Danelectro D-2 Overdrive

Level... Tone... OD... Couldn't expect more simplicity for an overdrive pedal.

I have a '07 MIM Fender Fatstrat running into a 65W 2-chanel Peavey Studio Pro II, with a Digitech RP350 multifx in between. Usually the Digitech does the work for my distortions, and mod effects.

I got my Danelectro D2 just because I wanted some simple non-digital overdrive to play some classic tunes... something crisp, crunchy and dirty to play stuff like White Stripes.

So what I got? Turns out that this pedal gives me almost the same dirt that my amp does on the "vintage" channel of my amp. The difference is that this pedal is a little bit mellow, but pretty useful to boost the guitar signal when needed.

I'm very pleased that the sound quality is the one I was looking for... It's even soooo quiet when using 9vDC. You know strats get kinda noisy because of the stock single coils, but believe me... This little thing really gained my ears, so I'll give it a solid 8!

Well... it's made of plastic. Altough, seems pretty sturdy. The switching looks (and actuates) really smooth. I'm very careful with my gear, and wouln't stomp pretty hard on it, so I would expect this thing last long.

And yes, I'd take it to a gig without backup... only if I carry my amp!

Never dealt with'em...

I play general rock (so to say)from Zeppelin, AC/DC, P.Floyd, to Foo Fighters, White Stripes and some sort of things. I've been playing for almost 15 years and own 4 guitars (so far): Ibanez AX32, a vintage Ibanez made on the late 60's, a stock Fender Fatstrat and a cheap guitar I made.

For the price, if it were lost I would buy another one for sure! The thing I love of this pedal is the cost/benefit feature: it's cheap and it sounds great! This is not for a metalhead, it's for those who is in the quest of getting their own tone... you know what I'm talking about.

If you see one of this little things, go for it!

Overdrive for Under 20 bucks!!!!!
and it sounds really good

A little heavier that my Ibanez TS-9 so it's ALMOST a distortion

20 bucks hahha I need to buy some more in case they break
but haven't yet

I work for a Dano distributer so if I have problems we have em by the box full

this is a killer pedal and EVERYONE should get a complete set of FAB pedals just to have some effects for under 20 bucks @!!!!!

Pretty simple. Drive, tone, and level controls.

Great overdrive sound when played in front of a tube amp. I'm playing a Gibson Les Paul studio with a crate all tube 18 watt class A amp. The crate sounds good, but its a bit thin and not great for solos. This pedal fixes that and then some. Great sustaining, slightly compressed sound for solos, and pinch harmonics sing through this thing. However, it does all of this without sounding muddy or overly compressed. Rhythm sounds through this still have a bit of crunch also, so its certainly not a one purpose pedal.
However, you need to try this out on your amp before you go out and buy one. I bought it on impulse a long time ago, and playing through a solid state amp with a strat and a fairly inexperienced player, it sounded terrible. With my Vox modelling amp I have very little use for it as well, but when this thing gets matched up with a nice all tube amp, its brilliant. I would like it to be true bypass, however. That said, for 15 bucks, you can't go wrong.

I've had this pedal for probably 3 years, and it still works, but the volume knob if hit the right way can make the sound cut out. Hasn't been a big issue yet, but I might go ahead and replace it with a new one before I rely on it for a gig

Customer support for a $15 pedal = trip to guitar center to buy a new one

Overall, I like it a lot. Its inspiring to play through and has the dynamics and pick response that makes playing a lot of fun, and improvising easy and natural. Would replace it in a heartbeat and I'm looking at other danelectro products after this one. As I said, make sure you try it out with your gear and see if it's your sound or not.

I won't bore you here.... it???s got 3 knobs. Even your drummer could work it!

I think the On/Off switches on the FAB pedals are fantastic - very positive action with no 'clunk'.
I have other inexpensive pedals where this is an issue (Behringer Boss style switches require a bit of technique, and their design worries me! Also the Dano Mini range is a bit hard to press on and off - precision footwork is required!)

Knobs are right out of the way, so can't be kicked. Genius!

This a funny pedal...

Distortion/Overdrive is a very subjective thing, and this pedal has been off and on my board many times. This pedal is quite hard to describe. Let me explain what I think an overdrive should be...

My main overdrive is a DOD 250 Preamp. It's completely transparent. It doesn't have a tone control - why would you need a tone control on a pedal whose sole purpose is to simply overdrive your signal? The Drive knob takes your existing guitar sound from clean to very dirty. Simple.

So what happens when you step on the FAB Overdrive then?

A big fat, dirty, sweet, boosted mid-range, sustaining, complex textured overdrive, rich in harmonics, with rolled off highs hits you in the ears!

