Danelectro D-1 Fab Distortion

Volume, Tone, Distortion controls- not hard to grasp. If you're used to looking at knobs from the top, it might take a second to get used to the back-facing orientation. It's not that easy to get a good sound out of it, period, but the simplicity of the controls make it as easy as possible.

Currently using a Strat with Texas Specials & various little modifications, going into a Blackheart Little Giant combo (with various little modifications). Pedal is a little noisy, but no more or less than most gain pedals- i.e., mainly when you crank it (not recommended) and not too bad when you use it as a dirty boost (which is about the best thing I could get it to do). It's pretty close to bypass-clean when the distortion knob is all the way down, but kicks in quick when turned slightly- I had the best results in this slightly-crunchy range. Though the gain goes up pretty smoothly as you crank it, the overall tone doesn't thrill me...there's a fizzy undertone that tends to ruin the otherwise nicely-chunky attack. It reminds me more of a distorted solid-state amp than anything else, but I guess that makes sense...

It seems pretty solid, though I wouldn't bet a gig on the footswitch if you're heavy-footed. If you love the sound, you should probably get a backup (after all, a pair of these will still be cheaper than most single pedals). I don't expect any problems, but then again I didn't expect my Danelectro EQ pedal to die when it did :P

With a little work, you can get a good approximation of many 60's/ 70's distorted sounds, especially garage-band stuff...many of the sounds that MXR Dist+ and RATs usually provide. If you want to dirty your tone just a little and send a hotter signal to your amp, this is a decent & cheap solution. There's a nice little crunch there that ODs won't usually give you, but I was disappointed in how little the pedal added to the sustain and power of my tone. It's not a muddy tone-sucker, exactly, but I did notice a loss of clarity, especially between individual notes of a chord.

I wouldn't recommend it for medium to high-gain sounds; the noise and sound character of the pedal gets pretty nasty from about halfway up on the distortion knob. If you're an industrial/ alternative player who's into the fizzy buzzy solid-state distortions, you might get some use out of the higher distortion settings (the kind of dying-battery Big Muff tone that might even work for an underground early Black Metal sound).

I'd say "you get what you pay for", but that's just not true...you can pay twice to ten times as much and still end up without much more than this pedal offers (many 'classic' or boutique distortion/ OD pedals included). If you look at it that way, it's a bargain...but all that might really mean is most of those other pedals deserve to cost 15 bucks. However, I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, or buy another one if it went bye-bye.

Put a little time in, and you can get a few decent rock/ punk/ garage sounds from it...it easily earns its keep, but I doubt you'll ever be able to get one truly great sound, or even a variety of good sounds.

Ok, so I thought I would add my thoughts to the barrage of existing reviews here, as I slightly disagree with some of the scores in one or two catagories....

Ease of use, eh? As easy as any other pedal with 3 knobs!

The pots are nice and stiff, and therefore exact.
I see other reviewers have complained about the knobs sticking out of the back of the unit, but I think this is a great idea. There is nothing more annoying than kicking the knobs when switching a pedal on or off, and messing your carefully adjusted settings up! (especially on a dark stage)

The switch is study and easily activated, and the sloped front means it's easy to find with your feet.

I don't monkey around with batteries, but AC adaptor users will glad to hear that any plug unit works without hum and noise (Take note Roland/boss!) I use a Maplins Power Bank.

The bottom plate can be unscrewed with a small coin to access the battery compartment. (Better than a Boss which takes ages to access and the rubber grommits rot after a few years of heavy use)

The bottom plate is nice and heavy, with a thick rubber base, so the pedal won't move around on the ground.

Good stuff.

Ok, so my thoughts here are very much in sync with other reviews below.

The Fab DS1 is veratile enough to get 60's garage rawness up to fuzzy/creamy sustaining sounds with the ability to (as mentioned by others) act as a decent clean boost (and pretty cool treble boost, if you crank the tone up to the max)

There is, as with all pedals some noise when the dist. is turned up full (I love noise and hum personally!). But it is by no means as noisy as other(more expensive) pedals I have owned. For a plastic unit it seems very well sheilded. Good overall silent operation.

The pots operate smoothly and silently and there is no switch noise.

Just sounds natural, warm, lots of harmonics and sustain, and works very well in conjuction with an overdrive for infinate sustain and controllable feedback fun.

And yes! The blue light is pretty cool!

Here is my gripe with other reviews on this site.

I think people see a plastic unit and assume it's about to crack in half. This thing is small and the plastic is thick (refer to my comments about sheilding). It's not hard brittle plastic either, its the chewy hard to snap type (for want of a better description!)

The DS1 is a very light unit and theresore if dropped won't hit the ground very hard! I know that if I dropped my heavy DOD 250, it would fall hard and the oversized knobs would break etc.

