Danelectro D-3 Fab Metal

This pedal is so easy to use, a monkey could use it. The only suprise was which way you turned the knobs to change the sound, but apart from that, its simple and easy. One slight complaint, and thats that the bypass switch to turn the pedal on isn't that easy to hit but apart from that, great.

I will admitt im using a noob setup but even so, its sounds really good. It provides a great sound even on light gain up to, i dont say heavy metal, but a reasonably metal sound. Obviously its not gonna go to black metal levels, but you can crank a good Enter Sandman level of gain out of it. There is a bit of noise, didn't annoy me that much but if your a tone nazi then you might be a bit annoyed. Then again, its ??20, its not gonna be boutique level stuff

Its made of a solid hard plastic and it feels really nice, obviously not as sturdy as metal but it'll do. The cheapness of the pedal makes up for it. I got this off a mate who used it for 2 years and it hasn't gone wrong at all

I've never had to deal with them, but from what i've heard they are really good, very nice and effecient

I play anything, from Metallica to Radiohead and it'd do anything you want it too really. Im only a noob but even soon its a damn good pedal and for ??20 you cant complain about it. Dont expect boutique quality because you wont get it. Does what it says, cheap little pedal. And a good one at that

Like most cheap, low end pedals it has only 3 knobs. Bad if you really like to fine tune your sound, but it does make it quick and easy for setup and changes.

I play a Jackson Dinky (JS30DKT) through a 1 channel 30 watt practice amp. If you have the gain or tone turned up past half be prepared for a whole lot of buzzing, however the distortion sounds good, lots of crunch. I play alot of thrash/hardcore/speed metal stuff, anything like Protest The Hero, Between The Buried And Me, and Lamb Of God, and it works well. However it does have a bit more treble than I'd like, but still works better than an Ibanez Tube Screamer or Behringer Overdrive in my opinion.

It is made of plastic, so anybody who takes the "stomp" aspect of StompBox literally is in for disappointment. I haven't gigged with it yet but I can't see why I wouldn't, It hasn't malfunctioned on me in anyway thus far.

... but then again it is made of plastic ...

Haven't dealt with the company directly, only store clerks. I don't know if i would pay to get it repaired as it would most likely cost more than the pedal itself. But if Danelectro came out with a new "Metal" distortion pedal I'd definantly check it out.

Overall I think this pedal is a good buy for anybody who is on a tight budget, or just want's something to mess around with. Myself being a college student, every penny counts, and this is a good sounding pedal and was easy on the wallet.

Three knobs, like many basic distortion pedals.

I bought this with the "Best Seller" Pack, which also includes the echo, chorus, and flange. This is by far the best of the lot; that isn't to say the others weren't completely worth it - all four pedals have their uses. However, none of them are actually on my board simply because they're not that stomp-able for stomp boxes.

So I mainly use this with an Epiphone Les Paul Studio with EMG 81/85 pickups through maybe an EH HGR and a BBE Sonic Stomp into whatever amp is around. It's definitely noisy on high gain settings, but that's without saying. I'd say it's comparable to my EH Metal Muff, just far less tweak-able.

This is where a lot of people dock Danelectro, but I really never stomp on my pedals and the knobs are out of the way. I didn't buy this with gigging in mind; like many other gear junkies, I simply bought it to have more options.

N/A

I play in a experimental prog/post metal/rock type band from Las Vegas called Centaur Rodeo. This works pretty well for the metal riffs (who would've known!) but it also works for lighter gain parts.

I have a small but growing collection of pedals, including the Metal Muff mentioned before. For that reason and that reason alone, I probably wouldn't replace my D-3.

I wouldn't mind modding all my Danelectro and putting them into one pedal casing with true bypass etc...

Easy as can be!

Maison Dinky copy or Dean Mustaine VMNTX - Fab Metal Pedal - ancient Yamaha Budokan 10w amp.

