Danelectro DD-1 Fab Tone

Just posting to re-affirm the mods below are ESSENTIAL!. I have just brought this thing off ebay and thought it was the biggest pile of KAK i'd ever heard.I was going to put it back on ebay and let some other poor fool make the mistake i made (immoral i'm sure, but we've all been there)... hovever now it's a keeper.

Before the mod the tone comming out of this thing sounded like someone had stuck a wah wah in the loop and left it on in it's toe down position... absolutely unuseable. When you take C5 out, you can hear your guitars tone again... i havent tried removing the clipping diodes yet as i can control the distorton by turning my guitar volume pot down.

Well i own some of the plastic danelectro pedals, and i thoiught this pedal would feel more sturdy as it's made of metal. However, the pots feel HORRIBLE, they feel cheap and liable to break. But as i diddn't take out a mortgage to buy it i i'm not too fussed.

Nope.

I play rock, and some blues... before the mod i'd say the pedal was only usefull if you wanted to record the equivalent sound of hooking your guitar up to a transistor radio and putting the mike up your butt. I know my pedals, and this with the mods is a 9... so get your soldering irons out and start de-soldering!.

This is a note to show you how to make your Fabtone go from a fizzy noisy useless lump to a decent distortion pedal with balls!

I have two Fabtones (thats what happens when you go on ebay drunk and forget you already bid on one...) and I've just modded the scruffier pedal of the two. Its tricky to get these open and closed as theres two circuit boards tightly hooked up, so be careful if you want to do this mod:

On the larger circuit board all the components have codes next to them. Get a good soldering iron and some desoldering wick (costs a couple of quid from Maplin/Dollars from Radio Shack). After removing each of the following components test the pedal with a guitar and amp to check a: it still works, and b: theres no dodgy noise other than the normal howl you get from these.

You may find it useful to use the chassis of the pedal as a jig to hold the circuitboard in place while you work on it - just feed the pot shafts through the front of the chassis, back to front as it were.

Remove D4, D5 (two clipping diodes - responsible for the OTT fizz) and C5 to reduce the midrange honk. You can remove C8 too but that gave me a high pitched whine for some reason, so I put it back.

You dont need to install a jumper over the gap you made.

Theres a ton of other stuff you can do to tweak the EQ, reduce the gain further, less noise etc, but after removing just D4, D5 and C5 my Fabtone sounded insanely good! So I stopped while things were still functioning...

Compared to the unmodded Fabtone, the original is fizzy, indistinct, too much midrange and noise. The modded version has more bottom end, no honk and a gain pot thats actually useful. I had a Boss DS-1 hooked up too and the Fabtone gives a similar 'brown' sound but far more gain and a more lively low end.

The big test is to put it through a loud valve amp (was using a little Orange amp to test it) but that'll have to wait.

I might actually be able to use this live now!

As these have plastic components around the in/out/power section I wouldn't gig with this unless is was tied down onto a pedalboard.

original - useless
modded - sounds great!

So if you can pick one of these up for a low price and know how to desolder something thats about as big as a grain of rice you can get yourself a decent sounding dirtbox.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any luck trying this mod - but don't blaim me if you destroy your pedal in the process. Hey - this is the first time I've picked up a soldering iron without seriously burning myself/the carpet/causing a fire! what do I know?

Here's the thing; its not easy to use; it should come with a manual that would be short, but with out it you will spend days, or think its sucks, but its a great pedal, its just hard and not intuitive at all.

Is this the best fuzzbox ever, no! Is it close? no! But its damn good if you follow my advice right here.

level/volume knob- 12:00
bass knob 3:00
treble- all the way left(off)
"fabtone" all the way left (off)

YEs! two of the knobs are useless- but set it like I did and it turns your POS crate or peavey into a mesa boogie demon, huge low end and ludicrous nu-metal rhythm guitar goodness. Since that may not be exactly why you bought the pedal, it only gets an eight, but the sound is a ten.

solid as a rock

who needs it?

Yes, the sound this makes is huge; it seems to have a name like a "beatles" pedal or something like that but it is a snarly, ludicrous fuzzbox. There is no better pedal for $20.

Seems easy to use, with a manual that has suggestions on settings that you can use to imitate other setups (Marshall stack, etc.). The suggestions sucked, however.

Should be called the Crap Tone. I can't find any sound that is usable. It resembles a chainsaw cutting into a hornets' nest, next to a 2-cycle dirtbike running at full throttle. Waste of money.
I have a Jackson Dinky and an American Strat, which I use through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I get very usable sounds using a Tubescreamer, or just driving the crap out of the amp and using an attenuator to manage the volume. I have no idea why I thought this pedal could do any better.

Well built. It could be used as a weapon inside a pillowcase. Or, if my 747 kept rolling away, I could use it as a chock. I won't wear it out, since I don't use it.

Haven't dealt with them. Afraid that what I might say to them could be construed as terrorism.

I have been playing for over 35 years, and like most guitarists, I have had my really good deals and purchases that were merely pissing money away. This was the single worst purchase I have made.

Not much to say here, it's a stompbox.

I run a Gibson Explorer with DiMarzio Virtual PAF's through a Traynor YGM mk iii. I was given this pedal a few years ago and kept it in my pedal lineup for the odd times when I wanted a really heavy aggressive sound. For that it's alright but it does have a very cold harsh sound, unlike some other fuzz pedals like fuzz-face, etc. It also sounds quite thin, lacking some bass and mid frequencies. I took this thing out of my pedal lineup yesterday and noticed an immediate increase in my tone. I hadn't realized until this point how much this pedal, lacking true-bypass, sucks high end frequencies when it is not engaged.

The power input jack on this pedal has a loose connection causing it to power off if it is bumped, shutting off my guitar. Giving it a quick nudge with my foot would always get it to come back though. I would never gig with this pedal.

Never dealt with them.

The only reason I'm giving this pedal a 4 is because it's cheap. I'm getting rid of this and replacing it with a Euthymia ICBM.

Four simple straight-forward knobs: simple

Used this with a Yamaha strat copy through a Yamaha solid-state amp
zero hum, just delicious fuzzy distortion... until it broke

It's made of weapons-grade metals and could be used to build a house instead of using a hammer.
The plastic connections however seem to dislodge themselves quite easily.
Had it about 1.5 years and then it only worked if the cable was sitting *just* right.. for a week. then nothing ever again.

I would love to have it serviced and in working order again... ever go to Danelectro's website? I think a bra with a Rubiks' cube latch would be easier to get off than to find Customer Support information.
I read on here someone actually got ahold of them and replaced it for free... which would be nice if anyone else had their address and/or phone number!!

Awesome pedal while it worked.
Little steep on the price to replace outright, as I wouldn't expect a second one to have longevity either

The Fab Tone is extremely easy to use. Take five minutes, and you'll have it down.

I read some of the reviews of this pedal and other Dano pedals here, and all I can say is, some of you wouldn't know tone if it bit you in the ass. And a lot of you need to go back to school and learn proper English, punctuation, spelling and grammar. This pedal is meant to replicate the sound of sixties fuzztones, plain and simple. That's all it's supposed to do-nothing else. It is not an overdrive! It's a fuzzbox. Taken for what it is, the Fab Tone does what it does quite well. Maybe too well. It's a very "fuzzy" pedal, with one of the nastiest sounds I have ever heard. I use mine sparingly at best. It's not transparent, it's not well mannered or well behaved. It's a fire-breathing fuzz dragon. Take it for what it is, not what it isn't.

It's totally dependable.

No opinion.

I'm sure it's not the best fuzztone out there, but it's not the worst either. Like a lot of Dano effects, it's a one-trick pony. It only does one thing, but it basically does it quite well.

Level, gain, bass, treble knobs; one in, one out, and a footswitch. 10/10 on ease of use, whatever you think of its sound quality. If you can't figure out at least how everything works and what everything does, you might be better off getting a Valve Junior - one knob to glory!

I prefer the tone-shaping ;)

The difficulty of assessing this pedal's sound quality arises primarily from the simple fact that, unlike many distortion pedals, this one is NOT a chameleon. It will NOT sound good with every amp, every guitar, and no amount of knob turning on the pedal or the amp will fix that. It likes bassier amps, and it hates trebly amps. That is the most important thing to keep in mind.

This pedal is very intrinsically bright, and as such if you feed it into a bright amp, it will claw out your ears with screechy, fizzy treble distortion. If that's your setup, this is an easy ZERO out of 10 for sound quality.

However, if you have a warm amp with a lot of midbass and midrange, and a more relaxed treble, you might find this pedal to be an awesome little unit, well worth the money and more.

To illustrate the difference, examine the Fender Supersonic 1x12 combo. It's a relatively recent 60W all tube combo amp with two channels, clean and dirty. The clean is neat because it has two circuits, switchable between a Vibrolux preamp or a Bassman preamp. This is a switch that immediately moves between a very bright, glassy tone to a much warmer, midbass-heavy tone. Hitting that switch IS the difference between the Fab Tone sounding awful (Vibrolux) and awesome (Bassman).

On the right amp, this pedal absolutely screams. It's like a super high gain blues pedal! It's got "that" sound, the dirty blues taken to the limits. If you've heard George Lynch's band Wicked Sensation's debut album, it will get that sound. That is its home, playing blues as metal, metal as blues.

The first ten times I tried this pedal, I hated it. I thought it was tinny, buzzy crap, useful only as a paperweight or perhaps to make an otherwise good amp sound like a practice amp. My eyes have been opened to its excellent tonal possibilities, and it has made its way forever into my dirt section.

I'm not giving it a rating, because it's entirely dependent on those factors over which it has no control. If your setup is one way, it sounds like garbage coated garbage with a garbage filling... but if it's the "right" way for this curious little monster, it sounds like high gain bliss. Dirty and raunchy, but focused, tight in all the right places and loose in all the right ways.

I've had excellent luck with all Danelectro pedals I've ever owned. I have six or so on my board now, from the little plastic units to their Wasabi line (shame they're being discontinued, some underappreciated gems in that group!). Though I would prefer metal, housing-mounted input jacks, a modicum of care and sense means you shouldn't ever have any problem with the plastic ones they insist on using. Either stick it down to a pedalboard and leave it there, or just be careful not to jerk it around while it's plugged in. I've owned my Dan-o's for a long time without problems, and I don't baby my gear, but I do take the kind of care of it that ensures it will be with me for a long time yet.