Also, I had not had my DOD 250 very long before the pots were starting to get noisy and needed a bit of WD40 to fix them. No such poorness from the DS1 costing less than 1 third the price.

Nice solid (flush) jack sockets.

It's a very solid sturdy design and I have faith in it.

N/A

;p

I use a 72 custom Tele, and a 50's Strat into a Blues Junior alongside a DOD 250 overdrive, a Marshall Echohead, and Tuna Melt tremelo.

I like the Ravonettes, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Richard Hawley, Jesus and Mary Chain, Velvet Underground, Libertines, Kings of Leon....you get the Idea.

I've been playing for about 15 years and have owned/borrowed/lost/thrown away/tried various distortion pedals including...
Marshall Shredmaster (a horrible, useles pedal)
Grey DA Fuzz Face (a bit rustic!)
Boss DS1 (very unnatural sounding)
DOD Classic Tube (Cool but got old, wires came loose etc...)
EH Mini Muff (Horrible metal scoop sound one trick pony)
Dano Grilled Cheese distortion (buzzed with AC adaptor)
Plastic Ibanez heavy metal thingy?? (My memory fails me...)
DOD 250 Overdrive (Nice - still in use)
Dano Fab overdrive (retired due to muffled tone)

I Like this pedal a lot. I recently stripped down my pedal board to just the DOD overdrive, but I miss it and will put it back tonight!

I was using it with the FAB Overdrive (Just not as good as the DS1 as is does seem to muffle your tone, although it's pushed mids and enhanced harmonics are very cool and usable, you just wouldn't want it on your pedal board full time!!)

I think this pedal is definatley worth 20 quid! It's good dirty fun, and it's a keeper!

This pedal has a few competitors, such as the Boss DS1, EH Mini Muff, These pedals cost more and I've expressed my opinion about them above.
I can't really comment on the Behrenger pedals as I've not tried them, but I'm not a huge fan of Boss, let alone cheap boss copies.

I hope this review is helpful, although for ??20 you can take the risk, eh? I just wanted clear up what I think are a few harsh opinions about the casing, knobs and switch.

Cheers.

plug and play - great distortion with a wide range for cheap! Boss should steal this circuit for the DS-1

For what I paid, wasn't expecting much. Boy, was I surprised! I use it with a Pignose G60VR (with an emminence speaker upgrade) and darn it, it sounds great! Fab harmonics, can go from subtle to almost metal, no noise is introduced, and no apparent tone sucking, either. The tone knob really has a good effect on the tone, and you can adjust your sound depending on the guitar you're using.

It's made of plastic, but I have other plastic pedals that have not let me down. I have used it on more than one gig, and on a couple of last minute gigs, this was the only distortion pedal I grabbed, 'cause it's small, light and does the job. The only weak point I see may be the way the plastic stomp switch is designed - over time, it could fatigue and break, but come on - I paid $10.00 for it used on craig's list, and as I understand, they sold new for like $15.00

haven't had a need to contact them - hell, for what it would cost to ship it back to them, I could buy another

I play all kinds of music in a cover band. Been playing pro over 30 years. Too much gear to list. If lost or stolen, would miss it, might buy another. It's definitely not a waste of money (like the Boss DS-1 is!). I love the wide range of distortion, the bright blue LED, the quiet operation (relative), and the weird sci-fi design. It definitely helps me make music, and like my $12.00 Arion Tubulator, is one of the better GAS acquisitions I have made

Very easy too use. Nothing else to say, Three knobs!

Well i am in a grunge band and i have been looking for a pedal with this sound for a very long time, i have been through numerous distortion pedals for example. Boss DS-1, Boss DS-2, Digitech grunge. The boss pedals are sooo overated, And very expensive STAY AWAY!!!. Well at the moment i use Roland Cube 60,Fender Strat with hot rails, Fender Jag-stang with Jb Humbucker, EH Big Muff pi, Dunlop Crybaby, Boss Super chorus and my newest and favourite pedal FAB DISTORTION i cant put across how good this pedal is, all i can say is BUY ONEE!!!

I havent giged with this pedal yet, But i think if you are carefull it should be ok.

N/A

BUY ONEE!!!!!!!!

simple, Dist, Tone and level (which seems to turn the opposite way to the others?) Manual tells you all u need to know. although where mine mentioned the battery it had the word (included) but had white tape over it because it wasn't which i found hilarious. Im giving it a nine cause the volume can get to setting which is crazily high and u've got to have it on a volume of about 3 to make switching from clean to dirty some what smooth.

