Fulltone 69

shaunm

Hi all, has anyone got any suggestions of alternatives to this pedal? I am thinking of buying one of these but wondered what other shouts people have. I'm after one of these as they are not as "out there" as some fuzz's, dare I say it's more subtle.

Dave_Mc

I haven't tried it but looking at the fulltone site it appears to be a glorified germanium fuzz face. So I'm guessing any pedals which you know to also be germanium fuzz faces (or glorified/modded Ge Fuzz Faces) would be worth a look. Most boutiquers make a germanium fuzz face...

ICBM

I had one. It was OK. It sounded like a germanium Fuzz Face except with a couple more tweaks, and sounded a bit boring and characterless like all the Fulltones I've owned.

Then the switch broke, and the wires to it were cut so short and then resin-ed over on the switch that the only options were to replace the whole wiring loom back to the board, or carefully dismantle the switch and a new one, and make one functioning switch - this is *not* easy, but it was marginally the lesser of the two evils.

Having experienced switch failures on a couple of other Fulltones as well, this one was the last straw and I will never buy another one.

shaunm

@ICBM wow, that's shocking luck. I had an OCD for years and it never missed a beat.

shaunm

@ Dave_Mc I believe it's based on the fuzz face. Has anyone got any suggestions of pedals like this? Ive never owned a fuzz face! My fuzz needs have always been taken care of by big muffs

Dave_Mc

Yeah I haven't tried very many of the different varieties either.

Wazmeister

@shaunm

I'm not really a fuzz fan at all mate. When I do encounter them, I like a fuzz to be powerful, yet subtle and they must clean up with volume. So, with some, you can go from clean boost to fuzz.

My personal faves, in order, are;

1. Paul Trombetta Mini Bone/Rotobone - the best fuzz, nay OD pedal there is...

2. VL Effects Jimi - introduced to me by @Hymnal (who, along with @Gassage may pipe in here because their knowledge is considerable). Big money, and very similar to the PTD above.

3. Analogman Sunface - cleans up luvvely

The Pete Cornish P1 is legendary too. Once again, big bucks and gassage owns one, and I believe @thisisguitar is about to get one. Just my two penneth...

Gassage

I'd add in Skreddy LM and Wamp Velvet.

swlabr

Not exactly fuzzfaceish but lovely in its own way, Skreddy Hybrid Fuzz Drive.

thisisguitar

Yeah, I have a Cornish P1 on order :-)

dilbert

thisisguitar said:

Yeah, I have a Cornish P1 on order :-)

Interesting. May I ask who your' mortgage provider is ?

  

:-\"

Drew_TNBD

Maybe try one of the less chaotic muff types? Maybe the Double Muff?

frankus

I like the 69 fuzz responds nicely to the volume knob being tweaked. Set it up at stupid levels and leave it on...

then go from slight boost to whatever using the volume knob on the guitar.

ICBM

Drew_fx said:

Maybe try one of the less chaotic muff types? Maybe the Double Muff?

I loved the sound of that on its own, but it *hates* buffers in front - I think worse than any other pedal I've come across, even Fuzz Face types - horrible, shrill and scratchy with one.

I wasn't even convinced it liked one afterwards, but that might have been my imagination or just a bad combination of tones...

randomhandclaps

ICBM said:

Having experienced switch failures on a couple of other Fulltones as well, this one was the last straw and I will never buy another one.

Have you considered ditching your platform boots?

RaymondLin

Wanpler velvet ? Scarab deluxe?

ICBM

randomhandclaps said:

Have you considered ditching your platform boots?

lol

But no… the reason the switches break is because they're crap, and the reason they're hard to change is because Fuller thought it was a good idea to deliberately make it as difficult as possible. Even if the first is forgivable, the second isn't.

BigRedOne

For balance, I have 8 fulltone pedals across my 2 boards (including a 69 fuzz) and I've never had a problem with any of them - in fact they are easily my favourite make of pedal. If you're looking for a beefier fuzz, the Soulbender is much more 'out there' than the 69.

JD50

Cornell first fuzz ir TSVG Angry Jeff?

xHymnal

The 69 is considered the pick of the full tone fuzz face types. They clean up well. I prefer it over the 70. There are a lot of good fuzz face types out there though, analogman, VL, monsterpiece, actual arbiter units, Pigdog, Arcane Analog the list goes on. One thing worth considering is whether you want it for humbuckers or singles as often they are voiced and biased in such as way that they naturally sound with one or the other. The fuzz face type fuzz is a beautiful unit as it bridges the gap between overdrive and fuzz just using the volume control. Big muffs, on the whole won't react like this. From what you're saying it sounds like you want a fuzz face