Danelectro AD-1 Wasabi Delay

As easy to use as most other stompbox delays. The manual is very sparse, but tells you what you need to know.

What I like most is the dry out together with the fact that you can go 100% wet, which can give you a nice effect with 2 amps. The main reason I got it is to go dry to one amp and 100% wet to the other, with about 30 ms of delay, just enough to fatten it up. I also needed the "digital" aspect of it, so the wet signal would sound just like the dry signal. Most people want analog "washiness", which is fine, but for what I want, this fits the bill (but the hi-cut is good to analog-ize other things)

The reverse feature is cool to mess with, but didn't really factor in to my purchase of this.

Sounds very good. From slapback to long delays. The hi-cut is nice. There's a funny spot on my hi-cut dial, about 11:00, the tone seems to get higher right there, even higher than fully counter-clockwise. It's kinda cool. If I dig in real hard right there, it's almost like additional overdrive, I can't really describe it but I like it a lot.

Appear to be well build.

I really like everything about this thing and I'm not even gonna qualify it with "bang for the buck" or "for a lesser quality product". It's good. I think too much emphasis is placed on boutique effects. Not that boutique is bad, it's just that some poeple think that they need to spend $1,000 on a SIB in order to get a good tone.

Not that my review should carry any more weight than others, but I'll tell a little about myself:
Playing for a lot of years. I'm 40. I currently own a Replica, Nova delay, Roland Space Echo and now the Wasabi. I have also owned an Ibanez AD9. When it comes to effects, I'm not a genius, but I know what I like and I know what sounds good. I'm convinced that you can spend a modest amount of money on guitar/amp/effects and still get very very good tones.

Here's the deal. There is no subdivision. If I want the delay to be anything other than quarter notes, I have to subdivide in my head then have the skill to actually tap it out. Also the tap button takes three taps to set the tempo, why?

The knobs at least make sense. I do like the hi-cut knob, the repeat knob works fine, reverse button is ok, and the mix knob works the way it should (at least I think so). For clarification sake the mix knob is the balance between the dry and wet signal, 12'o-clock position would be 50% dry/50% wet.

I'm using this at the end of my chain as delay should be used. The problem is it's a "tone sucker." If I remove it from the chain there is a easily discernible difference in tone quality as well as volume.

There is also this stupid "pickup selector switch" which is really just a volume cut in the "Hum" setting, no change in the "Normal" setting, and a volume boost in the "single" setting.

I thought I could avoid the loss of tone by leaving the switch on the "single" setting. No good. There is still a clear difference between my tone without the pedal in the chain than when it is in the chain.

If it had true bypass at least I could have good tone when it is off.

The power jack used to fall out all the time. I make the hole bigger so that the plug could go all the way in. I haven't had any problems since. But you would think this would have been fixed when the pedal was in prototype form.

Bottom line don't wast your money.

The DD-6 is great, the DD-20 is better, and the DL4 seems to be the icing on the cake. I'm interested in the ND-1 by T.C. Electronics but have yet to read a real objective review of the pedal.

very easy to use and versatile. I love the reverse function, although it should be footswitchable.

sounds from ultra clean to degraded tape type. very good for price, no carl martin pedal but you cant expect it for this money.

Is heavy and seems sturdily made. I use this as one of three delay pedals on my board, so i would allways have backup anyway. dont expect it to break.

never needed to.

overall this is a good ambient delay pedal. there are certainly better units out there, particularly for slapback, but if you can find one of these they are generally cheap and worth getting just for the reverse function.

It's pretty easy to dial in a good sound. The manual? Hmmm, didn't ever read it. The knobs read what they do anyway. If you don't understand that, just fiddle around a little and you should get it. Very easy to use Delay pedal! Tap tempo is something I really like about it, the only real drawback is the "reverse" functions which just sounds stupid, I think. If I wanted that, I'd get some vintage expensive-ass reverse Delay from the 80s. WAY better than any Dan-O box.

I use this last in my chain. There you go:

Ibanez ARC300-->EHX Octaver-->EHX Micro Synthesizer-->Marshall Shredmaster-->DOD Chorus-->Behringer Tremolo-->EHX Polychorus-->Danelectro Delay-->Fender Twin 2x12"

Works fine. Never tried it thru the FX loop. Should sound even better for all time-based FX.
Not noisy at all. Very transparent sound.

