Danelectro AS-1 Wasabi Rock-A-Bye

The knobs are flimsy, poorly labeled, and feel like they could break quite easily. They become LOOSE and unusable quickly.

The third time I plugged this piece of junk in, it began to emit a LOUD treble-ie screeching noise that continued even after I steped on the off button and turned the echo off. The only way to stop the screeching noise was to unplug the pedal. I tried it in all three of my amps; a Fender Twin, a Fender Bandmaster, and a Crate practice amp. The results were the same. I changed batteries and the screeching was still there. I let it sit for a couple of hours and tried it again. SCREECH !!!! I tried a day later and the same.

This pedal is a piece of crap. Period end.


Sound quality seems to be a matter of either opinion, or lack of experience with better equipment amongst users of this crappy pedal. The two times this pedal actually worked, the drive is just plain garbage. It has no depth or quality of its own. I read at least one review that said this pedal sounds good in combination with a Boss DD-3. If you need to use an additional pedal with this thing to make it sounds passable, what is the point of this pedal? It may be that the "good sound" came from the Boss pedal and not the Wasabi.

The delay is almost as useless in my opinion. There are MUCH better sounding digital effects out there. The slider that controls the speed is very cheap and actually way to sensitive to be useful. The slider feels like it could break too easily. I would never risk giging with the piece of junk, it simply is too fragile to handle the use of giging.

Save your money and buy a decent pedal. Like all other Danelectro pedals, this is a piece of junk.

Reliability? Read the Sound Quality category above. This piece of junk ceased to operate the third time I used it. I have yet to get a response from Danelectro.

Hey, Danelectro, you just lost a customer for life. Keep your junk.

A complete waste of time. Once they get your money you are on your own.
If that's how they are going to treat their customers, they do not deserve to have customers. They have PLENTY of competition.

Piece of junk. Do yourself a BIG favor and save your money and buy a good pedal elsewhere.

pretty darn easy to use, if you understand the basic parameters of delay... delay time, delay repeats, original/delayed signal mix (wet/dry). plus some cool extras like, overdrive, overall pedal output level, pedal input level, and tone switch (high roloff)

sounds great... it's a nice and thick sounding effect. dare I say, analog? no digital sadness here. very pretty sound. the hum/single switch is fun for adjusting the grittiness of the delay. overall the sound quality of the delay is kind of "thick", a pretty full spectrum reproduction of the original input sound. I find that this pedal excels at the Jimmy Page (Zep I) "I can't quit you baby" delay sound, and that's where I leave it set. for that medium length "doubling" tape delay sound for lead guitar. also good for making fill/accents stand out as in live versions of radiohead's "In Limbo"...sounds cool when you turn it on and press the whammy bar...gives this kind of chorus sound (that's how chorus works...a delayed pitch shifted signal mixed with the dry signal). what I don't like it as much for is the rockabilly slapback sound...which is funny because that's what it's designed for. I like my boss Giga Delay better for that. the boss has a thinner sound which I find leaves a little more room for the main signal to breathe, with short delays. it works fine though, I'm being nit-picky, since I do own both pedals. The giga delay will also do crazy awesome things like chorus, backwards delay, looping, reverb/delay, and this great "frequency analyzer" ring modulator/tremolo thing...(see the giga delay review page)

the overdrive... one knob, for gain. no tone controls. at first, through my big amp, I thought, compared to my fancy dedicated overdrive boxes, it sounded kind of generic and unsophisticated/unresponsive/flat. then I plugged it into my (fender) champs and found that I like it a lot. I like the lack of dynamics. I think it does sound kind of like a good old tube amp (which is how they advertise it)...kind of trashy and nasty. it sounds great through my trashy nasty tiny champs. nice and raw. sometimes you just want to be like the VU or flaming lips and play through cheap stuff for that great cheap sound. hey, I buy vintage "cheap" amps and guitars on purpose...they sound good. but so does the marshall and the strat. it's nice to have alternatives to your old sounds anyway, variety being the spice of life as it is. so no, I don't mind the overdrive at all, and it's all I've been using for the past month or two, for practicing and recording. I'll even use it live if I need an overdrive. It's cool to have it there, hidden in your delay, for a more distorted sound if you feel like you need it (sometimes you need it) being that all my non-master volume amps don't have distortion channels. it cleans up a little, but not like a fancier pedal might. it does have the typical overdrive pedal bass cut...but you want that, they all are built that way for a reason...it sounds good and "cuts through". it gets the job done; you might like it.