Im actually a bassist trying to mold myself into an all round musician. But i've been fooling around on guitar for at least a few years and thats coming from a musical background so im not bad. Anyway i've just got an expanding set up but at the moment im running a home made maple-bodied guitar sporting an Epiphone Les Paul pick up in bridge and thats all im using at the moment running through either this or the FAB overdrive into a little fender 10 watt prac amp.
Lets be frank, isnt gonna be the greatest pedal in the world, but for the price and what it is, it isnt all that bad. Dont except to plug it in and be blown away by a wall of intense tight power, its not a metal pedal and i dont believe anyone should ever, ever attempt to use it as one no matter how full the gain is, even if u remove the gain adjuster because the solder linking to and from it had too much resistance to match the gain you are after NOT A METAL PEDAL!
That said, i dont believe it was ever intended on being a metal pedal and for the $5 off ebay i paid its not bad. it will get that nirvana-ish/rage against the machine rock, just dont get any heavier.
Although im not entirely sure it deserves it i'll chuck it a 8.

seems alright, wouldnt incorporate it into a bridge, levy or any other load bearing structure but strong enough to handle cautious use.

after owning it for a few weeks i hope no-one would of had to deal with them after this short amount of time.

I play a nearly exclusively what i write which is kinda a tasty nu-metal sandwich containing full strength fillers of funk, blues, rock and atmospheric-classically inspired... music, if thats the correct word for it. And although i think i could get away with this pedal for the proper distorted parts without people throwing their freshly disembodied ears at me from the stereophonic spew leaving the speakers, im not game. You listen to it and if someone was raving about it you could nod ur head and humor him/her, but i would never be the one raving, lets put it that way, doesnt get a great organic fuzz sound but doesnt give enough crunch... its somewhere in between and that doesnt make it bad just neither of the things i want.
I got it for a steal so it would only go full circle to be stolen. oh well, i'll just strip it out and chuck a home-made circuit board in there and see if i can conjure up a sound that im looking for.

Easy to use just three knobs; volume, tone, distortion not hard to get many great sounds out of this little gem. The downside is the location of the knobs, they are sticking out of the end of the unit away from you which makes adjustments on the fly a little awkward, plus they decided in their wisdom to colour the pointer arrows on the tiny knobs red which is pretty much impossible to see.

Well this is where you really get more than you paid for, this distortion is thick baby. You can use it for a subtle clean boost but much more fun can be had by tweaking up the the distortion and vol controls to about half way and beyond...well fruity..this pedal just about sits on the cusp of old skool metal to something a bit more primitive and garagey. Think EVH meets Jon Spencer. I like very much, pretty hard to get a bad sound out of it really, plus it doesn't seem to suck any tone from your precious (well semi) guitar. Best of all the BLUE LIGHT, you can actually kind of light up a dark stage/room with the funky blue ON LED which is just another bonus.

Danelectro hi impact plastic seems to be able to take it, just don't try driving over it, setting fire to the poor wee thing etc. I also think the input/output jacks on these cheap Dano pedals are not what you'd call hi end but for the money whaddya expect. I'd use it at a gig w/out back up, just don't abuse it. Bearing in mind the jack quality it may be happier on a pedalboard where it won't get plugged/unplugged so often.

never called em.

I've had a few distortions over the years, but this is a real keeper with a very high grin factor. I like cheap stuff that really does the biz, you wanna pay 200 quid for some boutique thing made with some germanium geranium transistors that were only made by magic elves wrapped in special bison wax then anodised using indian, not african elephant piss then shipped in a walnut box that was engraved by a bloke called Ken and he only did three because it really brought him down...well do it. I'll stick with the Danelectro.

It's easy to dial in the good sound out of this pedal. I started with all knobs pointing at 12'oclock and I am pleased with the sound. any setting in between still is usable.

This pedal is the one I've been looking for. I am an overdrive lover and this pedal has the mid-hump taste of an overdrive, quite unique though you won't usually hear in a distortion stomp box. At zero gain it is so transparent good for booster use, at 9-10'oclock its has a flavor of a tubescreamer. at 12'oclock it's hardrock overdrive. Way past 12'oclock is meant for distortion. The sustain is long and could be mellow enough good for the blues sound, actually I could turn off my compressor/sustainer. I would say the Box's slogan "Delicious Tone" is TRUE!.The effect is very quite when bypassed.

I think this pedal is dependable enough, though built on plastic casing, i believe you are smart enough to control your emotions while playing right?

great tone for such an affodable price

A very usable little pedal for an old blues guy to have. I dont want the loud raspy distortion that this thing is capable of but I do want some of the other things than this thing has got like - the transparent volume boost and also some very small amount of distortion if I want it.

