More Fortin silliness...

[ Donnie B. ] said:
Never even heard of Fortin until I got into Neural plug-ins.
It's really hard to get a read from forums (looking only the
last year or so) about the general consensus of the amps.
Lots of either love or pretty solid dislike.

Anything I'm missing on why the polarization, other than the
usual that happens in regard to mega-high priced gear?
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I personally think Mike Fortin seems like a decent guy. If you look at old forums he used to post here, and would answer emails even when he worked for Randall. Some people love his mods, and others don't. Ultimately tone is subjective, but a lot of big name artist used his stuff. The issue with Fortin products I feel isn't Mike Fortin. It's the snobby, up their own ass tone snobs who decided that Fortin products were the greatest piece of guitar gear since Jim Marshall decided to sell amps.
Fortin's Facebook page was super cringe for awhile, and if you had even the smallest critique of anything Fortin they 'd go insane. In response a wave of people went the other way to break down his mods and proclaim that they're simple Jose variants. Fortin himself never said his gear was anything more than that, but when you have fans acting like the amps are some gift from tone Jesus, well then you get backlash.
Now on this forum you have rumors that Fortin may have a few unoriginal, or even stolen designs. I read the old evil Pumpkin posts, but that's none of my business. All I know is Fortin products do a specific sound, and some people like it and some hate it. However people taking a 200.00 pedal and selling it for 800.00 is stupid no matter how you slice it
 
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Devin said:
Speaking of Fortin, what ever happen to the "Evil Pumpkin"? Did that thing ever even get released? Haven't seen or heard shit about it since the whole Larry thread here :LOL:
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Nothing to do with Larry. Being made or assembled in England, Covid 19 stopped the whole process.

As for the pedal itself (Maxon FAOD9), i bought one out of curiosity when it was released and i love it. The whole used market is ridiculous on many things these days.
 
frontline205 said:
It's the snobby, up their own ass tone snobs who decided that Fortin products were the greatest piece of guitar gear since Jim Marshall decided to sell amps.
Fortin's Facebook page was super cringe for awhile, and if you had even the smallest critique of anything Fortin they 'd go insane.
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In other words, same ole same ole. As soon as a new brand takes off off with a lot of hyperbolic feedback (and it's expensive)
the tribes pick sides pretty fast.

Doesn't matter the MI product these days; FRFR, Digital Modeler, Tube Amp, Gourmet Pedal, etc.
 
  • Classic Maxon OD-9 modified by amp guru Mike Fortin
  • Extreme output level to push any amp to its limits
  • Gain structure ranges from clean boost to sweet, classic overdrive
  • Red LED’s in clipping stage for more organic, amp-like tone
  • Enhanced upper midrange response for improved note articulation
  • True Bypass Switching
Wow those LED's and stickers cost a fortune to install.
 
frontline205 said:
I personally think Mike Fortin seems like a decent guy. If you look at old forums he used to post here, and would answer emails even when he worked for Randall. Some people love his mods, and others don't. Ultimately tone is subjective, but a lot of big name artist used his stuff. The issue with Fortin products I feel isn't Mike Fortin. It's the snobby, up their own ass tone snobs who decided that Fortin products were the greatest piece of guitar gear since Jim Marshall decided to sell amps.
Fortin's Facebook page was super cringe for awhile, and if you had even the smallest critique of anything Fortin they 'd go insane. In response a wave of people went the other way to break down his mods and proclaim that they're simple Jose variants. Fortin himself never said his gear was anything more than that, but when you have fans acting like the amps are some gift from tone Jesus, well then you get backlash.
Now on this forum you have rumors that Fortin may have a few unoriginal, or even stolen designs. I read the old evil Pumpkin posts, but that's none of my business. All I know is Fortin products do a specific sound, and some people like it and some hate it. However people taking a 200.00 pedal and selling it for 800.00 is stupid no matter how you slice it
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100%.

I think the Randall amps he helped put out sound fantastic, (The Thrashers are killer amps), and I love his Hex Drive pedal.

But, alot of his followers believe he's the second coming of Christ, and it launches some pretty oddball behavior. I remember the 33 pedal frenzy a couple years back was much the same, (people selling & getting $500+ for them, and they sound like shit, to my ears).
 
I think the hate comes from a number of avenues. An overly enthusiastic/rabid fanbase with serious hivemind issues, a social media/customer rep that would freak out on FB groups and forums to criticism of products, or remove any dissenting opinions from their social pages, and then the fiascos of Fortin designs being copies or stolen from other small builders.

I honestly stayed away for a while because, usually when a brand or product is severely hyped, it doesn't live up, and the hype also inflates the prices on the used market, where I buy. I recently bought and sold a Fortin Cali. Honestly, OD1 on that amp was awesome. However, to have 3k sunk into that amp when I still prefer my Splawn stuff to it, doesn't make sense. Tonally, everything will come down to personal preference, but the price to performance ratio wasn't there for me, so I moved it along.

I do own the FOD9 pedal, and can say it sounds nothing like a stock OD9, and actually sounds pretty rad, especially pushing the front of a lower gain amp like a 2203. I could easily flip it for profit, but I want to keep it because I definitely see use for it in my applications moving forward.
 
Much like the original 33 pedal, it was just demand vs scarcity in the beginning that drove up used prices in thinking it wouldn’t be released again and become a unicorn pedal. 33 is a production pedal now and can be had all day long. And I’m sure Maxon will make a ton more of these if the $$ demand is there so just wait.
 