the jacks are plastic and mounted directly to the circuit board, and screwed on to a plastic surface... but if you don't stomp all over it it should be fine. i'm pretty gentle with my equipment. the switches seem reliable. I wish the jack situation was a little more metal

one note is that it doesn't do the infinite hold sound where you can pitch shift with the time knob... you'll need a different pedal for that. I was kind of sad about that. the giga delay won't do it either. but the verbzilla (line 6 reverb pedal) will, of all things. I kind of want an AD-9 (ibanez analog delay).

the wasabis are pretty cheap on ebay, so why not. that's why I picked mine up

Four knobs and a slider on top with two dip switches on the front along with the jacks. But only one of the knobs is for the 'overdrive', it's basically nothing more than a gain level control.

Very nice echo, but the overdrive adds very little, I prefer using my own ODs' and dirt boxes. But you can forget achieving a 'tape echo' sound, there's just not enough of an edge for that. This is my third Dano echo pedal, I've also owned the Reel Echo and the Fab Echo, for my needs this is clearly the best. If only it wasn't so flippin' huge!

Haven't owned it long enough.

Dano does have a service department. but they are located on the Dog Star Sirius, they'll be getting back to you within the next light year.

Sounds good, but it's size and weight are the deal killer for me. If you can find one used for $60 it would still be a good deal.

The delay asection is very intuitive, a no brainer to use. The overdrive section is also very intuitive (essentially, just one knob). The point deduction comes because using the two effects TOGETHER musically takes a little fiddling. I've read a review where someone said they had problems with setting levels between the two effects, that takes a bit of fiddling to get set right. Especially if you're using the overdrive section a seperate dedicated overdrive (which I don't), rather than as an overdrive / tape saturation type effect layered ON TOP of the delay (which I do). The manual is well written, not that you'd neccesarily need it.

I'm using the delay in the following chain... Heritage H-140 goldtop (essentially a Les Paul) loaded with humbucker sized Fralin P-90's, Dunlop GCB-95F true bypass wah, Menatone Fish Factory, Wasabi Rock-A-Bye, Keeley Copm, Boss CE-2, MXR EVH-90, Voodoo Lab Microvibe, Axess looper with buffer that can then select either a Fulltone OCD, Boss OD-3, or Fulltone '70, Boss TU-2, Rivera M-100 100 watt tube head into a Mesa Boogie 3/4 sized (and 3/4 back) 4X12 cabinet.

The delay sounds very, very, good. I've always liked the stompbox Danelectro delays. This one has plenty of delay time to play with, and is very "analog" sounding. It has plenty of features to make the pedal sit well with your particular set-up. I'm speaking about the single coil / humbucker pickup compensation switch which adjusts the input gain accordingly. It was also a smart move to put a "defeat" setting on the compesation switch as well. The "high cut" switch gives a pseudo-tape roll-off to the high end on the repeats that sounds just fine.

I'm using the overdrive as a sort of added "tape saturation" sound, rather than as an actual overdrive pedal used seperate from the delay. I think the overdrive sounds great used in this manner, mixed in just a touch to give the delay some grain. ON IT'S OWN, the overdrive is pretty much just a run of the mill, pedestrian sounding unit . Not bad, but not remarkable either. With the delay it can add a real cool tape stauration, low-fi type vibe.

Another great feature is a master volume for the effect as well as a dry / wet mix knob. No more "too quiet" or "too wet" delay sounds.

This pedal is built like a tank. Overbuilt actually. I would never worry about it failing. You could open a coconut with this thing, it's THAT substantial.

I've never had to deal with them. I've owned a couple Dano pedals over the years, and never had any need to have anything fixed, so...

This pedal is a real sleeper. Probably because of the asthetics, the fact that' Danelectro pushes it as a "rock-a-billy pedal", and because the Danelectro name is not so "boutique", it probably won't get the notice it really deserves. I bought mine BRAND NEW at a blowout where it had sat for MONTHS. It's easily the best deal I've scored in a quite some time. WELL worth picking up. Even at full retail.