My setup: Hondo big body jazz guitar (gibson L5 copy) into a 15watt British valve amp (WEM dominator) with some outboard reverb.
My music: Old blues stuff, upbeat and a little funky at times.
I was using an overdrive pedal till recently. It was similar to the BOSS pedals but what I did not like about it was the loss of bass that you get. This is a very iritating feature for a guitarist. Some guitarist may want to loose some bass when they play but I dont. Another problem with the overdrive pedal was that it sucked some sound from the signal
Well, the Danelectro pedal does none of these things. It does not suck any signal as far as I can tell and it is possible to set the pedal up so that it is very transparent ie: you get the same sound wether you press the footswitch or not. It may fatten the sound a little but you would be hard pushed to tell.
The one problem I have is that only want the distortion control on the tiniest amount -its hard to set it correct. This pedal can put out buckets of distortion but I'm not interested in this.
I also have a 'tune melt' pedal which is equaly a great pedal - I am sold on Dano pedals, even though I am not really a pedal person.
I get a great crystal clear sound from my guitar - amp combination and these pedals just add that bit more. The WEM does not have any gain so I use this pedal to add a little crunch when required -its quite a fun sort of crunch, not like overdrive at all. That just a bout sums up Dano pedals - Good Fun pedals.

only 2 days old - still going strongPlastic top on a metal bottom plate - I look after my pedals so dont expect any problems

not tried them

I'm a cheapskate - I have a Hondo guitar for Christs sake! but I like to buy quality stuff at the lowest price possible - Thats what I've got in this pedal.

This is a really good sounding pedal. Far better than a Boss DS-1. Doesn't "colour" your tone, just adds great sounding distortion. Three knobs that turn counter-intuitively, but you soon catch on.

Early Greenday, Nirvana, Led Zep, Hendrix ...

Where you need mid-range distortion and you play fast, this pedal shines.

It's made of plastic, but seems reasonably sturdy. Cheap enough to buy several backups ...

Haven't dealt with support yet.

Good, straight up distortion. I would replace it if it was lost or broken (especially considering how cheap it is).

This is what I expected a DS-1 to do. A nice meaty distortion without turning your tone to scratchy or mud.

Considering the price of this, this pedal is incredible.

Honestly, it's difficult to get a bad sound out of this thing. From clean boost to light OD to almost fuzz-like distortion, it all sounds good.

The way the knobs are positioned is annoying, but you get used to it.

It's a little noisy at full gain, but still within reason. This is certainly the best distortion pedal available under $25, and I think with a few tweaks it could certainly hang with boutiques. As is, it is a little flat sounding, but solid. Boosting it with another drive can yield good results.

It's not exactly roadworthy. But, at $15 you could easily buy a few backups. I've had mine for a year, no problems.

You won't find a better value - it's worth a try!

I wasnt going to write a review for this since it already has so many but here you go.

Level Tone and Gain controls set out in front of the pedal takes a little getting used to but otherwise no real problems.

Ok its not about getting the sounds of my favourite artists- although this IS important to me, but thats more abput the WAY that I play. Whats most important to me with a distortion box is transparency which this box has.

EQ is exactly the same as bypassed. No bass or mids taken, none added. Afterall its the job of gain boxes to do exactly that- add gain and distortion to your signal and NOTHING else.

I set the tone control to just below halfway. Turn the tone control up and this seems to add more mids which I didnt want.

Gain is all the way up which gives just the desired british crunch. To add more sustain and bite I use an OD in front of this. The pedal however even without a boost from OD offers full bodied rich distortion and plenty of dynamics.

I have absolutely no worries about the reliability of this unit.

Who cares. I'll just buy another if I need to

SUPER VALUE pedal. I play shredder rock and heavy metal. Vai, Extreme, Dreamtheater.

I use this pedal alongside Bad Monkey Overdrive into a Fender Blues Junior. The distortion is rich and full. i have tried so many different distortion boxes from keeley to MXR. This is the best one. Great crunch like an old marshall. Combine with an OD for extra sustain and bite.

the best quality about this pedal is it's eq transparency which fully compliments abd does not affect your guitars natural tone.

Simple - Gain / Tone / Volume. On/off switch. LED for status.

Gain and Volume are very responsive, but the Tone knob is a bit sensitive on the last portion of it's rotation - which makes it a tad difficult to set the Tone just right.

Other than that - no issues.

OK, I give it a 10 - but please do read on and I'll explain. You have to take this for what it is: Probably the best distortion pedal you could get for the price. $15, but it sounds just as good as any other. Taste is a different matter, but as for quality - it superb. Attack is full of presence and decay is natural and with plenty of sustain.

It's very thick sounding, no mid scoop. At high gains it gets a bit fizzy with humbuckers, but with singles, it's alright.

I can get good Hendrix-like tones with it, ZZ top, Black Crowes, Warren Haynes-like is also possible.

