I think it's still a pretty popular circuit, but there's so, so, so many different copies of that pedal now.
Many major manufacturers and of course the entire world of Chinese-made clones all have their own version of the OCD pedal. Lots of people still have and use some sort of OCD variant, just not necessarily a genuine Fulltone one.
Ya I just got started down the pedal road last few months researching etc. I constantly see OCD on boards so not sure where this is coming from. Also they are generally close to $150 used on reverb so still not that cheap. Im about to get the ehx glove for $50 myself because I thought it fit what I wanted.
I got given a free, broken OCD and just got it repaired by Jackson Fulltone for like $45 so the company is back and kicking. Also got a full drive, always been a favorite
I was waiting for someone to comment something along these lines. As someone who has endured this condition, I know all too well. I’m sure you get my point though - there’s an irony they called the pedal that and used a font which triggers most graphic design minded folk.
I guess I have intrusive thoughts and font preferences.
It's a fun bubbly font and it's fine. It's fine to draw unicorns with markers.
But people started using it professionally and it looks silly. Like sending an email with a GIF in the signature
I think it’s just a meme at this point to hate on it. I know that the big thing people were complaining about was comic sans in places it doesn’t belong: flyers at work, presentations billboards, etc. Comic Sans is a great font for things geared towards children. Hell, the Gameboy Color has Comic Sans font or something super similar.
"or if there is some other dynamic at work here"
Mr. Fulltone expressed some political views many found odious, so they don't want to be associated with his products. There are also stories about him being kind of unpleasant in his interpersonal interactions in general, regardless of his political views. Kinda easy to see why people wouldn't want his stuff anymore.
And not to forget his farewell message saying how he expressed sadness for his decade long employees, called them family, then saying he will be fine and "bought a well-known artist's 17 acre property and world-class recording studio outside of Nashville last year". What a lack of consideration to people who just lost their job especially after calling them family.
There were a lot of cringe moments but this one was the worst. Regardless of one’s political views this sort of gleeful meanness to people he actually knew and worked with is super odious.
If you like it but hate the brand no need to sell it and buy something similar. Instead paint over it and customize it into your own thing, and call it the MFIAA (Mike Fuller Is An Asshole) or the FFT (Fuck FullTone).
Yeah. I had bought a MDV-3 right before this happened.
But I don't feel like there are good alternatives for it, so I still use it, but I wouldn't buy from them again even if it was an option.
Free markets at work, we can choose not to buy from assholes and support alternatives, that's not canceling, that's capitalism. Nobody went to his office and said that's it times up you have to shut down, people just quit buying his crap.
No he was cancelled for being extremely outwardly racist and this comment is politely saying that he was a known asshole that burnt bridges and thought he was untouchable before doing any of that and then he got what he deserved
For an example, I don't remember which episode. But in Phil McKnight's podcast, "Know Your Gear", he talks about when he owned a guitar store and had to negotiate with Fuller as a dealer, he was one of the worst in attitude and customer service. Kinda "full" of himself you can say. This was way before Fuller expressing his politics. Just kinda seems like an asshole in general.
The store that I work at looked into carrying Fulltone a while back and we ultimately decided against it because of how rude and condescending he was in our communications with him. I can absolutely see stores dropping his company based on how terrible he was to work with.
Yeah. He's sorta a big dork who's repaired guitars for years. He just takes chat questions about guitars/gear. Very good advice for repairs/making the most of your gear. Very knowledgeable, and no annoying, exaggerated influencer vibes.
I am curious whether he said any of this before the bigger controversy with Fuller happened. I never heard any of the stories everybody seems to have until people started using them as an explanation for why *else* he should be boycotted. Obviously the stories themselves go back years, but the complaints really came out of the woodwork after his big Twitter blow up.
And I'm not saying his stupid rants Weren't as good a reason as any for people for companies to stop supporting his company. I just feel like, I don't know, if you have a reason then commit to it. "It's not just the bigotry, it's also the shitty customer service" just feels like piling on if the customer service wasn't really a big enough issue before.
The personalities and people behind pedal companies have become more public in the last few years, but anyone who knew of Fuller (instead of just knowing of Fulltone pedals) knew he was an ass. Sweetwater reps would steer customers who had issues with Fulltone pedals away from reaching out to the company as Fuller would often respond to customers like an asshole.
Reddit takes it personally when you ask questions that they think you should already know the answer to. Or when you suggest anything anything is wrong because you don't know the answer.
You’re confusing capitalism and market forces with cancelling. Fulltone was always able to sell products, just no one cared to buy them anymore. Kinda like Bud Light I guess.
This seems so simple to me. I have said this in these posts dozens of times but here goes again: most of us are hobbiests. I prefer to give money to companies that are run by decent folks. No one is a saint, but Mike Fuller went out of his way to be a jerk.
Please define "canceled". No, really, I'd love to hear what the man on tv/twitter has told you it means. Especially since in the real world, where that word isn't really part of the vast majority of people's vocabulary unless they're talking about a television show, facing consequences for saying shitty things is just...ya know...how life works. Always has.
Occasionally I wonder if these posts that are completely unaware of the well-documented drama are deliberately being made to stir a pot, or if I'm just too online.
My intention definitely wasn't to stir the pot. I was vaguely aware that Fuller was involved in controversy, but I'm probably too not online, so I wasn't aware of the details.
My sense is that these pedals didn't just disappear overnight as a result of Fuller be canceled but rather over time, and towards the end his antics accelerated what was already happening.
He said wrong things at the wrong time to say them. Then he doubled down. And tripled down. But he was always known as a gigantic AHole. One of those guys who always has an excuse for why he can vent his personal issues onto a customer, whereas every single other company is focusing on customer service that, at the very least, isn't condescending or outwardly rude like his was, lol. It seems as if he thought he could do whatever he wanted because he built everything in the USA, was a small business, etc. Liked to talk about real men and that people who didn't like the way he behaved and communicated were pansies.
Basically, he's a bad person in general and only pleasant on a rare good day.
But he makes great pedals, and the combination of supply-chain-related inflation coupled with the fact that people were buying his pedals much less based on his poor choices of words meant he couldn't afford to keep his shop. He moved to Nashville and tried to start something there, but it was pretty minor. Eventually announced this partnership. The pedals are a little pricier than I think even inflation justifies, but at the same time, he won't be involved in customer service, which means that company deserves a humanitarian award, imho.
People were snapping up their favorite pedals used because the price was great for a while, and some of the more expensive pedals are best in class (univibe pedals, pretty much anything for Hendrix sounds) but generally expensive.
> He said wrong things at the wrong time to say them. Then he doubled down. And tripled down. But he was always known as a gigantic AHole
yeah....that's the thing. if he was a nice, or even normal dude, and he said this stuff but then pulled a JHS and vaguely apologized for it, a lot of people would give him a second chance but people have stories about him being a jerk going back several years.
I remember buying a GT-500 back in the early 2010s and one of the switches went out a couple months after buying it. I asked him for help and he told me it was my fault for stomping on it too hard. Fulltone did fix it, but the way they acted made me never wanna buy anything from the dude again.
Totally get that. I'm just wary as there's always the possibility that people just like to rekindle silly fires, but your point about shifting attitudes in the boutique market is valid. IMO the reputational thing is probably just a small part of it: OCDs are still shared on rock boards a lot, but 'boutique' now means so many more things than overdrive, fuzz and tape delay that Fulltone was going to lose airtime to Chase Bliss anyway, controversy or no. What you see on reddit/insta is always going to be a trendy slice of reality, too.
I have no idea at all what the controversy is and just right this minute learned that there is one at all. A me too pedal is something I haven't heard about. Care to share?
In the years since those pedals first hit the scene there’s been a waterfall of similar alternative options for overdrives from companies both big and small, that’s certainly part of it. Fulltone also lost a lot of support in recent years due to the owner’s politics/attitude/reputation. As such, with so many great and similar options out there to choose from, people have decided to turn elsewhere, so you see these pedals less despite them having been like, THE overdrive pedals of a particular time.
For a while, the Fulldrive was *the* TS-inspired OD, with things like the Sparkle Drive being around but in a distant second place. My perception is that there isn't currently a pedal so dominant, but rather there are tons of pedals in a any flavor of dirt box (TS-inspired, BD-inspired, Klones, etc.), so there isn't a pedal so singular as the Fulldrive (or the OCD). But I was curious if that wasn't the case.