I think I could rely on the pedal, but the AC adaptor makes me worry. I croke the one that came with it and bought a cheaper one later. This one always tends to fall out of the AC connection on the back of the pedal. It's a cheapo made-in-China adaptor and seems to be less than trustworthy. I may get another better one in the near future, then everything should be alright again.

I used it on some gigs without a backup. No problem.

Don't really know. Never needed support.

I play stoner rock and ambient stuff, also sad bluesy ambient stuff.
Been playing for 10 years now. I own a Fender 2x12" tube combo, several beat up vintage guitars, one tasty Ibanez ARC (which gives me a unique sound), a beat-up MIM Jazz Bass, and some FX pedals, (most of) which are mentioned above.

If this was stolen, I'd try out some other Delay pedals and buy whichever I like best. It's not be like the end of the world to me.

I love its sound, pretty nice for this price range and being a digital circuit. I hate the long Delay times, as I have no real need for them, plus I also hate the reverse mode, which is totally useless and messy sounding. My favourite feature is the tap tempo and the stereo outputs.
I compared it to some other digital Delay pedals back then, like Ibanez and Boss, but I think this one was the most analog sounding and therefore most honest of them all (In its price range).
It helped me getting creative when I bought it but this has since worn off. I nowadays get creative with the Micro Synth.

Pretty easy if you've ever used a delay. Usual knobs plus a hi-cut knob for tape-style decays, which I really like. Can be hard to see the knob's names, and the reverse switch is in a weird place.

I'm using this with a Ibanez and Fender Princeton 65. Echo sounds great- kill the highs and it's nice warm echoplex time.

The time knob is a bit too touchy at the lower settings (1ms-100ms) and not touchy enough at higher settings (100-300ms). Do you really need to fine tune that much past a second or two? Who uses that much delay anyway?

The reverse sounds pretty good. Just turn MIX all the way right, with one repeat and max time and you can play three seconds of reversed delay (i.e. backwards guitar). Sounds pretty good, but make sure to kill the hi-cut for this, otherwise it will be muddy. The Line6 Echo Park reverse sounds better, but it also sounds like a snowy white tv is on in the background. The Dano is nice and quiet, and doesn't suck tone. If you use the pickup switch, you can even boost the signal.

Built like a well-built tank. BIG. Way bigger than I would've thought from pictures. Dwarfs the Fab pedals and weighs a ton. Don't know why "bigger and heavier" seems to be the thing in pedals this days, but it seems to be. Knobs stick up a little too much. Should be metal, too.

Don't know, but Danelectro's site is useless, and the Wasabi site is too. It's like they don't want you to be able to get ahold of them.

I play classic rock, this pedal works great for tape echo sounds. Been playing ten years- if lost I would buy another. Just an overall quality sounding echo. The tap tempo and reverse put it above the Dan-Echo, too, which is also nice.

its a pretty standard delay, nothing flash, but thats a good thing in my books. tap tempo is awesome, but the reverse switch is kinda in a bad position, i woulda liked a footswitch. might make one haha. just read the manual to get a feel for ALL the features like high-cut and such.

nice warm delay sounds, not analogue but the high-cut allows rougher sounding stuff instead of sterile digital delay. its got character, which is what i want. The reverse should be better...u cant click it on and expect it to just reverse exactly like the forward one. have to fiddle. i only use the reverse for a few songs so i just increase the repeats. good fun sounds though!

its tough, and i can play without it if i NEED to. might get some cheap backup though.

no idea yet but they have sounded alright

awesome great fun delay. lots of character. its not pristine quality, but who cares. audiences dont care. its got more warmth from the high cut, and the tap tempo is good, not often found on units like this. bloody awesome and impressed, easily one of Dane's best pedals

It is easy to get a good sound from it. The manual it's basic.
The dials they are cool and reverse buttom is great.
Althoug if you put the first dial at 12?clock the delay effect it will be louder than the guitar signal, and shoulf be the same. A little bit tricky here.

Sound is great!!! So great that it doesn't sound digital, it's sounds really organic and is colour is beautifull. His echoes sounds exactly as your guitar sounds! And the Hi Cut buttom works great!
The reverse delay works just fine for me!
This is a great delay, really!

