Fulltone Distortion Pro

[Silence Kid]

So the demos online only make it sound so good; comments on other forums cause it to come across as finicky at best, and it seems to be an ugly duckling pedal.

I understand it's based in part on a RAT? I miss the RAT 2 I borrowed long-term years ago... My only distortion pedals at present are a DS1 , an MXR Prime (neither of which I love) and a Danelectro Fab plastic distortion (which I do love, fantastic pedal.) So I picked up a Distortion Pro to vary things up, waiting for it to arrive.

Will comment on sound once I receive it, anyone a fan/not of this pedal?

 

[ErikH]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

I tried it before. Sounded like complete garbage to me. Worst distortion pedal I ever tried.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

Sounds good so far. I'll take two!

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

That's encouraging I bought it for about $30 so no loss if I can't use it, I can sell it and be part of the distance to a GT500 or something else.

I guess that's what happens when you make a distortion pedal with eight knobs. I'm interested to see if I'm able to tweak it with success... Playing through my Silverface Champ, I just had one of those moments where "none of my pedals sound good," we'll see if this does.

 

[Dr.Mavashi]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

I've played one in GC about 15 year ago ... , loved it, a lot ability to manipulate it ... is that the red with like 7/8 knobs ?

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

Right, six on the face, two trim pots inside.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

Is there a particular box this is modeled on?

 

[cvansickle]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

I tried it before. Sounded like complete garbage to me. Worst distortion pedal I ever tried.

I bought one in 2002. My findings also.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

Is there a particular box this is modeled on?

View attachment 75557

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

If anyone cares I made a post to Tips and Clips comparing it to the FAB and a DS1 I have around (I didn't bother with the MXR, it's so close to a DS1 ...)

Anyway, I'm still playing with it. It's not the worst thing ever, but it hasn't blown me away yet. It sounds... Close to the DS1 , but with more power and knobs.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

If anyone cares I made a post to Tips and Clips comparing it to the FAB and a DS1 I have around (I didn't bother with the MXR, it's so close to a DS1 ...)

Anyway, I'm still playing with it. It's not the worst thing ever, but it hasn't blown me away yet. It sounds... Close to the DS1 , but with more power and knobs.

Is that the much-lauded Japanese DS-1 or the more recent Taiwanese?

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

I'm not a DS1 connoisseur; I have a Taiwan, and have never played another. To me the Pro doesn't really deviate from the "light buzz-saw" timbre that the DS1 represents to me. It isn't a particularly round, harmonic, or creamy distortion no matter how the knobs sculpt it (as far as I've tried.) But unlike the DS1 , at least the Pro provides the ability to dial in some mids, and the volume knob has much greater range.

Again, not bad for how much I paid for it; I think it's competent, and I manage to tweak it a bit better each time Just not the most extraordinary distorted tone I've heard.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Fulltone Distortion Pro

So it's been a... Week and a half? I've been diligent in tweaking, trying to be patient... Then it occurred to me that I was getting a pretty crap sound out of it; honeymoon over? I'm over the fact that it's not absolute ****, but a few things stand out:

-The volume goes quite loud; the drive is limited in range. It does clean up well, odd enough (but is not an overdrive)

-The tiny knobs are all very responsive, but treble is dark overall no matter what; also, I found myself using the midrange and saturation to tweak overall loudness (or it's impossible not to, I should say)

-No matter where the knobs were set, the leads just didn't have any character. And again, despite the "infinite" tweak ability, it was proving impossible to get a really heavy sound out of it other than that. It was sounding almost too smooth for its own good, and never seemed to have as much compression as I desired (without screwing some other part of the tone over)

So.... I developed a theory. I realized all my other pedals sound good through the Fulldrive 2 next to it, set to clean boost; the Pro sounds like crap. Crap in a *GLARING* way. Seemed off. I tweaked knobs until I got a decent tone while boosted, turned off the Fulldrive, and... Wound up with the best tone I've gotten so far out of it. Heavy, clear, smooth... Again, I don't put it that far from the DS1 tone-wise, but it does sound better, if that means a thing at all. Still not a grail tone by any means, but I feel it's at least pretty versatile to use in this fashion. But that's deluding myself, in truth I want to try a GT500

For those curious, I wound up here (Punch line, exact same settings as the previous owner delivered the pedal to me with :smack: : )
-Volume: 11:00
-Dist. : 2:30
-Res. : 1:00
-Voicing: 1:00
-High: Max
-Sat'n: Max