Danelectro DD-1 Fab Tone

This pedal has a ton of volume & treble; you need to be judicious with applying these paramaters. Treble should be nearly off, bass nearly 100%.
The "Fab" control doesn't have much variation, but this pedal only really has one sound anyway.

To all the haters of this pedal: you have no idea what you're doing.
This pedal has one purpose: a beautiful wall of distortion. You may not get much note definition, but that's not the point. If you are looking for a TS style overdrive, this is the complete opposite. DO NOT EXPECT A TRANSPARENT OVERDRIVE, THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S DESIGNED FOR. If you are looking for a distortion pedal that will turn your guitar into a inpenetrable wall of sound look no further.

Don't expect too much.

Non-existent.

This pedal will not work for you if you play classic rock, jazz, metal, or country. This pedal will work wonderfully for you if you play indie, alternative, noise, or lo-fi. A very underrated pedal, I'm just sick and tired of seeing these reviews from morons who can't wrap their head around the existence of a pedal that doesn't offer a minor variation on a tubescreamer. If you don't like it, give it to a friend with better musical taste than you.

It's just a pedal - nothing complex about it.

Garbage! Garbage, garbage garbage. It sounds like a fun effect through a practice amp at low volumes, but at stage volumes it literally sounds like garbage - your tone ends up in the same range as cymbals and you can't distinguish between notes. Your audience goes home deaf.

Mine's never given me problems, but then again I haven't really used it much. It makes a great paperweight. It also doubles as a brick, or a doorstop.

I'm convinced that most distortion pedals are worthless, and this one is one of the worst I've ever used.

The bass knob is quite difficult to control, if you turn it up all the way, you get way too much bass, probably enough to damage your speakers, if you back it off just a tiny bit, it sounds way too thin. Also, the Fab knob seems to affect the sustain more than the amount of gain. I got it used, so no manual

I cant see why so many people give this a 10. It sounds like sloth crap to me. It,s hard to describe the actual sound; "nest of hornets" is a good description, but it also sounds sort of muffled at the same time. It must not have enough of the right frequencies or something. You cannot use it as an overdrive or lead boost at all, if you use it with any other distortion it sounds even noisier and crappier than before, if that's possible. even when turned off, it still destroys your tone completely, much worse than any other pedal I've tried. I've tried it through my HOt Rod Deville 4x10 and a little 10 watt Marshall practice amp, and it sounds exactly the same.

It seems sturdy enough, but due to the sound quality, I wouldn't use it live at all, not with a backup, I wouldn't even use it as a backup! There's no way you could hear yourself over the drums, cymbals, etc if you used this pedal.

I can't believe that so many people love this thing so much, it must be 13 year old kids who only play Smells Like Teen Spirit. either that or people in noise bands, ironic hipster ********, etc. I play rock, mostly influenced by old school punk rock/hardcore, 80's underground rock, and any of the more basic, stripped down rnr bands. I prefer a more natural distortion sound, this pedal sounds way too "fake", as others have put it. It certainly doesnt help me make music. If someone stole it, I wouldnt give a rat's ***, unless they also stole my Blues Driver or Marshall Guvnor. If I lost it, I probably wouldn't be heartbroken exactly. I didnt buy this, I traded a crappy phase pedal for it. Still, I love reading these reviews, on one of the really old posts, the kid said he uses a Fab Tone through a Hot Rod Deville with the bass on 12 and the midrange on zero. Wow.

Volume, treble, bass, fuzz. Very simple.

Ah, I'll never forget Baby's First Fuzzbox. I bought this in early high school after playing for about four months. As a kid who was inspired by 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' to take up guitar, this thing was a thrill to play with my Squier strat through an awful little Gorilla pawn shop amp. Shrill, nasty grunge. Well, a few months later when my pals and I started a band, I found this pedal to be a real let-down because when played at garage-band volume through a bigger amp, even with the drive all the way down, it made my guitar sound like a broken vaccuum cleaner. Honestly, it turns your tone into a filthy river of sharp, tuneless white noise. Having since continued to play in bands and gig out frequently, I can say I wouldn't dream of playing this in public. Once out of desperation (forgot the damn Tube Screamer at home) I used it at an out-of-town gig and was promptly drowned out by everything else in the band.

If only this pedal sounded half as great as it looks...

Oh, don't worry. It's solid die-cast steel and indestructible. It'll make your music sound like a dung tornado, but rest assured your precious FabTone will stand up to anything short of a meteor.

No clue.

These days, I play power-pop songs (think Big Star, Badfinger, the Cars) and this pedal is a terrible match just because it sucks all definition out of your tone and fills it with painful noise, creating an effect for you and your audience that is not unlike flossing your ear canal with a shredded beer can. That said, this electric crapbox will always have a place in my heart just because it was the first I ever owned, and to a 14-year-old novice guitarist with grungy aspirations playing alone in his room, it sounded like a million bucks.
To ANYONE reading this, from novice to veteran, if you're in the market for a fuzz pedal in this price range that will stand up to live playing at high volumes, you would do well to consider the Boss Super Overdrive (I think that's what it's called, it's yellow) or one of the lower-end Ibanez TubeScreamers, which both sound pretty good. Personally, I use a Visual Sound Jeckyl & Hyde, which will likely be my fuzzbox til the end.
In short, if you're a beginner, you'll outgrow the FabTone. If you play gigs or record, you will probably hate it. Unless you're in the Jesus and Mary Chain. And it's 1986.