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frontline205 said:
I personally think Mike Fortin seems like a decent guy. If you look at old forums he used to post here, and would answer emails even when he worked for Randall. Some people love his mods, and others don't. Ultimately tone is subjective, but a lot of big name artist used his stuff. The issue with Fortin products I feel isn't Mike Fortin. It's the snobby, up their own ass tone snobs who decided that Fortin products were the greatest piece of guitar gear since Jim Marshall decided to sell amps.
Fortin's Facebook page was super cringe for awhile, and if you had even the smallest critique of anything Fortin they 'd go insane. In response a wave of people went the other way to break down his mods and proclaim that they're simple Jose variants. Fortin himself never said his gear was anything more than that, but when you have fans acting like the amps are some gift from tone Jesus, well then you get backlash.
Now on this forum you have rumors that Fortin may have a few unoriginal, or even stolen designs. I read the old evil Pumpkin posts, but that's none of my business. All I know is Fortin products do a specific sound, and some people like it and some hate it. However people taking a 200.00 pedal and selling it for 800.00 is stupid no matter how you slice it
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Mike is absolutely a decent guy. Anyone that’s ever ACTUALLY met him would tell you the same. I equate the bulk of his fan base to the average Dime fan! “I got 32 fuckin’ bolt on Washburns and I get mah pull!!!”

now I love Dime’s playing but y’all know who I’m talking about. It’s the same with the Fortin fans. I got a RD5!!! All about that Fortin Life!!! The Fortin brand definitely suffers from its fan base and how his social media presence was handled as as the customer service issues.

Dealing with Mike 1:1 is great... I guess not so much on dealing with whoever is running support. Back to the pedals. The FAOD is killer. Sounds good on all my amps and the Hex is fan-fucking-tastic. Also as stated, never saw Mike claim anything he did on his amps was groundbreaking. He does have a sound for sure. If you guys remember Laura’s Uber or Recto that were Fortin mids, they weee some of the sickest sounding amps ever.
 
JerEvil said:
Mike is absolutely a decent guy. Anyone that’s ever ACTUALLY met him would tell you the same. I equate the bulk of his fan base to the average Dime fan! “I got 32 fuckin’ bolt on Washburns and I get mah pull!!!”

now I love Dime’s playing but y’all know who I’m talking about. It’s the same with the Fortin fans. I got a RD5!!! All about that Fortin Life!!! The Fortin brand definitely suffers from its fan base and how his social media presence was handled as as the customer service issues.

Dealing with Mike 1:1 is great... I guess not so much on dealing with whoever is running support. Back to the pedals. The FAOD is killer. Sounds good on all my amps and the Hex is fan-fucking-tastic. Also as stated, never saw Mike claim anything he did on his amps was groundbreaking. He does have a sound for sure. If you guys remember Laura’s Uber or Recto that were Fortin mids, they weee some of the sickest sounding amps ever.
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I've spoken to him personally as well, and he was very gracious, and personable. He's absolutely a decent guy.
 
The rabid Fortin fanbase was likely targetted intentionally by Zach or whatever his name was. Brand loyalists are all over this and other forums and group pages, just waiting to dive behind a brand or product that they feel "represents them". If you can get enough of those people on your side they will do a lot of the promotional leg work for you and beat potential customers over the head with sales pitches so you dont have to.

I bet Mike spent very little money actually marketing his brand because of this, and was still selling out his runs fairly quickly.

As for the high prices, thats nothing new in the gear world. Whats a Klon go for these days anyway? a dumble?
 
I actually like my Fortin OD9, its fkn great with most of my amps. Not sure how this dude thinks it's worth that much but hey I've seen crazier lol.
 
I personally dont care for limited edition everything business model. As much as I loved Solar when they first came out that was an annoyance. It creates a spectator market and inflates prices. Also makes it feel like you are waiting in a ticket line for a sold out show. I would never bother standing in line for hours for any show. Im definitely not going to stay glued to my computer to drop 3+ grand on the new flavor before it sells out.

But to counter my whole argument in the sake of fairness it does make the amp hold value. Most guys seem to be getting most if not all of their money back from their fortin purchase. Imagine paying 3500 for the meshuggah and figuring out its just a Jose modded amp then being stuck eating a chunk of the costs cause the market is flooded with it. That exclusivity though seems to breed a sense of arrogance and peacocking out of some guys but whatever. Im getting older and care less about what other guys have that I dont also that no matter if Im playing a boosted marshall type amp or a mark iv I still sound like me and thats ok.

I do get a little bit jealous when I see someone post a pic of their Larry out of nowhere even though Ive never really heard one let alone played one. Guys and their hobbies... Its the same story no matter the group
 
ClintN667 said:
I do get a little bit jealous when I see someone post a pic of their Larry out of nowhere even though Ive never really heard one let alone played one. Guys and their hobbies... Its the same story no matter the group
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If you're ever in the Pacific Northwest you're welcome to come over and play mine🤷‍♂️ you wouldn't be the first - on rig talk or TGP. When you're in love, you wanna shout it to the world.
 
RaceU4her said:
This place years ago was as bad as anywhere with the fortin overhype, I never understood it cause I never thought anything of his really sounded that amazing
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100% agree. That, combined with Zack khoury and his incessant douchiness, combined with the QC issues, combined with the customer services issues, combined with the straight up circuit theft/copying, all made me think "this Fortin better be the best thing ever."

Then I plugged into one, and was insanely underwhelmed. I actually think the Randall's sound better - and they better, they're basically Larry and Fryette circuits.
 
DanTravis62 said:
Lol they are inferior copies of other designs and other products - whether its a TC int pre, a Larry, a VHT/Fryette, or a Jose/Cameron mod.

Literally NO DESIGN THEY SELL is original.
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You’re new here aren’t you, this horse has been beaten to death for years. We all are aware. I was giving a subjective opinion on products I’ve owned.
 
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