Alright so let’s talk about this Fulltone Full Drive 2 MOSFET thing. Seriously, felt like wrestling a bear at first. Plugged it in yesterday afternoon thinking, “how hard can it be?” Famous last words.
The Initial Struggle Is Real
Opened the box – looked simple enough, just a few knobs right? Wrong. Slammed it on my pedalboard, hooked up the cables. Forgot the darn battery clip first try, got nothing. Dead silence. Felt like an idiot. Fixed that, plugged guitar into the amp input like a total newb – just awful squealing. Had to actually read the manual to see it goes in the amp’s effects loop return. Embarrassing, but whatever.
Started twisting knobs randomly:
- Volume: Cranked it – blew my ears off instantly. Backed that down quick.
- Boost: Flipped it on, sounded like bees in a tin can. Awful.
- MOSFET Switch: Clicked between the two modes. Honestly? Could barely tell a difference at first. Started thinking I wasted my cash.
Played some chords, sounded… thin. Harsh. Nothing like those smooth bluesy sounds I wanted. Got seriously frustrated after like 20 minutes.
Stumbling Towards Something Decent
Checked some random forum posts later – confusing as heck. Everybody says something different. One guy insists the “Voice” knob at 10 o’clock is the Holy Grail. Tried it. Nope. Still garbage. Another dude swears by boosting the mids. Sounded muddy.
Took a break. Came back later, decided to just ignore the advice. Started kinda low on everything:
- Volume: Set maybe noon.
- Boost: Off for now.
- Tone: Rolled back to like 9 o’clock.
- Drive: Barely cracked open, maybe 8:30.
- Voice: Left in the middle.
- MOSFET: Switched to the other position (the one labeled like… higher gain?).
Holy crap. Suddenly… it sounded like a proper amp. Really clean, but with just a tiny bit of grit when I dug in. Like a tube amp just waking up. Way warmer. Felt different too, springier. Finally a usable sound! Added a tiny bit more Drive, nudged Tone towards 10 o’clock. Even better.
Tried the Boost again, just a little bit. Didn’t make it scream, just added some more punch and thickness. Perfect for kicking in during a solo without blasting everything apart. Messed with the MOSFET switch again – yeah, this position definitely felt softer and rounder than the other one now.
What Finally Worked (For Me Anyway)
Here’s where I landed after all that messing around:
- Volume: 12:00
- Drive: 10:00
- Boost: 11:00 (it’s subtle like this!)
- Tone: 10:30
- Voice: 11:00
- MOSFET Switch: Lower Gain position? (Not totally sure, the one on the right!)
Honestly, I still barely know what “MOSFET” actually does technically. But who cares? This thing sounds killer now – smooth overdrive with bite when I need it, cleans up nice by rolling off the guitar volume. Took way longer than it should’ve, but I got there. Hope this saves somebody else the headache!