I ran it through a Peavey Classic 30 tube amp with an AmSe Strat and Ibanez Artstar (MIJ).

So as far as sound QUALITY-wise - is damn good!

Well, I have it for a short time now, but it's made of plastic which is not the most reassuring.

Never used it

Overall - it is amazing in value. The most you can probably get for such a ridicules low price. If it was stolen - no biggie, cost like a box of smokes, LOL.

FOr blues, rock and everything in between - its awsome. I play for about 8 years and have alot of stuff, from cheap Boss stuff to high end "bootik" pedals. This one will not put a player to shame :)

Easy to use with only three knobs but the response it poor - not really a lot of variability in the sound - sounds poor at any setting.

Awful!! This thing should be called the Danelectro midrange pedal because it cuts out all your highs and bass. It sounds like a bag of bees as far as the distortion goes. Buy something else - I wish I had.

Been reliable but I don't like to use it because of the sound. It's all plastic but seems sturdy enough.

Unknown.

It sucks - period. I bought this thing about 4 or 5 years ago and put it in the closet not too long after my purchase. I recently pulled it out and was reminded of why I put it up in the first place. I quit trying to use it for distortion and tried to use it as an overdrive pedal with the distortion turned way down but it can't pull that off either. The sound is just terrible - nothing but dull midrange. I would try a Behringer Distortion before one of these if I were you.

This product is real easy to use - the ease of use is its best feature. The level tone is a bit intense tho - i only have it about 3/4 max ever. The only criticism is the size of the button. its too small and not raised from the rest of the pedal enough meaning unless you stamp on this frail plastic piece of equipment, ypu may not switch from clean to distortion 1st time

The vintage sounds this piee of equipment produce are realy quite amazing when you compare it to others in the same price range.

For me, the rreliability is quite poor. Theres a problem with the wiring meaning i cant put a 9v battery in it but thats just a manufacturing fault for me.

-

Overall like i said above, this is brilliant for its price. Only criticisms - made from plastic and design faults with the button.

Easy to use. The knobs aren't backward, they're sticking out the front opposite the guitar player so they just feel backward when you're twiddling them.

I spent the extra 15 bucks to get the Fab Overdrive so I could compare. The silver Fab OD is just like a tubescreamer, with a thick blues-friendly midrange hump, and you can't turn the effect all the way down with the drive knob. With this red Fab Distortion you can turn the drive all the way down and use as a totally clean boost; and it's a very EQ-transparent distortion--just like cranking a preamp tube on whatever amp you put it in front of, no tone change, just nice distortion up to and including 70's/80's hard rock levels. Not a cascaded-gain nu-metal thing, more like an old cranked non-master volume Marshall/Boogie/whatever. The tone knob is unremarkable but does what you need it to. Great pedal at any price.

No problems so far. Don't jump up and down on it.

I use a One-Spot AC adapter and it works fine, don't need the proprietary Dano power supply.

don't know

I've been playing for 30 years. I play real Strat, real Les Paul, crappo travel electric, misc. acoustics, and bass. I write and record at home and this pedal adds nicely to my tone pallette, and it's easy to transport to jams (and cheap so I worry not). I really like the lack of tone coloration, just a straightforward clean boost or distortion like adding another channel on the floor. I'm keeping the Fab Overdrive as well for blues jams. Rating a 10 for fantastic value, if it was $100 I'd say the same thing. I've compared to many distortion pedals, all of them more expensive, but none were better.

Extremely easy to use but of course you have to spend time with it to get your sound.

I have a Strat with a vintage Fender Vibrolux tube amp. I use this pedal with my humbucker in the bridge position. It sounds FANTASTIC !
I am updating my review because I've had a chance to compare it with other pedals. For $25. this thing holds it's own. I bought a Tube Works Real Tube Overdrive pedal with a 12AU7 tube in it which sounds amazing. The Danelectro sounded identical except it gives you a more solid state tighter bottem end sound. The Tube Works has a slightly mushier tube-like bottem end. I use the two together for nice sustainy Pink Floyd type solos. I would say this Danelectro sounds as good or maybe better than alot of the pedals out there. Keep in mind that I am not a Danelectro fan at all. This pedal is different.

So far no problems

Never had to.

I've been playing professionally for 30 years with vintage Fender guitars and amps. I play Classic Rock, Country-Rock, Blues, Pop, etc..
With my guitar in the humbucker bridge position I use this pedal to get all my Zeppelin, AC/DC, Pink Floyd type sounds. For all the blues, Santana and SRV stuff I use tubescreamers. This pedal has a natural tube-like sound but with a tight bottom end. I'd heard about this pedal from other guitarists whose opinions I listen to because they are seasoned pros. The icing on the cake is the price. Normally, I stay away from Danelectro pedals but this one is in a league of it's own.