If Dan-o has customer support, I don't know it. Thankfully I've never needed it, but I have heard only horror stories.

For me, this pedal's a 10/10. For you, who knows? I recommend you try it out with a setup close enough to yours to really wrap your head around what it can do. In the wrong outfit, it can make a mess of the best tone, but if its electronic environment is friendly to its way of life, it will flourish in a fantastic way.

I'm throwing a 10/10 on it because this is all about my opinion, but keep everything I've said in mind. Use your own head and your own ears, first, always.

Read a lot. Realy read a lot. I've printed the first 40 pages of comments and read all of them. A lot of crap 'n' bull****. How a 4 knobs pedal can be not easy to use? The rank in this question is not about the "tone" or the "quality" of this stompbox. For that answers there is the box bellow. This stompbox is realy easy to use. Just 4 knobs and many possibilities. Bass and Treble knobs to equalize your sound. The volume knob is very agressive so turn it with care otherwise you're going to crack your amp speaker. The "fab" knob doesn't change the soun to much, but increases a bit of sustain and a very ligth upgrade in distortion level. AS OTHER PEOPLE SAID, THIS IS NOT AN OVERDRIVE UNIT. THIS THING IS MADE FOR DISTORTION!!!

Guitar: Fender American Highway 1 with Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups and a DiMarzio Tone Zone in the bridge position. 20 watt Onerr Block amp. and 6 other stompboxes, including Planet Waves Chromatic Tuner, MXR DynaComp, Ibanez TS-808, Marshall Jackhammer Distortion, Boss Chorus and Boss Reverb Delay. "Is it noisy?" Of course it is noisy, but it is a distortion pedal. THIS IS NOT AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL. Don't compare this unit with other overdrives like Tubescreamer's TS, DOD 250, MXR ZW-44, Boss OD's, MXR GT-OD's, Maxon's and other lite units. AS I SAID BEFORE, THIS IS NOT AN OVERDRIVE PEDAL. THIS IS A DISTORTION STOMPBOX.

Another important thing!!! What stompbox can you buy with 40 bucks? Come on!!! Are you trying to compare this 40 bucks unit against your 300 dollars power-valve machine? Give me a break!!! This is the best you can get with only 40 dollars. There are a hundred other better equipments to buy and spend at about 100 or more. But this is the best unit that US$40.00 can buy. That's a fact. Period!!!

This question can only be answered with 8, 9 or 10. People who give 7 or less in this question, realy doesn't know what are doing. This pedal is solid like a stone. That's OK if you think the knobs are a bit plastic, but they are strong too.

That's another problematic question, because this question cannot be answered with more than 4 or 5 points. There is NO customer support and NO deal with Danelectro. The website is poor.

For all the good and bad, I give this pedal 8 points in overall rating.

Easy to use. 4 knobs. Volume, bass, treble, and gain. I always have more bass mixed in and low on the treble. the gain/distortion knob stays in lowest setting. You step on the button to activate. If you can't get a good sound, then you either don't know what your doing or you have the wrong pedal for your musical tastes.

Great sound quality. I really don't notice a change is sound when pedal is off and this is not true bypass. No noise when activated and not playing other than normal amp noise. I play Les Pauls and Strats and Teles into a Fender Twin Reissue w/15" speaker.

I got my first one in 1996 or 1997 and am still using it. I have 3 others for backup I bought on eBay just in case b/c I love this pedal, and have only used them to make sure they work.

Never need them.

I love blues mostly and generally fall into that groove when writing, but I have used it for everything. If this pedal would respond to rolling off the volume knob like my boutique fuzz pedal, I would probably use this pedal exclusively. I love the smooth distortion this pedal offers. I have 4 of these total, 3 for backup and haven't needed. All my effects are true bypass except this one and my Dan Echo delay but that doesn't seem to affect my sound.

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.

This pedal is easy to use.....it has all of your basic controlls with a 2 band EQ u can really tweak ur sound

i only give this a 10 because 11 is not on the list....this is the best sounding pedal ive played in my entire life...i played my friends once and it sounded awsome so i had to get one of my own

my imput jack went out after about a year and a half after buying it...it still works but u have to spend about 2 minutes trying to get the stupid thing to stop buzzing...then after u get it...u cant bump it the slightest bit otherwise it will happen again

i havnt delt w/ any customer support so ya....

i love the sound of this pedal...to me its worth the hassel i go through just to use it. ive played in everything from a pop-punk band all the way to a hardcore band...so i thinks its good for everything. my friend was braggin that he got a digi tech distortion factory...but i dont need any other pedal then this....cept maby a noise supressor because the guitar i use has some grounding issues so i get some feedback when i go dirty.

Its got 4 knobs, no gain knob. Pretty straight forward.

Epihpone Les Paul - Fab Tone - Peavey Classic 50.

It sounded alright for high gain applicatins. I was looking for more of an overdrive to push the front end of my amp. This thing doesnt clean up at all. Dont even try.

This thing sounds shitty with certain setups, ungodly good in others. Its very picky. Its gotta like what you are plugging it into. Tryy it out at least.

This thing is in a heavy metal case. The case seems pretty damn rugged. The knobs, however, are crappy plastic, and so is the switch. They will go out eventually.

N/A

I play ambient indie, as well as post hardcore. It was a cool sound for the post hardcore band, and with the ambient band it offered some really cool controlled feedback that I used with the delay. If you are looking for a good overdrive, you might wanna look at an Ibanez TS9 or DOD 250 Overdrive. This thing is good for experimenting with higher gain and feedback.

man this thing is easy to use unless u are stupid or something

u have to find the right sound that you want i mean it can be very noisii and whit a lot of highs but if you found the righr setup it sounds greaat i use it the volume knob at half the low knob at 5 o clock and the highs at 9 o cloc and the fab at 9 too sounds sweet

man this thing iss hard i use it to play in stage and this thing is hard i mean very good

no comments

this is a good distortion pedal for any kind of music
for all that says thats sucks and stuff i recommend to take a time to find the righr set up you wont regret

It just makes a bunch of distorted noise.

I couldn't get this pedal to stop making noise.
Squealing, Hissing etc.
YUK!

It will probably last forever.

NA

One of the worst pedals I've ever owned.
I have a Daddy-O & love it. The Fab Tone
is a squealing noise making machine.
If you want something to make uncontrolled
feedback pick one of these up.

this pedal is pretty easy use, though i find myself having to adjust the knobs every few months to find that right "sound" again.

this pedal sounds awful, but that is why i like it. i am using a rickenbacker 330, with a 40 watt traynor combo patched to a ampeg v-4 head (marshall cab and sun speaker cab) patched to a loud as hell 400 watt peavey combo. needless to say my gear is loud and with the fab tone i have a huge wall of distortion. i would recommend using this pedal all or nothing. my setting on this pedal usually stays around everything at 10. but as i said before, sometimes i will have to adjust after the sound i want has mysteriously gone. the unit is noisy and my only serious complaint is that at more than one show i have played the "sound" has disappeared before my set, making it an awkward playing experience. kind of hard to explain.

i have used the fab tone for about 6 years now and only had to replace it once.

danelectro has great customer support. if a pedal of theirs breaks, send it to their repair shop and you will end up with a new pedal in about 2 weeks free of any charges, including shipping the pedal back.

i think i have covered everything.

Egad! This pedal is not "fab" at all, and definitely has no "tone" whatsoever! Are we all using the same pedal? People mention overdrive tones to full high gain distortion with this pedal. No matter where I cranked the thing, all the tone I got was angry bumble-bee in a tin can. Kinda like a 2 stroke motocross bike or an outboard motor, but these are more musical than the FabtTone.

The nasty metal distortion on the Zoom 505 smokes this pedal hands down, and neither of these two seem usable at all. I play hard rock and heavy metal, but this pedal was just nasty. I was embarrassed to play through it even. I don't much like the Boss DS-1 (unless on the clean channel of a cranked tube amp) but I like it more than this steaming pile of poop. Danelectro's other pedals are good though.

I never had any problems with my old Daddy-O pedal and this is built the same. Very strong.

Recommended use: keep one in your gig bad to konk at an obnoxious punter with. :-)

Soo easy, although I prefer the fab turned to almost nothing and the bass cranked with the high at 2-5 no matter how you dile it in this pedal sounds awesome.

Awesome sound. Probably THE best distortion pedal I have ever had the pleasure of using. I run an Ibanez s-series through a Fender FM 2-12 and it just sings. Not a big variety of sounds are going to come out of this pedal, so if your looking for versatility buy something else. Superb for anything from rock - metal. Anything lighter and your out of luck though.

Bought it used of ebay, havent had it for even a year but these things are built like tanks. I beat the crap out of all the gear I own and let me tell you, this thing is practically invincible. The only thing I would worry about is the cheap plastic inputs they use which I have heard are liable to crap out on you, and sometimes when adjusting knobs I get some crackle.

No Idea

I play mostly rock (classic, contemporary, a little bit of metal) and this pedal works great. A little over the top for playing rythm if your into classic rock but great for soloing in that case. If this were stolen or lost I would definately buy another one.

Takes alot of twiddling to find something musical. A slow hand and low numbers on the treble and fab controls is rewarding. Maunual was crap. I've had this p.o.s. for six years and I've finally fingured out how to dial it in. But, I never really bothered with it until lately.

I normally run a variety old 50-watt Sunns and Traynors along with a few small Gibosn combos. It does drastically drain tone--paricularly more so with class A amps--kinda makes the tone sound flat. Easy to oversaturate, but this pedal does have some nice overdriven tones with a very vocal quality. Pedal does back off to near clean when you play lightly--also responsive to riding the ol' volume knob. I can get a "Kill 'em all" tone, but the other tones have sound more like a ZZ Top like overdrive with a half-cocked wah somewhere in the mix.

All in all, it sounds like a distortion pedal--no fuzz like behavior, just gain.

I stopped caring about this pedal the first time I cranked up an old tube amp. It's been used as an ashtray, been spilt upon numerous times, and may have once been used as a doorstop.

It still works, so I guess I'm impressed.

I bought this when I knew nothing about how guitars actually work. Then, it was a waste of time and money. I'm a bit better these days, and I might use this little bastard in the studio at some point. An interesting pedal, if you can get it for under thirty bucks. Anything more would be a waste, if only for the fact that it will be an absolute tone vampire when off in your signal chain.