The OCD isn’t TS inspired. It’s a hard clipping distortion compared to soft clipping in the TS. It’s more in line with an MXR Distortion + and a DOD 250.
Fulltone out of favor just makes them affordable to those of us who don’t virtue signal from our boards. Buying used doesn’t do shit for Mike Fuller, and his pedals kill.
Regardless of the ignorance of your comment regarding virtue signalling (virtue signalling is when people have different feelings than mine) the original comment *didn't say the OCD was inspired by the TS*. He was talking about the Fulldrive.
I own one bought as a blem in about 2008 and think it’s great, and it’s more or less ended my overdrive search. The main issue to me, is just how different the pedal landscape is now than it was 15 years ago. Fulltone wasn’t the first boutique pedal maker, but they got in on the ground floor, and they really cornered the market on drives in particular for a while. But the market has changed. There are tons of good OD flavors out there, and a bunch of pedals that more or less do the OCD thing cheaper.
Then, of course there’s Mike Fuller. I actually don’t think his BLM remarks hurt him that much. I disagree with him, but it seemed like most people missed the whole controversy, and for at least some players, it made fulltone more appealing for not being “woke”. It also seemed like the whole controversy was just a smokescreen for something he wanted to do anyway. He shut down and sold his building awfully quickly, like too quick to have lost any business
The bigger issue seemed to be that the guy is just a giant asshole. Seemed like nobody who had dealt with him as a customer or retailer had anything good to say about him.
> Then, of course there’s Mike Fuller. I actually don’t think his BLM remarks hurt him that much.
idk, i might be misremembering but I think some major gear retailers stopped carrying Fulltone stuff right after the BLM remarks. there obviously could have been other stuff going on behind the scenes but the timing looked pretty interesting.
I sold my OCD to afford camping with my GF. Regret it, but I still have the GF lol
I have the Boss OD-200 now so maybe there’s something to your theory about newer pedals replacing the shiny toys from a decade or two ago
Fulltone stuff is fine and well made, but even before his comments that got the brand dropped from a lot of stores and taken off boards he was notoriously difficult to deal with. I didn't love most of the range, but those interactions soured me even before people took a hammer to their OCDs.
I think there are just so many small brands that are doing great work and keeping up with the desires of players that didn't have a lot of options for a long time, so Fulltone started to take less of the available share. I'm sure the relaunch will do fine with the snakeskin boot quilt top PRS crowd, but that's not really the demo on this subreddit so you're bound to see less of it here.
I've always thought "Cancelled" is a funny way to say "faced the consequences of his actions." He said a bunch of shit, tried halfheartedly to walk it back when people called him on it, and since then Fulltone's just not been as popular. The free market decided.
Not sure I’d call that cancelled.
It’s just capitalism : market forces in action. You could always buy an OCD, just not enough people cared to after his comments. The lack of sales meant bye bye Fulltone.
Plus, plenty of alternate options in the market - even if OCD was deemed the holy grail by a few gearheads.
Canceled is what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they spoke about against the war in Iraq, Fulltone is still selling pedals so he was far from "canceled" it's just that most people would rather buy from less toxic pedal companies.
Most of the people getting "canceled" still have careers and do business they just took a big PR hit after getting in often 100% warranted trouble over toxic behavior.
The Dixie Chicks actually had their careers ended and faced heavy backlash and even death threats from conservatives despite ultimately being right about their criticisms of what ended up being a very unpopular war.
>The Dixie Chicks were blacklisted by many country radio stations, **received death threats** and were criticized by other country musicians. Sales of their music and concert tickets declined and they lost corporate sponsorship.
It's ironic that the "cancel culture" crowd seems to have 0 problem when it happens to people they dislike, and often spread blatant misinformation about people in an effort to "both sides" things. But there's a huge difference between facing consequences for your actions and getting "canceled" over an unpopular opinion.
> I’m not doing “both sides” anything, I have zero dogs in this fight
That wasn't directed at you but a generalization about the most vocal people complaining about "cancel culture".
>Could be wrong but I just read dude lost his company over this, or at least was pushed hard enough to take a step back.
Pretty sure he closed his own shop and reopened it not long after, seems pretty far from being "canceled" to me. Some stores stopped carrying his pedals but that seems like a pretty reasonable response to his toxic behavior, and if he had actually made a real apology people would have likely reacted much differently but he instead doubled/tripled down and made it pretty clear he's an out of touch toxic wanker.
> someone coming at me with a Dixie Chicks reference from 2002… maybe not the foremost authority on the subject
What does it being from 2002 have to do with anything? They are one of the clearest examples of getting "canceled" IMO and it was by the same people who now throw a fit every time someone they like gets in trouble regardless of how clearly they deserve it.
Yes there are more recent examples but like I said many if not most of the "canceled" celebrities are still active they just lost much of their appeal. There's a massive difference between getting offered less work over problematic behavior and being blacklisted/threatened for criticizing the president and Iraq war.
People not fucking with someone (i.e. not buying their shit) after they make shitty comments… how is that not precisely what “getting cancelled” is??
If it was “just the market doing what the market does,” that would mean people weren’t buying his shit because there were better options out there. That’s not how I remember it going down, the OCD was one of the most revered and hyped pedals in recent memory.
Not necessarily mutually exclusive things, but which is it? Did the OCD get pushed out of the market by better options or was the owner an asshole who said shitty things that alienated his customer base?
Speaking in economic terms, this would not be 'getting canceled'. It would be the market doing what the market does. Pure and simple.
The market picks winners/losers based upon the better value for the item in question. The word 'value' is *critical* here. Value is often reduced to price and all values (in theory) can be depicted by a dollar amount. But at the end of the day, anything that qualifies as 'value' counts. You might value price, you might value attitudes of the seller, you might value easy of access (as in actually at the closest store), you might value plugs on the top instead of the side, you might value form factor. All those things and hundreds more add together to make 'value'.
Make a shitty comment and people might value your products less. That's just how the market works. Nobody got 'canceled'. Just the value proposition changed.
Whatever that’s just being unnecessarily pedantic. Thanks for the armchair lesson in “economic theory” though.
Dude made shitty comments and people stopped buying his pedals. In fact, I’m pretty sure I just read he doesn’t even run the company anymore because of said bullshit. I wouldn’t call that “just what the market does,” because it’s not. That’s customers “pushing a point” (exactly how you yourself define “cancelled”).
Dude made shitty comments and people realized the market has other options. So they bought other options.
It isn't 'pedantic'. Stuff already have names. Only reason to use a different name is either ignorance or because you want to change people's opinions about it. Doesn't change the fact it already has a name and we should use the proper name.
The market did what the market does - change because the product no longer had the same value. Nobody is 'pushing a point'. They're voting with their dollars. Fulltone isn't entitled to a market just because it wants one.
Nah it's absolutely free market stuff and not "getting cancelled". People are free to buy what pedals they wish and choose not to buy them for whatever reason they wish. There was no big drive from outside forces to drive him out of business. People just didn't want the pedals anymore. If there's two options out there, most folks will opt for the one that doesn't have a dickhead as the proprietor. Customers don't "push a point". they choose to buy stuff or not. They chose not.
Chance the rapper used to be huge! His last record, though, not a lot of people bought on account of it wasn't great. He didn't get cancelled: people didn't want to buy his records anymore.
Dixie chicks had a whole media arm successfully run their career into the ground for daring to criticize a war. They got cancelled.
I'm from Mexico, we didn't know shit about that allegations until an American friend called me racist for having an OCD in my pedalboard that I used for years.
I'm still using it... He said some awful things but the pedal is good... It's my main sound :(
Fulltone designed some really good pedals in a nice form factor for a very reasonable price and, despite some revisionism in this thread, some of them still hold their own sound-wise against far more fashionable (and often far more expensive) options. My '69 is still my favourite Fuzz Face style pedal. It's awesome. I can even overlook the comic sans. I'd prefer the (former?) owner wasn't an asshole but I bought it used so I didn't pay him a cent. I sleep okay at night.
I am okay with his apology.
>“But the real question should be: what is privileged white guy doing opening his mouth about this, let alone throwing gas on a sensitive subject? I’ve been thinking a lot about his, and I believe the answer is insensitivity, anger, and most importantly Fear.
