A clean boost pedal seems like it should be a simple affair—you just need to pump up the signal level by a few dB and bada-bing you’re good, right?
The thing is that while this is how most booster pedals function, this isn’t always the best solution as piercing treble frequencies and harsh transient peaks can also get boosted along with the rest of your guitar tone.
The Fulltone 2B pedal is a very simple-looking clean boost pedal with just two controls, but its internal circuitry is painstakingly designed to boost all the good stuff while taming the elements that you don’t want boosted. The 2B even includes a unique dynamics function that improves responsiveness without overloading an amp’s input.
FEATURES
The Fulltone 2B is essentially the Boost channel found in the Full-Drive 3 pedal, which Michael Fuller separately installed in the smallest enclosure possible. Controls consist of a full-size gain knob and a mini pot for dialing in the dynamics setting of a germanium diode limiter circuit.
Like the Full-Drive 3, when the 2B is “off” it is a high-quality JFET unity gain buffer to drive long cable lengths and prevent tone-suck. The input and output jacks are mounted out of the way on the front panel along with a jack for a 9 to 18VDC regulated Class2 power supply, which can be used instead of an internal nine-volt battery to power the pedal.
PERFORMANCE
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Providing up to 20dB of gain boost, the 2B can significantly increase a guitar’s output level. More impressively, the tone stays attractively rich and warm without adding any harsh overtones. The dynamics control functions like a loudness maximizer, boosting perceived volume while eliminating transient peaks that can distort an amp’s input. Both the boost function and dynamics section make your guitar sound bigger and better without altering its inherent tonal personality.
STREET PRICE $104 MANUFACTURER Fulltone, fulltone.com
THE BOTTOM LINE The Fulltone 2B not only significantly boosts a guitar’s signal, it also sweetens the tone thanks to its unique germanium diode limiter circuit, which tames harsh transients while making the tone bigger.
Chris is the co-author of Eruption - Conversations with Eddie Van Halen. He is a 40-year music industry veteran who started at Boardwalk Entertainment (Joan Jett, Night Ranger) and Roland US before becoming a guitar journalist in 1991. He has interviewed more than 600 artists, written more than 1,400 product reviews and contributed to Jeff Beck’s Beck 01: Hot Rods and Rock & Roll and Eric Clapton’s Six String Stories.