Its easy to setup if you play with it a little bit.

Prepare to bow before the god of all metal pedals. I had a friend with a BOSS Metal Zone, and this pedal absolutly demolishes it when it comes to walls of gain.

A review from below gave it a 2 with the statment and I quote:
"Hit the switch and get ear-splitting gain. Twist a knob and get blood in your stool." I agree completely. Thats why I give it a 10.

When I first saw it at the local Guitar Center, I thought it was some sort of 60's esq pop pedal. To me "fab-tone" sounded like something from that genre. So I pluged into it on a whem to kill some time, and walked out with it 5 minutes later.

It is the best metal pedal ive ever seen. It has more gain than god.

feels liek a solid chunk of iron.

never needed to call

I play metal, and this pedal is perfect for it. I have yet to touch a pedal with this much gain.

Pretty straight-foward and simple. Has treble and bass controls which are kind of interactive so you can come up with mids if you back off the treb. Volume and gain work indepedently though. I like a wide flat foot switch that I can smack without having to look down and aim. Very few pedals besides Boss and Ibanez have this as a standard. This pedal has a small flat round button for switch that is sunk into the top- I don't like it.

It's pretty much full-out overdrive from start to finish. If you turn the gain all the way down you still have massive overdrive albeit not as hairy souniding. This thing totally eats up your guitar and amp. You're playing the PEDAL and nothing else comes through. It does repond to the controls on your guitar which is a bit of a relief. I borrowed this from a buddy for fun and brought it back to him the next day. It's has no character but it does have relentless overdrive. I'm using a Les Paul Deluxe and a Fender Deluxe amp.

It weighs more than Boss pedals and most others. I don't see problems with dropping this over again on stage. The plastic control knobs will obviously break though.

Who knows. Once you buy it, good luck. Corporations are greed-driven... your money is all that counts.

Overall its not anything I would want to be stuck with. I like to have a little variation and flexiblilty with gain control and I definitely don't like the sterile, tone-sucking sound of it. They should've called it the "Crap Tone." I'll stick with my Boss overdrive.

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.

What a turd of a pedal! Actually, I should not say that. Mated with the correct player and used with the type of music it was intended, it would probably be a fine addition to a young headbangers arsenal. For me, an old fart blues player, it proved to be a disaster. I bought it on a whim ( as I do most things ) for $20.00 in a pawn shop. This was several years ago and I thought if it did not work as an overdrive, I could certainly use it as a boat anchor! Upon plugging it in, I soon discovered there is no clean tone at all with this pedal. Even at it's minimum settings, it has more gain than most pedals on 10. Again, for some players, this is a good thing. For me...no. I used it at a gig...of, I should say...I TRIEDto use it at a gig. I was sitting in with a blues band that had two other guitar players. When it came to sosl time, I stepped on the Fab-Tone and my solo was quickly lost in the mix. I mean..it disappeared! I fiddled with the settings to no avail and finally clicked it off and clicked on my Direct Drive to bring me back to reality! I wound up giving the Fab Tone to a friends son. He's into Megadeath, Sabbath and others of that ilk. He loves the pedal and it seems to work well for him. Me...I'll stick to the lower gain pedals that better suit my style.

I bought this pedal to make my long-ago-sold Boss DS-1 redundant, but no its a pain to use. Space between knobs = almost non-existant, could never dial in a worth while tone when i finally squeezed my fat fingers between the dials.

Look, I'll say this in the face of 400 glowing reviews. This is only even slightly useful to 14yr olds with little practice amps. Sounds like radio static in varying volumes with a guitar apparently hiding in the mix. Makes for a rather smashing doorstop however.

I couldn't depend on it as far as I could throw it to give me a good tone - which isn't far considering how damned heavy it is. I would use at gig to lob at drunken louts.

N/

I wish it would get stolen and/or lost which I think it has been - I lent to some budding guitarist but he hasn't given it back...HOORAY!

I will give it a couple of points however for being damned robust - although it is indeed THE worst pedal I've EVER owned, it sure is built to last.

Very easy to use, 4 knobs : Volume, Bass, Treble, Fab
Interesting patches can be found in the manual.

I use the Fab Tone mostly on my old Vox AC-30, with Fender Tele or
Strat or Gibson SG, Les Paul etc....There it sounds best.
You can dial in a lot of different sound, this thing can give u
a very heavy distortion, very fat sounding, excellent for classic rock, metal, but also crunch (if you turn down the volume on your guitar).It may depend on your amp, but with an old Vox it sounds great.
My favourite setting : Vol around 10-11, Bass 3 o'clock, Treble 11-12 o'clock and Fab 9-10 o'clock.
The Fab pot does not really change the amount of distortion, it seems
to give more sustain.
What I like is that this pedal goes in direction fuzz, not to much...just enough to get these Monster Magnet sounds (among others)
Anyway it belongs to my favourite distortions, the others are :
Original Ibanez Ts-808 and DOD 250.
Definitely the Fab Tone is one of the heaviest sounding pedals on the market.
I give a 10 because it is unique...there is no such thing !!!

The knobs are plastic and look a little fragile...but the pedal is built like a tank.
I have the Dan-echo and Cool Cat since 5 years on my pedal-board, and I never had a problem. Once I played outside in the pouring rain, they
became wet ...no more tone...after they dried...no more problem, Never.
Need no back-up.

Never dealt with the company

I play since 20 years and have owned a lot of equipment, the Fab Tone
is one of the pedals that will never leave the house.
I like it on my Vox, it works with my Marshall JCM 800...but when I use this top I prefer the pure Marshall overdrive, the same with my
Rectifier Top.
If it were stolen...I think i would go for another one.
I think the Fab Tone has its very own sound more character like the most, not all, Boss pedals.
The only thing I wish it had, it's that the Fab pot would have more
affect on the amount of distortion.

relatively simple, has vol, low, high, and fab (dist) knobs. takes a little time to set the eq though.

it sounds really good. its a very ballsy distortion and even at low levels its pretty hot. it isnt good for nu-metal type stuff but for hard rock and high-octane blues, pretty much anything that requires you to be able to scream, it works great. it can be a little noisy and i recommend using some type of noise suppression along with it. also it doesnt really lighten up. you cant get any smooth overdrive sounds out of it like you would with an old tube amp. (the daddy-o is great for that)

its has been very reliable so far.

like i said, its good for high gain music, it can get pretty heavy at times but its hard to get it to clear up, and it doesnt have the qualitites to allow every note of the chord to ring out.

Hard to dial in sound at first- it's super bright, and the bass needs to be really high, but not dimed. The knobs are really touchy, which is great, because it means it's got a lot of different sounds - If i move the treble knob just a bit, it goes from souped-up Big Muff imitations to grinding metal worthy of At the Gates.

First and foremost- there is NO gain dial. which means this pedal is as heavy as Barry White (rest his soul) from the get-go. The Fab control revisits Barry every six months or so on a diet solely consisting of breast milk, Krispy Kremes, and pig's feet. Does that make you want to retch? So will this pedal, in the best of all possible ways.

I use a 1979 Gibson LP Custom with Dimarzios into a Fender Dual Showman 85W head. With that setup, this pedal is extremely bright, as I leave on the bright switch on my amp. I turn the treble all the way off, and the bass up to about 90%, and then it's my sound! Very Mogwai/Smashing Pumpkins/Explosions in the Sky/ACS-era Marilyn Manson sounds. "Christmas Steps"/"Beautiful People" in a box. A little more treble and a twist of the Fab (saturation) control puts you in the realms of extreme metal; the extra treble response adds grind to the massive, creamy gain and makes you really feel the palm muses.

Effects placed after this go ga-ga. Phasers sound like alien landings, reverbs are cavernous, and flangers sound like a miniature Lear jet is taking off from the innards of your amplifier. Most modulation effects are really extremified, and delays' repeats are more pronounced.

As for the gain - which is why you're here, isn't it? It's absolutely the MOST distortion I've ever heard. Put the Fab at half and tone to taste, and you're in another world. However, this pedal is devoid of many of maximum meltdown's little hang-ups. There is little noise, although I've not really turned up very loud yet with this pedal. "Very Loud" means earsplitting. Unlike its fuzzier cousin, the Big Muff, there is no breakup, just really, really smooth gain. Multiple notes don't get muddy or garbled, as some fuzzes are wont to get. Single notes are really smooth and clear, chords just sound MASSIVE. If you turn the pedal's low end to full, you can just about fire your bass player.

This pedal is unreliable. From the second day I got it, the jacks just sucked. If i wiggle the patch cable, the sound deteriorates and then I must wiggle it some more to get good sounds again. That woudl be frightful if I were to mash it at a gig and then not get the unearthly response I'd expected. That being said, put new jacks on, like I will, or better yet, leave it on all the time, in a loop (as I also do).

Never went to them. DIY or die.

This pedal is great for all my heavy distortion needs. It doesn't get much mids, or low gain- I don't think it's terribly good for Van Halen or Guns 'n Roses, although I don't really need that sound either (though I do love GNR dearly). Best at low settings for shoegazer and maybe some thrashy punk, twist the "Fab" control for saturated metal sounds. I really suggest cranking up the mids and turning down the treble just a bit after this pedal. My amp gives a prescence boost with its bright switch. So should your EQ. If it got stolen, I'd go out and get another right away. This pedal replaced my Boss DF-2 (an EXCELLENT pedal for high gain, but too bright for me) and is integral to my new tone. If I ever found the thief, I'd make him watch American Idol on a loop until his brain melted.

The Fab-Tone is really a sound from the future. No, fuck that. Forget it. This pedal sucks, don't buy it. I mean it. There's enough of you shabby bastards stealing all the good tones and driving up prices. Keep off.

Pretty easy volume knob, low and hi eq and that tone "fab" knob that. The manual has some good presets too, besides one or two they where all handy.

Well you can understand quite easily by it's looks that it's not something to be taken too seriously so don't expect a "marshal or mesa in-a-box" type of distortion. The sound is quite fuzzy and remind many early nineties distortion, more chaotic than tight. Before i got the Ibanez LF7 filter i was using this a lot to create a broken speaker sound and it worked just fine. The only thing that puzzles me in it is that Fab knob...Personaly i think it's quite useless since unless it's totally low it gets noisy and makes the sound unusable. For the rest is a good pedal

Despite it looks like a toy like anything danelectro it's made of metal and that makes it resistant, only the knobs seem a bit too frail but they are quite far from the pedal so ok.

