Danelectro Cool Cat CTO-1 Transparent Overdrive

Three knobs, except the middle doubles as bass/treble, with the outer ring doing one, the middle, the other. So, aside from that, very easy.

To test it I ran it separate from my normal chain- Ibanez Jetking-->Dano Cool Cat Vibe-->Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive-->Cool Cat Fuzz-->Fender Princeton 65 DSP (trying my new Danos on their own, you see).

Well, I LOVE this pedal. Of the three its the standout for sure. I have mostly fuzzes and distrortions, my only other OD being a Bad Monkey and this thing is completely different. It really is transparent- I get the sound of my guitar, just more. Hard to describe, but it has a hollow sound, and an almost percussive response to your playing. Its RESPONSIVE man, I'm telling you.

With a bit of gain I get some sweet 50's sounds, crank it up and you can get some heavy saturation, way more than I would expect. Not Marshall,AC/DC type stuff, but some sweet rock tones nonetheless. Tried it with the fuzz and didn't like the way they worked too much, the Overdrive was overpowering, but who care?, its best left alone anyways.

Well, you all know by now: metal cases, metal jacks, 3pdt switches, true bypass, etc. Time will tell, though Dano's stuff, even the cheapie plastic stuff, has lasted very well for me.

I would never gig without a backup of any pedal.

Never had to, hope I don't. Their website is pretty barebones and doesn't bode well, but I personally can't say.

I play a lot of classic rock, and have been playing 10 years. If lost or stolen I would definitely buy another, at $40 this pedal is a steal. Mark my words, this will be the standout of their new line and be the next Bad Monkey as far as low-priced, high-performing OD pedals go.
I can't seem to get a bad sound out of it, really. It just feels so nice, so much more organic than my Bad Monkey (which I love) or my other distortions of various types. It's great for that "not distorted but still distorted sound". Definitely inspiring for jamming-
I do wish it had a full set of eq knobs, i.e. bass, mid, treble, instead of just bass and tweak. I would like to tweak the mid for sure, but you can't have it all.
I should mention that I don't have a Klon or Tone Pump or any other $300+ OD pedals (fuzzes, on the other hand . . .) so I can't compare it to those. I just have another Dano FAB overdrive (eh, it's OK) and the Bad Monkey (great, but not as good as this).

Dano seems to have nailed it with this new line and this pedal hits it out of the park. I've written a few reviews here and always lamented the people who rate all 10's so know that my 9's and 10's don't come easy. Only the best gear deserves numbers like that and I really feel that this pedal deserves it. I would easily pay $100 for this guy. Now go buy it-

Most of us have experience with the classic three-knob setup of "Gain, Tone, and Level." I'm not even going to put a score here because, well, honestly, why would anyone need instructions? Even if you were a complete neophyte, you spend thirty seconds fiddling with the three knobs and poking the footswitch and you're guaranteed to discover the entire depths of this pedal's complexity.

I like to talk about effects pedals, but sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Or, to mix and generally mangle the metaphor, a sound clip is worth a text box...

Thanks Tindeck for hosting this audio demo that I recorded of the Transparent Overdrive in action. The guitar is my Schecter C-1 Classic, amp is a THD Univalve into a 4x12 Trace Elliot cab loaded with V30s and Vet30s in an X-pattern. The pedal's settings and the guitar's knobs don't move at all during this clip - it's all just changing the pickup selector and playing harder or softer. Copy and paste the link into your browser to listen. I make no apologies for sloppy playing - see any other reviewers giving you clips instead of big, empty words?

http://www.tindeck.com/audio/my/lujs/Teaser-TransOD-Clip

And now for some big, empty words. I absolutely love this pedal. Seriously, I have several hundred dollars worth of overdrive pedals and this is right up there with the best and highest priced of them for sound quality and transparency. It doesn't have the advanced features of my more expensive pedals, nor is it (as one of them is) a high-voltage tube preamp. It's a fairly simple circuit, but it sounds great and responds to your playing dynamics in a way that more complex pedals necessarily can't. I'm not saying that it ought to kick more complex pedals off your board, but you might be very surprised to find that they don't kick it off your board, and that the longer you let it sit beside 'em, the more you're using the Transparent OD and not the more expensive pedals...