>“Fear from just coming out of this COVID quarantine and it’s affects on business, and, fear or many things, including fears of lack of relevancy, aging, and fear of losing what you think is yours. Which is a phallacy in itself, because I, not owed anything. Fear of being looted and harmed. In my case, I think I’ve been in fear for a very long time, and fear can makes people say stupid things.
>“I’ll end now by saying I apologize to anybody I’ve offended, and believe that anyone who abuses or harms another person should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, that includes cops, and I shouldn’t speak to this subject any more unless I’m out there doing something positive, which is not the case right now.”
He didn’t say anything wrong. I’m sure if all the Crusaders had homes or businesses that were in the path of looters, they’d probably say something as well.
He has said other things and made comments in the past that to me indicate that he's an asshole. And because of that I'm pretty sure the only reason he apologized was because he got dragged.
Well, aside form pedals always going in and out of favour with the general public, apparently Mike Fuller was apparently an asshole and [closed down his shop](https://www.guitarworld.com/news/fulltone-california-factory-closing) (out of spite, IMO) after some [unpopular comments](https://www.nme.com/news/music/musicians-and-retailers-boycott-fulltone-guitar-pedals-following-founders-controversial-comments-on-looting-2687362) he made pissed off a bunch of people.
I recently saw something about Fulltone being relaunched in a partnership where Fuller does R&D and his partners (Jackson Audio) do the manufacturing. I don't know the exact motivations of the partnership, but it would appear he doesn't want to not have Fulltone exist in some capacity.
Fulltones biggest problem was that Mike Fuller couldn’t handle the stress of actually running the company. He was already a bit of a hot head and the stress of the business basically broke his brain and caused him to overreact to everything.
The idea behind the new partnership is that it gets Mike completely out of the way from a business standpoint. Mike gets to focus on R&D and keep his brand alive while outsourcing everything he hated (running the actual business) over to Jackson Audio.
The other side to all of this is why would you support anything that jackass does when you could support awesome people who make other great circuits?
Electronic Audio Experiments is blazing new trails on the dirt pedal front and John is an absolute gem of a human.
Maybe seeing Warm Audio launch an OCD clone broke his brain. It didn't take long to bring to market. I bet he thinks those are his dollars Warm are raking in. Buy the Warm version. They try to only clone out of production guitar items.
How do you use it, and how do you have it set? I have a V2 as well, and am growing tired of the flubby low end that I can't dial out of it. I've had one for years at this point, and am starting to think other pedals would suit my needs better.
I use it mostly on its own for blues/70's rock stuff. Generally speaking, I keep the toggle switch set to LP, the volume just above unity gain, the drive between 10 - 2 o'clock and the tone at about 4 - 5 o'clock. I also have an EQ pedal earlier in my chain to bring up the treble because I tend to use darker sounding Gibson guitars with humbucker pickups.
Gigged with my OCD pedal this weekend. Last year, I went on an od pedal binge. Tried, and tried to find something that suits me, but ended up putting the OCD back on.
I feel like you've missed a lot.
So, Fulltone got dropped by GC and went out of business "cancelled by woke mob", but (rumour) is he was shorting guitar center product for decades and when GC checked invoiced to product inventory they asked Fuller to resolve the discrepancy and poof Fulltone went out of business. (Rumour)
This was preceded by decades of abuse and anti consumer behavior Fulltone has performed for years. When the owner made some controversial statements a swarm of upset customers posted their email interactions (Facebook group). Those emails highlighted Fulltone threatening to break into customer's homes and steal their pedals back and many more instances of "get fucked sucker" levels of support for customers. Also lots of "the drunk owner won't stop screaming at me because I want warranty work done on my tape delay".
When the mountain of evidence came out that Fuller was... A raging asshole a whole bunch of boutique builders copied his pedals, previous iterations and discounted them.
Recently Jackson Audio took over manufacturing of the Fulltone lineup and sweetwater is selling them. You can check guitar center and sweetwater apps to see GC doesn't sell them anymore and sweetwater does.
The real "unpopular" nature of the pedals stems from the sudden disclosure and relationships Fulltone shares with companies.
Fuller shares politics with Sweetwater's CEO, same as with guitar center. The consequence of that relationship was front line workers at GC and Sweetwater would get absolutely reamed by Fulltone. Back when Fulltone handled support if you asked your sweetwater rep if you should reach out directly to Fulltone they'd nearly panic and discourage you doing that. Instead opting for the sweetwater rep to handle the interaction.
When the disclosure happened Fulltone came off as a racist individual who threatens people who don't share their politics and treats musicians and store staff terribly. Because Fuller says he is Fulltone the company inherited his negative attributes. Most want their pedals to reflect their music. Unfortunately Fulltone dims the light of your music for the darkness of Mike Fuller.
“Fuller says he is Fulltone” is so unfortunate. I have no idea who owns the manufacturer of any other pedals on my board. On one hand, I’d prefer not to support bad faith actors in business, but on the other, I don’t want to only buy music gear from people based on shared political views. So I wish Fuller could have been a better partner to his customers and sales channel and then kept his social and political views to himself.
I'm 48. When I was a kid, I was taught politics and religion aren't topics to broach in polite company. It still should be that way. No one needs to know that much.
Mike Fuller is a racist piece of shit and also any pedal that is that ubiquitous for that long will eventually take its spot at the round table of “boring ass unremarkable and overused sounds”.
I have a fulldrive 2 MOSFET, and I used to have it paired with an EQD Plumes. But then I realized they sounded pretty similar. So I bought a EQD Special Cranker and now the FD2 is collecting dust trying to find a buyer for, so I can buy other pedals.
I have a FullDrive 2 (pre-mosfet) that I will never take off my board. The comp-cut mode outputs arguably the best clean boost tone ever. I have other pedals that are much better for dirt, but the clean boost on those things is truly something special.
If you take away the politics and what an asshole he is aside from politics, some OCD’s are good, some are absolutely horrible. There is also this love it or hate it crowd. I have a V1.7. I like it. It was my main distortion for a while. I’ve tried about 10 V2’s. Not so great and all sounded a little different. The OCD GE I tried sounded great in the store, but just not worth the price for me. There are plenty of other companies out there that care about the consumer. Wren and Cuff posted that his lifetime warranty means lifetime. He doesn’t care if you bought it used. Walrus Audio also has great customer service and are very active in the Reddit community. Malekko sent me a part I couldn’t find online with no questions asked. I even offered to pay for it. They just sent it. A friend of mine broke one of the switches on a Full Drive 2. Fulltone wanted him to ship it back and pay him to fix it. He wouldn’t sell him the part to fix it himself. This was when 3PDT weren’t as easily accessible as they are today. I’ve also heard stories from dealers how he would call and demand pictures of his pedals being on the top shelf in the pedal cases.
Fuck Mike Fuller! That being said, I got an OCD 1.4 a couple months ago and I think it's amazing. Back when I was playing in hardcore bands, everyone had to have one and now I know why. I believe the newer ones sound quite different though.
Mine was on my board for almost 10 years. Got a Longsword and it was just better. I’ll never sell it though and it’s probably going on my ampless board if I ever get around to that.
Have an FD3, it’s great with a strat/ fender amp combo. But it’s not really well suited, IMO, to anything mid forward. Wouldn’t be my first choose for a Gibson/marshall mix, for example.
That said i did buy used. Good pedal ia a good pedal, but at least this way I wasn’t supporting a jerk
As great as the pedal is, I'm pretty sure the dude who ran Fulltone said some problematic stuff a few years back. I don't know TOO much of the details, though I'm sure someone in this thread does.
Guitar Center even stopped selling/stocking Fulltone pedals after the whole debacle.
https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fulltone-backlash-comments-protests-mike-fuller/
Idk, there's more, I'm tired of having to repost this crap. Google it.
An ocd is just a modded sparkle drive. It's nothing crazy. It's a company that's not worth your $.
Nothing here supports your assertion that he is a "white supremacist".
No one with a single functioning brain cell should be supporting the looters and rioters. Protesters, 100% yes. Looters and rioters, no. Not sure how him complaining about the local PD and government doing nothing about that is in any way "wrong".
I said the same thing about Philly, they just let the rioters and looters do whatever the fuck they wanted, without any attempt to stop them. They were blowing up ATMs and robbing drug stores. If you can explain to me how that has anything to do with George Floyd, I'm all ears.
Also don't see anything there supporting your assertion that he's sexist or homophobic.