Never used

Well as long as you don't expect a miracle stompbox it's worth a try, i had quite some fun with it and i still bring it out when i get to play something that requires more anarchy than order. I would suggest it to anyone looking for a distortion with a twist, a stompbox for a grunge sound or (like in my case) a ministry style little monster of a distortion. But if you need to buy your main distortion pedal it's not a good choice. Oh and for anyone afraid to look stupid among his bandmates with that thingy don't worry, if you set it up well you will wipe out that smile of they're face. The fab tone can be like a little dog, it might look stupid but when it comes down to the game it aims straight for the balls.

well this is the only hard thing about it. i use a old marshall 5212 and a ibanez gsr60. i had to tinker with it for about a week but when i found that sweet spot it was worth every penny i paid for it.

this is where this pedal shines. its not for the guitarist that wants a wide range of distortion but for someone who wants a realy chunky heavey fuzzy overdrive. it sounds nothing like the ds1 and thats a good thing. its realy thick and if you like silverchair youll like this pedal. i would say its good for metal, grung, nu-metal if you dare, but its definitely not for bluse or soft rock.

this thing is built like a tank. i would gig with it with out a back up.

never had to deal with them

like i said befor this is a good pedal but i would try it out befor i bought it to see if its your tast. iv had alot of dostortion pedals befor and this is my favorit. its like having a overdrive sustainer and fuzz all in one. i can get a good nirvana/metallica type sound.
like i said i love it. if someone were to steal it i would find the person and kill them with a cheesegrater.

Usual Dano drawbacks: knobs are too close to each other.
Other than that, it's a dist pedal with a 2 band EQ.

This has been my 4th od/dist pedal I've placed in my rig (Vox Valvetone, TS9 reissue, RAT2, FabTone), I needed some sustained sounds for a reasonable price.
Does that. I keep the dist all the way down (to left), treble almost to zero otherwise it farts, bass to 1/4.
Ok, one can say it's not versatile at all and is virtually unusable for most seetings.
It's true: but it does perfectly what I bought it for, so I give it an 8.
If you had to use just versatility as a criterium, it would deserve a 4. It won't cover the whole range of dist sounds an average guitarist might need: it's a great pedal for sustained solos and powerful one-string riffs (think of Nirvana's School), period.

Metal case, plastic jack inputs. Should last though.

It's all in the above parts. Anyway, I had bought it to play distorted in my crappy amp I have in my room, and it has finished to settle down in my official rig. Ambitious pedal. If stolen, I would probably happen to buy three of them.

4 knobs understandable labels manual does a good job of telling you what stuff does

Ibanez DTX120->pedals->Fender Sidekick 10
This pedal does a good job as a distortion... can be a bit harsh and trebly at times and also very low noise for the ammount of gain it has... great sound when i'm playing and also some nice sounding feedback can happen...

plastic jacks and pot shafts... other than that it's very well built

never dealt with the company

This pedal does alot... hard rock, metal, metal, hard rock... ok so it does those really well and the rest kinda requires a little extra tweaking from other gear definately worth the money

I always wanted to check out this pedal because I like the guitars so much. It has a nob of two more than I like, but it does not take a Rocket Scientist to figure it out. The manual was pretty dead on I their descriptions. Couple of twists up an d down on the dial and you can get a great sound

I recently purchase a new Fender Deluxe reverb in which I am having a tech rebias at the time of this review. I was hoping to purchase a tonebone "Hot British" pedal, but they are a little pricy. The reviews on the have been good, so I am hoping to get to try one soon. This padal was being blown out for really cheap at a local music store, so I made a decision to buy one and give it a go! I tried it out on my Hughes and Kettner solid state. Man! It sounded awsome. I had to bring up the treble a bit, but I got that nice "Marshally" British grind.As far as I am concerned, If you have an amp that will do the "Fender Clean" thing and the "Marshall" thing equally, you got the best of both worlds. So far, I am doing pretty good. This pedal is not that noisy either. So many pedals out there being sold today, should be thrown in the trash. They are extreme noisy and the distortion/overdrives are unpleasing to the ear. This pedal sounds 'great". Definitely a great product for the money.Other than chorus, and delay, I don't have a lot of use for too many other effect. So I will be using this for a while

The case on this think is solid as a rock. Some are complaining about the plastic knobs, but if you are not throwing it across the room, you should be OK. I have not had it long enough to have internal problems yet soo I cannot render an opinion on that aspect. However, I am not anticipating any problems either.

Don't know!I haven't had to deal with them.

I'm an old guy so I play a lot of blues and 70's style rock. I never got into the metal thing so my tastes are a slightly mellower. I love the British Blues and Rock styles. I am also a fan of pre-1980' country music. My Guitar favorites would be Clapton, Beck, Page, Peter Green, Kim Simmonds, Mick Taylor, Rory Gallagher,Michael Schenker,etc,etc. You get the picture!

I have been playing for over 30 years. I was trained initially on classical guitar, but I moved over to steel string accoustic and then electric guitar. I own a slew of different Fender strats and teles. However, I also like the Gibson Flying V's(Gibson's most underated guitar),Danelectro U-56 reissue and I also own a Rickenbacker 360/12(I am also a Byrds and Beatles fan). I own a Fender Silver Face Champ, A Fender Deluxe Reverb re-issue, and A Hughes and Kettner Tri-plex solid state(great little amp for the money). I have a few other distortion pedals, but I really don't like any of them. I am kind of hard to please in this area. If this thing was lost or stolen, I would still like to check out the Tonebone, but for now, this should do fine.

takes a while to get a hang of how to get all the sounds out of this pedal, but once you figure it out its not too hard.

the volume knob on my guitar became my best friend after getting this pedal, it takes the balls out distortion the pedal ALWAYS dishes out and mellows it out plenty. just turn the know to about 2-3 and you get a VERY clear, crunchy overdrive with excellent string to string definition

easy to get a good angus young sound out of, easier to get a heavy metal sound.

i used this pedal with a epi g-400 through some crappy solid state amp, and it sounded fantastic, maybe i'm crazy, but i love the treble this thing puts out.

i keep the volume about 9 o'clock, bass and FAB at noon and the treble at 3, very good for everything i play (classic rock to metal)
with my amp i have the settings at bass 1/2 mid 1/2 treble 3/4.

this sounds better than any distortion pedal i've ever plugged into.

i'd never gig without a backup, but i dont really think it'd break.

never had a problem

almost perfect, the pots need more resistance, and i wish it had a mid knob, but other than that...

Very easy to use. Watch that volume knob! It's VERY sensitive. I keep mine at 25% all the time.

My guitar is a Carvin Bolt with Mahogony body and ebony neck with a wilkinson trem. Pickups are Seymour Duncan Invader bridge, hotrails mid and Duckbucker neck. Amp is a Peavey classic 50 212.

The effect is noisy with a rushing waterfall sound if you turn the Fab control (drive) up past 75% or so, but it's pretty silent below that setting.

This pedal does not seem to be terribly versatile on it's surface. The distortion is kind of harsh but it's thick and it has tons of attitude. The control for the highs gets kind of scratchy and harsh as it's turned up. The highs are muddled a bit and articulation is lacking on the higher notes of full chords. I used to keep the highs setting on the lower settings until I modded the clipping circuit to get asymetrical clipping out of it to tame the harshness of the pedal. The knob for the lows gets muddy if you turn it up too much, but you can get lots of bottom end before you reach that point and there is a bit of room to move the knob for different sounds. The gain on the fab control starts at high and works it's way into a heavily saturated sound with tons of gain very quickly. If you drop the volume of the guitar down to almost nothing, the pedal does get a more brown sound and you can even get a very tube-like dynamic clean to dirty sound by varying how hard you hit the strings. The clipping isn't as smooth as a tube would be, so it's a little harsh, but it's not terribly bad sounding. Getting very tube-like dynamics out of the Fab-Tone is unusual for a solid state pedal if you ask me.

This thing is built like a tank. I forsee no problems with it and I've had it for roughly 6 years. If anything breaks, I'll fix it myself. It's a bear to take apart and put together however. You have to damned near break the input/output board in half to get the thing apart. Well made with good components (except some ceramic caps I saw that might need to be replaced).

Haven't needed any help thus far.

I play blues, hard rock, metal and nu-metal. This pedal is a good match for the metal and nu-metal stuff I play. With some twiddling, it can be versatile and it does simulate a ferocious heavily saturated tube distortion quite well. If you work those knobs enough, you can find some useful sounds.

The pedal is loaded with JMC 4558D chips, which are the current versions of the chip that is in the fabled tube screamer circuit. Some people swear that the new ones suck and maybe they do. Analog man says they are the same thing and test out the same and he built custom tube screamers for Trey. It's all in the ears of the beholder and my ears like this pedal.

The sound is the only thing that matters to me, though reliability is important and should be considered. Ease of use is NOT a concern for me. If you want easy, play the friggin autoharp.

very easy to use, control and application wise...

every sound can be used... they all sound good.... everything from tube screamer subtlety to harsher than fuzz face... all of the suggested settings even sound like the things they are supposed to( i like that it doesnt name names: alternatives= kurt cobains turbodist.,b.b.kings overdreive, evh's brown sound, hendrixs fuzz, and so forth).... i am using this with an Electar century 60, a Randall Rg200, danelecto metal dist.,vibrato,phaser, flanger, chorus, Fabtone( in that order, in effects loop from return to send,) and various customized electrics(more often than not Strat rip offs, chiseled out and fitted with a humbucker(seymour duncan)...

its metal, but knobs are plastic, its heavy and has warranty, so i feel it reliable

dont know yet, and hope not to find out....

goddamned fantastic

It's very easy to use. Volume, bass, treble and fab for a minimal amount of gain control. It's very easy to get a good sound out of it. The manual
seemed pointless with its simplicity but when I read the settings for different distortions it gives I understood the pedal a LOT more. Powered by a 9 volt battery with room for a spare in the battery compartment or you can use a wall wart.

