The FD2 has been a tremendous hit since it came out in 1993, but Fulltone always wanted to expand on it and create the ultimate overdrive/boost pedal, which they've accomplished with the Full-Drive3. Although it may look similar to the FD2, the FD3 is a much more evolved and natural-sounding design offering a vast array of both clean and distorted tones. Unlike its cousin, the FD3 uses both a JFET input and a JFET opamp, which helps give it the most tube-like sound you can get out of a tubeless pedal. Along with great sound, these JFETs give the FD3 an ultra-high Input impedance which allows the pedal to mate with any type/gain of pickup and react extremely well to changes in your guitar's volume control.

Features:

- Upgraded with an evolved & more natural-sounding design
- JFET input & JFET opamp for a tube-like sound
- 3-way CLIPPING toggle switch
- '90s Style Clipping, Asymmetrical Clipping, or pure opamp operation
- Drive channel & switchable Boost with clear, high headroom
- Dynamic Knob part of the Boost circuit blends in germanium character
- Order Toggle Switch swaps OD into Boost or vice-versa
- Buffered bypass & capable of handling 18V power for extra headroom

Plug into the FD3, set the pedal's 3-way CLIPPING toggle switch to '90s and you'll get the familiar 1990's FD2 smooth, symmetrical clipping with ample midrange. Set the switch to WIDE ASYM (wide asymmetrical) and more sweet highs and lows come through, along with chimey, Class-A style even harmonic… read more overtones. Lastly, there is COMP-CUT mode, which is a popular Fulltone invention offering a not-so-clean Boost that's pure opamp-overdrive, with no diode clipping assistance. Aggressive, cutting, and (be careful) capable of a huge volume boost to slam the input of your amp.

While the FD2's BOOST mode merely offers an increase in distortion, the FD3 has completely independent OVERDRIVE and BOOST channels, with an ORDER toggle switch placing the BOOST channel before or after the OVERDRIVE channel. The range of tones offered by this ORDER switch will effectively knock 2-3 pedals off pedals off of your 'board. The BOOST channel is also an extremely transparent, high-headroom 100% JFET-powered circuit, and (serial# 2548 and higher) is now Buffered-Bypass (instead of True-Bypass) so the FD3 will always drive long cables, be isolated from other effects, and always retain the highs and "feel" of your amplifier whether the pedal is turned ON or OFF!

Turning up the BOOST channel's DYNAMICS knob (a Fulltone-exclusive Germanium diode Limiter circuit) alters the feel of the notes being played as well as subdues transient spikes which can overload your amp's input. Those spikes can be fatiguing and damaging to the ears, the amp, and its speakers! Similar to using a limiter on the mixdown of a song in the studio, the DYNAMICS knob helps you keep your place in the live mix..like a very smart compressor. This feature can make even a stiff amp feel responsive and juicy, and sweeten the treble frequencies. Tip: Try the FD3 with a great quality (regulated)18 volt DC power supply like the Fulltone FPS-3 for an even bigger sound with more headroom. Do not use "switching type" adapters that automatically adjust from 100-240 votls, they are noisy.

Unlike its cousin the FD2, the FD3 uses both a JFET input and a JFET op-amp, giving it the most tube-like sound you can get out of a tubeless pedal. Along with great sound, these JFET's give the FD3 an ultra-high Input impedance which allows the pedal to mate with any type/gain of pickup and react well to changes in your guitar's volume control.

3-way CLIPPING toggle switch:
- Set to 90's and you'll get symmetrical clipping with ample midrange.
- Set the switch to WIDE ASYM (wide asymmetrical) and more sweet highs and lows come through, along with chimey, Class-A style even harmonic overtones.
- Set to COMP-CUT mode, pure opamp-overdrive, with no diode clipping assistance. Aggressive, cutting, and capable of a huge volume boost to slam the input of your amp.

Discrete Channels:
Unlike the FD2, the FD3 has completely independent OVERDRIVE and BOOST channels, and the ORDER toggle switch allows placing the BOOST channel* before* or after the OVERDRIVE channel. The BOOST channel is also an extremely transparent, high-headroom 100% JFET-powered circuit.

Buffered Bypass:
Serial# 2548 and higher FD3 pedals are now Buffered-Bypass instead of True-Bypass, so the FD3 will always drive long cables, be isolated from other effects, and always retain the highs and "feel" of your amplifier whether the pedal is turned ON or OFF. Do not confuse the hi-quality JFET op-amp buffer in the FD3 with the simple single transistor buffers on other pedals. The FD3's buffer sounds rich and fat, not thin.

DYNAMICS knob:
A Fulltone-exclusive Germanium diode Limiter circuit circuit that alters the feel of the notes being played as well as subdues transient spikes which can overload your amp's input. This feature can make even a stiff amp feel responsive and juicy, and sweeten the treble frequencies.