The FAB overdrive doesn't care about your original tone! It's got it's own sound and no amount of knob twiddling really helps! The Tone doesn't really do much, the gain, doesn't really do much....

Thankfully the sound is fantastic! Rude, dirty, responsive, and musical.

I use a Tele into a Blues junior, which can be quite bright on the bridge pick up, so the FAB is perfect for beefing up your skinny single coils, and neck humbuckers get that sweet melting sound.

Younger musicians who like The Libertines, Blur, Kings of Leon, or anything Lo - Fi will like this pedal.
Older Rockers who are into SRV, and other heavy blues will also love this pedal. Its rolled off highs and pushed mid range harmonics are great for slide.

Please note that you won't be able to crank it up to Fuzz type distortion levels - it just won't go there. But there's lot's of lovely dirt.

This pedal is great for generating big syrup thick feedback, and sounds great in conjunction with another distortion or overdrive (in no particular order in the chain)

Honestly, these Fab pedals are very solid. I've had mine a few years now and it looks just like it did the day I bought it.
It's got sturdy knobs, clever switch. Keep it in its box if you pack it into a gig bag, or fix it to a pedal board with Velcro. No worries at all.

Despite being plastic it feels expensive and classy.
Good design

Can't really comment here.

I don't really play other peoples stuff or try to sound like anyone else. I just like making nice sounds with lush overdrives, oscillating delays, pulsing tremolos and warm tubes.

I'm fickle about pedals. I have a good quality Fender Tele and Strat, and a good quality Fender Tube amp, and I'm quite choosey about what goes between them.

This pedal is a loveable rogue! It's a cute puppy that can't be trained!

It is also quite beautiful looking (if you're into that kind of thing)

Danelectro are the leaders of the pack when it comes to fun, retro, affordable, wacky, unique pedals.

For 20 quid, you won't be worrying too much about whether or not you should buy this pedal, but I really wanted to emphasise the fact that these are not wobbly built toys that are on the verge of breaking at any moment.
They are one of the few things in the guitar world where you get more that what you pay for.

The side-mounted knobs are a little difficult to grasp at first if you are used to BOSS and other pedals, which are top-mounted. But this does make the pedal a lot smaller and more compact which is kinda cool. Like similar overdrives, there are 3 knobs: Drive, Tone, Level. I give it an 8, because it is unusual, but it really gets a 9 because of the size/dimensions. Is small enough to fit into a guitar case.

I played this with a Gibson Melody-Maker and a Gibson Les Paul Standard to a 15 Watt Squier Solid State Amp. I really wanted something that would warm up the solid state sound and give it a more Tube Quality. This pedal definitely did the job. The other reviewers are right when they said this has Tube-Screamer Circuitry. It definitely sounds "Tube", in that it is a warm, soft overdrive that sounds very natural. It is in no way gritty like a distortion pedal and would work very well as a soft boost for a tube amp. However, I have to give this pedal and 8 on the sound quality, because it is not very bright. I've noticed this with a lot of the overdrive pedals, including the Tubescreamer, but this one especially seemed to lack in the high, trebly range. It sounds great, but will suck your treble out, even if you crank the tone knob to 10. But if you have a bright amp to begin with (which I didn't) you should be just fine, and will add a boost/tube sound to any distortion that your amp already has.

Never had any problems with it, although it IS made of cheap plastic. The battery seemed to last a long time too, although I unplugged it when not using.

Never had to contact. Heck, I paid only $20 for the pedal, and hear that you can get it cheaper off of Amazon.com or someplace.

I play rock and roll, being a child of the 80's, listening to mostly classic rock. I think this pedal would be est suited to classic rock stuff and seems to get muddy if you dial in a ton of distortion. But a setting of 1-6 on the gain knob will give you a nice boost to any distortion that your amp may have and will warm it up to sound like a tube overdrive. The only fault in this pedal is that it is not as trebly/bright as i would have liked it. But hey! $20.00 for a great, natural tube sounding overdrive is worth the try!

Couldn't be easier. It's a basic OD pedal.

I bought this for playing harp, since the very things that it gets knocked for (dark sounding, not a lot of top end), tend to work well for harp. For $15 I expected little. Wow, this thing is fantastic for harp! It sounds great into a tube amp when I need a little more grind at low volume. And, surprisingly, it sounds pretty good straight into the PA. I've tried a few other OD/distortion pedals and the distortion/OD on my Magicstomp, and they suck compared to this for amplified harp. It adds a smooth overdrive sound with a bit of compression.

OD/Distortion pedals tend to make harp feed back, but I use a MicroHush pedal that is great for killing feedback, so this is a non-issue.