The sound quality is excellent but limited. Don't get me wrong it can dial in a number of sounds but for the most part it's a heavy metal grind. The volume doesn't much raise the volume after 9 o'clock it just fattens from that point on. The bass and treble do so9mething kind of odd but useful when you set them at borderline max or minimum. The bass on full becomes very thick and somewhat muddy but can be counter balanced by turning the treble to zero. The treble on close too full becomes very overdriven and begins to break up and distorts on full but both are usefull on these settings by reducing the fab(gain). This is where you will get the blues sounds it can actually produce but you will definately need to EQ on your amp. The fab gives a very limited amount of control over the gain but does work well in conjunction with the also odd way the volume works. It's a VERY odd functioning pedal. VERY good for metal and along those lines and when ya mess with it it actually delivers a solid blues gain. Mostly a modern rock or metal pedal though. It's very similar to the DOD Deth Metal pedal but not near as noisy. However it is noisy and if your pickups are microphonic you'll find out right away. Sounds very much like tube emulation used on most solid state amps now days.(makes a wimpy amp into a metal beast) I bought this pedal for beefing up my classic styled/sound practice amp and it does it VERY well. It will likely see most use in my car though. It could use a mid control though and more control over the gain and volume. With its setbacks it gets a 6, but it does sound very good giving a ton of sustain and a very fat sound.

The most solid pedal I've ever owned. VERY heavy duty and well very heavy for that matter. Weighs probably 2 lbs or so. Never perform without a backup!!! I just got it so time will tell.

Haven't dealt with them and I hope I don't have to.

Overall I'm pretty happy. It clips well like a tube amp does and sounds just as good. Though it has a some weird functions for producing other types of sounds beyond metal it still performs well. Besides, I bought it for a metal sounding distortion. The sound is very fat through the audio spectrum. No thinning out in the treble or bass and you can pull a mid sounding gain out of it once you learn its operation methods(funky EQ settings/reactions. bass near max treble on zero and fab trimmed back). It's much like a death metal pedal but much better. It gives you tons of sustain and has a lot of gain. It isn't TOO versatile but if your good with equipment you can get the sound you need for most any type of music. If you want a more classic amp style versatile gain then go with the Daddy O. I wish it gave more control over the volume and gain and there was also a mid EQ but it is as I said a metal or rock pedal. For the money I would buy it again.With all of it's qualities and minor setbacks I give it an 8.

Well, it's a pretty standard distortion pedal my only complaint is with them calling the drive level the "fab" but thats not realy anything to care about

ok I was playing this pedal through my friends JCM 800 through the low gain channel with the pre turned up pretty high so it was just starting to distort, with the bas on the amp cranked up full and the thing sounded beautiful, I was realy realy impressed with the tone of the thing, I've also played it through a fender valve amp (I forget the model) and it was pretty nice through that to, though a little bit to harsh

well, no problems to far the whole thing seems built pretty solidly though I am abit worried about the actual pedal because it's more of a button and I'm not sure if it'll last so long

I play what would I guess most fit into the catagory of "nu-metal" though it probably crosses abit with punk rock at times and the high gain but still tonned sound of this pedal is great for it.

Definately a pedal I'll keep in my collection, probably the most tone I've heard in a high gain pedal!

I found this pedal to posses delightfully usable and effective ranges on the knobs. I played this thing till my ears hurt and I got so many sounds out of it. Got a lot of good and new sounds from the unit.

I got different results with different amps and different pickup types, good and bad, but it all depended on my settings on the knobs.

I could get a mesa style scoop sound with single coils and humbuckers by tweeking a little. JCM 800 crunch sounds with a little experimenting. Even got a convincing DUMBLE Overdrive sound out of it.

Finally went to the ROLAND JC-120 so there would be little amp coloring the effect. Got a lot of sound from it. This is definitely the most versatile "distortion" effect I currently own.

The "FAB"(distortion) starts off at fairly high distortion and goes to insane at full adjustment. Wish it started off with less distortion...more like an overdrive would be nice.

Built pretty rugged and heavy. I wouldn't step on the knobs though.

NA

My personal tastes are that if I want distortion, I'll crank the gain on the TUBE amp. There is nothing like an powerfull tube amp in overdrive for killer tone. These effects boxes do offer some interesting texturing to alter and "spice up" your tone.

Overall, this amazed me as to its adjustability and varied range of tone. Could simulate a lot of different high gain amp sounds with it. Get one or borrow one and don't be afraid to monkey with the knobs to find out what it is capable of. This pedal has a lot of magic in it!

My preference is for "high end" overdrive pedals to boost the soloing but most distortion units can be "manipulated down" to overdrive type performance. This pedal could be coaxed down for a "Tubescreamer" at full gain type sound.

Pretty straight forward if you have ever used a stompbox before. The "Fab" control is the amount of distortion I guess. No manual.. bought bargain basement.

I am using a Fender 50th Anniversary American Std. Plus and a DeArmond Jetstar set-neck through my board and into either my Crate Vintage Club that has been retubed with JJ's or a vintage Kalamazoo Reverb 12. As far as noise goes, this thing has so much volume on tap that it scared me the first time I turned it on. Because if the tremendous volume boost, any noise your amp or guitar already makes (slight humming from strat pu's in my case) is going to be amplified greatly. Other than that, I can't really tell if this thing makes any noise on its own. It seems reasonably quiet. The distortion is most suited to high gain sounds. Period. Don't get this if you want a smooth jazz/blues sound. The distortion sounds best when you've got enough volume to make the speakers overdrive a little. When the amp is turned down, the distortion lacks bass and body.

That being said, it sounds killer when I have the amp at small/medium gig volume and I roll back the treble on both the amp and the pedal. I have 10" speakers and they accentuate the high end on this little guy. I keep treble at about 8-10 o'clock, the knobs seem to be very sensitive... not overly sensitive, but they provide a lot of range. The "Fab" control doesn't do anything but increase the distortion. At minimal settings, there is a slight growl kind of crunch to the sound. Anything higher than 12 o'clock and its all pretty much the same. The pedal sustains well at high volumes, partly because of all the compression happening. A tubescreamer set at mild gain and volume does a nice job of making the pedal sustain for days.

I didn't even hear this before I bought it so I wasn't trying to get a particular sound, it was just on sale. But I needed a high gain pedal anyway. As far as I know, it doesn't really sound like anyone out there. It is very different.

This thing is pretty solid; very heavy, knobs are plastic though... as long as you aren't flailing your foot around you should be fine. It could def take a drop or two I think.

Never dealt with them... don't think I ever would for the $40 I paid.

I play whatever I want. I kind of got in a rut as far as my sound goes so I decided to pick up a few pedals and see if I inspire myself. I have been playing for 11 years now and I don't really sell any of my gear. If stolen, I would probably think about picking up a new one, but I would shop around. For what these go on eBay they are a steal for people looking to do what I did. I wish it was true bypass and I wish the knobs were metal. Other than that, the only thing I can say is that there are TONS of pedals out on the market. If you don't like the sound of one, then get another. I think I'll hang on to this one for a while.

4 knobs. VOLUME, BASS, TREBLE, and FAB (DISTORTION). You put your foot on the switch and thats the sound you are gonna get.
Easy as pie.
Firstly, about the high treble thing everyone mentions: the FABTONE is a 'vintage distortion' this means it is the sound of a TUBE AMP cranked up beyond belief saturating the preamp tubes to get 'that' sound. Before distortion pedals were invented this was the only way to get distortion. Today however, we play at more sedate volumes using our little effect units. PIFF!
The high treble is EXACTLY how a tube amp overdrives. You get a glittery sheen to the top end which you need to compensate for by reducing the treble on your amp. I know this cos Ive played my amp with my volume on 10. the treble gets harsher the louder I turn up.

Im running this into a 70's Marshall SUPER BASS JMP head, using a 4x12 cab loaded with Celestion Greenbacks (aching for the Vintage30s!). Yes its a TUBE amp, and thats what makes all the difference kiddies. Forget about using this in a solid state gizmo. It will sound shoddy.

Now, there are 2 ways I use the pedal:
1. Bass pretty high, almost full. Treble way low , almost zero. VOLUME matched to clea tone volume.
FAB is zero or just over for a little bit of extra sustain. Oh, and nope you DONT get more distortion if you crank the FAB knob. JUst more saturation...the only way to get LESS distortion is reducing the volume INTO the pedal (use a volume pedal or volume knob on your axe)
2. Same settings but with pedal VOLUME FULL! Yep, this is where this baby excels. It has a nice little amp inside it which cranks out some good volume. I use this to overdrive my preamp tubes that little bit and the word tone starts taking on its meaning. Believe me, this rocks!

I would say the pedal doesnt have 'enough' of the distortion i like using method 1, but its ok for practise. Using method 2, things sound like a MESA boogie etc etc. Full on shred.
Im using Dimarzio DUAL SOUND pickups (same output as SUPER DISTORTION) so the pedal is taking a lot of volume into it.

Yep, its built ALL METAL. i WAS disappointed with the silver plastic knobs though. If they were metal or aluminium, this thing would be BEAUTIFUL. Take a look at the ZOOM TRIMETAL, or HYPERLEAD pedal. thats an allmetal pedal.

no need for any yet. dont think there will be

I play hardcore. Kinda like SNAPCASE, EARTH CRISIS. Heavy solid and clear. Playing for over 10 years now.
I would buy it again, but MIIIIGHT wanna try out the IBANEZ turbo tube screamer first.
What I love about it, is the quick and easy tone, you dont have to fiddle with settings to get somewhere. It only has ONE sound. Set your bass and treble and thats that. done.
I was thinking about the Zoom Hyper Lead. But was mightily disappointed in its companion the tri metal (3 stage gain) which was very fizzy si gave it a miss.
I wish it had a MIDDLE control. Those mid frequencies need to be scooped. I cant see the possibility of using an EQ after this thing cos that will rob it of its volume, and sound. I tried putting it into a multi-effects unit and just using its EQ there, but it sounded terrible, so Im doing some EQ before the FABTONE.
It definitely is the best sounding pedal I have ever heard. It DOES help me make music. it rocks.

I found it very easy to get some good sounds ive had it for a couple years and im still finding new sounds

ive had it for a couple years and im still finding new sounds like a very low bass for like a punk sound and you can also put bass in for a harder rock perfect for what i play, i use it with my fender strat my gibson les paul my gibson sg and also occasionally a jackson dinky dk 2 and also a Marshall jcm 900 50 watt high gain dual reverd run through a marshall 4x12 cabinet ... it can be quite noisy like it makes these very strange noises if you accidently bump the adapter but you usually dont so it really isnt a problem. me and my band play alot of punk rock

ive depended on it for every single gig ive done and every gig ive done i havent needed anything else.