Very easy, but it is set up differently from most pedals. The knobs turn counterclockwise for vol, gain and bass to treb and face away from you. The manual says it is a high gain devise.....cool

I was quite supprised! This unit is full, has a warm tube-like crunch and has plenty of gain. I was messing around through a Highway 1 Strat into the FAB and into an old Ibanez flanger with the speed width and regen all the way down and I swear that is the closest I have ever come to sounding like Hendrix...my wife who just doesn't care about what I do on guitar and doesn't like Hendrix even noticed that!!! I haven't noticed much noise but I haven't cranked up yet since I got it. I use it through a Randall RG100sc and it sounds great. It sounds a little raspy through my Fender Frontman ( its the speakers. I like the gain all the way up, tone at 12:00 and level somewhere around 11:00.

It is plastic but seems tough enough. the jacks don't look sturdy but for $16.00 who cares?

uh dunt know!

I play metal/blues/southern rock and my own stuff. Been at it since 1979. Have Randal amps, a Peavey Classic and a fender Frontman. Use Strat, Electra Phoenex x150, Aria Pro hollow body, Carvin Ultra V and a couple acoustics. I use vintage Ibanez and Boss pedals plus a couple newer ones. I also have a plastic Arion chorus which is suprisingly good for being cheap and plastic. This FAB is great and unbelievable for the price. It has a great late 60's sound and a little like Boston with a slick chorus and the tone at 4:00. It does make my other pedals look like an old K-car from the 1980s and its a reconditioned 57 chevy ( or red Barchetta).

its so easy to use, 3 switches, level, tone, and gain. the manual
is not that useful.

i use an ibanez rg 570 and an artcore guitar->ibanez wah->fab distortion-> boss metal zone->ibanez delay echo. well for the price it sounds great but my only complain is that when the guitar is switched to the neck pick up, the distortion sound is quite muffled. but when switched to the bridge pick up it sounds great. good sound for classic hard rock sound. must set the tone at 12 o'clock. nice crunch tone. noisy if you do not set it right. the knobs are confusing at first because of the location on the pedal i think you'll get the idea

well, its made of plastic and its made from china (well every darn thing these days are made from china). well as well it passed the quality control i think there's no problem. the switch is quite weird to step on. but i don't recommend stomping it very hard. i use a gator g-bus 8 power supply to fuel this thing. as long as it stays safely on a pedal board it will last longer

never dealt with them

well for the price it's worth it. i own a boss ds-1, its a sounds alike but the ds-1 sounds great for low end settings, the fab distortion can get really muffled and muddy. if your looking for a dirty overdriven sound this pedal works for you. especially if your on a budget

Its easy to use allright! Three knobs! Just plug in, turn each one and learn instantly what they do! No patches or anything complex.
The manual was basic, and carried a health warning about its "high gain" status! Still, if it shredded up my speaker, I wouldn't be happy.

Don't buy a POD, thats information overload!

Its a cool sounding unit too. The best tones are maybe those with the volume up, and the gain down.

My setup is either a Saga strat or a Vintage SG copy (needs some new frets!) into the Dano pedal, then a Marshall echohead, then into either a Kay 50B amp or a MArshall MG15 CDR. With the MG15 it sounds a bit too bright, but thats the amp's fault as it has a wee speaker. With the Kay its a different story, much better sounding. The Kay produces a nice clean sound, or you can add a certain amount of gain on that amp too, even though its a one channel affair. With a strat you can use the Dano pedal with the distortion right down as a simple clean boost, increasing volume and presence without applying any of its own nastyness!

The pedal can also be used as a silencer. Turn the output knob right down and its completely quiet. Very useful for swapping guitars onstage without the BANG!!!! That can damage speakers y'know!

For ?20 you cannot really fault it, it should be worth a lot more than ?20 at least. Really you could get a Boss if you felt especially strongly for a metal case, but other than that its no difference. The only gripe is that turning down the volume on your guitar doesn't control the pedal enough to my liking, instead it gives an indefenite scratchy tone on high gain settings. Not to worry though!

Here is the thing. I know its ?20, I paid for it myself. This means I take CARE of it. Where does this tredition of crushing baby pedals come from anywhere? Its not cool to lumber up ontop of your amp so you can jump on your pedal from a terrific height! I would gig it without backup, just because I am going to really take care of it. I doubt it will screw me up anyway!

I would never have bought a single Dano pedal in the past. They looked so flimsy, and had rubbish names like "fried fish and rhubarb sauce delay" or "pickled walnut and goat's testicle pie Chorus" or whatever. Stupid ugly rancid pedals. So I have yet to deal with them, but hey, ?20 for a new one isn't so bad, so hey!

