Danelectro AX-1

There is lots of control over the sound, but everything works as it should and there is plenty of variation in all the knobs. Overall, it's easy to get great sounds from this box. Some folks are complaing about the concentric bass and treble knobs, but it's easy to adjust the bass, just push down on the treble knob and turn to get the bass knob where you want it and pull up to adjust only the treble.

for the money, I have never heard a cooler distortion pedal. I play mostly boutique pedals, and this is not a boutique pedal. The overall sound of the distortion is very smooth with excellent sustain. It is a very heavy distortion, with no overdrive sounds. At the drive knobs maximum, it is a searing Fuzz tone reminiscent of Smashing Pumpkins. The preset pre-tone knob offers very different timbres, from clasic hard rock to metal and alternative. The mix knob is where this pedal's mojo lies. it gives you the ability to mix your clean signal into the distortion. After using this pedaal, I wish all my distortions had a mix knob; it allows you to have a crushing fuzzy distortion that mushes chords up completely, but when you mix some clean sound in, the effect makes your chords completely discernible. It really gives the sound of two guitars playing together.

The boost is very cool. It gives the perfect boost for soloing when set to +5 dB. The +10 dB setting is perfect for pushing a tube amp into beautiful natural overdrive. I don't agree with the other reviewers that the +5 setting is too much volume boost, it's perfect when playing in a band setting.

Also, the "secret" slapback button is very cool and useful for getting a T-Rex 1970's sound. Overall, a very cool bonus.

It's definitely the best made pedal danelectro has produced. I use it for open jams when I don't want to lug my whole pedalboard around. I've jammed around with mine for about a year with no problems.

Never needed it.

I paid $50 for mine used, and it was money well spent. This pedal is a blast and very tweakable. With the mix set to mostly clean and the gain on low, it works well for blues and rock stuff. With the mix set for full distortion and high gain levels with the preset pre-tone on #3, it can do a very cool vintage fuzz.

I think it's funny that some reviewers complain about the bypass. I'm playing SG's into a Marshall JCM800 and I don't find it to be tone-sucking at all. I think it has a great buffer, especially for this price point. If you want true-bypass, drop $150+ on a boutique pedal and stop whining.

At first the amount of options is a bit daunting - but it is easy to get a good sound out of it - just pick the EQ preshape first and work from there. The slap back echo in the battery compartment is a bit of pain as is the concentric tone controls.

I use this with guitar and bass and prefer it with my bass as it is possible to get huge distorted tones without loss of clarity thanks to the direct knob on the unit. My signal flow is Peavey Grind bass>>>Digitech XP100>>>Ibanez SB7>>>Boss OC3>>>>AX1>>>>Amp

Having said that it is also very good with a guitar and there is a range of tones on offer - not just metal - the EQ preshapes make it easy to get different tones for different songs/styles.

It is also great for making sonic mayhem with if you put in a dying battery and turn on the slap back especially if running through other pedals.

It is pretty noiseless clean and the boost is very useful.

This pedal well made and quite heavy - the grippy rubber backing is handy. I would gig without a backup but I'm not sure how the knobs would hold up under a misplaced boot.

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It is by no means the perfect pedal but is hardly the worst out there - it happily took the place of my really bland DS-1. Having said that this will probably lose it's pedal board position when my DHA arrives.

The footprint of it is big so it takes up too much space and I wish the slap back button was more accessible.

It works well with my bass running through it, as I play Muse-esque space rock and works well with my other gear.

If it were stolen I'd be disappointed but I probably wouldn't replace it - as I've got a DHA coming.

Pretty easy, there are 4 patches or pre-eq settings for distortion and flat, i mostly use one pre-eq the rest is for metal. Next to distortion it also has boost, you can select distortion or clean or a mix between those with the turnbuttons, also you can set bass and treble and volume ofc. Also you can say boost 5 or 10 db and you can set pickups: hum - off - single, with hum your distortion aint thick anymore and less noisy which is great for solos, with off you got the wasabi sound and with single you got a uber thick distortion great for metal.