...

This is a effects pedal that was my first dan elctro effects pedal it is perfect for what i use it for great with a tube amp... this pedal has had mixed reveiws but im giving it a good one
ROCK AND ROLL!!!

It's easy to use if you don't have an ear for tone. But if you do, don't buy this pedal.

I have tried this pedal with every setup imaginable and can't seem for the life of me to get good tone. I never have tried it with a nice tube amp though, so I don't know there. I adds alot of noise and has a popping noise when you turn it on. I keep the distortion setting all the way down for a blast of toneless fuzz.

You'd think something metal and this heavy would be reliable. But once again it fails in this catagory too. I've to take it apart and fix a short twice in the three years I've had it. The knobs are really cheap and flimsy and the jacks are crap. I'd never use it on a gig because I'd never want anyone thinking I sound that bad.

N/A

Overall, I'm warning anyone looking at this pedal not to buy it. It's a toneless piece of crap. It would serve better as a hammer. And if you think I'm a totally negetive person, read my reviews of the Marshall Drivemaster (a real distortion pedal) or the Boss TU-2 Stage Tuner. It's not me, it's the pedal.

easy, all you have to do is mess with the settings and stomp it to work.

THIS PEDAL SUCKS THROUGH A SOLID STATE AMP!!! I put it through a tube Carvin BelAir 212 and that cleans it up real nice. otherwise the gain is very ear piercing. I also turn down the treble quite a bit to mellow it out a bit.

its made of metal, ive had it for years, no prob.

it brings a great heavy sound through a tube amp, earpiercing horrible sounding gain through a solidstate

4 Knobs: VOL (level), BASS, TREB and FAB (distortion). Volume should be set at just under 9 o'clock. Turning the FAB above 10 o'clock when playing your amp at high volumes makes bugger all difference as far as the distortion tone goes. It adds a little more feedback if anything. Because of the high treble sound of this pedal, I don't recommend turning TREB past 12 o'clock. BASS sounds best on or around full.

Currently use it with a Marshall JCM 900 head, Laney quadbox and a Cort MGM-1. The sound quality of this pedal terrible. It makes solos sound cheesy and shrill and sucks out all the guitar and amp tone. Power chords don't have any punch or grainyness (I think I just created a word). Non-palm-muted power chords sound like a whitewash of fuzz. Playing by yourself at fairly low volumes you may think it has a big sound, but when you are playing with a band the pedal doesn't cut through the mix and your sound gets lost.

I've had no problems with reliability. This switch is heavy duty. The knobs are a little bit flimsy.

Never dealt with them.

I intially bought this with the aim of having a fat/gutsy distortion pedal for my Fender Strat Plus, which I have since sold. But playing with bands and general use has tought me that this pedal sucks out all tone, lacks character and is quite useless in a band context. A young nu-metal fan may think it's the sound he/she is after, but if you are concerned about tone, then steer clear of this pedal. I'm going to sell it soon.

Very simple and easy controls.

- Using Ernie Ball MM Guitar through MXR DynaComp, TS9 Tube Screamer, DOD FX65 Chorus, Fab Tone, Ibanez DL-10 Digital Delay, Boss EQ, and Boss Noise Reduction into a Fender DeVille 4x10 Tube amp.
- The Fab tone is best after you do a post EQ...cleans it up alot; and a tube amp makes a huge difference.
- Noise is very bareable compared to other high gain pedals (or my Amp's Dist!!)
- Pedal has the closest sound I was looking for. I didn't like the tone of the metal zone, and wanted the sound from a Mesa Boogie (warm, smooth, crisp distortion) without dishing out loads of cash.

It's plastic I think. It'll probably break pretty easy after a year or so. It's on my pedal board now...no turning back! I'm sure I can get another one same price.

n/a

I play a sort or combination of hard rocks from Incubus to Rage, to Pearl Jam Pumpkins and Staind-type bands. This pedal is great because it adds a new sound I needed to get the harder, chunky rock.
Definitely recommend it to hard rockers...but get an EQ or don't whine about the tone not being PERFECT. No distortion box can get the PERFECT tone right out of the box. Trust me, I've spent a long time finding this one (went the opposite way looking...most expensive to cheapest).

It's got 4 buttons and one switch...
good enough for me

I use a epi LP and a fender strat and a marshall g80rcd witch will soon be a marshall jmp-50...With the epi it's great. It gives good sustain and really shreds trough the chords. A little noisey but with a noise suppressor that won't be a problem i guess...
On the other hand the strat...Also great sustain but the buzz is unbelievable Sounds like there's a bee hive stuck in my amp but once again the noise suppressor....As far as the amp goes... I think you need a good tube amp to really enjoy the versitality and character of this little stompbox... So don't go bashing this puppy just because you have a crappy amp and/or guitar. I really recommand it to anyone who likes punkrock to heavy metal...You can get a really specific pennywise sound with the right settings

hasn't broken down yet

Never had to deal with danelectro but the shopkeeper was really nice though and don't ask this guy for a boss-pedal or he will bore you to death with marketing scheme stories

It's very versatile and cheap to boot...
buy it if you want a nice smooth distortion but make sure you got a decent amp...

4 controls, Overall volume, Bass, Treble and gain.

Jackson dinky into Boss GT-3. I run the fabtone off the send and return. I only use the boss for speaker simulation. By the way if you use the Amp simulations on the boss for distortion or any processor that is digital it will sound really harsh and fake, that is why i bought an analog pedal.

This pedal looks like its from the 50's but it sounds like its from the 80's! Great for Poison, Crue, Metallica, Scorpions and so forth. It helps to use an EQ post and pre gain also. Again no pedal can match a good head, but it will come close if you have a golden ear to tweak and EQ.

SO if your looking to get a 50's sound buy one of the other dan's

never had problems yet.

never tryed yet!

Easy. Dist. Level. Low. High. Except there is no real variation
in the dist. It starts very distorted and then gets slightly more
distorted.

It provides a decent heavy rock sound in a pinch.
No it is not mellow. But if you get a Daddy-O for classic tones
and the Fab tone for heavy things you can cover a lot of ground.

Probably the most solid of any popular pedal.

No comment.

Like I said. If you have the yellowish Daddy-O for classic rock
and the Fab tone for heavy rock you can do allright as long as
you have a LOUD CLEAN 4-12" amp.

4 knobs. you turn them. not too complicated. on the other hand, sometimes it's hard to get the right amount of treble and gain. i think the pots for these two controls need more resistance.

i'm playing a guild s-100 with a seymore duncan pearly gates plus in the bridge position. i plug that into an a dbx rack compresser/limiter, ibanez tube screamer, my dano fab tone, an akai inteliphase, dano cool cat chorus, then into a nady 31 band graphic eq, which goes into two fender stage 160 solid state amps. sometimes i use a double fat strat or an ibanez rg570. the fab tone itself is a fairly good distortion, although it's a bit noisy even with batteries, but i supose it's the normal amount of noise seeing how it's a high gain device. i can get alot of types of sounds out of this thing. this pedal isn't quite ment for anyone looking for a mild distortion, or an smooth overdrive... this thing can get some full metal shred, similar to that of mesa boogie. though it doesn't have the same sonic qualities of a mesa tube amp, it is one of the best distortions in a solid state pedal i have ever heard.

this thing is freakin solid. i've had mine for 3 years, not even a dent. the only part that could be iffy would be the knobs, and the input/output jacks. the jacks are a bit wobbly and the solder inside could easily break, and the knobs could break off when moving your gear. that happened to my friend's dano milkshake chorus.

never delt with them. namely because i'd be too lazy to call them...

i'd say for 40 bucks this is one hell of a good pedal. i've been gigging without a backup for 3 years, and it's never failed me. if it got stolen, i'd buy another for that price. when i bought it, i compared it to a boss ds-1 and a dod grunge pedal. the dod was a joke. the boss was a pretty good pedal, but it didn't seem to have that punch that i was looking for, plus it lacked a bass control which helps get that really thick sound. i play mostly metal, but we do some rock and jazz stuff too. it's a pretty nice distortion, if you want just that specific sound that it makes. the gain control does very little except produce feedback. the bass and treble are nifty though. plus it comes with a cool little sticker!

the controls knobs are really straightforward. a master volume, treble and bass for eq, and fab for sustain.

i play on an ibanez 570ex, thru a practice marshall g15rcd amp.
i had only wanted to write in after seeing the numerous negative reviews about this fabtone, and feel that they really do the pedal injustice. imho those who felt that the pedal is too noisy/not warm enough/'only for numetal kids', are pple who merely do not know wat kinda sounds they are looking for/do not have the habit of trying out something b4 they buy it/have not realised they needed to do some tweaking with the knobs.
i play heavy, and this is what fabtone does best. metal guitarists will appreciate the fabtone kinda distortion. this thing is definitely not for blues overdrive. i feel sorry for those who actually expected it to sound that way. and i think there's really no basis for comparison with the tubescreamer. they're 2 different styles altogether. compare this to metalzone if u will...
i have to comment on the treble for fabtone tho. as correctly pointed out by one of the reviewers the treble is super high, and thus i have yet to set the treble to past 12 o'clock. the bass however is very responsive. the thick distortion also ensures ease of harmonics.
frens of mine who've heard the fabtone have all praised its rich, fat distortion. 2 of them have also bought one each for themselves. i have yet to personally hear any negative comments about it and i guess it really speaks volumes about fabtone's sound quality.

i've been using this for 2 yrs now and not a single defect noticed so far. its really heavy, looks like it can withstand a beating.

no comments here.

the fabtone looks and feels bulky if u compare it with boss single effects units. would be more desirable if its design is similar to boss's.
i can't help but reiterate my point that u shld really know wat u want, and wat the fabtone is capable of, b4 posting negative remarks just becoz it doesn't suit ur style of play. i believe danelectro never meant this to be an all-rounder distortion unit, and thus i believe its not correct to assume it to be so.

Four knobs- there is no problem setting up its useless sound.

This is just too heavy on the distortion. It has no sensitivity to the pick attack, etc. I wish I had saved my 30 dollars and invested it in a Tube Screamer or something. Great if you only want max distortion at all times.

This box totally sucks for my type of music. I was expecting a distortion box that could be a little more controllable from a mild distortion to a crunchy sound.

