Danelectro DD-1 Fab Tone

It is pretty straight forward in use. There's four control knobs and the button to turn it on. With a little bit of messing around anyone can figure it out.

I play with a small crate amp and a Samick electric. They aren't the best to play with so this may have some negetive effect on the pedal. But overall, the pedal sounds pretty good. It gives a good overdrive sound that can be adjusted to how one wants. However, I bought this pedal after I bought the Boss DS-1 Distortion and Because they sound so alike i regret buying both.

Although I haven't extensively used it, it seems as though it should be pretty reliable. It is in a tough casing and it doesn't look like it will break.

I haven't dealt with the company yet.

I have been playing for three years and this pedal seems good for where I am at. I am planning on buying a better guitar soon and I still think this pedal will be good. However, as I said before, I already have the Boss Distortion pedal and for what it is worth I would have just stuck with that one. If it were lost i would probably not bother buying another.

the knobs but pretty straight forward as with any other pedal. the only reason i rated it a 7 was the insane (in a bad way) gain. i had the gain knob the whole way down and still got this horrible distorted hiss.

i used an indian is-200 with this pedal and it sound awful. the problem could have been that the indiana is a high gain guitar and the fab tone is a high gain pedal but the distortion was far too much. after playing several power chords in a row the distorted his almost overpowered my sound entirely

i only had the pedal for a day before i took it back so i don't know how dependable it is.

once again i only had the pedal for a day.

i play punk rock and i was told that the fab tone had an excellant sound but i though it was horrible. this distortion is extreme with no way to lessen it. i played it through a pa and a drive combo amp and it sound bad through both. the only thing i can reccoment for it is make some way to lessen the distortion. with the gain turned off their was still too much.

It may only have 4 knobs(volume, bass, treble, and fab(saturation)), but it can be a bit difficult to get a good sound out of. It takes a lot of patience and tweaking, but good sounds are there.

They should've named this thing the "Psychotone", because it gives insane amounts of gain. Plus there's no way to lower the gain.Like many other reviewers have said this will definitely give you the Metallica crunch, but with bass around 3 O'clock and treble at around 11 O'clock I was able to get a great 70's punk/hard rock tone out of it. Also to get the most out of this thing you have to be willing to use your guitar's volume and tone pots. The only drawback I can see(aside from no distortion control) is that with an adaptor it gives off one hellacious hum. However, I haven't tried the Danelectro adaptor, so maybe that will fix things. I'm using this with a vintage 70's Memphis Telecaster Custom copy(great Japanese copy), and a late 70s Music Man RP 112 65.

Very solid. This thing would be great for tossing at the drummer when he gets out of line. I've had it for three years, and never had a bit of a problem out of it. The only thing I can see going wrong is that lately the plastic jacks seem a bit dodgy, however that's easy enough to replace.

Never dealt with 'em, but I've heard great things about 'em so I'll give them a ten.

I've been playing for 14 years. My style's a bit hard to describe. Take a little bit of country, blues, r&b, rockabilly, surf, punk, and whatever the hell else I'm interested in at the moment, mix it up, and you've got whatever the hell it is I do.I'll admit I'm no technical wizard but I can be pretty decent. I have played in bands semi-professionally, but haven't in years. I am looking to get back into it though. A few years ago I went clean and started concentrating on blues and old-style country(none of this overproduced Toby Keith crap), so the Fab Tone went on the shelf. I've been an angry young man lately though, so out came the little red monster. I'm looking to get a Daddy-O as well to cover the more subtle stuff. Very satisfied with this pedal for what it was made for.They go for next to nothing on Ebay and very worth the price.

Simple Level, Bass, Treble, and Distortion. Set it and forget it! Almost.

I am writing this because I have found this to be one of the best bass distortions I have found. I typically use a US Masters EP45, which utilizes a P-style pickup,Fender Jazz,or P-Lyte with P-J pickup configuration.I play through an Ampeg 810e with a Carvin R-1000 head. The distortion is distortion on this pedal, changing the distortion has little effect on the percieved sound, or amount of distortion. Basically on or off. The level is also very sensitive, be careful! a slight adjustment can result in a very BIG boost, and the treble can be harsh over one half! The thing I love about this pedal is that you do not lose the bass and definition as with most bass distortion pedals I have tried. The distortion is also somewhat "loose and natural". It is not noisy, but definitly needs a true bypass because it will moderatly cut the input signal to the amp when not in use.

