Danelectro Cool Cat CTO-1 Transparent Overdrive

Pretty east to dial in what you want, however the tone knobs are a "stacked" setup and I didnt even know there was a separate bass control under there until I happened to look. I guess I always just had them both full on. I dont remember looking at the manual - been playing eh, 35 years? And I dont need a manual for an overdrive pedal. But I am sure it's a great, awesome concise manual that says something like "Bass.. will give you more bass; treble.. will give you more treble; Level... will give you more volume, and gain, will um, give you more.. gain? And dont forget to unplug it while not in use... no user serviceable parts inside, ul listed, blah blah LOL....

I bought this this year, 2009, early in the year. It was new, via ebay seller.

My current rig: Fender Blues Junior (on clean, mic'd to the pa system), Agile, Epiphone and Gibby LPs and 335 guitars and an occaisional squier strat (all with gfs pickups, orange caps and better pots). Pedalboard: fender pt10->Milkbox->THIS pedal->crybaby->dano-flanger->digitech delay->amplifier. Although the milkbox is new, so what I have been using for the past year really doesnt include it.

This pedal is NOT noisy. No matter what gain I use, I'ts really very quiet, unless I am using my lp that has p90s in it, then again, anything is noisy after that.

Okay, here I go. I've used bagillions of pedals - from old univox's to korg pme's to gnx's to rp series to boutique pedals to old mxr's and electroharmonix's and about every boss, digitech, dod, behringer and ibanez. growing up musically in the 70s and 80s, I had the opportunity to play with about every old-school pedal out there WHEN THEY CAME OUT, and tried all the others along the way.

After all that, this is exactly what I need to say, beyond all else, that is the only relevant thing you will probably derive from all this blathering crud:

This, in my opinion, the opinion of band mates, bar-flies, show-goers, even my wife, gives me THE sound - it is an old style ibanez tube screamer with the capability of even more gain and edge (if you want it). I play in a classic/modern rock cover band, and also on the worship team at church - I get THE sound from this in all cases - from mildly overdriven smoothness with a hint of breakup, to all out edgy gain, to silky smooth boston-like leads. It's a 30 dolar pedal - and yet, it blows everything else I have ever used away. NO, it will NOT give you ultra high gain - that's what a metal zone or whatever is for. the great thing about this pedal is, when rolling off the guitar volume, the sound doesnt get fake sounding - it still sounds like a good tube amp. And it does NOT suck tone. When it's off, it's off, and when it's on, it's on - and WHEN it's on, you are in control of how it alters your sound.

I initially bought this pedal as a gain boost: I had my amp's gain up, using the tube amp's drive character for my sound, then would use this as just a fairly clean boost (I put the gain on 0, the level up a bit, and the treble and bass all the way up). I was having problems going from ZZTop's "thank you" to creed's "arms wide open" then back to another hard-edge song - simply rolling back the volume on the guitar wasn't cutting it - I couldnt get the clean sound I needed. So one day I decided to play a gig with the amp on clean, and just use this pedal for the overdriven crunch - allowing me to switch between my nice fender clean sound, and the pedal's distortion. Whoah. I was suddenly in control of a monster! Like I said, rolling back the guitars volume still sounded good, cutting the pedal off completely gave me my clean sound, and bringing the guitar volume up gave me my thick crunch and lead sound. Until someone comes out with something better than this pedal, I am totally hooked.

Yep - no backup. built well as far as I can tell, only had it about 10 months, I cant tell you if the switch will die any time soon, but if it does, I'll repost the scenario - however, for what I paid, and for what it does, I would gladly buy a few of these for backups. I dont think I'll need one, it feels really solid and I dont tend to jump on my pedalboard. Well, I do jump on my crybaby sometimes, but that's different. I'll give it a 9, since the only "10" in the reliability category would go to the old mxr pedals - they are built to last. this one, not sure, but it's fine so far.

No clue. Hoep I dont need to call them. That would indicate I am having a problem that I cant fix myself.

I think I've stated it all above. I am so freakin happy with this pedal - I gig about 6 times a month, and also play every week on the worship team... this pedal gives me every kind of real tube overdrive sound and feel I want and need, a very underrated pedal for sure - 1/3 the cost of a tube screamer, and sounds just as good imho. In fact, I am not so much a tub screamer fan - it's a good pedal, but no better than this. Now remember, it IS an overdrive - NOT a hairy-metal-droptuning-pedal. For that, go get a metal zone or something. For everything else, I highly recommend this one. Now that all said, I have NOT tried this pedal going into a solid state amp - however, I woudl imagine with some tweaking, it would be fine. But I have not tried it. Nor have I tried going direct into the house board. I HAVE tried it with two amps: Fender Blues Junior, and an Epiphone Valve Junior - both with excellent results, both with entirely gigable sound.