Great distortion sound you can almost get any distortion sound out of it you want. http://www.wasabitone.com/hearit.htm for a demo.

its built pretty strong so it wont break easily

never dealt with

great pedal for beginner and novice guitar player, if you only play metal its kinda lame but for all the other overdrives/distortions out there is great. I also play metal a lot myself it doesnt sound bad but it could be better. I use a Fender Affinity Strat it sounds great on that. If ur amp distortion sucks like on the marshall mg series or almost all 15watt buy this pedal its cheap but great. The price is excl. adapter and an extra cable. It also runs on batteries.

It is a puzzle sometimes, and it is very hard to find your sound. When you find it though, keep it there. Read the manual and it takes you the extra mile. Just read up on it, then use it and no problems will arise. There are three two switches (pickup mode and boost amount), six knobs (level, EQ select, distortion, treble, bass, and direct effect[which is really neat]), two foot switches (distortion on-off and boost on-off) and a hidden button in the battery holder for a sort of reverb. It is a lot to figure out, but it is amazing when you figure it out.

AMAZING SOUND! The only problem is finding your sound. The EQs are all very different, some are Dimebag hard and some are a sort of alternative sound. It is certainly not an overdrive petal. The distortion can get very hard. I play through an Epiphone Les Paul and a Marshall 15W practice amp and it sounds great.

No problems with reliability.

Never dealt with the company. Although I hear Danelectro's people are good.

Makes great sounds! Just is just a little difficult to find the sound you want! I play blues, classic rock and alternative. For anything hard this is a great petal. I emphasize that you should DEFINATLY READ THE MANUAL before pluging it in. Avoid putting it near a radio or T.V when recording and playing live, because if you are on EQ 2 with high treble and bass, you will pick up radio stations clearly and pretty loudly. It's fun to play with, but a little embarasing if it is at a show. I picked up the Dayton, Ohio station 92.9 (aka Z-93) But anyway, this is a great petal, and it is one of a kind!

The legends of the switches and knobs are easy to understand, and therefore self explainary. The bass control sits in the wrong place - it's hard to adjust that one. The knobs are in a crowded place anyway..... Two solid switches for effect on/off and boost on/off - easy too. The PU switch and boost switch are somewhat hidden on the back and even more hidden is the echo/slapback switch in the battery cavity!!!!! Why???

Sounds are in my opinion old school hardrock/metal and the unit is very quiet, like there is a sort of build in noisegate. I liked preset 1 and 3 most for their somewhat cut midrange. Overall the sound is nice for the price. I used it with my 1974 Fender Champ and my Trace Elliot supertramp. Tight hardrock riffs are so easy with this unit.

It is sturdy build and looks like it can survive some punishment, and one can rely on it.

Not needed yet

Nice for the harder rock things, nice looking with a design of it own - seen nothing like it before. Sturdy feeling, tight sounding rockbox - and the boost function is nice for soloing.

Overall this pedal is easy to use. But I must concur with the previous post - the concentric bass and treble controls are a pain. Seperate knobs for each would be nice - but I also know with all the knobs already on this pedal that it would be next to impossible to squeeze another one in. The manual is not real informative, but this is not a complicated pedal so that's not a big deal.