I just have it for 2 weeks but looks robust and really dependeble. I don't think that I need a backup at a gig.

Never tryied

I play weird music, and this thing does almost everything I want from a delay. It lacks the weird genious that Memory Man has from EH but no problem. For that I would buy a Memory Man.
I've been play for a while so I know what I'm talking about. If it were stolen I'm sure that I would buy another one.
Before I've bought the Dan Delay I've bought echopark from line six, one weekend after I've brouhgt it back.
I really wanted a good delay, and it was hard to find what I want. I've tried dd6, digitech, line6, replica t-rex, Memory Man and wasabi was and is the one that I was looking for!
I hope it will helps!

fairly easy to dial in what you need..manual doesn't help much if you are inexperienced. but, i think it's somewhat of a no brainer.

it's great. only issue is that the reverse is hard to access. short delay, echo type sounds, all easy to get. i've easily replicated sounds from say, radiohead, the smiths, u2...etc. sounds great.

no issues yet. however, when the battery dies (and it tends to use them up fairly quickly if you use it a lot. strangely, when the battery goes, it doesn't die, just makes this buzzsaw noise which is the cue to change it. weird.

i think it will stand up in the long run. i've noticed the side blue paint tends to chip somewhat easily.

well, never had to deal with em. i've had several of their products, and they rate ok....some stuff is good (fabtone, the larger pedals, the minis for the most part the distortions suck, but the trem/vibrato/phase and chorus were all good.) go to www.danguitars.com, i know he has the number listed for dano for warranty issues.

it's a good delay pedal. i traded for it, but it was in as new condition. the reverse is nice, and you inevitably have to spend more on a delay if you want reverse option. the friend has the pedal for 129.....unsure of the greed-bay going rate for one.

It has standard delay controls with a few extras. There is a button to switch from regular delay mode to reverse mode. there is a 3 way switch that manipulates input volume into the pedal to compensate for different kinds of pickups. There is also a hi-cut knob that works pretty good to dull the effect. Tap tempo requires 3 clicks but none of this holding down the button bullSh*t found in boss pedals...

Using a strat and jazzmaster into a hot rod deville 4x10 with other pedals...I keep it last in the chain to capture other effects in the delay as well. Tap tempo works great and it is awesome having it built in as a seperate switch. I have no qualms with the sound quality of the regular delay. Do NOT buy this if you're interested in the reverse delay; it will be a disappointment. I was setting the dry signal to zero to just hear the reverse delay and it was crap...Every now and then the dry signal would play through the pedal and would ruin the whole effect...It is fine if you just want some random reverse weird-guitar playing quietly while you play...don't see when that would be used very often..

I have only had it for a few days but it looks really well built...only thing I am concerned with is that there is a plastic window underneath all the knobs to display the effect-board which is a pretty stupid idea...It doesn't look that cool and I can see plastic smashing into a million pieces

dunno

If you want a good quality regular delay with tap tempo then I would recommend this. I wasn't really excited about the reverse delay to begin with so the crappiness of that does not bring down the score very much.

Just an update on my last review, I sent the pedal into Danelectro and they had a brand new at my door in under a week. 10 for customer support!

Pretty much easy to use. I had some issues with it, but that's not really an ease of use issue. Read below. The tap tempo switch is great, it's nice to have a pedal with a second footswitch.

It sounds very good. It's a very warm echo, and the high cut knob works very well. The reverse works well also, although I don't use it much. I'm playing through a G&L Legacy into a Fender Bassman. It's not noisy at all.

This is the problem. It's broken after 2 weeks. It's very finicky, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. The problem is, when the effect is on, it works fine, but when it's bypassed it doesn't let the signal pass through. Not sure what I'm gonna do, I'll probably take it back.

The Danelectro company, as far as I can see, has a PO box in California. Nothing on their website, no email addresses, phone numbers, nothing. Reaching them may be difficult. The pedal has a 1 year warranty, so I might be able to get it replaced. We will see.

Overall, if this thing worked, it would be one of the best pieces on my board. If you buy one, beware! Buy it from a store that will give you a refund, pay the extra $30 for it! I got mine off ebay from a dealer with no return policy. I've never had a problem with a pedal before, so I didn't think it was an issue. I may have just gotten a dud, but you never know.