This is pretty easy to use: volume, bass, treble, and Fab Tone dials. The Fab Tone is basically a sustain. Nice footswitch

I play a Fender Jaguar through this, a Vox Wah-Wah, a Guyatone micro delay, and an Ibanez tremolo. My amp is an old Yamaha in which I have put Celestion speakers. It sounds very nice. I like the tone of this distortion; it is warm and fuzzy. It is much better than the Boss Heavy Metal pedal I used to use, and infinitely better than the Korg overdrive pedal I own but choose not to use. The best thing about this pedal is the sustain (or the Fab Tone) it offers. I played a note and counted out the seconds. My E string rang out for a full thirty seconds. This kind of sustain offers a lot of tonal possibilities for someone wanting to play with sound in an experimental way. I like to put a tremolo on the ringing tone -- very trippy. The sustain also allows me to create the controllable feedback I have been looking for all my life. When I use my wah to boost the higher end of the signal, a nice feedback will result even at lower volumes. Then I can control, at discrete intervals, the pitch of the feedback. I have to resist the temptation to do this all day long. It sounds great.
I personally do not care for the tone unless both the bass and treble knobs are turned almost all the way up. It offers some extreme sounds, though. With the Fab Tone turned down, it becomes like a regular distortion pedal, with very nice, warm tone.

It has a solid metal housing, and I would have no qualms about having it be my only pedal. I have not had it long, so I don't know for sure. I am old and too lazy to jump around, so it is pretty safe. I don't really stomp on my stomp boxes.

I dunno.

I play with a noisy rock band called Idjit that has pretentious aspirations and a humble self-image. We aim at being like Can mixed with Olivia Tremor Control and Brian Eno. I am also a freak for the mid-80's Butthole Surfers. This pedal works well for these styles in that it sustains the note long enough to allow me to screw around with it. There is an emphasis on tones within the tradition of minimalist music, and this is a great tool for someone interested in working within that tradition.

Pretty easy to use, you can really dial in any terrible sound you want in seconds.

This is one of the worst pedals I have ever heared. Thank goodness I don't own one. I helped a friend set up his rig and it is awfull. At the lowest settings it has an overly noisy, over processed mild distortion, and at heavy settings it is just noise. Not even cool noise like a good fuzz. If you want an overdrive get a TubeScreamer or like, and if you want a distortion about anything beats this.

This seems to be tough with metal casing but the nobs are even worse than the minis (which are actually tougher than they look). Seems flimsy when trying to turn nobs.

I think this pedal is a piece of junk. I like a lot of the danelectros and think they can be good pedals at times, but this one stinks.

Like the other reviews say, you really, really need to experiment with this one to get a good sound. It's a combination of guitar, amp and pedal (and everything else) that needs to be tweaked to get a decent sound, and then sometimes this pedal and a particular amp (in my case Marshall AVT50) just weren't meant for each other. However, when I put it in front of a Korg AX1500G on a clean Top Boost tone (then into mixer, p/amp to JBL's) and kicked it on for distortion, it rules. Causes beautiful soaring, shredding distortion. Perfect. I also put it in front of a friends Peavey 5150 combo and it kicked butt again, making the "I'm about to fry the amp" tone that most of us want to have on hand, just in case. Ease of set-up and tweaking...0. Once your whole system is tweaked right this'll make you rip until 4 a.m. so yes, it is easy to use and get's an 8. Fun too. Oh yeah, note...the Fab knob does not control the distortion level much, if at all. It's more like this thing is set on max distortion, and the Fab knob just adds sustain (but also makes things start to feedback and get cloudy).

The Treble is maniacally overboard. I've never had a distortion where the Treb is set at 9 oclock and that's almost too much. The Bass is pretty effective, although sensitive to changes in the Treble (tweak, tweak, tweak...). The Fab knob just controls sustain, so I keep it almost off, at 1/3 up it starts to feedback. Turn it all the way up and you're just doing wild squealy crap with your whammy bar. But that's necessary sometimes. Overall, when used through a tube amp, it's like it forces a sparse, but very hot and hard edged, very articulate sound. Kind of like Randy Rhodes tone on the old Ozzy records, but a little more fuzzy and laser-like, like Yngwie. You really have to know how to play cleanly at high gain levels or you'll have string sounds floating all around your groove. If you can play clean, or you're able to jam the FabTone tone in front of a bunch of effects, you'll like it.

Don't know, I'm sure that it'll hold up for a while. Seems solid and well built. Anyway, it almost never pays to have amps or pedals fixed as they never again sound right.

Don't know. The whole thing is probably just someone's tax dodge.

It's pretty cool if you can either a: adjust your whole setup around this pedal. or b: if you are fortunate enough to have it work through your multi-effects, where you can create semi-clean or clean patches and just keep this thing on when on those patches for insane distortion sounds. I'll give it an 8, as it's really good and I'm happy with it. But I don't think it's likely anyone will cut the next WorldWide smash hit with it, because it's sound is more vintage Heavy Metal.

This is an easy pedal to use, 4 controls volume, bass, treble and 'fab' (distortion). you can just dial in a setting and play, but it took me a little while to actually get the hang of balancing everything, the controls are a bit wierd, nothing happens when you turn it then suddenly "woah! what just happend?" it gets really sensitive. the volume is the most annoying, it's a fine line between too quiet and too big a jump.

basicly this is a noise pedal, the lowest setting has a similar sound to the distortion on a marshall amp, but with possibly a little bit more sustain.
in the past i have managed to get all sorts of sounds out of it, from an insane overdrive thing, kinda 80's metal, to that heavy tube sound used by lots of new punk bands, and just pure noise. it is versitile pedal within the realms of noise. in my set up i have .distortion + (homemade)> fab tone> compressor (don't use this much> echo> tremelo>amp. the distortion + is a good allrounder supplying most of the standard distortion and the fab tone is for those moments when you want something more, thonking heavy noise. ahh its good.
this isn't for everyone but for a metal pedal it's good, far superior to anything boss can do, their pedals all sound far too digital, not warm enough.
the fab tone requires practice and experimentation to control it, so don't cast it off first go, play with it and eventually it will obey.

when i first got this pedal the input jack broke, there was a loose connection somewhere, so i took it back to the shop and they fixed it. now there's no problem i've had it for a few years and use it everyday and nothing has gone wrong, i would say "GET A POWER PACK" this thing does eat batteries, especially if you forget to switch it off. although it does make even odder sounds when the batteries nearly flat

well, as i said i delt with the shop rather than danelectro so the shop i give the score to

i think i wrote a review of this when i first got it a few years back, i liked it then and that i've had time to appreciate and use it against other pedals i have to say this is my favourite pedal, just beacuse it's so cool. you can do all sorts of things to it and it will just add to its greatness, like putting this on as well as the distortion + creates this kind of controlable feedback sound. or put this before the distorton + and a wierd almost transitor radio sound comes out. this is a very useable and fun pedal to play with, just know how to use it, remember the great band MOGWAI use this pedal for the insane noise they generate.
i would, if stolen/lost, get another, but i get it off of ebay or something because stupid people don't understand this pedal and get rid of them for cheap, i might buy another and what beatiful noise can be had.

The knobs are there, the sound is something you have to sit down and take some time to get the right sound for this unit. It is very easy to get a lot of toneless noise from it. So you have to be patient, understand your guitar and your amp's levels, and then set it up for a great sound.

I use a Squier II, with an Ivanez V1 humbucker pickup in the bridge position, I also tried to make it work for a Squier bullet strat, but with no success. It was too damm noisy.

My output is a Fender Stage 112 SE, I also tried this pedal through a Roland Jazz chorus 60, and 120. All of them sounded great. My Squier II has a warm sound so the higs on this pedal can't affect the sound.

This pedal has Bass and Treble knobs, the bass sounds great, you can emulate some nu-metal sounds, but the treble is incredible wild, if you take the treble knob past 9 o'clock you lose all definition and the result it's just noise. Even when this happens the treble knob produces usable sounds, you just have to test it a lot with your amp.

Finally the Fab knob is the one which I'm still trying to understand, it sets the dist level, I would call it the crunch knob, however I could say that it also adds some treble wich could turn into noise. I've heard people complaining about this pedal and sometimes I think that can be frustrating to spend a lot of time to get usable sounds from it. Not only the eq, dist. level, and the volume of this pedal are hard to manipulate, dynamics can get you into trouble. Riffs sounds can be great, but solos sometimes gets lost.

However, when you get the sound, it's the best, this pedal is a beast, it can eat you, but when you become friends with this beast the results are: Great bassy crunch, controlled feedbacks, great definition, great gigs. I love this pedal, it has come to earth to be a legend. It is a challenge to get great sounds but the work is worth, one thing I hate about other pedals is that you have to turn all the knobs up to get crunchy sounds, this one lets you have that sound at half capacity. This is for metal purposes, don't try to get overdive sounds from it, even at zero settings can be a mean bastard, this is a high gain stuff, like Papa Roach, Deftones, P.O.D., etc.

One last thing, don't try this on 15watt amps, try it with a decent amp at gig levels, and with humbucker pickups. Stay away from bright guitars, it will multiply high tones and the result will be only noise.

Yes I can depend on it, I wont go to search anymore distortion pedals for metal purposes, this is it. I actually gig with it, never had a bad sound on shows, I had my issues in the studio rehearsaling with single coil pickups. So now I only use it with humbuckers.

This was made to last forever, so I guess I wont need customer support.

I play some glam rock thing, sometimes I need light and heavy distortions, this is my pedal for heavy stuff, and I like it a lot. Best sound of distortion I've ever heard around.

You got to be mindful with this, as I said before is a beast that can eat your sound and you can easily hate it, take some time to test it well, try to have a good guitar and a good amp. Great sound can be obtained from it, maybe the best. But you need to be patient.

It's a 9 because I think that it should be easier to manipulate the sound, knobs are very sensitive. I get my nice feedbacks, crunchy stuff and great dynamics but it took time to get that sound.

