[NGD: Lone Wolf Fat Glass II Overdrive Pedal]

I have to wonder why the designers went with that "tower"-style Tube shield, unless they just had a bunch lying around after years of doing Amp repair? It doesn't look like that design will fit into any stock pedalboard that I can think of; maybe if you're using a KB HSC as a Pedalboard, but even then, IDK?

 

If I recall, and probably not perfectly, that is the same vacuum tube shield cover/protector as standard tube amp equipment. That's a great feature as you know parts aren't difficult to obtain and easy to replace as required. Lyle who owns Lone Wolf Tube Amps and made the pedal used top end stuff and its all point to point wiring. The pedal is a tank and if in some act of unholy nature you could break it, its easy to fix even for guys like me as its pretty straight forward. I don't see that happening with anything close to normal use.

[NGD: Lone Wolf Fat Glass II Overdrive Pedal]

That's cool. If we get a little defensive about such stuff around here, just chalk it up to a reactionary tendency born of years of hit-and-run spammers and trolls. 'S alright, sorry if I misinterpreted.

 

No worries with the low post count and recent membership it"s not outside what"s reasonable.

[NGD: Lone Wolf Fat Glass II Overdrive Pedal]

This is beginning to smell a bit Spammy; you could have acknowledged Larry's friendly response, instead of just barreling along with all the promotional content and videos...

I figured it was more of an ad then a post from an enthusiast. Of course ads are a big waste on me. I can see through such strategies and ignore the ad which I did with the above.

I thought the Boss Blues Driver OD held it's own in the shoot-out...

 

ps. +1 on Spammy...

 

Nope, definitely not spam, no financial interest or benefit in any way, period. There is however a real interest to share something with the community. I picked up a pedal from Lyle, who is a great guy here locally in San Diego while I was getting an amp repaired and impressed with his work and got to try the pedal in his shop. Fundamentally disappointed if the post(s) came off as trying to hock gear. Hopefully the videos do a better job than I did.

 

I also thought the BD-2 was a close because I watched the first shootout, and I bought one as a result. Even with the Sheriff mod, which is awesome, at low to medium levels it is really, but the BD-2 doesn"t keep up at higher overdrive/distortion levels and can have a pretty high ambient noise floor when close or at being maxed/dimed out. I thought it was my pedal so picked up a second, same thing, called the pedal mod folks and they said all BD-2s are like that. I still have it, great pedal, and convenient, but IMO the Fat Glass covers more territory and with less noise. The BD-2 can also start to sound a little 'digital' at high levels. So I bought the Fat Glass II and happy ever since and some extra tubes. IMO the Fulltone OCD covered TS-9 and BD-2 territory really well, built like a tank, relatively inexpensive, however my only criticism is that with some amps it didn"t sound as good and it didn"t do edge of breakup as well as the Fat Glass. Just my thoughts.

 

Before I get off the stage I"m disappointed nobody called me out for misspelling pedal as 'peddle' aboveâ¦.

[NGD: Lone Wolf Fat Glass II Overdrive Pedal]

New comparison video is up and a great shootout to show the pedal

 

[video:youtube]

[NGD: Lone Wolf Fat Glass II Overdrive Pedal]

Quick review on a peddle I'm exceptionally happy with. No financial interest, just a great product in my opinion from a local company in San Diego that previously focused on amp repair.

 

 

I tried an Ibanez TS-9, Ibanez TS-808, Boss BD-2 and Fulltone OCD. We tested several guitar / amp combos (Jackson Custom Soloist, Fender American Ultra Stratocaster, Fender Standard Telecaster, Carvin CT3, Heritage H-575) with various amps (Egnator Rebel 30, Fender Supersonic, Boss Katana Mk II 50w, DV Mark Jazz, vintage Fender Princeton along with a Fender Frontman and Fender Champion 20 for laughs. That said, none of the standard overdrive/tube screamers excelled at an "edge of breakup" or had the flexibility of delivering an analog signal that even made inexpensive solid state amps sound good like the Lone Wolf Amps Fat Glass II. The Lone Wolf Fat Glass also has a mid boost for humbuckers, which is a great feature. The Fat Glass II uses a real cathode ray tube to generate an analog signal using a small transformer at real tube amp voltages. The other overdrives (TS-9, OCD, TS-808, BD-2) don't have that something extra, and we found a simple swap of the tube to modify the tone added a lot of flexibility and really changed the sound. I like the Mullard 12AX7 with hum buckers and the EHX with single coils in the neck position or the JJ tube as a compromise/in between. It even sounds great when driven by another tube screamer into the amp for even more gain (TS-9 probably did the best). What shocked me was how good it sounded with solid state amps, it brings back the warmth they"re missing and the edge of breakup they lack. All the wiring is point to point, done by hand done like they did in the 50s and 60s so maintenance and repair is simple.

 

 

YouTube Reviews - Demonstrations

 

Note: There is now a contour shape "Mid Boost" pull knob on the gain for the Version II which takes out a lot of fuzz you hear with hum buckers, but not in the YouTube videos.

 

[video:youtube]

 

[video:youtube]

 

For Giggles we took the worst amp in existence we could find (Fender Frontman) and did an Ibanez TS-808 vs Lone Wolf Fat Glass II shootout with the Jackson Custom Soloist H2H, concluding with the least metal setup possible, which was a hollow body Heritage on the Fender Frontman. Just audio and not the best, but as good as this old guy could do. I have found that I prefer the EHX 12AX7 with the Tele and Strat and the Mullard Master Valve 12AX7 with the Jackson and Carvin. The JJ 12AX7 it comes with is a middle ground and served well for all the guitars, which is why I think it ships with a fairly neutral tube. Sorry no video, basically just lazy, but it gets the idea across.

 

[video:youtube]

 

I know StarLux and Fat Glass are working a new video based on feedback. For the new video StarLux said they're going to keep the pedal in a "picture-in-picture" format so there's no confusion on what is being used and you can see the pedal settings. The other item being addressed is the difference in volume, some pedals are providing more (or not) and ideally they should all be about the same. It will never be perfect, the TS-808 doesn't have a lot of output compared to Fulltone OCD, etc. What also doesn't get translated, but will in the future video is the tube change. I found the JJ 12AX7 to be "fuzzy" on some guitars at high levels of gain (this is corrected with the Fat Glass II with "mid-boost"), which the Mullard and EHX escape, but the EHX 12AX7 can be "brittle" on a strat bridge position 1, but killer on 4/5, the mullard 12AX7 is the opposite, killer on 1 and 2/3 with the JJ in the middle of the two other tubes. When you kick to humbuckers I like the Mullard in general. The videos don't do it justice, but hopefully the next one will. Another thing I wish the videos showed was an Ibanez TS-9 in front of the fat glass. It almost kills the noise completely and creates this crazy Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier / Randall Satan level metal tone that is out of control even on Fender amps and is dead silent. And to me what the pedal does amazing well, is the edge of breakup (not shown very well in the videos) that no pedal I've heard so far approaches since it's a true tube and acts like a mini-amp. The Analogman King of Tone comes close, but unlike the KOT you can crank up the Fat Glass and get over the top rock/blues and edge into metal without another pedal in the signal chain.