4 knobs, that's perfect for me, I really don't like a lot of knobies. The pedal is stock. Manual is good. Very easy get get good sounds.

o.k. hey everyone.................
I'm using a ,1976 guild M-80,(les paul style, but for this era, it sounds better), heavy, mahogany, not ideal for me , i feather weight. awesome tone.
I ran it through silvertone 1340 (tweed)- which was cool, fender hot rod deluxe (tube)- good, and a crate gx-120 (solid state), and i liked the sound out of the solid state the best for some reason. I have a DOD fx40b equalizer, plugged-straight into the effects loop on the amp, then the cto-1, then an ICBM Fuzz !? (Awesome rams head BigMuff pi) the siamese dream sound i believe, and a behringer vintage delay, and a ,boost r.v.b.(best reverb) almost., behringer ultra vibrato somtimes........... This CTO-1 definatley has a certain Super sweet glassy crunch to it! yes. I've had it for two days now and I found that communication breakdown tone i was looking for , ya know led zeppy............................. This CTO-1 is great for blues!........ baby! It is a
wonderful thick and full with humbuckers. It inspires musically, especialy with open chords?..sounds glassy with a bluesbreaking nature of some kind, It goes to the level that an overdrive sound go. This is better than a 325.oo dollar overdrive.

Looks Ford tough and i would be confident to gig with just one , if i ever get to dig, dang.

I'm sure that they would be helpful.

I was so glad to see one at my local guitar store. I bought it right away with joy, and I plugged it into a peavy tube amp on clean ,with a telecaster my friend ,who is a chemist, was playing. And i turned the pedal all the way up. And so then, my friend ( the chemist and sound geek) said he is in the market for one, when we left. , and he even asked for one at the next guitar store but they didn't have any :( He plays the blues, country, pop, and he can solo like brian, and television. I play indie rock , melodic ambiance, blues, rockabilly, heavy emotional music and i like to go surfing too. Blind lemon Jefferson, blind Willie Johnson. explosions in the sky. This pedal has delivered for me in a very big way. Even though its so small, it does NOT have a small sound , the sound is great with humbuckers. Again, nice and thick when cranked. Sweet!

4 controls:
gain, level, bass and treble.
easy to set up with the exception of treble &bass which a not too easy to set right, it is kinda fiddly.

Setup: guitar, CTO-1, amp.
Tube amp (Randall, Engl, Johnson 2xEL84-amp).
It is not noisy at all, but that is what i expect from a lower gain drive pedal.
the drive effect sounds good when treble an d bass are dialed in right, what can be kinda fiddly. it has lots and lots of trebles, to get a almost neutral setting, you have to turn up bass high and trebles low.
it does sound transparent. the maximal drive level is not too high, and i think the CTO-1 sounds best when very little drive is dialed in.
it has a good output, ideal to boost a tube (pre-)amp.
it does sound very transparent and clear, like the name promises.
all in al a good drive pedal, especially for warmer sounding guitars/amps. if you have a trebly amp and/or guitar, think twice whether the CTO-1 is what you want.

i guess it is reliable. it seems very sturdy and stable.

no idea

i tis no heavy metal pedal, it is no mid-heavy pedal.
it is right when you need a transparent low gain sound with good trebles or if you want to boost a warm sounding tube amp.

As easy to use as any quality OD pedal. Great sound out of the box.

Using this in a Mesa Boogie DC-10 on the clean channel. Quite, sounds great, easy to use. I don't understand why for so little money this thing is so good. I've owned many OD's in the past mostly boutique builders or other sought after vintage pedals. For low overdrive tones this one has the other beat, especially for the price but even if the price was the same I would have chosen this over the others. I have a Xotic AC+ that cost around $250 and though it has more options, the CTO-1 just sounds so much better. I'll wait until the honeymoon is over but I think I'll be selling the Xotic pedal.

It's not all that attractive but it isn't ugly either, not that that made a difference in my decision to buy it. With the quality parts and construction I don't know how they are making any money off or this pedal. I know, volume buying but compared to other pedals at 3x the price and higher it is a true bargain.

Works great for low to medium gain applications which for me has been the most difficult position to fill. For higher gain I use my Crunch Box with is also great.