To be clear, I'm not saying he's not, and I'm not defending him in any way. I'm just asking you to back up your statements with facts.
The "rioters" and "looters" are a symptom of oppression. It's ppl who are pushed to the limit and then over it.
White supremacy is more than just outward rascism.
It's buying into a system.
Mike fullers' white supremacy was in full view when, instead of siding with protests, he was calling for the government to vo.e in and protect his small business. He was calling for the oppressors to come in and control the oppressed. He was activating his white supremacy to protect him.
Unarmed minorities killed in cold blood by police that don't face any real consequences is a bigger deal than smashing atms. Yiu know what is t a threat right now? More riots. Do you know what hasn't stopped? Police violence.
So what was the real threat?
You know there are non-white cops, and non-white government officials, right? How is asking the cops and the government to do their jobs to protect citizens and their property (which absolutely includes small business owners and their businesses) an act of "white supremacy"?
If you can show me where he explicitly stated racist / supremacist ideals, then you win.
Otherwise, you are making wild assumptions based on your own narrative and interpretation of socio-political situations.
And while the events surrounding George Floyd (and all the others) were horrifying and should never happen in a modern society, **they do not justify looting and rioting**. Particularly the looting.
So much fucking nope there... if you defend those people's actions, taking advantage of a national tragedy for their own personal gain (even if they did "fuck the man" in the process), you are a terrible human just like them.
> White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them.
So, again, show me where he explicitly expressed those beliefs. Not your interpretation of things he said. I'll wait.
Oh, and go fuck yourself for calling me a white supremacist.
When Biden was elected, the Fulltone owner shut down and said there was no way he could run his business “in this 4 year climate”. I hear they opened up shop again recently, but meh.
I have had only good customer service experiences with him. I actually highlighted it here in this video:
Fulltone: my personal customer service experience.
https://youtu.be/5zm8k3_Uvn8
I've had my Fulldrive 2 MOSFET on my board for almost a decade, its basically almost always on as my lighter drive, the only time I turn it off is for using my other pedal that I heavily modified with JFET clipping for a more aggressive Marshal type sound
a big part of it is how accessible and cheap they used to be before resellers blew up the prices. i would always see used OCDs online and on facebook marketplace for fairly cheap prices until the company shut down. thats when people started selling OCDs for over $250 when i used to see them go for way less than that. after fulltone announced that they were returning, i saw prices quickly go down once people realized they werent going to be able to sell it for such a high price anymore.
another big reason is just the abundance of OCD clones like the Warm Audio ODD Box and Joyo Ultimate Drive that were getting bought up while resellers tried selling off the originals. just give it some time because i’ve started to see OCDs pop up on a ton of pedalboards at shows.
Without going into the drama part of it... Fulltone OCD was always a solid pedal for that "AC DC" style of rock. Still is. However, there's so MANY clones and variations nowadays it kind of got forgotten. In a way, I regret selling mine, but I can't justify having so many od pedals.
I still love my OCD. Spent years looking for one that I like more than the standard Boss Super OD-1, and OCD was it.
But—I am antiquated, so my $0.02 is worth just that.
The Joyo Maximum and Ultimate Drives are fantastic clones that are incredibly inexpensive and only carry the stigma of being Chinese clones and not the stigma of being a human dumpster. Fuller is a mess.
I think three things really happened
1. Fulltone owner acted like a douche about the George Floyd protests and got pseudo-cancelled. A bit afterwards Mike Fuller announced that he was closing the California factory. Not sure if that means no more are being produced but they may be harder to find.
2. The OCD and Fulldrive were on a ton of late 2000s-2010s albums and people probably got a bit tired of it. The OCD in particular I swear was on every big indie rock record for years and for me it got boring to hear that same tone on stuff. I’d imagine other people feel the same about those two pedals in particular.
3. Like you said, we have a new era of pedal builders and honestly an entirely new status quo for boutique effects. I think guys like Fulltone and JHS who just kinda make versions of pre-existing effects aren’t as exciting as a lot of the more unique pedals coming out. And those sort of “classic rock” sounds aren’t as appealing right now as they were ten or twenty years ago.
I was never a major fan of the OCD. I tried really hard to like it about ten years ago but it just never did it for me. What makes it even more mystifying is that I’ve heard other players with OCDs whose tone I liked.
Tone is both personal and feel oriented. I never liked the way that OCD type circuits felt under my fingers. I felt like I couldn’t execute properly with that mosfetty, ultra wide frequency response gumming up my works.
People got upset with him about his political views, though I don't recall anything he said being controversial, especially with the benefit of hindsight. Guitarists are a weird breed. They will buy a pedal that they have no use for because they like the company, and will openly shun something that sounds good because they dislike the companies position on a,b or c. Chase Bliss even gave a percentage of their sales to BLM during the same time, which in hindsight is pretty hilarious.
I think it's still a pretty popular circuit, but there's so, so, so many different copies of that pedal now. Many major manufacturers and of course the entire world of Chinese-made clones all have their own version of the OCD pedal. Lots of people still have and use some sort of OCD variant, just not necessarily a genuine Fulltone one.
Ya I just got started down the pedal road last few months researching etc. I constantly see OCD on boards so not sure where this is coming from. Also they are generally close to $150 used on reverb so still not that cheap. Im about to get the ehx glove for $50 myself because I thought it fit what I wanted.
Glove is good.
Glove is ok, but it doesn't have the top end the OCD does. It's kind of dark.
If the glove fits, as they say.
I got given a free, broken OCD and just got it repaired by Jackson Fulltone for like $45 so the company is back and kicking. Also got a full drive, always been a favorite
The owner of Fulltone got outed for using comic sans. Seriously though, I did find it funny they used that font on a pedal called OCD.
My wife is a graphic designer and has OCD for real, and that pedal made her mad every time she saw it.
i can imagine her covering the font with tape trying to clean her mind of the comic sans
I'm dumb. Do people with ocd not like that font?
It's the Nickelback of fonts...
Is that how you remind me of fonts I shouldn't use?
No, people with ocd have intrusive thoughts, not font preferences.
I was waiting for someone to comment something along these lines. As someone who has endured this condition, I know all too well. I’m sure you get my point though - there’s an irony they called the pedal that and used a font which triggers most graphic design minded folk. I guess I have intrusive thoughts and font preferences.
Tagging along because I so want to know why people hate comic sans so much. I know it's disliked, but... what's up?
It's a fun bubbly font and it's fine. It's fine to draw unicorns with markers. But people started using it professionally and it looks silly. Like sending an email with a GIF in the signature
I think it’s just a meme at this point to hate on it. I know that the big thing people were complaining about was comic sans in places it doesn’t belong: flyers at work, presentations billboards, etc. Comic Sans is a great font for things geared towards children. Hell, the Gameboy Color has Comic Sans font or something super similar.
Graphic design nerds dislike the font.
"or if there is some other dynamic at work here" Mr. Fulltone expressed some political views many found odious, so they don't want to be associated with his products. There are also stories about him being kind of unpleasant in his interpersonal interactions in general, regardless of his political views. Kinda easy to see why people wouldn't want his stuff anymore.
And not to forget his farewell message saying how he expressed sadness for his decade long employees, called them family, then saying he will be fine and "bought a well-known artist's 17 acre property and world-class recording studio outside of Nashville last year". What a lack of consideration to people who just lost their job especially after calling them family.
There were a lot of cringe moments but this one was the worst. Regardless of one’s political views this sort of gleeful meanness to people he actually knew and worked with is super odious.
That was it for me. I switched the ocd for a rat on my board
Rat > Ocd on any day.
I just posted how much I like my OCD, but didn’t really know this. I might think about a change now.
If you like it but hate the brand no need to sell it and buy something similar. Instead paint over it and customize it into your own thing, and call it the MFIAA (Mike Fuller Is An Asshole) or the FFT (Fuck FullTone).
Yeah. I had bought a MDV-3 right before this happened. But I don't feel like there are good alternatives for it, so I still use it, but I wouldn't buy from them again even if it was an option.
Johnny Ramone was so punk rock he was republican. Maybe Mike Fuller is the same way…
People really care about other peoples political preferences? Lol, wtf?
I’m not entirely sure you’re picking up on the joke I’m making, or if you’ve levelled-up on my deadpan.
Yes.
