FULL-DRIVE 2 & DEJA'VIBE PEDAL
FULLTONE MDV-3 DEJA'VIBE REVIEW
The Fulltone MDV-3 Deja'Vibe is a functional clone of the vintage Unvibe made famous by Jimi Hendrix and many others.
Fulltone master tinker'er Michael Fuller has crafted his take on this classic electronic circuit and packaged it a couple of different ways. One is a stomp box with a big knob on the top that you can sort of roll with your feet, the second is the MDV-3 which is a custom wah-wah style pedal with controls on the side of the base.
DEJA'VIBE CONTROLS
One of the best ways to describe the sound of this Vibe pedal is what Robin Trower calls it, it's the Bridge of Sighs swirling chorus sound. Robin Trower endorses Fulltone pedals and I've seen him using them live in concert. Robin has also made several YouTube videos explaining his pedalboard setup. His live rig has featured the prototype of the other pedal on review here, the Full-Drive 2 Mosfet distortion pedal.
The Deja'Vibe is a very heavy duty pedal, I have mixed feelings about the inset on-off switch, it's easy to accidentally move the speed pedal if you're not very careful. Overall I like the wah-wah style packaging better than the stomp box alternative.
The sound from the Deja'Vibe is deep and luscious, it can swirl at very slow speeds or up to fast like a Leslie and all points in between. There are lots of different sound colors available here if you take the time to explore it. This pedal sounds great before or after a distortion pedal.
The MDV-3 comes with and requires an 18 volt DC power supply. Fulltone recommends you use theirs. The polarity and size of the plug are identical to the Boss pedal standard but 9-volts will damage the pedal. I've run the MDV-3 from my Voodoo Lab Mondo power supply and it works great.
NOTE THE POWER SUPPLY INPUT WARNING, 18 VDC ONLY
You can read reviews of the Mondo power supply here on the Sweetwater web site.
You can read more reviews about the Fulltone MDV-3 Deja'Vibe on the Sweetwater web site.
Our MDV-3 was purchased from Amazon, you can read more reviews on the Amazon site here.
FULL-DRIVE 2 MOSFET REVIEW
The Full-Drive 2 Mosfet is a distortion box for electric guitar. It provides a primary amount of distortion which has lots of optional tonal adjustment along with a second foot-switch that kicks in an adjustable amount of boost to yield a slightly elevated and more urgent lead tone.
Lets cut to the chase, what makes this pedal so great?
The sound quality of the distortion is so natural, dare we say, tube like? Yes, it is very smooth, not ragged or buzzy, it feels like a good saturated Mesa/Boogie tube amp (without a trace of fizzy high-end) in a little blue stomp box.
Even the boost feature is mellow, not too over the top, but it places your tone in a great place for a lead that needs to step to the front of the mix without going too far. With the main effect engaged you can still back down your guitar to obtain a clean tone (provided your rig plays clean without the pedal).
You can combine this pedal with something like a Tube Screamer and have an incredible range of distortion tones to choose from, from very mild to all the way up. Where the Tube Screamer sounds piercing and aggressive, the Full-Drive is mild and smokey. The Full-Drive 2 also combines nicely with the Robin Trower Overdrive from Fulltone.
The construction of this pedal is excellent, Fulltone has made quality a hallmark of their brand and this one does not disappoint. It features the trademark full-bypass switches that Fulltone has custom made for them to meet their standards for long term reliability. It runs on a 9-volt battery but it will also handle up to 18 volts DC for extended headroom. I have not tried running it on 18 volts yet, I will say if you remember to unplug it the pedal has decent battery life from a Duracell 9-volt.
You can read more reviews of the Full-Drive 2 on the Sweetwater web site.
Our Full-Drive 2 was purchased from Amazon, they had the same price as Sweetwater and Amazon Prime delivered it faster. You can read more reviews about the Full-Drive 2 on the Amazon web site.
We get our Duracell 9-volt batteries from Amazon Prime Subscribe and Save, best deal on the planet at the time of this review.
You can read more reviews about the Robin Trower Overdrive (RTO) on the Sweetwater web site.
Our RTO was purchased from Amazon Prime, you can read more reviews on Amazon.com.