Well, Danelectro pretty much has their finger on the pulse as far as what modern guitarists are concerned about (whether justified or not). The biggest complaints levied against their previous FAB pedals and the "Food" pedals was that they had:

1. Bad buffers that degraded sound quality when bypassed and when in use
2. Poorly secured (attached only with solder) plastic input and output jacks
3. Plastic housing

Now, 1. and 2. were fair criticisms, in my opinion - the Dan-o buffers were pretty crappy (at least the lower end pedals' buffers - I never had any trouble with the more expensive pedals at all, and I've owned several of the big metal ones, including four Wasabi series pedals). The jacks, secured only with solder, inevitably detached over time. I am of the opinion that the plastic housing was as sturdy as necessary - I have two Fish n' Chips EQs and I stomp on them all the time just as hard as any of my metal pedals, and they hold up just fine. Plastic has great tensile strength, and even more importantly great flexibility. However, I won't argue that everyone loves the tough feel and look of metal...

The new Cool Cats have:

1. Genuine true-bypass switching (not misleading "hard-wire bypass" or anything like that, but the real deal - when switched off, it's input->output with nothing in between).
2. Metal jacks that are properly mounted to the chassis for long life and durability
3. Metal housings (once again, I never minded the plastic, but this isn't any problem at all and a lot of people are going to feel much better about these, I'm sure).

Another thing I love about this pedal (and the other Cool Cat dirts - look for similar reviews for all the fuzz/OD/dist pedals in the Cool Cat series) is that they use full size components and are well and clearly wired. If ever you should want to modify them, repair them, etc., it will be much easier than trying to work with tiny surface-mount parts. It also makes the circuit easy to trace.

Given the improvements made, I have no qualms about their reliability at all. However, I cannot in good faith offer a rating, because they've not been out long enough to be "tested" for reliability in any serious way.

Never had to know.

This pedal stays on at the start of my signal chain. It is an incredibly dynamic, responsive, and great sounding tool. It's awesome to have a pedal that you don't have to turn off when you want to play it clean - just soften your pick attack... And if you want real crunch, just dig into the strings.

When I first got it, I compared both the general sound of the overdrive it offers and also how it goes from clean to crunch with your playing, to my THD Univalve (an amp with the same dynamic qualities and responsiveness). Even my wife, who is not a guitarist or electric musician at all (though she is a great orchestral bassist), agrees that this pedal is remarkably close in its sound to my THD Univalve's own overdrive response.

It would be an excellent pedal at twice the price. As it is, I'll take two, please... or three... or four...!

Easypeasy, 3 controls

GAIN : sets the amount of overdrive. As gain increases, low frequencies will ???bloom??? slightly

TREBLE/BASS : this is a stacked control, inner control is for treble, the outer is for bass, I had some trouble to set these, adjusting the outer control I also changed the inner one, and vice versa. As I said earlier, the manual is well written, so in there it is explained that it is best to first turn both controls at the same time until the bass is set, and then adjust the inner treble control (careful not to change the bass setting)
These controls cut and boost, so at 12 o???clock you have no effect (the transparent setting)

VOLUME : there is lots of volume on tap, with high gain settings, the volume also adds more gain. No sound with the volume all the way down.

Bright blue ON/OFF Status LED
true bypass switch

I used my LP Special, Diego Tele and Tokai ES for the test
custom made FAD Freeqi 15W amp, bit of a mix between a Superchamp and AC-15, with a volume and tone control, bright/dark switch, it???s my fav amp, I???m using it with a Framus Dragon 2x12 cab with greenbacks
and I also tested the pedal through a Fender Twin.