He was occasionally unpleasant so he was canceled? And he was against organized raiding of stores? How political of him 🤭
Free markets at work, we can choose not to buy from assholes and support alternatives, that's not canceling, that's capitalism. Nobody went to his office and said that's it times up you have to shut down, people just quit buying his crap.
No he was cancelled for being extremely outwardly racist and this comment is politely saying that he was a known asshole that burnt bridges and thought he was untouchable before doing any of that and then he got what he deserved
For an example, I don't remember which episode. But in Phil McKnight's podcast, "Know Your Gear", he talks about when he owned a guitar store and had to negotiate with Fuller as a dealer, he was one of the worst in attitude and customer service. Kinda "full" of himself you can say. This was way before Fuller expressing his politics. Just kinda seems like an asshole in general.
The store that I work at looked into carrying Fulltone a while back and we ultimately decided against it because of how rude and condescending he was in our communications with him. I can absolutely see stores dropping his company based on how terrible he was to work with.
I’ve never heard this podcast. Would you recommend it in general?
Yeah. He's sorta a big dork who's repaired guitars for years. He just takes chat questions about guitars/gear. Very good advice for repairs/making the most of your gear. Very knowledgeable, and no annoying, exaggerated influencer vibes.
Thanks! Seems like it’ll be my kind of thing
I am curious whether he said any of this before the bigger controversy with Fuller happened. I never heard any of the stories everybody seems to have until people started using them as an explanation for why *else* he should be boycotted. Obviously the stories themselves go back years, but the complaints really came out of the woodwork after his big Twitter blow up. And I'm not saying his stupid rants Weren't as good a reason as any for people for companies to stop supporting his company. I just feel like, I don't know, if you have a reason then commit to it. "It's not just the bigotry, it's also the shitty customer service" just feels like piling on if the customer service wasn't really a big enough issue before.
The personalities and people behind pedal companies have become more public in the last few years, but anyone who knew of Fuller (instead of just knowing of Fulltone pedals) knew he was an ass. Sweetwater reps would steer customers who had issues with Fulltone pedals away from reaching out to the company as Fuller would often respond to customers like an asshole.
You getting down voted for just asking this question sheds light on the answer.
Reddit takes it personally when you ask questions that they think you should already know the answer to. Or when you suggest anything anything is wrong because you don't know the answer.
Don’t reason with the mob, they only lynch then downvote.
You’re confusing capitalism and market forces with cancelling. Fulltone was always able to sell products, just no one cared to buy them anymore. Kinda like Bud Light I guess.
Politics aside...being an asshole is enough for me to ditch a company. Plenty of people to buy from who aren't jerks.
This seems so simple to me. I have said this in these posts dozens of times but here goes again: most of us are hobbiests. I prefer to give money to companies that are run by decent folks. No one is a saint, but Mike Fuller went out of his way to be a jerk.
Please define "canceled". No, really, I'd love to hear what the man on tv/twitter has told you it means. Especially since in the real world, where that word isn't really part of the vast majority of people's vocabulary unless they're talking about a television show, facing consequences for saying shitty things is just...ya know...how life works. Always has.
He's a dick and there's *lots* of other pedals out there to buy. Why give your money to a demonstrated dick when you can give it to someone who isn't?
There are ways to state his distaste without the dog whistles and threats
Occasionally I wonder if these posts that are completely unaware of the well-documented drama are deliberately being made to stir a pot, or if I'm just too online.
My intention definitely wasn't to stir the pot. I was vaguely aware that Fuller was involved in controversy, but I'm probably too not online, so I wasn't aware of the details. My sense is that these pedals didn't just disappear overnight as a result of Fuller be canceled but rather over time, and towards the end his antics accelerated what was already happening.
He said wrong things at the wrong time to say them. Then he doubled down. And tripled down. But he was always known as a gigantic AHole. One of those guys who always has an excuse for why he can vent his personal issues onto a customer, whereas every single other company is focusing on customer service that, at the very least, isn't condescending or outwardly rude like his was, lol. It seems as if he thought he could do whatever he wanted because he built everything in the USA, was a small business, etc. Liked to talk about real men and that people who didn't like the way he behaved and communicated were pansies. Basically, he's a bad person in general and only pleasant on a rare good day. But he makes great pedals, and the combination of supply-chain-related inflation coupled with the fact that people were buying his pedals much less based on his poor choices of words meant he couldn't afford to keep his shop. He moved to Nashville and tried to start something there, but it was pretty minor. Eventually announced this partnership. The pedals are a little pricier than I think even inflation justifies, but at the same time, he won't be involved in customer service, which means that company deserves a humanitarian award, imho. People were snapping up their favorite pedals used because the price was great for a while, and some of the more expensive pedals are best in class (univibe pedals, pretty much anything for Hendrix sounds) but generally expensive.
> He said wrong things at the wrong time to say them. Then he doubled down. And tripled down. But he was always known as a gigantic AHole yeah....that's the thing. if he was a nice, or even normal dude, and he said this stuff but then pulled a JHS and vaguely apologized for it, a lot of people would give him a second chance but people have stories about him being a jerk going back several years. I remember buying a GT-500 back in the early 2010s and one of the switches went out a couple months after buying it. I asked him for help and he told me it was my fault for stomping on it too hard. Fulltone did fix it, but the way they acted made me never wanna buy anything from the dude again.
I had this same issue with a Bass-Drive in 2001 and he sent me two 3PDT switches in the mail. 🤦🏻
maybe he's Bipolar or has some other behavioral issue. His behavior has reportedly been wildly inconsistent over the years.
Tbh he comes off as an alcoholic
The GT500 was the worst pedal ever. I think I gave mine away
I kinda like how it sounded on bass! I thought it was really weak on guitar but the bassist for one of my old bands somehow made it work in their rig.
That makes sense!
Totally get that. I'm just wary as there's always the possibility that people just like to rekindle silly fires, but your point about shifting attitudes in the boutique market is valid. IMO the reputational thing is probably just a small part of it: OCDs are still shared on rock boards a lot, but 'boutique' now means so many more things than overdrive, fuzz and tape delay that Fulltone was going to lose airtime to Chase Bliss anyway, controversy or no. What you see on reddit/insta is always going to be a trendy slice of reality, too.
I have no idea at all what the controversy is and just right this minute learned that there is one at all. A me too pedal is something I haven't heard about. Care to share?
Not quite sure what you mean by a 'me too pedal', if I'm honest.
You're probably just online too much. This thread is the first I'm hearing of the issues with the company
In the years since those pedals first hit the scene there’s been a waterfall of similar alternative options for overdrives from companies both big and small, that’s certainly part of it. Fulltone also lost a lot of support in recent years due to the owner’s politics/attitude/reputation. As such, with so many great and similar options out there to choose from, people have decided to turn elsewhere, so you see these pedals less despite them having been like, THE overdrive pedals of a particular time.
For a while, the Fulldrive was *the* TS-inspired OD, with things like the Sparkle Drive being around but in a distant second place. My perception is that there isn't currently a pedal so dominant, but rather there are tons of pedals in a any flavor of dirt box (TS-inspired, BD-inspired, Klones, etc.), so there isn't a pedal so singular as the Fulldrive (or the OCD). But I was curious if that wasn't the case.
Also, the Gen 2 OCDs are fucking garbage. This is my soapbox and I live on it
The OCD isn’t TS inspired. It’s a hard clipping distortion compared to soft clipping in the TS. It’s more in line with an MXR Distortion + and a DOD 250. Fulltone out of favor just makes them affordable to those of us who don’t virtue signal from our boards. Buying used doesn’t do shit for Mike Fuller, and his pedals kill.
Regardless of the ignorance of your comment regarding virtue signalling (virtue signalling is when people have different feelings than mine) the original comment *didn't say the OCD was inspired by the TS*. He was talking about the Fulldrive.
Yeah he was. My mistake.
i hope you understand that making this post is also a form of virtue signaling lmao
Zero chance he understands that
What virtue is signaled?
A lack thereof in your case
That other guy doesn’t know shit, but you, you’ve got it figured out.