A/B it with the Boss DD-3 and there is no comparison. You'd have to go to either a Maxon or Ibanez AD-9 type pedal to find a realistic comparison, but those pedals are twice the price with less features. The Danelectro is VERY musical sounding, and an outstanding value. If you don't need tap tempo, and need to have a more analog sounding delay (with some cool / interesting sonic options), this is definitely worth checking out.

very easy to use no manual needed the only problem is its not very clear whats what with the knobs. but you get used to that

i normally use a fender telecaster,a behringer hell babe wah-wah,wasabi rock-a-bye,digitech hot-head then into my 100watt marshall amp.i think as mentioned the overdrive can be a bit lame but with the right settings it can rock better than my digitech hot-head.the best part of this pedal is the way the dalay sounds so pure and beautiful not digital and disco style like so many boss or digitech ones.

it looks pretty damn sturdy i dunno how u would go about breaking it.hit it with a buldozer? that probably wouldnt work.

never delt with them.

i play mainly rock of any discription and ska i dont really use it for ska except the overdrive occasionally but for rock its nearly always on its hard to incorperated it into a song with a band but for rockin alone its dreamy and bliss and as i play in my converted loft theres no interfering sound and you can easily loose track of time with it.

if it broke or was stolen (or even tured into a monster and started wipping me) i would buy another strait away its fatastic.

everything about it rocks even the 50's look.i like the sumo too.lol.

Very cleverly designed, with coil selector switch and hi-cut option (which seems pretty subtle actually.) The indicator lights are very striking and obvious, and the footswitches have a nice smooth action, they don't 'click'. The delay time is a slider, not a knob, it's very sensitive, but nice to use.
Echo (depth), Speed, Repeat, Drive, Level controls. The controls are all very sensitive, use a light touch!

Delay is excellent, from some very long and deep spacey sounds to a short delay light reverb feel.
The overdrive, like all Danelectro distortion effects, is barable at best. Thin and flat with almost no harmonic content, I never use the overdrive option, but for delay it's excellent.

It weighs a ton; it's solidly built and no mistake. The knobs are very diffcult to pull off, I expect it will last me a very long time! Only the foot switches seem liek they might get unreliable if abused too much, but I don't know yet.

Not had to deal with them.

The delay does axactly what it says on the tin, useful for any style whatsoever, assuming you want some delay! I like classic rock and blues, it's fun for Edge and Zeppelin style atmosphere. I probably wouldn't buy another unless it was cheap again (I bought it on special offer) since I find the overdrive option is pretty pathetic, so I'm only really using half the pedal, but I couldn't do without some sort of delay pedal, this does the job very well. I love the design, very 50's!

Slightly more complex than the average pedal as it is 2 effects in one. The overdrive is quite bright and can thin out the sound if used incorrectly. The trick with this pedal is balancing the gain volume and delay levels. Once you have your setting make a note of it!

The delay is really good, sensible settings that are usable at both extremes. I don't play Rock-a-Billy and thus nearly missed out on this pedal, but I needed a decent delay for a Pink Floyd set I was doing. I reluctantly tried it out and instantly liked it better than the Boss that was about twive the price. The sound is really musical and warm.

The overdrive is a real boon for me as I use a Variax700T into a Laney LC30. The LC30 has 2 channels, clean - which is as clean as a Fender right up to 9 and the overdrive which is a smooth valve vintage Marshall type of sound. The amp is so loud that even at a 1300 seater concert hall I had the master volume on no more than 2. So the Wasabi overdrive allows me to dirty up the clean sound and add a second level of distortion to the dirty channel.

It is almost as heavy as my Morley wah. It's Tough - but I am gentle. I take very good care of everything including my leads and picks. I see little to be gained from trashing expensive equipment. I have used this in concert and rehearsals and I never take back ups for anything - except a spare guitar incase a string goes.

No dealings

It is stylish, in a fun retro way. The LED's are impossible to miss. It is quiet, very flexible, you could use this for most types of music where a delay is needed. If you do U2 of Pink Floyd long delays this is perfect. 600ms is way longer than either of those bands used. With a chorus pedal you can instantly get all those rhythmic guitar sounds from The Wall and just about everything the Edge is famous for. I play in a cover band and need to be able to dial in a lot of sounds quickly, this is one sweet pedal and I may well go and get Wasabi chorus/trem and overdrive.

As others have stated before, a lot of extra knobs for producing a simple echo effekt (hi-cut, pick-up selector), but hardly rocket science. No manual needed.