I give it a seven, only for the fact that the control knobs aren't facing up, towards the player. And, the treble/ bass controls are not two different knobs. Other than that. It's great.

P90 tele compressor> cto-1> Cool cat "Drive"> Univibe> into a Valve jr (modified) and Weber ceramic signature 12".

No hum or hiss when engaged or disengaged. Thank you Danelectro.

I keep the gain low, at about 9 o'clock. I wanted this pedal to add a little amount of grime to my clean sound. And it does exactly that, without sucking ANY of my tone. Even a bit of the chime still comes through without being shrill, at all. I wasn't sure about it's "transparency" when I was doing my research. But, I am now. I did not want any saturation. And, it doesn't.

Seems quite sturdy. Not sure about the pots. But, the case is rugged and the stomp switch seems like it'll hold up. We'll see.....

Not only would I gig with it, I wouldn't gig without it.

Time will tell with this new series of Dan-o pedals. Certainly, the metal is better than their old plastic cases. And, I'm happy that the price point is nearly the same.

Seriously?? Would you expect to return this when you busted a knob by throwing it in the box you take to gigs? Treat it nice and it'll be nice to you.

I play "americana" from Jones to Neil Young. This won't get you Neil. But, it'll give you Big Star and beyond.

Been playing nearly 30 years. I've been waiting for something this inexpensive to add to the lineup.

Easy to figure out but a little less convenient to make EQ adjustments on the fly due to where the knobs are located. Make sure you realize the bass and treble are stacked on one knob.

I use this pedal in front of a FJA Marshall DSL50 and a Vox Night Train. I'm playing my GT HH Fender Tele and Strat with HSS pups. I like how Transparent this is as a boost. With the pedal I get great picking dynamics and response. Guitar roll off is natural and does not diminish sustain until volume is reduced to nothing. I can go from overdrive to clean with roll off and picking lighter. Very responsive.

Out of all my boost pedals it is the only one that makes the Night Train sound better. My other boosts made the NT sound worse. On the Marshall it makes me not want to play the amp without it. Punch, body and percussive thump at volume. Whoa!

True by-pass!

It has out performed the following pedals on both my amps, used as a boost rendering better dynamics and responsiveness without degrading or coloring the amp's tone:
1. Route 808
2. Homebrew Germania
3. HT Dual
4. Boosta Grande
5. Danelectro CO-1 Cool Cat Overdrive
6. Bad Monkey

Pedal is metal and feels solid. Looks great! Time will tell as I have only had it a couple of months.

Haven't used customer support.

I've been playing for 26yrs. I play blues/rock/hardrock and whatever else I feel like playing. This is my go to overdrive and boost pedal. I can see it working with many amps due to its transparency. Its the only boost pedal I can use with my Night Train because it is so finicky with pedals. It lights the Marshall up on the red channel and sounds great on the crunch channel.

For $40 bucks I can't be more turned on by this pedal. This pedal is a blues player's secret weapon when you want to reach for a little more mojo without sacrificing your tone.

Simple lay out. The bass and treble knobs are stacked on top of each other. True by-pass that actually works. Its very easy to get this pedal to sound good with both my amps.

This pedal has ousted my Bad Monkey, Love Pedal Eternity, Boosta Grande, HT Dual and Route 808. I still use those pedals but I use the CTO-1 way more often. It covers alot of ground. True by-pass. It was the only pedal to sound good with my Night Train. What a finicky amp that is when it comes to pedals.

It sounds great with my guitars an HH Tele and a Strat with HSS.

I use the Transparent Overdrive on my Marshall DSL50 boosting the red channel and the crunch. It makes me not like the amps own gain by itself. Guitar volume roll off is natural and the tone stays intact. Its open sounding, doesn't compress like other pedals. It responds to pick attack. Pick lightly and it cleans up. The clarity of the notes while chording is present and again strumming/picking hard or light will make a marked difference.

Solid feeling pedal. Have only had it a few months so time will tell.

Haven't used their customer support yet.

I've been playing for 25yrs. I'm a blues/rock player and this pedal is in my chain always. Its responsiveness and open tone is why I like it so much for the stuff I play. I like it more than my $200 pedals cause it sounds and responds better with my guitars and amps. For $40 do you still need to think about it?

Very easy to use. The treble/bass control is a very nice touch. It allows you to pull out those screaming high notes.

Absolutely great sound, especially when you consider the cost. Compared it to my Boss Blues Driver 2 and the Danelectro won hands-down. Its sound is very natural, while many overdrive pedals have an artificial tone. I am thrilled that I tried this pedal. A friend told me about its You Tube test against the high quality TIMMY overdrive pedal and the Danelectro held it's own against a hand made pedal at 10X the cost!