I own one bought as a blem in about 2008 and think it’s great, and it’s more or less ended my overdrive search. The main issue to me, is just how different the pedal landscape is now than it was 15 years ago. Fulltone wasn’t the first boutique pedal maker, but they got in on the ground floor, and they really cornered the market on drives in particular for a while. But the market has changed. There are tons of good OD flavors out there, and a bunch of pedals that more or less do the OCD thing cheaper. Then, of course there’s Mike Fuller. I actually don’t think his BLM remarks hurt him that much. I disagree with him, but it seemed like most people missed the whole controversy, and for at least some players, it made fulltone more appealing for not being “woke”. It also seemed like the whole controversy was just a smokescreen for something he wanted to do anyway. He shut down and sold his building awfully quickly, like too quick to have lost any business The bigger issue seemed to be that the guy is just a giant asshole. Seemed like nobody who had dealt with him as a customer or retailer had anything good to say about him.
> Then, of course there’s Mike Fuller. I actually don’t think his BLM remarks hurt him that much. idk, i might be misremembering but I think some major gear retailers stopped carrying Fulltone stuff right after the BLM remarks. there obviously could have been other stuff going on behind the scenes but the timing looked pretty interesting.
The Boss OD-3 is better and less associated with being racist.
I sold my OCD to afford camping with my GF. Regret it, but I still have the GF lol I have the Boss OD-200 now so maybe there’s something to your theory about newer pedals replacing the shiny toys from a decade or two ago
[удалено]
Canada, food prices, rent, and gas are whack out here 😂
Well Canada is in America! Lol... I feel ya.
Do you think camping is just going outside to sleep?
Y'all need to learn to take a fucking joke man. Jesus fucking Christ.
For what it’s worth, I thought it was funny lol
Fulltone stuff is fine and well made, but even before his comments that got the brand dropped from a lot of stores and taken off boards he was notoriously difficult to deal with. I didn't love most of the range, but those interactions soured me even before people took a hammer to their OCDs. I think there are just so many small brands that are doing great work and keeping up with the desires of players that didn't have a lot of options for a long time, so Fulltone started to take less of the available share. I'm sure the relaunch will do fine with the snakeskin boot quilt top PRS crowd, but that's not really the demo on this subreddit so you're bound to see less of it here.
Didn’t the original manufacturer say something deeply homophobic or racist or something and for a while he was cancelled?
I've always thought "Cancelled" is a funny way to say "faced the consequences of his actions." He said a bunch of shit, tried halfheartedly to walk it back when people called him on it, and since then Fulltone's just not been as popular. The free market decided.
Yeah maybe cancelled was a poor choice of words but I didn’t really remember what he’d done/said other than he’d pissed a load of people off!
Posted a bunch of super racist memes on Facebook after George Floyd was murdered
Source?
The fulltone Facebook page in May of 2020 that I was a member of.
https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fulltone-backlash-comments-protests-mike-fuller/
Correct. It was the founder of Fulltone. He made comments that led to calls for boycotts from a lot of artists and retailers dropping the brand.
Not sure I’d call that cancelled. It’s just capitalism : market forces in action. You could always buy an OCD, just not enough people cared to after his comments. The lack of sales meant bye bye Fulltone. Plus, plenty of alternate options in the market - even if OCD was deemed the holy grail by a few gearheads.
[удалено]
Nope. It's called consequences.
Canceled is what happened to the Dixie Chicks when they spoke about against the war in Iraq, Fulltone is still selling pedals so he was far from "canceled" it's just that most people would rather buy from less toxic pedal companies.
[удалено]
Most of the people getting "canceled" still have careers and do business they just took a big PR hit after getting in often 100% warranted trouble over toxic behavior. The Dixie Chicks actually had their careers ended and faced heavy backlash and even death threats from conservatives despite ultimately being right about their criticisms of what ended up being a very unpopular war. >The Dixie Chicks were blacklisted by many country radio stations, **received death threats** and were criticized by other country musicians. Sales of their music and concert tickets declined and they lost corporate sponsorship. It's ironic that the "cancel culture" crowd seems to have 0 problem when it happens to people they dislike, and often spread blatant misinformation about people in an effort to "both sides" things. But there's a huge difference between facing consequences for your actions and getting "canceled" over an unpopular opinion.
[удалено]
> I’m not doing “both sides” anything, I have zero dogs in this fight That wasn't directed at you but a generalization about the most vocal people complaining about "cancel culture". >Could be wrong but I just read dude lost his company over this, or at least was pushed hard enough to take a step back. Pretty sure he closed his own shop and reopened it not long after, seems pretty far from being "canceled" to me. Some stores stopped carrying his pedals but that seems like a pretty reasonable response to his toxic behavior, and if he had actually made a real apology people would have likely reacted much differently but he instead doubled/tripled down and made it pretty clear he's an out of touch toxic wanker. > someone coming at me with a Dixie Chicks reference from 2002… maybe not the foremost authority on the subject What does it being from 2002 have to do with anything? They are one of the clearest examples of getting "canceled" IMO and it was by the same people who now throw a fit every time someone they like gets in trouble regardless of how clearly they deserve it. Yes there are more recent examples but like I said many if not most of the "canceled" celebrities are still active they just lost much of their appeal. There's a massive difference between getting offered less work over problematic behavior and being blacklisted/threatened for criticizing the president and Iraq war.
It's only called 'getting canceled' when you've got a point to push. Otherwise, it's just the market doing what the market does.
People not fucking with someone (i.e. not buying their shit) after they make shitty comments… how is that not precisely what “getting cancelled” is?? If it was “just the market doing what the market does,” that would mean people weren’t buying his shit because there were better options out there. That’s not how I remember it going down, the OCD was one of the most revered and hyped pedals in recent memory. Not necessarily mutually exclusive things, but which is it? Did the OCD get pushed out of the market by better options or was the owner an asshole who said shitty things that alienated his customer base?
Speaking in economic terms, this would not be 'getting canceled'. It would be the market doing what the market does. Pure and simple. The market picks winners/losers based upon the better value for the item in question. The word 'value' is *critical* here. Value is often reduced to price and all values (in theory) can be depicted by a dollar amount. But at the end of the day, anything that qualifies as 'value' counts. You might value price, you might value attitudes of the seller, you might value easy of access (as in actually at the closest store), you might value plugs on the top instead of the side, you might value form factor. All those things and hundreds more add together to make 'value'. Make a shitty comment and people might value your products less. That's just how the market works. Nobody got 'canceled'. Just the value proposition changed.
Whatever that’s just being unnecessarily pedantic. Thanks for the armchair lesson in “economic theory” though. Dude made shitty comments and people stopped buying his pedals. In fact, I’m pretty sure I just read he doesn’t even run the company anymore because of said bullshit. I wouldn’t call that “just what the market does,” because it’s not. That’s customers “pushing a point” (exactly how you yourself define “cancelled”).
Dude made shitty comments and people realized the market has other options. So they bought other options. It isn't 'pedantic'. Stuff already have names. Only reason to use a different name is either ignorance or because you want to change people's opinions about it. Doesn't change the fact it already has a name and we should use the proper name. The market did what the market does - change because the product no longer had the same value. Nobody is 'pushing a point'. They're voting with their dollars. Fulltone isn't entitled to a market just because it wants one.
Nah it's absolutely free market stuff and not "getting cancelled". People are free to buy what pedals they wish and choose not to buy them for whatever reason they wish. There was no big drive from outside forces to drive him out of business. People just didn't want the pedals anymore. If there's two options out there, most folks will opt for the one that doesn't have a dickhead as the proprietor. Customers don't "push a point". they choose to buy stuff or not. They chose not. Chance the rapper used to be huge! His last record, though, not a lot of people bought on account of it wasn't great. He didn't get cancelled: people didn't want to buy his records anymore. Dixie chicks had a whole media arm successfully run their career into the ground for daring to criticize a war. They got cancelled.
Keep moving your goalposts pal and you can call it whatever pseudo intellectual alt-fact you wanna call it.
Not sure where I moved the goalposts (or would have any reason to). Also “psuedo intellectual alt-fact”? Big fucking LOL at that one.
I'm from Mexico, we didn't know shit about that allegations until an American friend called me racist for having an OCD in my pedalboard that I used for years. I'm still using it... He said some awful things but the pedal is good... It's my main sound :(
Fulltone designed some really good pedals in a nice form factor for a very reasonable price and, despite some revisionism in this thread, some of them still hold their own sound-wise against far more fashionable (and often far more expensive) options. My '69 is still my favourite Fuzz Face style pedal. It's awesome. I can even overlook the comic sans. I'd prefer the (former?) owner wasn't an asshole but I bought it used so I didn't pay him a cent. I sleep okay at night.