Firstly, this pedal has LOTS of gain. I actually bought it because I wanted a cheap pedal to drive the distortion on my (crappy) amp harder, but thats now running clean with all the distortion coming from the pedal. I like technical/fast thrash, death and grind and this pedal provides all the gain you'll ever need. (I have the gain set at about 3 o'clock for most stuff and thats plenty)

As others have stated the pedal does put out quite a lot of treble, and it can sound pretty thin with the tone control past 12 o'clock, but a little time spent playing around allowed me to get near some great sounds (Megadeth, Carcass, Sepultura)from a usually terrible amp.

Only had it a few days but feels pretty solid.

For the price this is a whole lot of pedal. If (like me) you're after some great metal sounds at a volume that wont get you evicted then I can't recommend this enough.

I've not used it through anything bigger or with more volume yet but I can't imagine it will give me any grief.

Pretty easy to use. Only three knobs of which are tone, level, and gain. Very simple design.

I put it directly in front of my Blackheart 5 watt combo. It really makes the most out of those 5 all-tube watts. If I crank the level up on the pedal all the way, I could probably drown out a 50 watt solid state amp.

I get a nice early Metallica sort of tone. I keep the gain around 10 o clock. At that setting I get a nice ballsy, shimmering tone that sounds killer with open chords. Remember, this is a tube amp I'm using, so mileage will vary with a solid state.

With my setup I can get anything from classic rock, to 80s hair metal, to Van Halen or Metallica.

I would use a back up... what's another 15 bucks? You can't even get one day's worth of groceries, or a haircut for that anymore!

Seems pretty solid though for being mostly plastic.

I play mainly rock and blues...

The fact that I only paid 20 bucks for this thing is incredible. I'm sure it could hang in there with some of the more expensive distortion pedals.

Level, Tone, Gain. How hard is that?

I have a Boss Metalzone, Zoom Trimetal, and EH Metal Muff and they are great pedals. Those are great for harder metal. However, I had trouble getting an 80's sound (Ratt, Dokken, old AC/DC, etc.) from those. This pedal nails that sound, which I love.

Dunno, its too new

Could'n be clearer...

Thought many players have stated that it's not very good for solos, I have to disagree. I'm getting a very good, thick solo sound out of it. I'm playing Les Paul and Tele (w/ humbucker in the front) with Marshall 2203 amplifier. The tone in D-3 is almost all the way down with drive and gain almost all the way up. I play solos with neck pickups and get a full, whisteling sound.

No problems so far. I use it in a pedal board so it's well protected.

Never needed.

A beast for the price. I've played for 18 years and had many stomp boxes, preamps and amplifiers. I play mostly pop/rock covers. It's a bit too rough for softer material, so I'm thinking to buy some other box for more tender and vintage solos. It's a bit noisy. I wouldn't say it's irreplaceable, but still, it's a very good stomp box.

3 knobs. easy.

Sounds killer.A bit more noise than other hi gain dist. boxes.I run it through my Hush 2 cx, so that eliminates that problem. I like old EVH , George Lynch, Kill em all type Metallica, etc. I have a few tube and solid state amps I use with it. Sounds really whacked ( in a bad way) when the battery goes dead/ weak.An ac adapter is suggested, as others say it eats batteries. Charvel and Gibson V main guitars. Sounds like my ART x treme pedal.Enough distortion to kill small animals.Be careful if you have pets.

Seems dependable, even though it is plastic with a thick metal plate on bottom.Buy another one as a backup.

Last I checked, their webpage is'nt very good. doubt if I'll need it.

I stole, errrr, borrowed this from my niece to see if it measured up to these reviews. It does that and more. I'm surprised people don't like it for lead. I love it for lead and rhythm.Actually does help me make music.Been playing for 25 years. Will I go to hell if I steal it from my niece? Nah, I 'll just buy one for myself.

Level = volume, Tone = trebliness, Gain = amount of distortion / sustain. You'll have to get used to twisting the knobs backwards if you're looking at it from the front, but it's not much of a pain once you're used to it.