This is a deal too good to pass up.

Very easy to use . Has a volume ,Split Bass/treble and gain controls
The knobs are placed on top of pedal so you can't knock them with your foot. Some may find hard to adjust. They seem to be backwards. Maybe its me but most pedals turn clockwise. This pedal seems to turn counter clockwise. Like I said maybe its just me.

I use it to boost my signal and overdrive my Fender tube amps. I find it very quiet for an inexpensive pedal.(even with the volume and gain turned up.I can't complain about a thing in the sound quality.

It uses metal parts and casing. so it should last longer than the plastic Fab series.

never dealt with them .

I use to overdrive tube amps so i don't know how it would work on solid state amps. I play blues,country,50s,60's and classic 70's rock.
It isn't a Fulltone or Keeley but your not paying $200+ for it .It delivers a clean overdrive and doesn't color your sound.(thats why I bought it) This is not for metal or Nickelback players.(it won't make your sound get dirty) .It doesn't give you the mid hump like a tubescreamer or boss overdrive.I drive a 57 tweed Fender amp or a 65 Fender blackface with a 50's Telecaster or 60's SG. This pedal is staying on my board and if I lost or damaged it I would buy another right away.

I just get this pedal I have to say it is very, very good. There is no way to get a bad sound out of it. The tone knobs are stacked but that is not really a problem. Having them both set at 12:00 gives excellent results. I purchased this with two other Cool Cat pedals as part of the Cool Cat Pack. Each pedal comes with instructions for all the pedals in the Cool Cat line, the suggested settings were very good and a great starting point.

Using my Strat into a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue I found this pedal capable of retaining the sound of my guitar without colorizing it. The overdrive is excellent especially when used in conjunction with the Cool Cat Vibe pedal, instant Robin Trower. This pedal can hold its own with boutique pedals costing 5 times as much.

Word of warning, this pedal has a lot of gain, it can get really LOUD. You can get more distortion by having the gain and the output wide open. I have the output set to 3:00 and the volume on my amp set to 3 and I still had to use the volume knob to take it down a notch which is not a bad thing. Actually, it responds very well with the guitar's volume knob.

The pedal housing is metal with metal jacks and its true bypass. I can not really see any damage being done to this pedal outside of general stupidity. The activation switch is study.

Have not used it.

I play a lot of types of music from country to surf and this pedal is definitely going on my board. I have a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 and a Award Session JD 10 and the Danelectro is the easiest one to get a great sound out of without really trying.

If it was stolen I would definitely get another one.

For $40.00 this pedal does rival more expensive ones, if you get you will definitely be impressed.

The only concern is the stacked treble/bass knob, which is a bit tricky if you need to tweak them in a live situation. Reading the manual is actually quite amusing in contrary to all other manuals I have ever read.

A very quiet pedal even with the treble turned way up. The sound possibility is very broad qua the treble/bass knob. Clarity is king - and here is my input to the transparency discussion: It is my firm belief that the transparency concerns not so much the neutrality of the pedal in colouring the sound as much as the fact that the individual tones ring through amazingly well compared to most other drive pedals, thus transparency = the shining through of the individual tones.

Seems very reliable to me, but on the other hand I never 'stomp' on stomp boxes I engage them with the light touch of my foot. The case and switch seem very sturdy and placing the knobs at the back is probably a very good idea apart from the fact that it's harder to dial in different settings as you go along in a live setting.

Never dealt with Deanelectro even though I have used many of their products (guitars + pedals)

I use the Transparent Overdrive alongside my modded Tube Screamer and the pair of them are a great match! I mainly use Gibsons (LP Deluxe + Melody Maker reissue) and the Transparent Overdrive gives a nice chime to my otherwise 'darker' sound.

I would definitely buy it again if I lost it mainly because it's rediculously cheap and still great sounding - it's a no brainer, really!

Very straight forward. Level, drive and a nice stacked low/high tone.

Gave 8 only because tones are stacked (not that they shouldn't be to save space) and it takes 2 hands sometimes to keep them from moving together. Very minor issue.

Very quiet.
With all drive down and eq flat you kick it in and out and notice NO change in your guitar sound. I saw this on youtube and didn't believe it but it is realy true.
This can clone all of the sounds in my Visual Sound Double Trouble (Great TS-9 clone) exactly except that it doesn't go quite as high in distortion. (I'm selling the Doulble Trouble!)
I use it with a bi-amp set up with a Peavey Classic 30 and a Fender Stage 112 (SS). Only use the power amps since I use the Tech 21 Sanamp Tri-AC for preamps.