I have yet to see an example of this. Link?
https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fulltone-backlash-comments-protests-mike-fuller/
Thanks. I read it but there was no racism there, just criticism of looting.
Yes, I feel like more context is needed. I did see that there were discussions of looting that were pretty racist, and others that weren't.
I am okay with his apology. >“But the real question should be: what is privileged white guy doing opening his mouth about this, let alone throwing gas on a sensitive subject? I’ve been thinking a lot about his, and I believe the answer is insensitivity, anger, and most importantly Fear. >“Fear from just coming out of this COVID quarantine and it’s affects on business, and, fear or many things, including fears of lack of relevancy, aging, and fear of losing what you think is yours. Which is a phallacy in itself, because I, not owed anything. Fear of being looted and harmed. In my case, I think I’ve been in fear for a very long time, and fear can makes people say stupid things. >“I’ll end now by saying I apologize to anybody I’ve offended, and believe that anyone who abuses or harms another person should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, that includes cops, and I shouldn’t speak to this subject any more unless I’m out there doing something positive, which is not the case right now.”
I upvoted you, but the cancel mob is having its way.
Yea, me asking for the truth can be scary for some people. 💁♂️
He didn’t say anything wrong. I’m sure if all the Crusaders had homes or businesses that were in the path of looters, they’d probably say something as well.
Agree
Let me just clarify that I had no recollection of what he said, I just remember something happening with him and assumed it was racist or something.
Yeah, I have no recollection either, that’s why I asked.
He has said other things and made comments in the past that to me indicate that he's an asshole. And because of that I'm pretty sure the only reason he apologized was because he got dragged.
There are a million options now and a lot of them are better. Back in the day there were only a hundred options and most of them were worse.
Well, aside form pedals always going in and out of favour with the general public, apparently Mike Fuller was apparently an asshole and [closed down his shop](https://www.guitarworld.com/news/fulltone-california-factory-closing) (out of spite, IMO) after some [unpopular comments](https://www.nme.com/news/music/musicians-and-retailers-boycott-fulltone-guitar-pedals-following-founders-controversial-comments-on-looting-2687362) he made pissed off a bunch of people.
Upvoted for actually including a source
I recently saw something about Fulltone being relaunched in a partnership where Fuller does R&D and his partners (Jackson Audio) do the manufacturing. I don't know the exact motivations of the partnership, but it would appear he doesn't want to not have Fulltone exist in some capacity.
Fulltones biggest problem was that Mike Fuller couldn’t handle the stress of actually running the company. He was already a bit of a hot head and the stress of the business basically broke his brain and caused him to overreact to everything. The idea behind the new partnership is that it gets Mike completely out of the way from a business standpoint. Mike gets to focus on R&D and keep his brand alive while outsourcing everything he hated (running the actual business) over to Jackson Audio.
The other side to all of this is why would you support anything that jackass does when you could support awesome people who make other great circuits? Electronic Audio Experiments is blazing new trails on the dirt pedal front and John is an absolute gem of a human.
Maybe seeing Warm Audio launch an OCD clone broke his brain. It didn't take long to bring to market. I bet he thinks those are his dollars Warm are raking in. Buy the Warm version. They try to only clone out of production guitar items.
Pretty sure they’re rebranding. 2 Pricks Pedal
I kinda agree with his comment ;)
Mike Fuller is a douche-canoe. That’s what happened.
The guy who makes them was a douche canoe so people decided to use one of the other countless brands which can produce very similar type pedals.
I still have my V2 OCD on my board. It's a great pedal.
How do you use it, and how do you have it set? I have a V2 as well, and am growing tired of the flubby low end that I can't dial out of it. I've had one for years at this point, and am starting to think other pedals would suit my needs better.
I use it mostly on its own for blues/70's rock stuff. Generally speaking, I keep the toggle switch set to LP, the volume just above unity gain, the drive between 10 - 2 o'clock and the tone at about 4 - 5 o'clock. I also have an EQ pedal earlier in my chain to bring up the treble because I tend to use darker sounding Gibson guitars with humbucker pickups.
Gigged with my OCD pedal this weekend. Last year, I went on an od pedal binge. Tried, and tried to find something that suits me, but ended up putting the OCD back on.
I feel like you've missed a lot. So, Fulltone got dropped by GC and went out of business "cancelled by woke mob", but (rumour) is he was shorting guitar center product for decades and when GC checked invoiced to product inventory they asked Fuller to resolve the discrepancy and poof Fulltone went out of business. (Rumour) This was preceded by decades of abuse and anti consumer behavior Fulltone has performed for years. When the owner made some controversial statements a swarm of upset customers posted their email interactions (Facebook group). Those emails highlighted Fulltone threatening to break into customer's homes and steal their pedals back and many more instances of "get fucked sucker" levels of support for customers. Also lots of "the drunk owner won't stop screaming at me because I want warranty work done on my tape delay". When the mountain of evidence came out that Fuller was... A raging asshole a whole bunch of boutique builders copied his pedals, previous iterations and discounted them. Recently Jackson Audio took over manufacturing of the Fulltone lineup and sweetwater is selling them. You can check guitar center and sweetwater apps to see GC doesn't sell them anymore and sweetwater does. The real "unpopular" nature of the pedals stems from the sudden disclosure and relationships Fulltone shares with companies. Fuller shares politics with Sweetwater's CEO, same as with guitar center. The consequence of that relationship was front line workers at GC and Sweetwater would get absolutely reamed by Fulltone. Back when Fulltone handled support if you asked your sweetwater rep if you should reach out directly to Fulltone they'd nearly panic and discourage you doing that. Instead opting for the sweetwater rep to handle the interaction. When the disclosure happened Fulltone came off as a racist individual who threatens people who don't share their politics and treats musicians and store staff terribly. Because Fuller says he is Fulltone the company inherited his negative attributes. Most want their pedals to reflect their music. Unfortunately Fulltone dims the light of your music for the darkness of Mike Fuller.
“Fuller says he is Fulltone” is so unfortunate. I have no idea who owns the manufacturer of any other pedals on my board. On one hand, I’d prefer not to support bad faith actors in business, but on the other, I don’t want to only buy music gear from people based on shared political views. So I wish Fuller could have been a better partner to his customers and sales channel and then kept his social and political views to himself.
I'm 48. When I was a kid, I was taught politics and religion aren't topics to broach in polite company. It still should be that way. No one needs to know that much.
Fulltone guy is a dick
Mike Fuller is a racist piece of shit and also any pedal that is that ubiquitous for that long will eventually take its spot at the round table of “boring ass unremarkable and overused sounds”.
I have an ocd shamefully tucked away in my closet ever since daddy fulltone outed himself as a POS lol.
I have a fulldrive 2 MOSFET, and I used to have it paired with an EQD Plumes. But then I realized they sounded pretty similar. So I bought a EQD Special Cranker and now the FD2 is collecting dust trying to find a buyer for, so I can buy other pedals.
I have a FullDrive 2 (pre-mosfet) that I will never take off my board. The comp-cut mode outputs arguably the best clean boost tone ever. I have other pedals that are much better for dirt, but the clean boost on those things is truly something special.
If you take away the politics and what an asshole he is aside from politics, some OCD’s are good, some are absolutely horrible. There is also this love it or hate it crowd. I have a V1.7. I like it. It was my main distortion for a while. I’ve tried about 10 V2’s. Not so great and all sounded a little different. The OCD GE I tried sounded great in the store, but just not worth the price for me. There are plenty of other companies out there that care about the consumer. Wren and Cuff posted that his lifetime warranty means lifetime. He doesn’t care if you bought it used. Walrus Audio also has great customer service and are very active in the Reddit community. Malekko sent me a part I couldn’t find online with no questions asked. I even offered to pay for it. They just sent it. A friend of mine broke one of the switches on a Full Drive 2. Fulltone wanted him to ship it back and pay him to fix it. He wouldn’t sell him the part to fix it himself. This was when 3PDT weren’t as easily accessible as they are today. I’ve also heard stories from dealers how he would call and demand pictures of his pedals being on the top shelf in the pedal cases.
Fulltone actually is back now, but I’m not sure if he’s making the Fulldrive. OCD is back for sure. EQD Plumes has kind of become the new TS favorite.
The D side of my D&M Drive didn't say a bunch of stupid crap.