???Clean boost to glassy crunch???
this pedal is supposed to let the guitar voice shine through, even at high overdrive settings, making it useful for a lot of styles, from Country to Rock.

Now trying to cop the sound of an overdriven tube amp with the CTO-1 with the amp set clean
Treble/bass at 12 o???clock
Gain at 70%
Volume at 70%
nearly nails it, I can hear that snappy Tele twangy sound and it is almost as if I???m playing through an overdriven amp, struggling with the treble bass controls to find some useful settings, the treble boost is great, very glassy and crunchy indeed, I???m not too excited about the bass boost though
with the gain all the way down, I???m getting a decent clean boost, and the bass boost works better in this setting, I can even get the Tele to sound jazzy
The bass boost also works better with humbuckers as well as with P90???s on the LP Special

So at some point I had the treble boost all the way up, bass at 12 o???clock (no boost/cut) and volume and gain all the way up and it put a big grin on my face (In the manual this setting is referred to as Woman Tone)

Now, this was a pleasant experience, so I pulled out a 350$ Overdrive pedal, my beloved Banzai Cold Fusion, now I still prefer the Cold Fusion over the CTO-1, but in all honesty, they almost sound similar ???

only had it for a week
no probs so far
seems sturdy
metal casing

I emailed the folfs at Danelectro and they promptly replied.

Danolectro always puts in a lot of effort to create a special package.
For the new Coolcat Series, again they rely on the retro vintage style.
The Coolcat pedals come in a colorful cardboard box with a pic of the pedal,
the new Coolcat logo, a vignette with the silhouet of a head, bit like James Dean
I think there must be at least 7 different typefaces used on the box alone
Hmmm, interesting Dano Facto
On the box it says
???When was the first guitar effect pedal invented ?
It may well have been in 1950, when Danelectro introduced the Danelectro ???Echo Box???, a compact reverb unit???
I did not know that.
Inside the box is the pedal, in bubble wrap
A fold out manual, English only, that covers the entire Coolcat series.
It???s a well written manual, it starts with an overview of features common to all Coolcat models, and then it goes on to explain all the controls and all the features of each Coolcat pedal in detail, and some useful and entertaining sample settings are given as well.
Also, in the box is a warranty card for a 12 month limited warranty, 3 swags and a thumbnail size foldout color catalog with all the Coolcat pedals and Danelectro guitars.

Tthe pedal also is a bit funny looking, oddly shaped, a bit reminiscent of an old bakelite shaver and a seashell, I did not like it at first glance, but it doesn???t bother me either, these are compact sized pedals, the housing and bottom lid are made of metal, probably cast iron, light as a feather.
bright blue on/off status LED in the middle
kind of tacky adhesive label
what appear to be silkscreened labels for the controls
on top of the pedal are the controls, not too close to one another, black ribbed plastic knobs with a white marker,
in and output jacks are where they should be, made of metal as well and the familiar Boss style adapter jack
Bottom has rubber and a plastic battery compartment with a plastic battery cover and a wrapped Danelectro 9V battery inside, which is nice.
The lid of the battery cover is also made of plastic, looks like it could break easily.

One of the acclaimed features of the Coolcat pedals is that they have true bypass switching. It???s an integrated little lid on the front that triggers a 3PDT switch underneath, the switch itself is fitted on a separate little circuit board. When you stomp the lid, you???ll hear the distinct click of the familiar 3DPT switch. Actually, you really have to put your foot down to engage the switch. My foot always covered the LED when I stepped on the switch, when I tried using the tip of my shoe, I eventually flipped the pedal (I???ll admit that it takes a little practice but it???s possible).

In conclusion, I???m not too excited about the shape, but it doesn???t put me off either, what???s more important, the design is functional, the controls feel right, the build quality seems solid, I feel the urge to peel off the silly label, but why should I bother, it???s the sound that matters