My setup: Fender Telecaster or Gretsch Jet into Ampeg Jet (15 Watts tube amp). No other effects used, except for amp-tremolo. Style: Stax (think Steve Cropper) or Swingbilly ( i. e. Brian Setzer, but played lousy ;-) .The delay sounds quite good, not to sterile/digital. Not much hiss or other unwanted noise. The extra switches don't do much IMHO.
The "overdrive" function is terrible: like a cheap fuzz with a lot of gain even when the knob is at low settings. Not a useful addition as advertised by manufacturer. For delay alone my rating would be 8, but I'll deduct 2 for the cheesy distortion.

OK, here's the lowdown: I got it via internet and returned it two days later, exchanging it for a Rocktron "Short Timer" stompbox delay (see my review on that)!
The Wasabi looks sturdy, is made mostly of metal, but part of the outer shell is cheap plastic. The input/output jacks are made of plastic, are mounted in a plastic housing soldered onto the circuit board! The knobs are flimsy, with unclear labeling, with pot axis made of plastic! Unfortunately, these are the things that go kaput first!
I would NEVER gig with it, as I can see it breaking the moment any of my bandmates acidentally steps on it.

Never dealt with them.

I would love to see Danelectro design products, that not only look cool but actually work outside the safety of your bedroom. The wasabi sounds nice (the echo part, anyway). But what good is that, if no one will ever hear it, since this box is not
made for live performance?
Danelectro take note: If you ever come up with a well engineered product, where
marketing and accounting people are not the ones to overrule the technicans, I'll buy it. Hell, I'll even pay MORE for it, if it is halfway reliable :-)

Slightly more complicated than your typical stomp box due to the pickup selector and the hi-cut switch for the echo, both located on the back of the unit by the jacks. The pedal has a great, solid feel to it and I like the big caddy looking tail fins with the lights. It is easy to stomp on both the echo and the overdrive buttons at the the same time if that is what you want. Stepping on them singly is also just as easy. Very boot friendly layout. It uses a 9V battery or a wall-wart. The switches, jacks, knobs and slider all seem to be of good quality for a $100 stomp box.

One of the Hamer guitars I play has a Seymour Duncan PhatCat (P90) and a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover (Humbucker) in it so at first I thought I'd leave the pickup selector switch off. What I found though is with the switch set to single coils, the output is raised and the humbucker pickup REALLY rocks with some extra gain.

I'm using this as my only pedal. I usually just plug my guitar straight into an amp but some gigs call for distortion and echo. I typically have been using a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive and a DanEcho or a DanElectro Delay Modeller for these situations. The overdrive on the Rock-A-Bye isn't quite as shimmery as the Sparkle Drive but it has more gain on tap and it the overdrive is actually quite nice sounding. The Rock-A-Bye with its higher gain potential can generate singing sustain at a lower volume than the Sparkle Drive, which comes in handy.

The key to dialing in overdrive sounds is to find the balance between the volume and the gain control. I got some really nice results with both in the 12:00 o'clock position. This drove my Deluxe Reverb into a very melodic lead tone. Turning the volume down to 9:00 and the gain to 3:00 gives plenty of gritty sustain with a very nicely done mid-tone emphasis. There are no EQ controls on the pedal but the mid-tones are very well done and give a nice, fat but cutting tone. Someone had some good ears when setting the EQ on this pedal.

The echo sounds good too. As you can see from above, I like Danelectro echos. With the hi-cut switch engaged, it is reminiscent of tube/tape echos. With 600ms of delay available, it is all that I need for my playing style. One thing a little annoying is when using just the echo without distortion, there is a significant volume drop from the bypass mode. I had to turn my guitar volume up to compensate for this.

Too soon to tell since I just got this unit. My other Danelectro pedals have been running fine for years. I would gig without a backup because I often play gigs with just my guitar plugged into my amp.

Online support has been fine the couple times I've asked questions.

I play rock, blues, country, folk and reggae. The pedal is a good match for my styles of music. I've been playing for a tad less than 40 years and have been to the moon and back with regard to the many guitars, amps and pedals I've played. For the most part, I like to plug my guitar into a high quality tube amp using a low capacitance cable (Klotz cables are my current favorites). I'm pretty fussy on getting a great guitar sound as evidenced by the massive website I just completed on rebuilding a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp.

http://www.waynereno.com/

Every step of this tube amp build is meticulously documented. With this level of attention to my tone, I'm not going to put anything in front of the amp that doesn't sound good. This pedal does.

