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(More customer reviews)The only good thing I can say about this pedal is that it has a true bypass; when not engaged, it does not alter your tone. However once engaged, it is the noisiest and most unfriendly pedal I have ever used.
There are two sources of noise. The first is a humming that occurs when attached to my SKB ps-45 pedalboard. This is a fully filtered and regulated power supply that is dead quiet with some Boss pedals that did not do well with adapters. I tried repositioning the Fulltone away from the board and any other electronics; the only way to get rid of this noise is to use the built in battery. Researching on the internet, I found this is not an uncommon problem, and apologists for this pedal are advising people that having to use a battery is a small price to pay for sonic bliss. (!?)
The other source of noise is high frequency hiss when engaged. When you depress the toe, the high frequency noise gets more pronounced. Depressing the toe is like progressively turning up the gain knob on your amp, but without getting any distortion, only noise. If you are playing vintage clean styles without any gain, it is noticeable and annoying, but might be passable for guys used to dealing with vintage gear and 60cylcle hum. Once you add any gain, the high frequency noise competes with the underlying tone for your attention. The noise is about as loud as the underlying notes, it is that bad!
I tried many things to troubleshoot: Repositioning the pedal, using another battery, adjusting the internal gain pot, using the ps-45 power supply directly to the battery terminal, other guitars, ground lift switch on amp, straight into the amp without any other pedals, etc. If internet searches did not show other people having various degrees of this problem, I would assume the pedal was defective, but I am led to believe that it just does not play well with other gear.
Here is the rub, if you go to Fulltone's website they claim that 90% of problems are caused by incorrect setup or _interference with other devices_. They have a reputation for poor customer service, (likely from guys like me who spent $250 on a top of the line pedal, only to be told that the problem is with something else in their chain. Warning: There is no phone# to call, all troubleshooting is through email.) This is a modern world full of complicated electronic devices, if you cant build a pedal that coexists peacefully in this environment, then don't built it! You may find that it works in _your_ basement, but imagine getting to your gig and finding out this is no longer a wah pedal but a distortion generator or AM antenna!
Regarding the tone, I have been demoing wah pedals and this one is uninspiring, or perhaps "too" vintage. The pedal travel is very broad, but the majority of tonal changes happen in a very small part of the sweep. You can find the area where the tonal changes occur, but it feels poorly designed. The three settings all provide varying degrees of increasing treble. (With the noise problems, the "shaft" setting is mostly unusable.) I wouldn't say that the three settings provide much variation in style or function, mostly just EQ. This pedal works best with rythmic rocking, and I did not find much ability to make subtle tonal "voice" changes for soloing, like I can with the Crybaby 535q. This is a vintage pedal all the way.
I have been playing guitar for 20 years so have a pretty extensive background in guitar gear, although I'm not a gear snob and feel that my expectations are realistic. I'm glad I had the time to fully take this pedal through its paces (troubleshooting, etc), because the store I bought it from has a 48 hour return policy. It goes back first thing tomorrow morning.
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