I have used mine for about two years now without any problems, but I have noticed that the control pots on older pedals can be somewhat loose and unpredictable.

N/A

I have been playing for about 15 years and enjoy playing all styles of music. I use the FabTone distortion sparingly, but will always have one if I want/need it. If you want a bass distortion that won't lose the bass try one, but as stated earlier, a true bypass is needed if you plan to keep it in the chain when not in use.

Easy to get a good sound out of it. The tone controls cover a pretty wide spectrum, but the distortion does not.

I use a mexican strat thorugh a blues junior. This pedal sounded a lot better on my old solid state fender amp. Not so good on the blues junior. The tube amplifier seems to amplify the "fakeness" of the distortion. But it sounds fantastic on my solid state amp (Fender sidekick reverb 25). If you want lots of gain, this is your pedal. Can get noisy though.

Its really reliable. Used a lot.

This pedal is good for metal and all that other high gain crap. It's not good for open chord kind of stuff. Get an overdrive pedal for that. I highly suggest trying this pedal out on YOUR amp before taking it home. It's sound varies greatly depending on what type of amp you have (as most pedals do).

Like some of the guys said before, it is not really a "plug & play"-pedal. When I first tried it, there was one ugly roaring sound coming out of my amp that not at all suited my musicstyle, which is mainly Britpop (but I reckon some of you metalfreaks would dig it). Anyways, when you take the presets in the manual as an example, you can tweak the buttons untill you get a good sound out of it. And I have to tell you: some sound it is!

I'm using this pedal, along with all the other standardpedals from Danelectro by the way, with a Fender Stage 100 and my precious Hofner 150V, that was built in 1973. My Squier Strat is used occasionally too with the pedal, but it hums a little too much (but, then again, which Strat doesn't?). As I said, when you try a little experimenting with the Fab Tone, the tone can be fabulous indeed. The distortion is especially suited for playing leadguitar, but the pedal also builds walls of sound out of powerchords. I'm also fond of the fuzzingsounds this baby can produce. At high volumes forests can be swept away by the hacksaw that is hidden inside this little red box. You can create a huge diversity of sound with the Fab Tone: from Britpop to metal (I suppose; it IS loud enough anyway)

I think this pedal is very sturdy. It's made out of metal (unlike the plastic mini-pedals Danelectro produces) and the cover can't be broken I guess, even if you run it over by a truck (but I wouldn't try this if I were you). The in-, and outputs are out of plastic, but if you take care with plugging and unplugging the cables it'll last for al long time, if not forever. The space between the knobs are indeed small, but who cares? If you're on stage you won't fiddle to much with the knobs anyway, would you? And when you're at home, you've got plenty of time. The Fab Tone can surely be used on the road: I brought it with me to some gigs. You won't need a back-up, coz when this thingy breaks down during a gig it means the roof has come down and nobody would care about your pedal in that case.

Never dealt with them. I guess it can be easily repaired at your local musicshop, if it ever breaks down that is.

If it were stolen or lost I would definitely buy another one. I tried many distortion pedals (including those from Boss) and although they sound OK (but look like crap to me), none of them fitted me untill the Fab Tone came along. It was not love at first sight, as stated, but if you work well on the relationship with this pedal, listening to one another, trying some (new) things, this could be everlasting love...

I would give it worse than a three, but eventually the Fab Tone drones you into stupidity and you THINK you have a good tone. In my opinion, that makes it somewhat easy to use.

Puke. Hit the switch and get ear-splitting gain. Twist a knob and get blood in your stool.

I've played this pedal through countless amps, speakers, guitars...with and without other effects, etc. It has always sucked. Why am I just now replacing it? Typically I'm drunk when I play so what the fuck do I care?

The bastard is reliable allright. I've attempted to destroy this thing for nearly six years and it still turns on and gives the same unusable screech. Clearly, this thing was built to last.

I doubt they'd want to talk to me.

I try to absorb whatever I can from whatever I'm listening to, so I've used this pedal for everything from 311 to Bob Wills. It sucks. I only bought it because it was $30 and I thought I could replace it later. It hasn't broken yet. I swear my friend's sounded good, but he purposefully ran over his with his car.

This isnt one of those "great tone as soon as I plugged it in" pedals, but it's worth the time and effort to twiddle with it - Volume, bass, treble, "fab" controls

I've played my Tele and a 335-clone (dual humbuckers) through this pedal into Fender solid-state and tube amps. Coming from Dano, and with a name like "Fab Tone", you might think this thing was designed for vintage tones. You'd be wrong.