I play a sort of unique Jazz/Grunge/Indie style. Basically the clever chord voicings of Jazz with the sloppyness of Grunge, and the Indie all comes from my Drummer, Gordon.

Want to hear this racket? http://www.myspace.com/thekillerpylons

I only use delay and distortion at the moment. But what did the artists in the 1960s and 1970s use? The same stuff. Okay I could get a bit of chorus in my signal if I was looking for it. Fab chorus? another ?20? aye! Sometime soon.

If it where stolen, I would find the thief and make him use rubbish Behringer cheapo pedals. They may look better than the Fabs (although the Fabs look a little like Roger Mayer Octavias?) but their reliability is terrible. Here is why. Behringer solder the input and output "jills" straight onto the PCBs. Step on the jack and you break the circuit boards, which does not a happy pedal make.

Also Behringers leave the factory in a non-working condition sometimes! THese are non environmentally friendly pedals, as I bet at least one has been flushed down the toilet, and tonnes of them endup in out landfill sites and strewn on beaches every year!

Still, the Danelectro is BETTER THAN BEHRINGER. have I made myself clear?

The easiest thing about using this pedal is taking it home from the store so cheap. Getting good tone from it is similarly easy.

Mind-blowingly good. This pedal reminds me what TOUCH SENSITIVE means. When you have it set right, you can tell it how to sound with your playing. Dig in and it will back off the highs and push the mids. Chill out and it chills with you. The lows on this are fantastic ... So thick, and that's with a strat.

I'm not using a bright amp, this is a Pignose G40V I'm running into, a nice thick amp in its own right (based on an old Bassman circuit). This pedal into this amp is heaven.

Notes hit hard start off thick and then slowly the highs blossom out from the thickness, often carrying with them an octave-up harmonic ... This pedal practically plays itself.

Not sure about this ... I think I want a backup just in case.

I've tried to find out what circuit this is based on, they either don't know or they're not telling.

WONDERFUL pedal. Read what I wrote, listen to the cool things it does, and then play through this pedal again with these traits in mind. You'll understand then. This pedal is a GEM.

Insanely easy to use, like 99% of the pedals you'll get. Knobs are on the side so you might forget which way to turn it to get more or less of something.

My setup is: Washburn BT-4 --> Dunlop Cry Baby GCB-95 --> Danelectro FAB Distortion D-1 --> Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi USA (which is THE pedal) --> Behringer GMX212 100 watt (excellent deal for the price).

It is a little bit noisy, a little bit of hiss when you're not playing. I like my tone set at about 12 o'clock. The tone dial doesn't do much (compared to other distortion pedals), and there's always sufficient low end wherever you put the tone dial. I like how the level dial can make it pretty loud, which is great for going from clean to big distortion.

It sounds like your average distortion pedal. Not as good as a BOSS DS-1, but kind of close. If you're one of those generic teens who likes Metallica, Zeppelin, AC/DC, etc then you'll probably like this.

There isn't really any fuzz, just a good hard rock tone that you've heard a million times. What do you expect?

One thing I noticed is that it always sounds very muffled, like my amp is behind a wall when I play with this pedal. I certainly can't complain, they were literally giving these away.

It's pretty sturdy, but I wouldn't stomp on it. The button is plastic, and the graphics are stickers.

I think there was a glitch in mine right from the box, when ever I would hit a power chord hard it made this click/pop noise. I took off the back and dinked around with it and now I think it's fixed.

Never dealt with the folks. If you need to get this thing repaired, I guarantee you it would be cheaper to just go buy another one.

I think the company are pretty cheap because this doesn't come with a battery. When I went to Radio Shack to get an adapter, it cost more than Guitar Center was selling the pedal for!

I play grunge, groove metal, alternative, primus, old-school hardcore punk, and noise rock. I don't use this to seriously play anything, just as a toy to mess around with because it was free.

I like the low end on this, I'll admit it has perhaps a bit more than a BOSS DS-1. But a DS-1 doesn't sound like there's a wall in front of your amp.

If you're a beginner, this is a great pedal for you. Nothing too fancy, real simple tone, very cheap.

Also, if you want to modify a pedal, this is for you. Just take a flathead screwdriver and remove the back and you have easy access to all the internal parts! It's only $15, if you mess up on something it's no big deal.

I'd like it to have some more distortion (The FAB Metal pedal would probably be a lot better for that) and a clearer tone. Maybe a better design, you gotta admit that this thing looks hokey. It's perfect for just rehashing the same blues-based hard rock riffs that you've heard a million times. It really doesn't stand out from all the pedals I've played, but if you just want something that sounds pretty good for an obnoxiously cheap price, I recommend this.

Three knobs. Level, Tone, and Dist (distortion). Don't get much easier than that.

