Danelectro 9 Volt Battery

It's the battery packaged with the pedal. It has a retro look.

It's true: Battery type can affect the sound of some pedals. Some fuzz enthusiasts like the "broken battery" sound. The electronic "why" of all this is covered by others below. But the folks who make fun of the whole concept of critiquing a damned battery are on to something too. I can't believe so many of us have weighed in on this trivial matter, but here's my take:

I bought a Dano Chicken Salad vibrato pedal. One of these batteries came with it. It was a nice touch. It saved me the inconvenience of buying a battery.

One review below mentions voltage and other electical characteristics, and how they affect tone. True enough, more so with some pedals than with others.

Clearly, the Chicken Salad must be one of those pedals which needs to see the whole 9 volts to function optimally. I initially thought the CS was broken right out of the box, because it would not always engage, and when it did engage it made a distractingly audible click in time with the speed control. I'd had a similar problem a couple of years ago with a Tuna Melt Tremolo. Had lightning struck twice? Nah.

In both cases, I simply swapped out the Dano "vintage" battery (which may not have been fresh, or which may have just been a nicely-labeled POS stuffed into the box with the pedal) for a newfangled alkaline 9 volt. Voila! The pedals worked, and the Chicken Salad, in particular, sounded great.

Now, even the brand new alkaline battery only lasted about an hour or so (from install to malfunction, all during one continuous session) in the Chicken Salad. The pedal is, it turns out, a battery pig. I'll buy an adapter; I'll save money in the long run.

My other Dano pedal was a Grilled Cheese distortion; I did not have it for long. It ran fine on the original Dano battery from the moment I first fired it up to the day I realized that nothing I could ever do would make that crud-spewing abomination sound like something I wanted in my signal chain, and traded it for an already-chewed piece of gum.

My conclusion: While there is some truth to the theory that batteries make a difference, it's also true that the "vintage" Dano 9v is not necessarily well-matched to every Dano pedal with which it is packaged. It clearly can't hang long inside of any pedal which is relatively power-hungry. The Chicken Salad seems to want to devour fully-charged alkalines at a rate of about one per hour, while the Grilled Cheese goes about its business for weeks on a single non-alkaline Dano throw-in.

Finally folks: The company I work for imports batteries. They're all made by 2 or 3 large Asian concerns, who dress them up in custom packaging to give the impression that they are different from the competition. They're not. The specs are pretty much identical (drum-pounding mechanical bunnies notwithstanding.) So unless you really like the artwork on one brand or the other, simply choose alkaline or non-alkaline, then buy whatever's on sale.

It's a battery for Christ's sake!

I did'nt even know Danelectro still made these batteries. I haven't seen one in years. I have to admit they looked coll, from what I remember(sort of an aqua green color if I remember correctly). Anyway, the guy below said that the type of battery affects the tone on certain vintage fuzz pedals, etc. That may be true but there's no battery in this world that could posibly make one of those crappy plastic Danelectro pedals sound any good! Most people use a power source these days anyway.

Fudge 'em

These batteries probably work fine, but the "vintage power source" thing is just a gimmick, along with the retro color scheme. Words like "vintage tone", etc, are used in ads all the time to lure guitarists into buying the product. I'm more into "old school" ('70s-'80s) sounds than "vintage" ('50s-'60's)sounds anyway (though sometimes we play "Rumble" by Link Wray). Anyway, just get some Duracells or whatever the coppertop ones are. I can guarantee you 10 out of 10 professional guitarists don't give a shit about what brand of batteries they use, most of them use adapters anyway.

I was just reading these reviews having a laugh until I saw this comment:

"Batteries make no difference to the tone of a pedal whatsoever. Anyone who thinks that it does is wrong, it's a total myth."

No dude, you are wrong! Batteries DO affect the tone of pedals in three important ways:

1) Not all 9 volt batteries give 9 volts. In fact most of the time they don't and the voltage lowers as you use them. Your pedal can still be working even though the batteries output has dropped to 5 volts or less and you don't even realise it. If a battery doesn't give good voltage your chorus pedals, delays etc... can sound poorly.

2) Some distortion and overdrive pedals sound better when the battery has worn down. The tone gets warmer. Hard core tone heads can tell how fresh a battery is by how thier favorite pedal sounds.
.
3) Certain fuzz pedals need the old school non-alkaline batteries to sound right. Saying "a battery is a battery" is like saying a transistor is a transistor. That may be true if we are talking about a sewing machine or something. A fuzz face has such a small circuit the battery is actually a huge part of the sound.