I used this for the first time last Saturday night at a gig. This is what I've been looking for. While I wouldn't say this pedal is perfect, it does a great job for what I need. I find myself using the "flat" and "2" voicing the most. I haven't tried the "secret" slapback delay feature (I actually use the little Danelectro slapback pedal so it seems a bit redundant). But what sealed the deal for me was the boost function. On the clean setting the 5db boost is just about right but in distortion mode it's a bit drastic -I can't even imagine ever needing to use the 10db boost! Still it was nice to actually hear my solos for a change! (nice for me, I'm not sure if the audience would agree!)Frankly, I'm a bit surprised the distortion settings aren't a bit more gainy. Not that I need a whole lot more distortion (I play oldies and classic rock - no scooped recto tone necessary here!)but I could see some drop-tuning, one-finger chord playing, grindcore types being disappointed (though I've never actually known any of these guys that actually play in front of people - don't mean that as a slam just my observation)The level control is good. One of my beefs with my tubescreamer (TS-10) is that even with the level cranked I'm still just barely as loud as my clean volume - very frustrating. This pedal has ample headroom and the boost is reall nice. To be honest, I used my strat on only one song and I didn't notice much of a difference between the humbucker and single coil settings - still need to play around with it. Overall all, I was very happy with the sound.

Seems very sturdy. Weighs about as much as a bowling ball! Seems dependable so far (?)

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I play in an oldies/classic rock band. I'm 36 and have been playing since I was 13. Grew up in the eighties playing all the standard fare of the time - Priest, Ozzy, Ratt, Scorps but also had a softspot in my heart for the more poppy, melodic stuff - Cars, Journey, 38 Special etc.... Play mostly 60's and 70's danceable stuff now with the occasional 80's tune thrown in. Don't need tons of gain just need a nice moderate distortion occasionally (I play clean about 80% of the time - man I sound like such an old fossil - If' you had asked me 20 years ago if I'd every be playing clean through a little 30-watt tube amp I'd have said NO WAY! I play a Les Paul and Strat through a Peavey Classic 30. We have a nice PA and mic everything. This pedal seems to work well with my amp and I'm really liking the boost. I'd been looking at a few pedals and hadn't even heard of the Wasabi but when I saw it at Guitar Center, which I usually avoid - ("Sorry dude, you can't work here - you don't have enough piercings in your face and you have a personality")- for only $45 it was a no-brainer

I read somewhere that these pedals are made by Danelectro. Can't tell by the packaging, manual, or warranty card though. It looks like something Danelectro would put out (looks like the tail end of a '50's Cadillac),
but everything says WASABI.

A couple of things about this pedal trouble me, and they're the stacked bass and treble knobs. The treble I can turn fine but you need tweezers to turn the bass knob without messing up the treble setting. It's almost infuriating!

This is a very cool pedal. It has four preset distortion modes as well as a "flat" mode where you can dial in your own custom setting.
Presets 1 and 3 are especially usefull, 1, a scooped out low midrange sound and 3 has a "so clean it's dirty" early Cheap Trick sound.
other presets are kinda grungy and not quite fuzzy. A couple of things about this pedal trouble me, and they're the stacked bass and treble knobs. The treble I can turn fine but you need tweezers to turn the bass knob without messing up the treble setting. It's almost infuriating!
I mainly use it with a Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10 thru the clean channel, but last night I used it with my solid state Crate GX-212 and got some great 80's metal artificial harmonics. It has a pickup matching switch that works like an onboard compresser.
It also features a stompable boost switch for your solos, (one of the reasons I bought it) which, get this, is switchable from 5dB to 10dB.
Honestly, I think the 5dB is a bit too loud, never mind the 10dB.
I still like using my volume pedal, but it's nice to know it's there.
There's a "mix" control knob too, you can blend in the natural sound of your amp with the distortion settings. This is VERY cool! You can set your amp's own distortion for rhythms, the AX-1 just slightly more gainy for louder parts and kick in the boost for the solos.
It's like having three channels.
BTW, this is one of the quietest pedals I've ever come across.

This thing is built like a tank EXCEPT in the spot where you need it most. Plastic around the jack area and plastic input and output jacks.
I returned the first one I got because it was so damned noisy around the input jack. The new one worked fine.

Raise your hand if you've ever sent in a warranty card.

My bass player says this is the best sounding "dirt pedal" he's ever heard.
What the hell is a "dirt pedal"?
I like it a whole lot! Better than those stupid modeling pedals.