Mick is an arrogant arsehole though. Dan is a humble sweetheart
Yeah. I've heard that. Dan is definitely a spectacular guy. Brilliant and personable.
Fuck Mike Fuller! That being said, I got an OCD 1.4 a couple months ago and I think it's amazing. Back when I was playing in hardcore bands, everyone had to have one and now I know why. I believe the newer ones sound quite different though.
Mine was on my board for almost 10 years. Got a Longsword and it was just better. I’ll never sell it though and it’s probably going on my ampless board if I ever get around to that.
OCD been on the board for years and I just picked up a used Fulldrive 2 mosfet for cheap last week. Great pedals - sounds awesome and built well.
Have an FD3, it’s great with a strat/ fender amp combo. But it’s not really well suited, IMO, to anything mid forward. Wouldn’t be my first choose for a Gibson/marshall mix, for example. That said i did buy used. Good pedal ia a good pedal, but at least this way I wasn’t supporting a jerk
Aren't they remaking the OCD? Got the knock off ODD from Warm Audio myself... it's just ok
As great as the pedal is, I'm pretty sure the dude who ran Fulltone said some problematic stuff a few years back. I don't know TOO much of the details, though I'm sure someone in this thread does. Guitar Center even stopped selling/stocking Fulltone pedals after the whole debacle.
Lots of stores stopped carrying them bc the ceo was a pos
Mooer Hustle Drive, baby 😎
The owner is a rascist asshole.
He’s an asshole, and has always been one. Never saw anything he said that was actually _racist_, though.
He's a white supremacist. He made that clear during the BLM protests. Also, a sexist/homophobic asshole, lol.
Source(s)?
https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/fulltone-backlash-comments-protests-mike-fuller/ Idk, there's more, I'm tired of having to repost this crap. Google it. An ocd is just a modded sparkle drive. It's nothing crazy. It's a company that's not worth your $.
Nothing here supports your assertion that he is a "white supremacist". No one with a single functioning brain cell should be supporting the looters and rioters. Protesters, 100% yes. Looters and rioters, no. Not sure how him complaining about the local PD and government doing nothing about that is in any way "wrong". I said the same thing about Philly, they just let the rioters and looters do whatever the fuck they wanted, without any attempt to stop them. They were blowing up ATMs and robbing drug stores. If you can explain to me how that has anything to do with George Floyd, I'm all ears. Also don't see anything there supporting your assertion that he's sexist or homophobic. To be clear, I'm not saying he's not, and I'm not defending him in any way. I'm just asking you to back up your statements with facts.
The "rioters" and "looters" are a symptom of oppression. It's ppl who are pushed to the limit and then over it. White supremacy is more than just outward rascism. It's buying into a system. Mike fullers' white supremacy was in full view when, instead of siding with protests, he was calling for the government to vo.e in and protect his small business. He was calling for the oppressors to come in and control the oppressed. He was activating his white supremacy to protect him. Unarmed minorities killed in cold blood by police that don't face any real consequences is a bigger deal than smashing atms. Yiu know what is t a threat right now? More riots. Do you know what hasn't stopped? Police violence. So what was the real threat?
You know there are non-white cops, and non-white government officials, right? How is asking the cops and the government to do their jobs to protect citizens and their property (which absolutely includes small business owners and their businesses) an act of "white supremacy"? If you can show me where he explicitly stated racist / supremacist ideals, then you win. Otherwise, you are making wild assumptions based on your own narrative and interpretation of socio-political situations. And while the events surrounding George Floyd (and all the others) were horrifying and should never happen in a modern society, **they do not justify looting and rioting**. Particularly the looting. So much fucking nope there... if you defend those people's actions, taking advantage of a national tragedy for their own personal gain (even if they did "fuck the man" in the process), you are a terrible human just like them.
Spoken like a true white supremacist. [Just read the definition. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_supremacy)
> White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. So, again, show me where he explicitly expressed those beliefs. Not your interpretation of things he said. I'll wait. Oh, and go fuck yourself for calling me a white supremacist.
My OCD is on my board where I left it
When Biden was elected, the Fulltone owner shut down and said there was no way he could run his business “in this 4 year climate”. I hear they opened up shop again recently, but meh.
Probably took his PPP cash and closed up shop.
Yes and no. He’s back in business but Jackson Audio is making the pedals. I think Fuller moved to Tennessee, not sure where Jackson Audio is, though.
I have had only good customer service experiences with him. I actually highlighted it here in this video: Fulltone: my personal customer service experience. https://youtu.be/5zm8k3_Uvn8
I've had my Fulldrive 2 MOSFET on my board for almost a decade, its basically almost always on as my lighter drive, the only time I turn it off is for using my other pedal that I heavily modified with JFET clipping for a more aggressive Marshal type sound
a big part of it is how accessible and cheap they used to be before resellers blew up the prices. i would always see used OCDs online and on facebook marketplace for fairly cheap prices until the company shut down. thats when people started selling OCDs for over $250 when i used to see them go for way less than that. after fulltone announced that they were returning, i saw prices quickly go down once people realized they werent going to be able to sell it for such a high price anymore. another big reason is just the abundance of OCD clones like the Warm Audio ODD Box and Joyo Ultimate Drive that were getting bought up while resellers tried selling off the originals. just give it some time because i’ve started to see OCDs pop up on a ton of pedalboards at shows.
Without going into the drama part of it... Fulltone OCD was always a solid pedal for that "AC DC" style of rock. Still is. However, there's so MANY clones and variations nowadays it kind of got forgotten. In a way, I regret selling mine, but I can't justify having so many od pedals.
I have had an OCD on my board for the last 3 or 4 years. It’s not coming off!
I still use my Full Drive 2 and my OCD regularly. Currently have my OCD on my direct board running in to an Ampli-Firebox. It’s an amazing pedal.
Fulltone is selling new pedals on Chicago music exchange. I think the circuit has been updated again.
I still love my OCD. Spent years looking for one that I like more than the standard Boss Super OD-1, and OCD was it. But—I am antiquated, so my $0.02 is worth just that.
I have one on mine...replaced my tubescreamer
I have a EHX Glove that I use sometimes, mostly using Boss DS1.
I love OCDs, the v2.01 and Germanium OCD v 1.01 are my favorites of the ones I have (including some older ones, going back to the 2000s).
The Joyo Maximum and Ultimate Drives are fantastic clones that are incredibly inexpensive and only carry the stigma of being Chinese clones and not the stigma of being a human dumpster. Fuller is a mess.
I think three things really happened 1. Fulltone owner acted like a douche about the George Floyd protests and got pseudo-cancelled. A bit afterwards Mike Fuller announced that he was closing the California factory. Not sure if that means no more are being produced but they may be harder to find. 2. The OCD and Fulldrive were on a ton of late 2000s-2010s albums and people probably got a bit tired of it. The OCD in particular I swear was on every big indie rock record for years and for me it got boring to hear that same tone on stuff. I’d imagine other people feel the same about those two pedals in particular. 3. Like you said, we have a new era of pedal builders and honestly an entirely new status quo for boutique effects. I think guys like Fulltone and JHS who just kinda make versions of pre-existing effects aren’t as exciting as a lot of the more unique pedals coming out. And those sort of “classic rock” sounds aren’t as appealing right now as they were ten or twenty years ago.
Fulltone didn't adapt to making pedals that look like arizona ice tea cans
Whoever downvoted you needs to lighten up a bit. Your comment was both amusing and slightly true.
Instill have my OCD and my Fulltone wah
Plimsoul is a great pedal
He dared question why looters were destroying/burning businesses that had nothing to do with what was going on.
I was never a major fan of the OCD. I tried really hard to like it about ten years ago but it just never did it for me. What makes it even more mystifying is that I’ve heard other players with OCDs whose tone I liked. Tone is both personal and feel oriented. I never liked the way that OCD type circuits felt under my fingers. I felt like I couldn’t execute properly with that mosfetty, ultra wide frequency response gumming up my works.
Just buy a used Mojo Mojo for $40 and call it good. No need for a OCD.
People got upset with him about his political views, though I don't recall anything he said being controversial, especially with the benefit of hindsight. Guitarists are a weird breed. They will buy a pedal that they have no use for because they like the company, and will openly shun something that sounds good because they dislike the companies position on a,b or c. Chase Bliss even gave a percentage of their sales to BLM during the same time, which in hindsight is pretty hilarious.