Here is a quote from the analogman website:

"the best sound is obtained by using an old style non-alkaline battery. I get these two for a dollar at the DOLLAR STORES. I like the Maxell or Panasonics. An Alkaline battery will sound a bit dull in a germanium fuzzface, it will lose a lot of character (you can hear the difference in a sound sample above). It's not just the voltage that makes batteries and power supplies sound different. It's the resistance, inductance, and capacitance in the battery, which is part of the circuit in a fuzzface."

I rest my case.

This battery was a bit hard to use at first but with few hours of tweaking I got it just the way I like it thanks to the manual provided. Without it I'm not sure if I'd ever get it going.

After I've installed this battery to my Behringer overdrive I'ver noticed right away that the sound changed. Sudeenly this pedal sounded very much like the classic Analogpro Twindrive or the Fulltone Fulldrive. I was amazed and extremelly happy that I don't have to buy those two favorite pedals of mine because thei're so bloody expensive. After all the Behringer was just a cheapy but with this battery it really sounds amazing.
I can't afford reall vintage Fuzz pedal but there are some cheap ones out there for about $20 and I'm sure with this battery the will sound just as good as any true vintage one.

Good in pedals but I've connected my Fender Twin to this battery and it only lasted 30 sec so I guess it's not that well build. Maybe I need two of those....

No need

Great as long as you only use them in pedals.
If you plan to use these batteries to run big amps, fridges or to start a car with, the don't last long at all.

Hookup manual was extremely helpful. Without it I would have probably kept trying to put the small battery terminal into the small connector terminal and the large battery terminal into the large connector terminal.That would have sucked.

This thing is dead silent, which was exactly the sound I was looking for. It had the same classic tones of overpriced vintage batteries from the 50's.

Man I was amazed how quickly I went through about five of these babies, then I realized that I had to pull the cable out of the pedal once in a when I was done playing if I expected them to last. Then I got turned on to an "AC/DC adapter", and now my Dano 9V Battery lasts forever no matter how long I leave the cable plugged in or how many hours I play. I used to carry a backup all the time, but now I could give a rats ass.

I complained about the life span of the batteries. They put me on hold for a minute, then they came back with the a bunch of technical data regarding pulling the cable out when I was done playing and stuff. At first I'm like, "are you blaming me for the bad quality of your products" but I figured I'd give it a try and I was amazed how much longer this battery works. So I guess their customer support is pretty good.

I've been playing for about a month or two so I know a good deal when I see one. If someone stole this battery I'd be like, whatever. My drummer told me that the pedal would probably work fine with just the "adapter" anyway.

It's a battery. You must have to be in a right state to not know what a battery does and where it goes, and no it isn't on your tongue.

It's a battery. Maybe it sounds better than normal batteries but even as a tone freak I'll be damned if I can tell the difference between this and any other battery ever made. I'll give a 7 just because it looks cooler than most.

Strange question. Yeah you can rely on it until it starts to die. If you use batteries always carry spares.

If you're stupid enough to ask them about customer support for batteries...

For the last time it's a battery! I don't know what's more funny - the fact you can rate it or the fact 5 people have posted replies. Worth finding out just for what the guy below wrote.

You plug it it. It works.... until it dies

I didn't notice any magic...

That being said, In response to an earlier comment, I actually did try putting a 9 volt battery on my braces when I was in the 8th grade. Ouch!!! NOT recommended. My vision got dark and I saw flashes of light. Plus, it hurt a lot!!! I'm happy to report that I only made that mistake once.

It's carbon-zinc. Don't look for long life. I had one leak all over the inside of my Tube Screamer. Not pretty.

I don't expect much here and they deliver.

I usually just use a wall wart to power stuff. Easier than worrying about a battery dying in the middle of a gig.

Extremely easy to use, I didn't even have to go out and buy it because it came free with the product I purchased. I did, however, have some trouble unwrapping it. Once that was accomplished I then opened the battery cover on my Danelectro Mini Amp and placed the battery into the battery compartment making sure it went in the right way.

Yes, this battery powered the mini amp sufficiently to produce sound.
(See my review of the mini amp for more details about the sound that was produced.)

Very ruggedly built. The outer shell is constructed of steel. The bottom and top are, however, made out of cardboard. The terminals seem to be securely fastened to the cardboard top but my application did not require me to connect a clip to them so I can not really comment on their reliability.