I give it a 9, rather than 10, because it adds a little noise, especially as the gain goes up.

For $15, I don't expect it to last forever. So far so good.

None needed.

For $15 this thing is amazing for harp! I'd be pleased with it for $100. If it were lost/stolen, of course I'd shell out the big bucks for another. I've been playing harp for about 12 years and play in a band. That said, there are lots of better harp players than I, but I can hold my own. I have 4 tube amps. For practicing without an amp, or if an amp craps out at the gig, this little pedal into the PA will get you by.

Sounds like a tube amp breaking up! this pedal can also be bright not at all nasal sounding, just put a dynamic setting in your amps eq and this pedal will shine. I guess those comments about this lacking highs, set their eq at flat.

It sounds thicker than the tubescreamer for it has sense of lite compression which is good to keep your tone atop. Captures the picking nuance of the player. do a hard strummed rythm power chord and you will hear the brite-bite juice out of it. and do a lead licks and it's like a fat tube amp about to breakup.

the overdrive sings and has a rounded, nicely shaped tone not like a distorted overdrive that is usually heard on cheap pedals, midhump is useful, unit is not noisy at all.

great!

Couldn't be easier to use. 3 knobs - level, tone & drive. Manual warns that you should start the the level at 25%. I had no problems though, just plugged it in and started play with smoothly overdriven leads. You can get a great sound straight away with minimal fuss.

This thing is great for the price. The overdrive is slightly compressed and very sweet sounding to my ear. Some have complained about the lack of high end in this pedal but this is the sort of sound I like. It's great on top of an already slighty deistorted rhythm tone as it gives you a volume, sustain and gain boost which is really smooth. I'm playing it thru a Peavey Studio Pro 112 and a Custom Guitar Workshop Tele copy with GFS single coils. This pedal is great for me as I'm happy with the clean and dirty channels in my amp but really needed an extra bit of boost for lead playing, as my main rhythm tone is only marginally dirty and doesn't have a lot of sustain. Considering the price this pedal is an absolute winner in terms of sound.

Can't really comment here as I've only had it for a short time. Though the top of the pedal is made of plastic, I don't see any structural shortcomings with it - looks pretty sturdy to me. I don't jump on my pedals and try to take care of all my gear, so it's all good for me. If it keeps the cost down then I see it as a bonus not a hinderance. Time will tell though.

Can't say. If it breaks I'll just get another. Dirt cheap.

I play blues and jazzy hard rock. This pedal is perfect for me. I've never owned a Tube Screamer (used 'em before though) but this pedal has a similar overall effect, as it smooths and enhances your tone in a warm natural sounding way that belies it's transistory construction. Fantastic for warm sounding leads. It may not suit high gain shredders but for any blusey-style stuff this pedal is ace. This is my second Fab pedal and I can't believe the quality of these things for the dollar paid. I am now a huge fan. I've been playing since '89 and have owned and played with a lot of distortion devices - Boss, Dod, Marshall etc - and this one is the best I've encountered thus far, as it enhances rather than detracts from your sound. Get one - they sell for bugger all on ebay. Have to give it high marks just because of the bang for the buck and it's high quality sound.

Very simple to get a great usable sound out of it.

I build military spec tube screamers. I am always searching for new overdrive pedal designs. This is a tube screamer curcuit folks! It's just like a sound tank with a slight tone knob modification.

I use it regularly for SRW strat fender gigs and some world music gigs. Holds up just fine.

I love the fact that if it gets stolen, i'm only out $15.00.

Super Easy. A little fiddling and you'll find what you're after.

I really like this pedal. It's a little mid-rangey, but for lead work(which I do a little of), it's perfect. I don't use many other effects, usually one or two, and this is one of them. I use it with a couple of different setups depending on what band I am playing with.
- Rickenbacker 610 > OD > Fender Blues Jr
- SG > OD > Gibson GA15rvt

I've owned other OD's and played several others and i've come to the conclusion that this OD is a winner.

Looks pretty tough. I've owned it for a little over a year and use it out and haven't had any issues with it. I don't have a backup.

N/A

I play in a couple of rock bands...do a little recording. I have two rigs that I sometimes alternate between bands and the OD is in both. I use an AB box to switch between an engaged Fab Distortion(rhythm) and this Fab OD(lead). It's a simple rig, but it sounds good and is easy to drop on the floor and get crackin'.

I build pedals and a few amps and honestly, I haven't built an OD that can match this for price, sound, and perhaps durability. I hate buying Chinese stuff considering how out-of-control our trade deficit situation is, but it's simply too good of a deal.