As hinted at on this very site - Fulltone is officially fully back now - with some very significant help from Jackson Audio

Most everyone knows the Fulltone story by now - and how that brand sort of came a-cropper during the BLM movement - getting removed from sale at Guitar Centre, Reverb.com and several major dealers - on account of some very ill-chosen words. Yet I’ve forever had mixed feelings about the brand - as I’ve always separated out the figurehead and his utterances from those mostly excellent pedals he designed. And I of course do have several Fulltone pedals in my reference collection which I really love. Those are great sounding and well-made pedals, and mostly very reasonably priced!

So I was kind of sad to see the demise and dismantling of the 30 year old California Fulltone operation, And Mike Fuller certainly did not cover himself in glory then either in how he wound up that business and left his loyal workforce out in the cold without warning. I can though understand the trauma of a failing business and the need sometimes just to wash your hands of a sorry affair!

As the story goes - Mike Fuller moved to Nashville for an easier life, and to run his own Studio - but hinted then that the Fulltone story wasn’t wholly over yet. Of course without his California workforce and manufacturing facility - it was going to take a lot to get that all started up again in any meaningful way.

So most intriguingly - in stepped Brad Jackson of Jackson Audio to offer a lifeline to the brand - as he undertook to make those pedals at his Jackson Audio Texas facility - under licence - and as ’Fulltone USA’.

My own history with Brad Jackson is well documented, and I’m somewhat bemused that Brad Jackson and Mike Fuller (not the most genial of gentlemen) have ended up in bed together as the saying goes. Both of them have fairly challenging personalities and somewhat chequered histories in the realms of customer service and support. They’re supposedly not the easiest of people to get along with - so it’s somewhat fascinating that they’ve managed to find sufficient common ground to work together.

I’m actually very glad that this has happened - as Fulltone is a very significant brand within pedal history and the Pedaldom in general - and the total demise of such a storied long-term institution would of course have been something of a tragedy and a big miss - regardless of the surrounding controversies.

So Brad Jackson and Jackson Audio have taken over the manufacture, marketing and distribution of the Fulltone USA brand (under licence) - meaning that Mike Fuller can solely  just concentrate on designing and prototyping new circuits. As I’ve said on many occasions before - I do really like Fulltone pedals - I have at least 9 or 10 in my reference collection, including 3 variants of OCD.

Obviously the OCD Obsessive Compulsive Drive is the most famous of Mike Fuller’s pedals and is what this new partnership have decided to focus on at the start of this new venture - with their promoting a Standard v2.0 Edition of the OCD - priced at $199, alongside a Custom Shop v1.4 edition of the circuit at $249.

Readers should be familiar with my Warm Audio analysis - and particularly in regards to their ’ODD’ - OCD-rip-off - down to all the elements of trade dress. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the wake of the official OCD being back in full circulation, The v1.4 Edition is significant too - as that is cited as many player’s favourite variant of the OCD - and is the version that the Warm Audio ODD was supposedly based on.

I really love the OCD - it’s one of my favourite ’Crunch’ overdrives - while latterly I rather use the Hamstead Soundworks Odyssey and Subspace for those same types of crunchy textures - but the OCD is definitely a bona fide classic. The OCD does therefore remain a favourite of mine - where I have a plain white OCD v1.7, Candy Apple Red OCD 2.0, and Metallic Teal OCD Ge - all excellent as far as I’m concerned - I never felt the need to own the most popular v1.4 Edition - but may consider it once more now what it’s available as a Custom Shop Edition again.

It will be interesting to compare the insides of the pedals - in particular the Custom Shop Editions - as the Jackson Audio facility is all about automated pick-and-place SMT manufacture - so will be interesting to see how some of those older Fulltone pedals are converted across to the Jackson Audio standard of manufacture - and will they retain the same degree of fidelity?

I say - give them a chance! I’m glad to see Fulltone back - and I look forward to seeing what comes out of that partnership - and also how long Mike Fuller and Brad Jackson can go without getting into some sort of at least verbal conflict - it will certainly be interesting to follow!

The Standard OCD v2.0 and Custom Shop OCD v1.4 are both available from the Fulltone USA Webstore - for $199 and $249 respectively - both seem to be in stock currently, alongside nearly half a dozen core Fulltone pedal varieties!