Because this battery contains only a few hours of power, I was not able to determine if it would stand the test of time, but I do believe that it will never rot out before it is drained of power.

I believe the battery is warranted for its entire useable life.

Never dealt with them. They do seem to have a nice website though.

All kidding aside, there is a lot one could say about these batteries. They do have a cool look to them and they really are "vintage". They appear to be nothing more than a heavy duty 9-volt battery from the 60's. They are not "modern" alkaline batteries that make fury little bunnies run, and run, and run. But using an alkaline battery will not give you any longer playing time in these low tech electronic devices, so don't waste your money on buying anything better than heavy duty 9-volts. You can get a 6 pack of them for about $2.50. The other thing that I noticed was that they are a bit larger than your normal 9-volt battery. This makes for a very sung fit in the mini amp's compartment. When I use other batteries, I have to shim them in place in order for the terminals to make contact. This could lead one into believing that only Danelectro 9-volts fit and work correctly. I also have to say that I was glad to have received the free battery with the mini amp so I could start using it right away. I think it was so much nicer that the battery had their cool logo on it rather than one covered in an unreadable non English language.

Another poster summed it up. It can't be installed the wrong way. Bravo Danelectro. But wait all 9V batteries are made this way, so points off for not being inovative here. =]

The 50s vibe of the paint scheme really sucks you in! If I didn't no better I'd swear these are genuine vintage tube batteries. Everything I put these batteries into sounds classic. I'm turning into Duane Eddy. And check this out, just for kicks I put the Dano 9V into the remote for my TV. Now I can watch classic reruns in black & white! The Beave, Andy Griffith, Ozzie(Nelson) & Harriet. Cool! Elvis was on the Steve Allen Show lastnight. That guy's pretty good! Just before he did "Hound Dog," there was even a Spam commercial.

I can count on Dano's 9 volt battery anything, even trips in my time machine to escape reality.

I'm having too much fun with these batteries to have time to call Danelectro about the buzz that comes from the inside of the body on my Barritone at certain frequencies.
It seems that the mystery-board top is not securely glued to every square millimeter of the wooden framework of the body.
I sent and email once. No reply. Everything is NOT covered in their websites FAQs.

There are no cooler batteries anywhere. I'll keep a Duracell or two around as backups, I guess but I'm putting my Eveready's on ebay tonight!!!

See comments under "Sound Quality."

It's a battery. It's even impossible to connect the wrong way round like you can with an AA.

I can't believe that people are reviewing a battery. A battery is a battery is a battery is a battery. Batteries make no difference to the tone of a pedal whatsoever. Anyone who thinks that it does is wrong, it's a total myth. A battery pumps electrons around the circuits. Any battery will do. The only time batteries make a difference to the sound is in a fuzz with a low nearly dead battery.

Lasts just the same amount of time as a normal battery. I use all Adapters except for my RAT which has a different AC socket when I play live so I don't need to worry about a battery going during a show. RAT batteries last forever.

hehehe

It's a battery. You get them free with Dano pedals. They cost twice as much as normal batteries if you buy them singly so there is just no point. It's a battery. "vintage power source" my ass.

so easy, I really don't need a manual.

i wish I had some vintage effects to use these on, because they sound the same in all my modern/digital pedals....no better no worse

well, i would gig with one but I'd throw it away after the gig. they dont last any longer than other 9volts. i used get the cheap 2toA pack at the dollar store and they would last as long as these, only much cheaper. never gig without some backup 9 volts. anyway, i use a power supply now.

the folks at dano are VERY NICE.

i play lotsa styles of music. been playin 14 yrs. i own a les p. copy with good pickups, a few pedals, and an amp. if it were stolen i'd probably be laughing cause whoever took em' will only have fun for a little while, i'll still be hooked into the wall!! i dont hate them, but i wont sleep with them either. my fav. features are the logo...very classy. i compare it to cheap'os and its a tie. i do wish it came with an amp or something, but hey- you get whatcha pay for. it helps me make music, except every now and then its a pain in the ass. maybe the work well with vintage-i'm not knockin' em.

This this the only thing Danelectro got right. It does ctually restain the tone of my Old tonebenders and wahs. Very good indeed! They are very good batteries. This doesn't mean their effects are any good though!

A long life! Nearly as good as duracells. But these do sound better!

These are the best batteries for vintage effects. It also works for all other effects but for other effects you might as well buy a power supply. I on;y use it on old fuzz and wahs because I have no choise This is the only good Danelectro Product!