This pedal is easy as dialing ina sound on your amp. The mannual with it gives settings for certin amp sounds and is a big help if your searching for a specific sound.

BEST SOUNDING PEDAL ON THE PLANET! every time i go to guitar center and play through all their equipment, i have still yet to find a sound as good as my Dano. Its an awesom pedal for everything from metal, to pop-punk, to blues even. I LOVE THIS SOUND

If you get one new, you know its reliabile, if you get one used, you dont know what the previous owner put it through. Yes this pedal can take abuse but just like anything man-made, it can only take so much. i had a used fab-tone for about a year anda half, and then the output jack gave out and kept screwing up. (if you look at other reviews, i wrote the one by "Squizzi Phish") but i got a new one about a month after that, ive had this one for a little over a year without a problem at all.

The only thing wrong with their customer support, is finding it. but once you do, their awsome. I called them about the problem with my imput jack. They said to send it to them. I did and they sent back a brand new one in box w/ mannual and everything. It only cost me about 8 bux to ship it there and i got a brand new one for free!

I once again, LOVE this pedal. I wouldnt take it out of my rig to save my life. I usually play a Fender Tom Delonge Strat and it just rips when i crank up the gain. My amp is a 1988 Randall RG-100ES on top of a Bheringer BG412S which suprisingly sounds frickin amazing. My pedal is the whip cream and cherry on top of the whole thing and wouldnt trade it for the world. DANELECTRO RULES!!

Only sound was a dead short scream.

Again, no sound other than extreme feedback.

They don't have a zero rating. It never worked, new out of the box.

There is NONE, try to find them, I can't. My warantee registration was returned as undeliverable. I did find a repair center and sent it to them but no word from them either.

Absolute zero rating, I'm selling the other 5 Danelectro pedals I have due to their lack of support acess and total disconcern for their customers. Their website doesn't even give you a customer support address or number, they must have been getting to many complaints.

just 4 knobs. pretty easy, i bought mine used, so no manual, but i really didnt need one, but knobs are pretty touchy so be careful.

Pretty good tone wise, and since it has bass and treb knobs you can adjust its tone easily. you can get classic rock tones with Fab turned down and harder metal tones w/ Fab up. One thing though is that its pretty noisy w/ vol turned up, but to my suprise, the Fab didnt affect teh volume to much. I'm using it w/ a crappy squier strat and the ok but small amp it came with. it makes the amp sound pretty good.I use it sometimes w/ a crybaby wah, which is always 2nd in the chain.good bypass, but im not sure if its true bypass

Good reliability, but dont kick it or it will make a horrible sound.i would gig w/ it very easily.if i dropped it, it might make a thud, but would still work.

never called em

I play mostly classic/psycedelic rock, and it delivers some great leads. I have been playin 4 about 2 years, and 1 year with my buddy Davis, who drums. I also own a crybaby wah, also used, and hope to get a electro harmonix micro synth soon, (ehx rules!!!). If it were lost or stolen i might rebuy this or get another distortion,(like a big muff...) I love its leads, but its loud. it might wake my neighbors.i compared it to an ibanez distortion. they were kinda similar, but i chose this. it does its job but not perfect. for distortion, this thing does whatever your into.

I found the FabTone to be very easy, but rather touchy, in terms of getting good tone. The manual gives some suggestions. Start there and tweak according to your amp, guitar, and the room. The adjustments with the tone controls can make HUGE differences with small adjustments. My settings are Volume (9 o'clock), Bass (3-4 o'clock), Treble (10 o'clock), and I vary the Fab according to the song.

Sound quality on this beast depends tremendously on the amp you are using. I didn't truly appreciate how well the clean channel on my Peavey Classic 50 Head works with distortion pedals. Through it I can get everything from Skynrd to Van Halen, depending on the Fab level. The pedal is unbelievably quiet for such a raunchy distortion pedal. Through this amp, the FabTone, followed by an EQ, can easily match any metal or distortion pedal out there. This pedal also provides unbelievable sustain.

However, now I understand why this pedal gets some questionable reviews. I was looking for a smaller amp and found a Blues Junior that is perfect for small get togethers. Plugged in a Boss SD-1 and the sound was passable. Plugged in the FabTone and got unmitigated crap. Recognize this is NOT a problem with the pedal, but a failing of an amp that has zero headroom. This pedal MUST be played through a clean channel to get it's best sound.

Reliability is good, but you must be careful with the inputs. I fixed a problem with a cold solder joint in the AC adapter input that was causing the pedal to fade during play. No problems since.

Impossible to find anything about Danelectro. I have 3 of their pedals, FabTone, EQ, and a DanEcho. I have zero expectation of ever trying to get anything done via warranty. There simply is no way to contact the company that I've been able to find.