I use a Washburn WG-587 and usually use this in conjunction with a tube emulator, such as the Behringer ADI21 (the one with para mids), which yields a much more natural sound and gives me more control over the sound, and put that through a Peavey TNT 115 bass amp.

If you've heard the sound clips of this on Danelectro's website, I actually think they sounded rather weak compared to what this pedal can pull off. If you've heard a Fab Distortion, this is basically a 'roided up version of that pedal. For what it is, it sounds like exactly what it states it is, a distortion pedal suitable for Metal. Guys and gals who like Lightning / Puppets era Metallica will probably enjoy this with the gain between 10:00 and 12:00 if looking that this from the back, and the tone around 8:00. If you turn the Gain and Tone all the way down, you have a decent hard rock tone. If you turn the Gain up about 3/4's of the way, leaving the tone around midpoint, you have a decent death metal tone also. If you turn the Tone and Gain up all the way, you can compete with the best of black metal's tr00 kVlt.

Despite what's been said already, I've actually gotten this pedal to ring out a high E on the 24th fret. You have to be careful not to let the other strings engage in sympathetic vibrations, but it's possible to play leads with this pedal.

If a Boss MT-2 is like flying first class on an airline, this pedal is like flying coach on the same flight: it's not the most luxurious option in the world, but it gets you to the same destination without sucking your wallet dry. Look folks, you get a decent sounding pedal for under 20 bucks here. If you really thought you were getting something that sounded like a Mesa Mark II, you're seriously kidding yourself.

Beyond that, as stated, I'd highly recommend at least running this through a tube emulator on clean mode, such as a Sansamp Para Driver or some equivilant, to get that full fat tube like saturation and not something that sounds like a bug zapper, which most distortion pedals tend to sound like anyways, but for under 20 bucks, why complain?

I've had this pedal since last summer, and the worst that's happened to this pedal is some static electricity in the pots, which is nothing that hasn't happened to my Russian Big Muff before, probably caused by dust.

As said, this is lunchbox quality plastic (a darn sturdy lunchbox, mind you), so I wouldn't hesitate to use this without a backup as long as I'm careful with it. If you don't treat your pedals like a child abuser, this pedal should hold up.

Only reason this gets an 8 here is because you can't chalk a 747-400 with this pedal.

Don't know.

I play all sorts of styles, but prefer to stick to thrash metal. Though it's not the most tonally flexible pedal in the world, it seems pre-scooped to yield a Metallica-ish sound from way back when. Again, it's not a Mesa Boogie in a small box, but it's great especially for beginners or anyone who's on a tight budget and wants to experiment with heavy duty distortion. If you're looking for more classic rock distortion, you're probably better picking up the Fab Distortion, unless you're going for the all out Submersed style sound.

If somebody stole it, which I don't know why they would, other than malice, I'd simply laugh and get another one.

Beyond that, again, if you really want to get the full potential out of this pedal, I'd recommend picking up some sort of tube emulator. I had a spare Behringer ADI21 sitting around, and it really thickened up the tone of this pedal while giving me bass and adjustable mid frequencies, and on top of that, I get an XLR DI out for going straight into a sound board without having to lug around a huge rig, which I prefer when I can.

Key aspect here folks, between 14 and 19 bucks, and occassionally you can get them for a penny on eBay last I checked, and this is a very huge step above a child's toy, especially for the price.

Plug in and twist knobs until sound suits you
I give it a 7 because no matter how I twist them, I don`t like the sounds.

I picked it up at GC just for the hell of it.$15 bucks I figured WTF?
Well for this thing just doesn`t inspire me no matter where I set the controls. I play a Strat into a Traynor YCV20. I like raunchy blues rock and just plain old R&R and this pedal don`t do it. Its very raspy IMHO and no matter how I try to tame it it still sounds like crap. I will give it away on EBAY ASAP. I give it a 3.

I want to add some smooth OD to my YCV20. The OD channel is decent but I`d like to see what a pedal will do instead through the clean channel. I`m gonna pick up a Bad Monkey and give that a shot.