Seems well built. Solid mechanical bypass, but no pop.
Metal case. Pots feel solid.

But have a Danelectro Chicken Salad Vibe that didn't work and inside I found several components on the board NOT EVEN SOLDERED! Fixed once soldered.

Given production nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised if the Cool Cat series and the Vibe are not even from the same factory.

N/A since I fix things myself.

They do have a dedicated email address to "Marcy" who is guaranteed to make any customer service issue right.

Web site directs you well how to contact service.

Works great for blues if you want a GREAT sounding TS-9 clone for much less $$. Why waste money?

Responds well to picking/guitar voume.

What a value!

Once you get use to the knobs being on the side/front of the pedal, it's a breeze.

I use a MIM Strat w/ Keeley Modern pickups.I use either a Dr.Z Mini Z or Blackheart Little Giant amp. This little pedal brings my set-up to life, like no other pedal(except maybe my Keeley Java Boost). I won't even get into the whole "Good For The Price" argument, this thing is just pain AWESOME!

p.s. If I gave it a 10 rating, that would mean that I won't be looking for any more pedals, and we all know that's not possible!

Not enough time to tell right now.

Never had a need. For $30 dollars I'd just buy another or two.

I use this pedal for Electric Blues and/or Rock. If it were stolen or lost I would go out and buy a six-pack of them.

concentric tone knob bass&treble one-on-top of the other configuration, way cool for an overdrive which usually has one tone knob only.

it reminds me of the BOSS BD-2 blues driver with a flavor of TS9
it's an excellent well balanced overdrive with a firm core.!

all metal chasis and input jacks.true by pass, at an affordable price!.what more can you ask for!

shop where it came from gave me shop warranty

It makes my guitar sing!

Very Easy to use. Straightforward instructions are included. The knobs are a little hard to get to, mounted on the front/top of the pedal. The middle tone know is a concentric treble/bass control, and that's a little tricky to set. But, reservations aside, it's not a big deal to dial it in.

I give it a 9, only because I wouldn't say the sound quality is "pristine," considering it's a stomp box. However, for a stomp box, this thing is pretty darn terrific...

I plugged it into a Fender Blues Jr., a Blues Deville, an old Silvertone/Danelectro amp, and a reissued Ampeg JT-12. Sounded great each time. It excelled at pushing the front end of a tube amp...

Time will tell...it's a relatively new purchase. I have a good feeling though. The construction is sturdy, with a metal case as opposed to plastic, and the 1/4" input jacks feel solid - again, metal not plastic.

I'd use it without a backup, no problem...

I've only emailed the Danelectro company in the past, after I bought a Danelectro guitar, and had some questions about the construction, some years ago. No response. So I don't know what kind of support they offer. But I haven't had any problem with any of their products (I own a U-2 and 2 longhorn basses - great value).

I play many styles of music, rock, blues, some fusion, some jazz. Even some country, in a pinch, if it's required on a gig. This pedal is very versatile, and has applications in just about everything.

It's an overdrive, so it's not an over-the-top distortion pedal. I don't think it would work too well if you're looking to play ultra-distorted speed metal, for instance. But it can generate a little grind - great for rock or blues. There's a hefty amount of gain on tap, so you can use it to drive a tube amp. The concentric treble and bass control is very effective - much better than a single tone control for dialing in different textures.

If it was stolen or lost, I'd feel terrible, but glad about the fact that it wasn't a super expensive boutique item. And I'd be able to replace it without breaking the bank. Oh yeah, and replace it I would!

I tried it out alongside my trusty old TubeScreamer pedal, and was really impressed. The old TubeScreamer sounds great, but the biggest drawback there was the tubescreamer's relatively low output level, with less headroom, along with the bass frequency cut. The CTO-1 was much clearer sounding, with much more low end.

It's really a surprising little gadget. I love finding something so cheap and so great sounding. Big thumbs up!

Nice golden metal case and a solid foot switch, but the stacked Bass/ treble dial is a pain in the a++.

The best overdrive I have ever come across for Telecaster or Gretsch Twang. No T.S midd hump cluttering up your speakers. This model gives you a singing crunch without takeing out the chime and character. Thanks Danelectro, I do appreciate, especially the price.

Who cares ? Costs 27 Euros. I've ordered another one just in case.

danelectro is cool....

I do the Blues, Rockabilly, Rock......... I like it twangy and clean with a hint of tube breakup.

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