That isn't to say it's without merit, nor that I couldnt dial in some nice sounds. As implied above, this took some doing. This pedal has the capability of adding ALOT of brightness to your sound, so I don't see me using it much with my Tele. But with my semi-hollow body it can kick some serious, serious ass. There's a great deal of bottom end to be had out of it, which makes for some real "sonic wall of impending doom" palm-muted chugging. I find I'm keeping the "fab" control way down (no more than 10 o'clock or so) and backing way off on the treble to keep from searing my ear drums. I wouldnt use it for lead work, myself, only because I'm apt to cover a wide range of frequencies and I don't feel I could do that with this pedal without sacrificing some tone quality on one end of the spectrum or the other.

I have to snicker at some of the things I see people write in this section. It's in a metal casing. Switches and jacks don't last forever no matter WHO made the pedal. Pots WILL eventually become scratchy. If you drop something down the back stairs of the club enough times, it will break. If you spill beer on your gear often, it will break. If you let the drummer try it, it may also break. If you are eyeing the wrong girl in the crowd and her boyfriend beats you in the head with it, my money is not on your head, but the pedal may also break.

No idea. Got it used on eBay

I play nearly all types of music, so I'm certain this pedal will end up in more than one project. Is it part of my primary setup? No, but I didnt buy it expecting it to be. I'll buy any pedal or effect if the price is right, just to try it out and see what I can come up with. If nothing else, I may end up with some new sonic ideas or some spare parts.

But, in this case, I think I'll use it on occassion. If it was stolen, I can't say for sure what I'd do, but I'm pretty sure I'd buy something different for $25 from eBay. That isn't a reflection on the pedal itself, though. For you heavy/death/thrash/murder/mayhem metal folks, this might be just the thing you need to inflict maximum damage.

Real easy. got a few knobs, with the one obligatory knob that has a "Danoism" for a name, in the case of my Cool Cat, the depth knob is "Chill" and this one's got "Fab" for distortion.

I don't like the way this pedal sounds. it's very artificial and, well, true to the description Danelectro used to give on their site, cheesy. but not "good cheesy" like most of their offerings, this is just plain cheesy cheesy. i find it useless with the Fab knob above anything except the lowest setting, it just gets more and more loaded with artificial sounding overtones. the bass knob either gives the ol' telephone sound, or makes an undefined mess of your sound...which might not be so bad if the sound itself weren't so fake sounding! treble is also something you have to be careful with...you might shatter eardrums if you go too high. too low and the sound is a littl better but it cuts the output, or at least perceived output. in bypass mode it sounds fine, does not suck tone or anything like that.

this pedal is constructed very well. it has a heavy steel case and a button that works consistently. the jacks feel a bit cheap but have yet to fail. the jacks in my Cool Cat became a bit loose, i easily fixed that by removing the PCB, poking a philips screwdriver into the offending jack and pushing the back out of the jack(you'll know what i mean if you see it). using a toothpick i just bent the contact surfaces in a bit and my troubles were solved. re-assemble and you're done.

Danelectro seems to have disavowed all knowledge of this pedal's existence. not a good strategy.

I got this pedal ridiculously cheap on eBay...i figured it was used but not abused. upon opening the box, i found a brand new pedal, and it even came with the original manual, Danelectro sticker and the warranty card!

If this pedal was lost/stolen, i'd not replace it with the same pedal. i just think it's kind of sad that one of the best chorus pedals is made by the same company that makes such a mediocre dirtbox.

When used with my alvarez electric the sound is horrible. I find it impossible to find a good sound using my alvarez with my peavey amp and the fab.

However, I play a horrible guitar (if you can call it playing). My main use for the fab is on electric violin. Although it is weak on distortion when used with a maestro electric violin, and a peavey Transtube Rage 158 amplifier, the effect is amazing.

If i switched my sledghammer head with the pedal i still couldn't break the thing. I've yet to have any problems with the pedal at all.

If it were stolen or lost I would forget it, and invest in a better one. I've been on electric violin for a few years now, but have used it almost exclusively for metal, techno, or goth ethereal. I've tried a few borrowed pedals from friends but have yet to find one suited anywhere near as well as the fab for my style of music. The ability for more distortion would be nice, but I find my violin sounds best with the lower amount given.