One of the things I like best about it is its simplicity. For years, I've wanted one pedal to handle both overdrive and echo that runs on a battery. Using wall-warts can introduce ground loop hum by providing an alternate path to ground with the amp, which is why I like battery power for my pedals. I'm really enjoying the simplicity of having just one pedal at gigs although there are plenty of times when I don't even hook it up because I enjoy the pure, tube amp sound. When I do hook it up, this pedal is simple to operate, looks good, is easy to see on stage, and it sounds good. I can just set it and forget it for the gig. Overall, a very nicely designed and crafted pedal that fills its niche very well.

Lots of features on this unit but the contols are easy to figure out. There is a manual wich covers the whole range of these Wasabi effects but you don't really need it. Just set and forget. Big tail lights so you can see if the effects are on or off, even in the smokiest cafe's.

I mostly use this pedal with my Reverend Wolfman. I also use a Hughes and Kettner Tube Factor. The pedal works good with factor one but goes all mushy with factor two. My amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a 2X12 speaker cabinet. The Rock-a-bye sounds excellent on a typical rock-a-billy setting. With the hi cut switch engaged it sounds very much like a real vintage tape echo. Choose a longer delay time and you'll find some interesting Pink Floyd sounds. The overdrive on this unit sounds very authentic on my Hot Rod, better than the amps own overdrive. The Rock-a-Bye really seems to nail that Bassman on 12 sound. The Rock-a-Bye is ment to be played loud. At low volume the echo and repeat knobs don't seem to do anything. That's because they work in a subtle way. Crank up your amp and the echo really begins to stand out. There's also a switch wich cuts or boosts the input level depending on what kind of pickups you have but I didn't find any real use for it so I keep that switched off. There's also an echo only output on it wich is fun to experiment with but I haven't found a practical use for it. If you're a big U2 fan you might wanna check this pedal out as well. Hook it up to a Vox AC30 and you'll get an instant Edge sound. Sounds better than the Shift Daddy. No noise from the switches whatsoever! Off course there are better pedals. The Hughes and Kettner Replex for example or a real vintage tape echo but this is very close to the real thing and very affordable. Do you think the crowd will hear the difference?

These Wasabi pedals are probably the most sturdy and reliable pedals Danelectro ever made. It's metal and weighs a ton. The knobs are made of flexible rubber so they don't break off when you kick them. Big rubber anti skid pad on the bottom. This pedal is deffinatly steel toed boot proof. It could survive a Rockin' at the Ranch gig.

I've never dealt with Danelectro. But they seemed to have listened to their customers. They all complain about the plastic etc., Wasabi is the answer. Danelectro makes good sounding effects with plenty of character at a reasonable price.

I play everything with the word 'rock' in it. This includes rock-a-billy. I have tried other Dano echoes but this one is by far the best. The combination of the echo and the overdrive really makes it 'rock-a-billy in a box'. If it were lost or stolen I would get one again. If I were rich, I'd buy a Replex. Next to the sound I love the looks of the pedal, the designer of Danelectro should do some work for some of the big car compnies. I wish I could get a shorter delay on it, the shortest I can get is a slap echo but no double tracking effect. I also wish it had a dry/wet mix on it, however I wouldn't know where they should put it, the control panel is crammed. It would have been nice if the control panel was back lit. Great pedal, I use it a lot on a clean setting. It makes my Wolfman even more Gretschy. Let the digital rack addicted snobs scoff, this pedal will beat all!

It's two pedals in one, so pretty easy once you've figured that out. Level works on both sides, echo and overdrive. Switchable cut/boost for humbuckers/single coils. Option to run echo to a second amp - very cool feature.

I have a lot of expensive old pedals, and tape echos, and this thing compares very well, particularly as its in a single unit. The overdrive/distortion is surprisingly natural and responsive - particularly when going into a good tube amp (think tweed fender). The slapback echo works well with the other effect to give natural sustain. I'm impressed. Some noise from switching, so 8 points rather than 9.

The case seems strong enough, but its a complex pedal, and there's quite a lot to go wrong.

First pedal from these people, but I fear the worst. Buy it from a shop.

For a lot of people, this is all the pedal they need. Its a classic combination put together with a lot of thought. The colour is disgusting, though, and the whole look a bit gimmicky. Unfair to write it off as a rockabilly pedal. Its a classic rock and roll pedal.