Sound quality is surprising good considering I paid only $15. But go easy on the Level knob - at higher levels it can get noisy. Leave the Tone knob at the 12 o'clock position and you can control the tone from your guitar. The Dist knob works great - use just a little bit and it does a great job on Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff, or crank it to the max to sound like Pete Townshend on The Who's "Live At Leeds".

It seems pretty reliable so far, but, even though it's a stompbox, don't stomp on it. It's a plastic case! And, VERY IMPORTANT, when not in use, unplug the input jack, otherwise you'll be buying more 9V bats than you need to.

Havn't had the need for any customer support yet, but at 15 bucks I doubt I'll ever need it.

I play blues with a Strat and an Epi LP Junior through an Alesis Spitfire 60 (completely clean settings), and this pedal compliments my present setup, in which I use a DigiTech RP-50 for my "baseline" sound, and other pedals to embellish it. I'd definitely recommend it, because for $15 how can you go wrong? I think Danelectro hit it right on the nail. Here's hoping they continue and I look forward to other FAB pedals in the future.

Level, Tone, Distortion, on/off... very simple to use. The position of the knobs is a bit weird, but you get used to it quickly.

Using this with a standard Tele and a cheap-o strat, into various cheap and expensive effects, into Guitar Rig 2.0. Eventually I'm going to get The Vox AD30VT, because it has a real tube in it but also has a built-in power attenuator and headphone jack, which make it apartment-friendly.

Very impressive... I wasn't expecting this thing to do clean, but it does. Turn down the distortion to zero and it works as a clean boost -- not even a hint of grit. You get quite a bit of volume from the level knob... easily enough to bump your tube amp into overdrive. The tone knob is quite useful, as opposed to the Fab Overdrive's tone knob. The Fab Overdrive cuts out the highs, even with the tone knob cranked. But the Fab Distortion sounds great with the tone at noon -- no perceived tonal alteration. Turn it up and the tone gets trebly, turn it down and it gets bassy, like it's supposed to.

I tend to prefer the distortion knob set low to medium -- basically a nice overdriven sound. But, if you crank the gain you get a nice saturated distortion sound. It seems very multi-purpose to me. It doesn't really color your tone. It's not a boutique, fansy-schmancy distortion, true. It's just an all-around useful, nice sounding overdrive/distortion pedal. I was kind of disappointed with the Fab Overdrive due to the bassiness of it, but the Fab Distortion is very cool. It does what the Fab OD does, but does it better (no loss of highs), and kicks it up a notch with more available gain. Very cool. Nice tone for very little money.

Rather than getting one of these and a Fab OD, I'd just get two Fab Distortions, because the Fab Distortion is a better overdrive than the Fab OD. It works as clean boost, a mild overdrive, and a distortion. All for $15.

Who knows? It seems solid enough for what it is, and I've never had a Danelectro pedal go out on me. But, I guess we'll see.

Never tried them out.

A very useful distortion/overdrive/clean boost for $15. The clean boost/mild overdrive capabilities were a pleasant surprise. Do yourself a favor, skip the Fab OD and get the Fab Distortion instead. It does everything the Fab OD can do, but does it better, and adds more gain on top of that if you crank the distortion knob.

Three knobs! It honestly couldn't be any easier. I bought this one because I can get it to sound exactly like a Big Muff. It was a no-brainer because the Big Muff was $80 and I got this brand new for $0.01 on eBay. I tell you no lies.

The first day I got it, there was the faintest pop every second which got louder or softer depending on where the pedal's Level knob was set. But tonight, I plugged it in and it was gone. So as of right now, it's perfect sound quality. Honestly, even if the pop comes back, it's barely noticeable and I knew when I bought it that a pedal with a MSRP of $15 probably had something wrong with it. At the moment, however, there's nothing wrong with it!

Like I mentioned above, that pop happened one time, but it hasn't happened since, so unless the pedal starts popping again, I'm going to have to say that it's pretty reliable. Just because it's a $15 pedal, I'd probably keep a backup at a gig because I have a fear that a $15 pedal means $15 craftsmanship, but that's just me with any pedal.

I've never dealt with the company before.

Like I said, I was looking for a pedal that emulated a Big Muff and this one does it flawlessly!

Here's how I use it:
Guitar > Korg DT-10 > Danelectro D-2 Fab Overdrive > Danelectro D-1 Fab Distortion > Morely Little Alligator > Danelectro Reel Echo > Fender '59 Bassman LTD

I suggest to buy this pedal immediately! I got lucky to get mine for one cent, but here's a hint: they never go for more than $5 on eBay!

2 words: LOVE IT

YES YES YES YES

I love this pedal i got it in the mail a few days ago and i relize the help that pedals can give!!!!!!


RJ