HBE Power Screamer vs Fulltone Fulldrive II (mosfet and non)?

i have both - the power screamer has way more gain. the fulldrive seems too polite for my taste. the fulldrive boost affects the saturation (i.e., not pure volume boost) whereas the power screamer has a ton of volume boost available. my favorite of the bundled booster plus ts 808 is the t. jauernig gristle king.

 

Hello, thought I'd resurect this thread, I'm thinking of swapping my FD2 mosfet for a power screamer, the FD2 just drops a bit too much low end for my tastes. Would the PS be a bit less dramatic in bass loss?
Thanks,
Kurt

 

The FD2 mosfet is probably more flexible than the PS. They're both great pedals, different flavors. The PS has more gain, but I wouldn't call it a high gain pedal, either. Tough call. If I had to have just one OD, it would be the FD2. If I had room for two....they'd both go to the gig. The PS will get pretty rowdy, the FD2 is more refined, to my ears.

 

The PowerScreamer is more of a Fulldrive with a shot of adrenalin. More modern sounding, more gain, lots of nice upper harmonics, cuts through the mix like a knife. Great pedal.

 

The Fat boost version would fix this. The regular would be about the same.

 

i've owned both the old FD2 non MOSFET and the PS...personally i like the PS more, it goes into medium gain territory, while the FD2 is much more low gain break up territory. but if you want distortion and not overdrive maybe we should be comparing the HBE BigD and Fultone Distortion Pro. i only use the PS for my distortion tones, never had a distortion pedal as opposed to an overdrive pedal.

 

I'm not after a high gain sound really, I never turn the drive and boost knobs on the fulldrive up past noon. I just wish I didn't have such a dramatic bass drop out when I tunn the fulldrive on. It's basic tone is almost perfect except that low end loss.
Still not sure if the PS would work,
Kurt

 

If you're looking for a TS with more low end or adjustable low end, look at the Retrosonic eight-o-eight. it has an internal control that allows you to bump the bass way up. And it sounds great on low gain settings.

 

Hey, thanks for the info, I'll check it out. I do like the boost option that the PS and FD2 offer, but maybe I could do without.
Thanks everyone, if anyone else has ideas, please let me know,
Kurt

 

Never owned a Full Drive, but have had the PS for close to two years. It does have some hump in the response and the treble clarity is lossed a tad... which adds to it's warmth.... but....

I tested out 4 other ICs along with the original JRC4588 (really easy to do with a pair of needle-nose pliers):

1) 4588DD
2) 4589
3) Burr Brown OP2134
4) and the one supposedly used on the "Tim".. can't recall right now.

The all did something useable to the response, but the Burr Brown was the one I left in. It really tightened the bass, and added a touch of clarity and openness. Now I REALLY like it one settings from low gain to all the way up.

This mod only cost me 10 bucks (including shipping)...
Just some thoughts.

 

i owned both.

hbe better for higher gain.

fd better for lower gain stuff..

i sold the fd and kept the hbe cause the thing has way more killer sounds in it.