Fulltone pedals are great. I’ve definitely played a few – Ultimate Octave, OCD, Fat Boost, Fulldrive 2, ’69 Fuzz and Clyde. With all of these pedals I walk away and say ‘wow’ every time. Always top shelf tone, great sounding effects, and with excellent build quality. One thing you don’t see … deals on the pedals. So if you’re looking at a great opportunity to pick up a Fulltone, this might be the perfect opportunity.
This morning I came across the Fulltone GT-500 Distortion and Overdrive/Boost pedal. I’ve looked at this a few time myself in the past. The GT-500 has 9 FETs, 2 MosFETS with no OpAmp or clipping diodes. One of the stand out points for this pedal – EQ control. You have control of Bass, Highs AND Mids, which is critical to stand out in the mix. Here is the official description by Fulltone:
Discrete F.E.T Hi-Gain Distortion and Overdrive Booster in ONE BOX. Think of them either as two separate pedals or as stages to be linked together for endless combinations. The Hi-Gain side has Volume and Distortion knobs with Bass, Mid, and Highs minipots. The Booster side has Volume and Overdrive knobs with Bass and Highs minipots. (These new Hi-Q sealed minipots don’t break BTW.)
Hard clipped distortion (the way most pedals achieve distortion) at one point in a circuit can be cool, but stage after stage of FET (GT-500) is very real, very amp-like, has ridiculous amounts of sustain even at low volume, does the great chunky low string rhythm stuff and cleans up incredibly well when you turn down the guitar’s volume. The GT500 contains 9 x FETs, 2 Mosfets and 1 x Transistor with no opamps or clipping diodes used.
What’s special about the EQ?
The Hi-Gain side has a discrete Inductor-Driven Midrange circuit… never been done in a pedal before. Yes, there’s a wah wah inductor inside the pedal that gives the Midrange control its ability to drastically increase or decrease the entire Low Mid, Mid, and Hi-Mid frequencies, to comical proportions. All this is done without any opamps because all of the active 3-Band EQs I’ve tried are horrible, killing all harmonics, all excitement, and sounding as sterile as the “EQ” in a Digital Recording Program. Nope, this has 100% discrete matched FET’s
This Mid control mixed with a strong Bass and Treble control help give the GT-500 the ability to dial in more variations than a simple tone control, which can only roll off the Highs.
Here is a great video by ProGuitarShopDemos:
The Fulltone GT-500 Distortion & Overdrive Booster lists for $199, but is usually available for $160, but is currently on sale for a great price of $119.20 at Amazon.com. The Fulltone GT-500 also has free shipping. So we’re talking $40 off the going rate! Not bad!!
If you own this pedal, please comment below and let us know what you think about it!
