Danelectro DC-1 Cool Cat Chorus

Very simple to use. There are two parameters: "Speed" and "Chill." Adjusting speed, well, adjusts the modulation speed. Turning up the chill increases the modulation in the effect/dry mix. It is very fast and easy for me to find a desirable setting.

I typically run an SG through a Marshall JCM 2x12combo and play mostly rock. Though I am acquiring quite a collection of effects, I almost always play straight into the amp. However, when I desire modulation, this is a very pure, lucious chorus that does exactly what I want it to. I can add a certain fullness to my clean tones without making it sound weird and spacy (though this'll do that, too, if that's what you're going for). If you're a simple kind of guitarist, this is a simple kind of chorus. Of course, I always recommend demo-ing this sort of thing before spending money on it.

I use this item almost exclusively for recording and have not gigged with it. Thus, I am not going to rate its reliability.

No experience, no opinion.

I'm a huge fan of how this pedal only has two knobs, yet it does everything I want it to do, perfectly. This demonstrates great simplicity and functionality. When I purchased this unit (almost 2yrs ago), I compared it side by side with other popular manufacturers. This was the winner and I haven't a single regret.

Easy as. Speed and Chill for wobble and amount respectively. Anyone can use it very easily.

Nice lush chorus, goes from flangy boost to almost Leslie as you dial up more speed. Great sound clean or distorted, although I think its better with less speed if you choose to go distorted. Whisper quiet, no volume drop. I use it in the effects loop of my Marshall Valvestate 8080.

Solid as, would hurt me if I dropped it on my foot or something. Footswitch very easy to activate/deactivate. Would gig without backup.

Never dealt with them.

A great, versatile chorus. Easily the best for the cheaper price bracket. A TC Electronics or something would probably be better, but they are so much more expensive. If it was lost or stolen, I would definitely buy another- in fact I am looking to buy another anyway so I can have two different settings! Highly recommended.

You'd need to ride a short bus to not be able to figure it out.

awesome! No noise! Did I say awesome?!!!? Hughes and kettner bass amp w/ a dual henry the 8x8 cabinet

Benn using it alomost 3 years with vocals, bass and guitars live!!! no problems. It is a battery hog!

Never had to use them. Must be very reliable.

I play every style and have been for almost 15 years. I use it for 5 basses and have let various singers use it for vocals.love everything about it. Best damn chorus pedal on the planet! I have used them all and nothing compares! If it were stolen I would have to decapitate the idiot that stole it. Seriously I would get another one even if I had to steal it! :-)

Two knobs - Speed (rate) and Chill (depth)...very simple.

This particular chorus is nice and deep. I use it with my custom US Strat and a 30W all-tube amp. For clean and distorted channels it adds a nice, colorful swirl that I like much better than the Boss chorus which tends to be a little too transparent...which may be good or bad depending on your taste. If you are looking for a nice, lush, analog chorus than the Cool Cat is a nice pick. The only complaint I have is that this pedal eats 9V batteries like no other. It requires 2 9V's to run and those will barely last one gig. This means you will probably have to pick up the 18V DC adaptor which is kind of a hassle if you like having your pedal board adaptor-clutter-free.

This one has a nice solid metal shell casing and its sturdy. No problems so far...

N/A

Look for one used on Ebay for a good deal. Overall it's a nice full sounding chorus pedal that I find works well w/tube amps. Make sure to get the adaptor or a lifetime supply of 9V batteries!

I was on my way to a high $ gig, driving and trying to put a new battery in my Boss chorus....broke one of the wires...was about to be late so I dropped into a music store and bought this because it looked cool------------plugged it in, tried it out "onstage" for the first time....haven't been without it since. EASY TO USE!

It's the best one out there. That's it.

I've used it for three years without a backup. It ate up batteries initially, but I bought the ac adapter when the first ones went. It's reliable...no backup needed.

I've had 4 Danelectro pedals...they're groovy. No problems.

It seems like everyone who owns this pedal plays a strat of some kind. That's fine. I like strats a lot. I play an Ovation Custom Legend 12 string and an Elite 6 string. I play mostly (okay, I don't care, I'll go ahead and say it)...Yes, son, I play hippie music. I even use this chorus with my Custom Legend 12 string on the funky parts of Zeppelin's "Going to California". I love this chorus pedal. Someone among us said not to "use it on leads"....I don't know why not. I use it anytime I "want to hear the angels"--that's the way a person in my audience described it...(no, it wasn't at a rest home either)(it was at a gorilla love-in actually). But I even use it with my Rickenbacker 360 12-string. No matter what kind of guitar you play, if you plug it in, you ought to see the way this particular pedal will enhance your sound, your set actually (if you gig). I mean like, what else is there? Those of you who do, know exactly what I mean. I am a solo artist (don't have the cymbals strapped on my knees yet) and gig about once or twice a week and normally play/sing/harmonicate for three hours without a break (just can't set it down when people are listening) and I find that the chorus pedal greatly enhances the gig....and this one just happenss to be the best one out there...by a long shot.

Pretty simple: Speed and Chill (Depth). Nothing too tough there.

Excellent lush chorus. You can go from a chorus for light presence to a chorus like in Nirvana's "Come As You Are" and also to a maxed out speedy, spacy chorus (which sounds wicked with wild distortion during noise jams). The controls respond very nicely, great pedal.

Hasn't given me any trouble. Although, personally, I like pedals with larger footswitches so that when my foot presses down it, I feel some resistance and it feel the effect being shot in (like the design of DOD and BOSS pedals). This has nothing to do with the sound or anything, just my personal preference on how I like my foot to feel on the pedal.

