Smooth, Transparent and Versatile OD... Here's how!

Welcome from Brian & Mark! We are really excited about our debut product, the FET Dream Overdrive / Distortion Pedal. It is a great pedal for a wide variety of players and genres... we've compiled this page from material on our website and early customer feedback to try and prove this is the right OD pedal for you!

Cause & Effect Pedals was founded by two Electronics Engineers with many years of high-tech experience in diverse industries, but a shared passion for building high-end guitar tube amps and a love of great guitar tone. We've focused those passions on delivering a no-compromise approach to great overdrive & distortion...

The FET Dream was conceived to be a very flexible distortion box, deserving of an anchor position on your pedal board... each control has been designed for maximum flexibility and is useable over the entire range of operation. The FET Dream is equally at home in your basement studio or on stage. Now we want to show you why & how...

This pedal gets a ten plus! Here's why: at the beginning of a weekend "rehearsathon", I plugged in and turned the FET dream on, and then... I never turned it off! -- DH

Introducing the

The FET Dream sets a new standard for 'articulate' distortion with unequalled clarity and definition in a harmonically rich pedal, it will give you a great feeling of openness and presence with its tone.

The FET Dream has put me in a bit of a quandary. Do I use the beautiful articulate drive for rhythm work or leads? To be honest, I am playing with the idea of getting another just to have it on both sides. This thing is so incredible sounding. -- Z

... as far as the FET Dream's personality goes, I'd say it is clear, smooth, ballsy, thick, open, complex, and for lack of a better term, Perfect. This thing can sing and has good natural sustain, yet it can simultaneously exhibit superb string definition and note clarity. -- M

The FET Dream excels at retaining your guitar's individual characteristics at all levels of distortion and complements your signal chain, rather than dominating it.

... Those five guitars are my primary rides in my ever growing collection, and the FET Dream sounds equally divine with each and every one. And in all cases the pedal's knobs are very toneful throughout the ranges, despite the differences in each of these guitars' inherent tones. But that is just it.....each guitar retains its own tone when running through the FET Dream, only I would dare to say that each guitar sounds better when used in conjunction with the FET Dream. -- M

Words are one thing, but lets try to concretely illustrate for you some of the FET Dream characteristics with a quick 'Drive Control Demo' -- This demo takes a straight rock-blues track and demonstrates various degrees of drive level and the effect on the tone:

Drive Demo -- Click for MP3 download, you need Flash for the MP3 widget to work.

Click to buy it now!

Lots more clips and videos are available through the navigation buttons, but lets push on and get to some of the key features and resulting benefits you will get out of the FET Dream design...

This may be the holy grail of good overdrive for all intents and purposes. -- M

This pedal has four controls - Lean, Girth, Drive and Volume. It is ridiculously easy to dial in a lot of really great tones. In fact, unlike a lot of other pedals I own, it is hard to dial in a bad tone. -- RS

FET Dream Pedal Image

Detailed Description:

Good tone is the result of careful crafting throughout the entire signal chain of the effect... in this section we'd like to walk you through the FET Dream architecture using a construction metaphor...

The foundation of the FET Dream tone is a tube-like FET input stage. This stage is crafted from individually selected JFET transistors and hand-tuned on every pedal to achieve a warm tube-amp like clean tone, rich in 2nd harmonics, while simultaneously avoiding any trace of tone-suck and preserving the subtleties of your guitar pickup character.

The FET Dream also features a unique and innovative pre-distortion equalization control. The Girth circuit provides a wide range of adjustment to balance the low/mids prior to distortion generation. The adjustment range can accommodate a wide variety of pickups and player's tastes to support whatever degree of 'fat' you prefer in the overall tone of the pedal. Careful management of the bass and avoiding the muddying mid-hump are a couple of the key secrets to the openness and clarity of the FET Dream.

One thing that is especially worth noting about the FET Dream is the "Girth" knob. The guys at CE designed the pedal to have the lows and low mids to be controlled before your signal ever hits the overdrive stage. To their credit that is a brilliant design and it totally makes the pedal worth the money in my opinion. The Girth knob really interacts with the gain stage by controlling how much "gush" you want. Truthfully, this element of the pedal is hard to describe without actually hearing it... -- M

The cornerstone of FET Dream is the distortion stage. It's unique design creates a distortion that drips with second harmonics for a rich, musical tone while retaining an openness to your sound that maintains your instrument's character and delivers clarity suitable for both lead and chord work. The wide-ranging Drive control delivers an incredible variety of usable distortion tones to satisfy even the most demanding player.

Even at higher gains, it is exceptionally musical and transparent. Arpeggios are distinct. Individual notes while chording are easily discernible! ... There is a shimmer/sparkle to the break up that I got lost in more than a few times. -- Z

The final output section of the FET Dream features an innovative Lean control to tweak the tone to suit your style, amplifier chain and venue. A full range treble control with variable filter Q, the Lean knob ensures you can find the right emphasis to cut through the mix, and the flexibility to span from tame to aggressive highs in your distortion tone.

... the FET Dream sounds open and airy ... Cranking up the Lean gives a bright Vox like tone and cranking the Drive but backing off on Lean and Girth pushes into the range of my Mesa Lonestar Special's dirty channel. It sounds fantastic! -- RS

Fill out the tone using the Girth and Drive together. Then use the post (Lean) to "polish" the sound. -- Z

Taken altogether, the equalization controls and gain sections in the FET Dream combine to increase sustain, presence and harmonic content while preserving player tone, dynamics and clarity... Often considered contradictory goals but uniquely realized in Cause and Effect Pedals' FET Dream! Buy one!

This pedal does that thing that many pedals claim to be able to do: retain your essential tone, so that you can turn the guitar volume down for your clean tone, then turn it up for as much growl and scream as you can stand. -- DH

I have one of these FET dream pedals and it has knocked all my light overdrive pedals into the basement... it's the best overdrive I've ever used as it lets you keep the sound of your guitar... without having to crank your amp all the way open... very good indeed. -- BB

Reviews:

We have been very excited and appreciative of the feedback and public reviews from our early-adopter customers. Nothing we can say serves better for your purchase decision than some honest customer feedback so we are happy to provide these links below. For more user dialogue, check out the forum threads captured on the links page through the navigation buttons.

Harmony Central Reviews

Guitars Canada Reviews

Detailed Specifications:

Dimensions (D/W/H): 4.4" x 2.7" x 2.0" (112mm X 68mm X 50mm)
Weight: 10 oz. (285g) including battery
User controls:

Girth: adjustment to balance the low/mids prior to the distortion stage to control the 'fatness' of your sound
Drive: adjustment of the distortion stage gain ranging from unity (minimal distortion level) to maximum (a medium-high level)
Lean: adjustment of the treble content with varying Q, following the distortion stage
Level: adjustment of pedal's output signal level from zero to maximum (gain above zero will depend on drive control setting)

Bright blue LED status indicator
True bypass switching
Power consumption: 9VDC/6mA
Battery: 9VDC (006P)
AC adapter (Optional): 9VDC, negative tip (regulated supply recommended)
Input impedance: ~1M ohm
Output impedance: ~1K ohm
Powder-coated and silk-screened cast aluminum enclosure
Hand made with quality components and robust construction in Canada

Documentation:

FET Dream User's Guide (PDF)

Purchasing:

You can buy it here!

The "honeymoon" period is long over, and I would not want to play a show without it. What I love about it is the transparency and the sensitivity/response to playing dynamics. There's nothing to dislike... -- DH

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