I play a variety of music, from country and blues to hard rock. I've been playing since the late 70s, and I've owned and sold more guitars and amps than I care to remember (including some really good ones that got away).

I really like the FabTone. The tone that I can get out of a clean amp are fantastic. For the price, I'm willing to deal with the fact that the warranty is basically worthless. This pedal is all about balls to the wall distortion, and it does that fabulously!

For the price, or even twice the going price for these, you will not find a better distortion pedal!

as everyone has said this is a four plastic knob hunk of metal that has a plastic foot switch. Knobs are too close and it looks like something that fell off of a buick in the 50's.

My setup is a old ibanez lawsuit-double muff-real tube-dod chorus-korg dt10-cry baby-fender fuzz/wah/volume-peavey prowler with a 1/12 cab. I tried this pedal because a friend left it over at my house. placed it in my chain on my board and thought something was wrong. Where in the hell did all my tone go? i didn't even turn the thing on and it sucked the hell out of my sound. after messing around i realized it was the pedal so i figured what the hell i already had it connected so lets check this thing out.
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what i found was all the sound i have worked for, being a tone freak, was stolen from me. this wet turd of a pedal is worthless. a wall of noise that makes all notes unrecognizable is forced upon your ears making even a tube amp sound like shit, which is hard to do. thank god i dont own this or i would have to kick my own ass any one that bought this pedal should sell it to the kid playing green day next door and spend the money they get for it what ever amount on anything better, try a EH pedal some of these are classics for a reason.

as sturdy as this feels and it does feel sturdy the one i borrowed had a adapter problem. every time i plugged it into my daisy chain the damn thing had to be it the perfect position or it would shut off. second the battery connection didn't work at all. I took it apart cleaned it and fixed the problems but for a pedal that is not that old i should have saved the time and launched it into the ocean.

could care less cant stand danelectro pedals, but i love their old guitars and no not the reissues.

I have been playing for 16 years i play mostly indie rock, some mathcore/punk you know dillinger escape plan(first album), metal, and throw in some jazz like an odd mixture of phantomas meets june of 44. With some knowledge under my belt when it comes to sound i can honestly say i hate this pedals the only thing more insulting then this pedal is the fact some tool in a factory thought that this thing was worth money and sounded good for a guitarist. i am still baffled as to how all these people could even remotely love this pointless beast of burden. Mark my words in 5 years all you will realize this an albatross.

Four knobs for a distortion is all I need.

I used this one to try out a guitar and ended up buying it with the guitar (and I'm a cheapskate). I'm awfully fond of it. I didn't expect it to have such a heavy sound, after I'd messed with several other of the Dans that were out then. Honestly, it sounded a lot like a Boss Heavy Metal 2, without the low end. One can get a good distorted sound out of it and not kill the tones. I say this as it was a favorite to use with the EKO Cobra II 12-string (the above mentioned guitar) and my 440-HD Musicman. That setup gave me a good balance between delicate resonance of a light-wood 12 and the house-rattling presence of a low-flying WWII bomber. If I remember correctly, I typically drive the low-end and drop out a lot of the high. Oh yeah, nice GAIN on it too.

Seems like it could get a little hissy sometimes on other guitars and with other effects in the chain.

I take the knobs for granted on this thing, it does have H-L controls which give it potential for greater application, though is a little lacking on low end for my tastes (and I typically don't have a bassists, so I expect to be able to fill out the total sound). That said, I have a collection of distortion pedals and am reviewing my three favorites, which are the Boss HM-2, the Univox Superfuzz and this baby. Of those three, it sounds the best. It doesn't overdo it at reasonable settings but it doesn't wuss out either. It is the most versatile.

I play lots of noisy music, like punk, metal, powerelectronics, industrial, etc.

I bought mine used and have owned it for several years. I've gigged with it. No problems.

Never had a problem, therefore, haven't needed to find out.

See above for style of music. I've been getting the cops called on me and shows shut down for twenty years.

This is one of my favorite distortion boxes, so yes, I would get a new one (well, a used one on ebay for ten bucks), though I plan on obtaining more distortion pedals to add to the collection. I have no problems with the "cheap, plastic knobs" other reviewers complain about as I've never occassioned to bust any (and I've had old MXRs destroyed at shows). Go easy on the gear, kids. I like that it has four knobs, but once again, I have a hard time adjusting them with my feet, but that's a flaw in the design of all pedals and one of the reasons I have many distortion boxes. I like it how it is. Maybe something to boost the bass, but that's what I have the HM2 for.

I believe that since it's a Danelectro, that it appears benign and it's model name is so Boomer, people who'd appreciate it won't think to use it. In that regard, it's sort of a sleeper, which is fine by me. It's heavier than a lot of the pedals that are aimed at the kids who'd use it (remember the Grunge pedal? I've got one and it's collecting dust along with the other pedals aimed at the punks and metal heads).

This is a well-balanced distortion box that's a lot nicer than the smaller plastic Dans that came out later. For heavier music, this one is solid.