Never had any trouble.

I'm a beginner (10 months) and I'm using a Squier Double Fat Strat, DOD Grunge, and an Ibanez Troubadour 25. This is the first chorus pedal I've owned, although I've tried several (BOSS CH-1, Electro-Harmonix Small Clone, to name a few) and I've found the Cool Cat to suit my taste better.

I play mostly grunge/punk/noise rock. My influences include Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, Weezer, Black Sabbath, and the Ramones.

It's only got a couple knobs....pretty self explanitory. I like the simplicity of it, and it has all the features a chorus needs to have.

I tried a bunch of different chorus boxes, and most of them ranged from OK to pretty good (a couple of the cheaper ones sucked). When I plugged in the Cool Cat, it was totally obvious that it was far, far better than all the others. I bought it without hesitation. Even the guy at the music store raised his eyebrows and agreed the choice was obvious. The thing has absolutely no errant noise whatsoever, and the way it makes an acoustic guitar sound through an amp is awesome.

The case is so thick and rugged you could literally hit it with a sledge hammer, and the thing would probably still work. I got the 18 volt version (they are now made in a 9 volt version), and I went through a butt-load of batteries (it takes two). It would eat up a set of batteries in about 2-3 jam sessions! I went to Radio Shack to get the right adapter, but it would have cost me 60 bucks. I decided to check back with the music store where I bought the thing, and they sold me a Danelectro adapter made specifically for the unit for 15 dollars. If you get one of these great chorus boxes, it is absolutely essential that you buy the adapter with it. Now that I have the adapter, it's great. I think the company should just sell the adapter with the box, but oh well...

Haven't dealt with them.

I play mostly rock and a lot of acoustic stuff (Eagles, Floyd, etc), and a good chorus is pretty necessary for that kind of stuff. I couldn't imagine that anyone wouldn't think this chorus sounds better than all the competition (in it's class & price range). Because the sound quality is so good I'll have to give it a 10. Playing through on of these makes your instrument sound incredible, and really inspires your playing. Go get one.......along with the adapter.

Real easy, two knobs, two output jacks, and input jack. Plug in and play.

This effect sounds great! I run a Gibson Explorer through the Cool Cat, a USA Big Muff, and a Dano French Toast into a Fender Champion 110 (piece of dung). Sounds great clean or distorted with the Big Muff. Many usable sounds. I even have a setting that I call "Instant Andy Summers" that sounds just like the old Police albums!

Had it for a couple of years now, no problems. Seems sturdy enough.

I like playing all different styles of music, well, except rap rock and country. It has a very smooth sound and is quite versatile for only having two knobs. It's a really good effect to have and I use it all the time. By the way, be sure to get the AC adapter! You'll end up going through so many batteries that you'll spend more on the batteries than the adapter after a weeks use.

well umm there is 2 different knobs to turn so if you cant figure it out then well i just feel sorry for you

the sound quality kicks ass. i can make it work with a sharp solo or a pretty doodle, it is easialy the best chorus pedal i have yet encounterd, it is also good because it isnt overbearing, you can make it so the chorus comes through powerfully, but you can adjust it to make it be a more sublte sound.

the thing, (i kid you not) is more powerful than even a boss, yeah your all thinking no way, but serouisley the matal on the casingis like a friggen tank.

never dealt with them, but most musical companies are filled with assholes, thats why i like small personal owned music stores,

i play rock blues and i even can get down with some classical, but i really like harder rock combined with blues it makes a cool sound, but the cool cat really does the blues aspect of my playing a favor, umm i have been playing forever my setup is a les paul standard+ with a blues driver, smash box, phaser (which i hate), and of course the cool cat, if i lost it i would buy the same thing but umm it is a really cool thing and it totally kicks ass so whatever

The cool cat is very easy to use. I returned mine, but I think the knobs are the standard depth and rate. Pretty easy to dial in nice sounds.

Overall, I loved the sound of the cool cat. Lush, thick chorus. Really fattens up the sound. The problem was, it would cut out if you let a chord ring. At the tail end, the sound would start to break up and "sputter" out. As much as I loved the Cool Cat sound, the loss of signal was just unacceptable. Too bad too,because this truely is the nicest sounding chorus pedal I tried. I ran it through the effects loop in my 5150 combo. I was going for a late 80s Van Halen "wet" sound. I had it too, but the damn thing kept cutting out. I even gave Danelectro a second chance. I ordered another one, just to make sure it the first was not defective. Same thing. Tried it through different amps in the store, same thing. So take this for what its worth. Great sound, but in my experiance with 2 of them, there was signal break up. And no, it wasn't the guitar. The Cool Cat did the same thing with 3 different guitars. Nothing's perfect I guess. I wound up buying a Boss CE5 Chorus Ensemble. I get the sound I like with it, but to be honest, it is just not as nice or as thick as the Cool Cat.

I'll be honest, those cheapo knobs scare me. But they do the job. I returned mine. (See above for reason.) If I still had it, I would gig without a backup, just because who can afford to have a "backup" for every pedal or amp they have? The pedal itself is very solid, and heavy. You could easily cause head trauma to someone with it. But those knobs......

Never talked to them.

I've been playing about 11 years, and it's the nicest sounding chorus pedal I've heard. Of course the one's I bought all sucked. This either says the pedal has a design flaw, or the quality control at Danelectro is really awful. What are the odds that I got two crappy pedals, with the same problem? I really wish the Cool Cat would have worked right. My advice is to really try it out well before you buy it. Don't order it online. TRY IT!!. Look at the Boss selection as well. They don't sound quite as good, but they are reliable, and get the job done.