The Icing on the cake? The housing is about 20% smaller than the traditional FD2

Controls:

IN Jack (#16 on above diagrams): Connect a shielded (mono plugs) cable from your instrument into this jack. Always use good quality shielded cables (e.g. Fulltone Gold Standards) for audio signals, speaker cables are un-shielded and should not ever be used to connect your instrument to other effects or your amp.

OUT Jack (#14): Connect a cable (shielded with mono plugs) going to your amplifier and/or the IN of other pedals.

ON/OFF footswitch (#1): Press to turn the OVERDRIVE (OD) side of the pedal ON or OFF. This is the LEFT side of the pedal, and utilizes every feature except for 9, 10, 12, and 13. When the LED (#2) is lit, the OD side of the pedal is ON.

VOLUME knob (#4): This knob only affects the OD side of the pedal, when the LED (#2) is lit. Turn this Clockwise (CW) and the volume will increase...turn it Counter Clockwise (CCW) and the volume will decrease.

TONE knob (#5): This knob only affects the OD side of the pedal. It reduces the Treble frequencies as you turn it CCW, and increases Treble as you turn CW. Neutral tends to be around 12 O'clock with most amps.

CLIPPING switch (#6): This toggle switch only affects the OD side of the pedal, and allows you to change the Distortion clipping characteristics. Set to 90's, the pedal is Symmetrical in its clipping, with more midrange like an old TS or 1990's FD2. Set this switch to WIDE ASYM (wide asymmetrical) and the Bass & Treble frequencies are more pronounced and offering more even-ordered Harmonics. Net sonic result is a more chimey, Class-A tube-type sound. The middle switch position marked "CC" enacts the COMP-CUT feature. This mode removes all diode clipping from the JFET opamp, giving it a somewhat clean-boost feature or an agressive opamp clipping sound on higher OD settings.

OVERDRIVE knob (#7): Only affects the OD side of the pedal. Turn it CW and the level of distortion will increase, turn it CCW and the opposite occurs.

BOOST footswitch (#13): This switch turns on or off the BOOST, which is the right side of the pedal.

BOOST knob (#9): This knob controls the amount of volume increase the BOOST channel will deliver. CW gets louder, CCW gets quieter.

ORDER switch (#8): This switch is relevant only when both sides of the pedals are turned ON, and allows you to select whether the BOOST circuit comes BEFORE or AFTER the OD side of the pedal. A Cool feature, because an overdrive sounds completely different with a Clean Booster before it then it does with a clean booster after it.
OD-->BOOST: (with the OD side of the pedal is turned ON) Turn on the BOOST and it will take the sound you have and simply make it louder without increasing the distortion! Great for live work, and takes the power away from the soundman, letting you control your place in the mix. Net result is potential for serious volume increase when set this way without much change to the distortion sound you have chosen.
BOOST-->OD: (with the OD side of the pedal turned ON) Turn on the BOOST and its now routed to the OD side's INPUT, increasing the distortion the more CW you turn the BOOST. The net result is more distortion and a little bit of volume increase.

DYNAMICS knob (#10): This knob is part of the BOOST circuit, and only is functional when the BOOST is turned ON. Turning this CW will start to bring in a subtle Germanium diode limiter circuit, there is no right or wrong way to use this, choose your setting based on how it makes the notes feel when you pick the strings.
WARNING! If you turn this knob too far CW it will actually start reducing your volume, just like a studio Limiter/Compressor can do, so use restaint when setting this function. The ideal way to set this is to first set the DYNAMIC knob to the desired feel, and then adjust the BOOST knob to desired volume.

BUFFERED-BYPASS: All FD3's have high quality JFET "Buffered-Bypass" so the pedal will always drive long cable lengths, always be isolated from other effects, and always retain the highs and feel of your amplifier...whether the pedal is turned ON or OFF. The FD3's JFET opamp is a far superior Buffer than the single transistor buffer used in other pedals, so don't be put off by the mere fact that it is buffered...there are good and bad buffers.

BATTERY: To access the battery, remove the thumbscrews (3 & 11) by turning them CCW, separate the top & bottom sections of the pedal, replace battery, and reassemble the pedal.

DC POWER PORT: (#15) You may run this device on a 9 volt battery (included), a high-quality, regulated Class2 type 9 to 18VDC wallwart (not included), or 9-18VDC regulated pedalboard powersupply. Its cable's center must be configured to the standard 2.1mm x 5.5mm barrel plug with Negative to Center Pin configuration, as per following diagram:

The Fulltone IPS-9 is a great 9VDC regulated wall wart adapter, and our IPS-18 is the only Class2, regulated, quiet 18 volt wallwart on the market.

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