent" overdrive pedal with a very nice "clean boost" and sustain, or at the very least a cleaner boost than your typical overdrive pedal. It retains all of your guitar's best clean tonal qualities. I have always appreciated a clipped power amp stage tube amp tone over a driven preamp stage tube amp tone, because the overall tone (especially with chords and single notes) clarity is retained to the verge of being "pushed" over the edge as Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap refers to. With the volume going to 11, it gives the amp that little extra bit of "push" that it needs to "push" the amp right over the edge as it were. The RTO, at least to my ears provides more of the power amp clipping tone. I believe that with the RTO's construction there is no need for concern with regards to carrying a backup pedal unless you're too lazy to change the 9V battery or to unplug the input when not in use. I suppose at that juncture one could have another RTO ready with a fresh battery if that person was independently wealthy enough to shell out another $224.00

Haven't dealt with Mike yet, so I really can't say. I would hope that after spending$385.00 on the Fulltone Fulldrive II Mosfet and RTO pedals, that repair issues would not be a consideration, or even a issue for quite sometime.

Classic Rock and Blues, yes it is a GREAT match. Long enough to play better than I do, but making a living focuses my attentions into other facets of my life. I would hope to replace the RTO if I could, and the situation arose that I no longer had the RTO. The RTO does exactly everything that it claims to do, there are no hard sales tactics from the manufacturer here. When a pedal has its own distinct tonal identity as the RTO has, it truly pleases me because I don't want to replicate what I already have/own. As I stated earlier, I was truly concerned that I would be duplicating my efforts by buying a similar pedal with similar tonal characteristics to my Keeley Sparkle Drive, Keeley Blues Driver, Fulltone Fulldrive II Mosfet, Mesa Boogie V Twin, Keeley Compressor, or Creation Audio Labs Mk.4.23 boost pedals. I didn't want to buy the pedal just because I'm a dyed in the wool Robin Trower fanatic, but because I wanted some tonal versatility. I accomplished said task with my purchase of this pedal for my own particular purposes.

Very straight forward. Controls interact similar to the OCD. Manual has the right amount of guidance. Hard to find a bad sound in this pedal.

Using with Strats and a Genz Benz Black Pearl 30. Very low noise for a pedal with this much gain. This pedal does an awesome job of capturing Robin Trower's sound/tone from all of the way back to the early 70s through his latest CD with Jack Bruce. So many great sounds in it. I hate to over simplify it, but this pedal falls between the Fulldrive and the OCD. The gain structure is closer to the OCD, but the voicing is closer to the Fulldrive. Much more sustain and smoother than an OCD, but more powerful than the FD II. It does a great job of maintaining the lows as well.

It's a Fulltone. You could use it for a hammer for 10 years and it will still work.

I have had nothing but great service from Mr Mike and the rest of the Fulltone sales and tech people.

If you're a Robin Trower fan, this is a no brainer. If you're looking for an overdrive that can cover a ton of ground, is voiced perfectly for single coils, and doesn't throw out the lows, this is the right pedal. It has all of the great qualities of the FD-II and the OCD in one pedal. I can't imagine anyone not finding a great tone for their rig with this pedal. I've tried pretty much everything out there as far as overdrives go, the Klon, Eternity, etc., etc., and this has the sweetest tone and most usable gain of any I have tried.