FETTO, The History

… they were later changed to the ones still used today: High quality rubber knobs mounted on potentiometers with 6 mm split shaft. 

Most of the 9.0’s had a “screen print” made on a laser printed film. This was later changed to real screen print with great help from our friends at LJ Screen, Sweden.

In 2004 (FETTO 9.0) we thought FETTO had what is called “True Bypass” but were soon corrected that this our definition was incorrect! Thanks goes to Andreas Möller at Stinkfoot Electronics for his educational True Bypass information.

Even if FETTO 9.0 didn't have “true” bypass (and was/is not possible to modify) it soon became what we call popular.

Because of the embarrassing mistake with the bypass in 9.0, it was soon updated to 10.0. This one had True Bypass and the same sound engine as 9.0. 

One “Mid Cut/Boost” jumper and one “Input Level” trimmer was added. This trimmer was soon cancelled because it was actually never needed, just more confusing. So the difference between 9.0 and most of the 10.0’s is the Mid jumper and the bypass circuitry.

10.0 was equipped with 6 jumpers, 4 DIP switches and 1-2 trimmers (below).

Wishes about the tone control came in—“the tone control in FETTO 9-10 does too much, please make it do less!”

As musicians have sensitive senses—ears, fingers & eyes—we now came to learn the tone control needed an update, yeah! A few additional updates were performed as well.

FETTO 11.0 had more bass than earlier versions. So one “Low End” jumper was replaced with a “Character” jumper, the “Output Level/Treble Cut” jumper was replaced with an output stage buffer. All this together made a big difference sound wise, mostly because of the new, fantastic “less is more” tone control.

The screen print also changed: The picture of the fat evil woman and the poor little kind man in Mickey Mouse underwear was replaced with a stupid ostrich.

The tone control was renamed to “Cut” and the AC adapter print changed to “5-18V” instead of “5-24V”. This is a better span for all FETTO’s even if most of them #can handle up to 24 volts.

11.0 was equipped with 5 jumpers, 4 DIP switches and 1 trimmer (below).

#=These early FETTO versions will most likely never sound good at 24 volts.

FETTO 11.1 (=9.0 and 10.0 inseminated)—which in 2009 was transformed to FETTO Nord 70 which in 2012 became FETTO Nord 70 Plus was equipped with a few extra facilities. The “classic” tone control was back, as it was a stupid mistake to modify it in 11.0, which by accident actually was more optimised for bass than for guitars. So if you’re bass player and need a musical sounding overdrive/distortion pedal, keep at least one eye open for a used FETTO 11.0…

The “Output Buffer” (not to be associated with with bypass buffers) from 11.0 was replaced with the old “Output Level/Treble Cut” function. In this version it was a trimmer instead of this jumper and this way it was possible to tweak the output impedance/response of FETTO. The “Character” jumper from 11.0 was still included (named Voice) and the screen print was almost identical with 11.0, but on most copies of 11.1 the tone control was named “Presence”.

FETTO 11.1 came with 6 jumpers, 4 DIP switches and 2 trimmers (below).

From serial #1287 (March 2009) the type of serial numbers changed, (to #087) and the Treble Cut trimmer was cancelled by obvious reasons. 

NOTE: The type of serial numbers for the Himmelstrutz products has through the years changed many times, and this will probably continue as long as we make our products. The reasons for this is not important/impossible to explain.