It was in my opinian pretty easy to get a good sound out of it. I have to say though the manual is pretty usless. It there was a setting for 60s rock but it was basiclly just the treble crancked. all the settings sound nothing like there described in the manual. Still once you get the hang of messing around it you can get some cool sounds

I have at the moment a pretty cheap settup. I play my old Highschool squire loaded with Seymour duncan invadors(which sounds suprisingly good though quite bright because of the wood. I play it into a 65 princton, but I am upgrading that to a mesa .50 calliber through a 4-12 marshall cab. I honestly think it is the best cheap petal (it kicks boss in the nuts) I have found out there. I play Punk rock, and ska, and some metal, my favoret bands soundwise are the desendents, mad caddies, five Iron frenzy. don't let this pedles vintege looks fool you. You will not get vintege sound out of it. It is very heavy distortion. For the price you pay it is a lot cheaper then a dual rectifier, will give you decent high gain sounds at low volumes. My biggest complaint is it squeals like a pig. I guess that may have to do with my pickups. They are highger output then alot of active pickups

It is defanetly reliable. Ive had it for 4 years, played the heack out of it and it's still running

I havent neaded it on this but I will say there support reeks. I bought a u2, and it has had horrible fret buzz and lots of other problems with the sett up. Non of the guitar shops can fix it. I e-mailed dano a month ago and havent goten a reply

It is a cool pedle, sounds leages above boss. my only beef is it doesent have a midd control, but I geuss it already has a scooped sound. It kinda remimds me of a JCM with the midds taken off totally crancked, exept you get it at low volumes. I wouldnt say it's amazing but hay I payed 90 bucks canadian and thats like monopoly money

Very simple layout Volume control, Bass and treble which make a big impact on the sound, this takes awhile to figure out where to set to get the sound you are looking for. It also has a Fab control which is not a distortion control it is simplay a sustain control, you cannot adjust the distortion level on this pedal.

I am running a les paul into the Fab Tone Into a Bassman 70, Very simple setup I'm just using the pedal to add a dirt channel to my fender. This pedal sucks all the warmth out of my wonderful tube amp, it has a good crunch but sounds pretty cheesy compared to the other higher end pedals that are on the market. The thing that I hate the most is that you only get one distortion level out of it it, you can adjust the sustain but thats it, it feeds back with awful high pitched noise and always has backround noise when the pedal is on. I've had this pedal for about 6 months now and have been trying to get a good sound out of it but have finally given up and ordered a jekyll and Hyde pedal Which will give me more flexibility, and won't cut out all my great fender tone. I would not reccomend this pedal. The only people that would like this pedal are nu-metal kids and people with no tastes in tone.

So Far it has completely stopped working but it makes a really loud humming sound whenever I turn it on, Loud enough that I could use it for a live show.

Never Dealt with them so I don't know, the thing only cost 50 bucks so I'll just throw it away rather try to deal with them.

I play Indie rock So I need something versitale we go from soft melodic to pretty hard rock so this pedal is not at all what I wanted, it killed my tone, and overall I was very dissapointed. My other guitar play is using the Daddy O, and I think That pedal is pretty good it has 3 EQ knobs, adjustable Distortion, and doesn't sound like a piece of junk. If it were stolen I would laugh because the poor theif would have some pretty bad tone.

3 Knobs. No probs with playing with it....

Here is where it gets tricky.

It seems that some like this and some don't. I think I know why.

First time I tried one of these, was playing a Les Paul Standard into an Orange 50 watt amp. I could not Believe how good it was, Beautiful wide distorion. Warmth to the gills.

I borrowed one to play in a bands come because I was so impressed with it. Practicing through a Fender solid state amp, all this pedal would do was strip away all the good sound and leave a horrible buzz.... what's going on here. I remember this amazing sustain.

At the bands comp. A fender twin was supplied (Once again, tube amp). When I plugged this pedal back in. there was the amazing distortion I remember! I'm pretty sure it's to do with the tube amps ability to amplify the 1st order harmonics (not sure about this). while solid state amplify differently (2nd order I think).

So there you have it. If you have a Tube amp, try one of these. You won't be dissapointed. If you have a SS amp. Don't bother.

Though I would shed some light on this product and it's wide range of reviews.

hmm. fairly simple to operate. plug in cords, plug in adaptor (a battery, what's that?), push button.

Don't let the mild "retro" looks of this pedal fool you. This thing is very hardcore distortion. My setup consists of a Peavey T-60 and a Fender Blues Deluxe (tube), which clean is very warm and nice. Throw this pedal into the mix and it strips out all the warmth and gives you a hardcore digital distortion sound. To tell you the truth, I'm a blues and classic rock fan, and this pedal does not really suit me at all (prefer the good 'ol tube screamer). I mostly use it when I'm bored, and to impress friends ;) but if you're looking for a hard, hard distorted heavy metal sound, then this should be your ticket. I can't give it a perfect rating, because even at the lowest setting it completely strips away any warmth, but it does do a good job for the most part.

I've had it for three years or so, still going strong as ever, nice strong construction too, so it gets a 10 here.

For the money it's not a bad effect. Go down to your local music shop and check it out.

Just turn the knobs. Duh.

If this thing is working right then it is unusable because of the noise it adds to my amps output.I may have a dud here but I'm not going to exchange...just gimme back my money!

I am not sure this thing ever worked because it doesn't seem possible that they would be able to sell more that one unit that sounds like mine.

No contact with Danelectro. Musician's friend is ok. No problems returning unit for refund.

52 year old beginner. I am returning the unit and don't want to replace it. Don't like anything about it. Got it because the DanEcho pedal and Hash Browns flanger I have are great.

easy to get a cool sound out of it, but there aint much flexibility

it gives you some feed back, but hey, its a distortion pedal. sounds good at home and on recorings, but try to play this thing live and it just doesnt work. its got so much treble and bite that if your other guitarist has really punchy distortion with a lot of low end (like mine does) you wont come through in the mix at all. i had to turn my volume up at least 2x as loud as his just to be able to hear my solos.

other than that, it gives you a very crunchy metal sound, almost like fear factory distortion.

ok, this is the main reason i did this review. This thing is a PIECE OF SHIT. i really liked the sound so i kept buying new ones when my old one went out. so far i've bought three. tried using an adaptor, then the companie's adaptor, batteries... it dont matter. no matter what, after about six months with this thing, it pretty much quits working.

"my pedal doesnt work, fucking fix it"
"oh im sorry, it appears you didnt use our official ac adaptor, obviously this is what caused the problem, we simply cant repair it."

the sound is good for home playing and for recording, if you play metal that is. it sucks live, its a piece of shit in terms of reliability. and theres no flexibility with this thing. if you try to tone down the distortion to get a bluesy sound or something, it sounds hollow and mettalic. this thing is meant to be used wide open or not at all.
would be a nice pedal except for live playing if it werent such a piece of shit.

Turn it on and tweak the thing.

UPDATE:I'm not going to rate it again.
Classic Rock dudes,Blues Cats...this is NOT your pedal!!It won't give you FAT,WARM tones.It's a NASTY FUZZ BEAST!I have lots of distortion boxes,but the Fab Tone is the MEANEST.When playing live at high volumes,it has TOO MUCH gain even on 1.For recording,however,the Fab Tone will WAX NASTY.Especially for digital tracking.Use a compressor!
It has razor-sharp clarity and sand-paper lows.The sound is limited,but who cares??? It's a Fuzz box dude!

2yrs.Mine still works.

???

It has two uses...1)Crunching up old Strat's or Tele's.2)Digital recording.In a controlled environment,the Fab Tone rips!!It's NOT a tone machine,FUZZ ONLY.Not enough mid-range.Crashes,rides and snares can drown it sometimes.I just used the Fab Tone on a recording...OH SH*T!!It's like a flame-thrower at close range...VICIOUS!

Bought used from a local pawn shop for $21 and it didn't come with a manual but really no need for one,it's easy enough to figure out.very difficult to operate unless you have a low powered amp.Upgrade? I think the whole project needs to be scrapped.

My intension was to find a distortion pedal to play through an old acoustic 150 head that plays only clean music.I tried it where I bought it on a crate vintage 30.The amp was pretty decent but the pedal seemed sensitive in every aspect,but I purchased it anyway,what the heck it's only $20.So on to the house to try it out.Well do not hook this thing up to equipment that has a lot of power unless you have the volume very low.This pedal is like a power booster and will damage your speakers.There is no kind of good sound to be had from it when pluged to a high powered amp.Now on to better things.I have an old crappy Tiawanees Harmony amp my loving wife bought me at a garage sale.It has very little power and is clean with a tremelo.So I took my wood skills and built a new cab for it with two 10" realistic poly speakers I had and wired it parrallel to get a little volume from it.I was about ready to chunk the thing for lack of need until I decided to plug this used crappy pedal I had just bought.Man what a shock.I plug in a gibson blues hawk through the fab tone and what a ghange in this amp.Take the fab and turn it all the way down and rip it off,it is usless.Cranck the level all the way up(like I say it works like booster)and enjoy a variety of sounds with the bass and treble also utilizing your guitar volume to cut distortion if desired.Hell the fabric I got from wife to cover my amp grill almost perfectly matches the color of the fab tone.They were made for each other.This pedal made that amp at least three times louder,But it is still a lot of distortion.For example I played make it last from Ronnie Montrose and it worked very well for that song.I am giving this thing a 5 only because it works well with low powered amps.I'm talking this amp is only about five watts.

I suppose you could depend on it but I have only had it four days.Gig with it? Get real....I don't believe I could find a use for any sounds coming out of this pedal unless like I say on a small amp at a private party.I would never bring this thing in public.

First dano i've had..not sure I want anymore.I know boss makes good pedals and I have had no problems with DOD.

I play mostly rock or blues or whatever comes out of my guitar.I have been playing for 5 years kind of part time but I try to play a little each day.I have lots of other good equipment but no need to name because there is no way i'm hooking this pedal to it.I have'nt compared it to anything but I do know anything has got to be better than this.Like I say once more it only works well with low powered amps and will give them one hell of a boost.

Fantastic. I was pleasantly suprised with the range of the tone controls, from fat low-end thump to piercing highs. I have downsized from a Mesa Tremoverb half stack to a Peavey Classic 50 4x10 - great bang for the buck amp, but max's out at moderate overdrive. I have searched high and low for a good distortion pedal. Pedals that have come and gone include SIB Varidrive, RAT II, Boss Metalzone, Big Muff, Creamy Dreamer, and others. The SIB is a fantastic pedal but much more a rich, saturated overdrive than distortion. The RAT II, I think mine just sucks because it has no oomph. The Metalzone should be renamed puss zone because it oozes tons of crappy sounds. Big Muff and CD are fuzz boxes so they really don't count (both kick ass by the way). The Fab Tone is the most recent entry and considering its price, I really wasn't expecting much.

I always compare distortion boxes versus the amp's natural tube overdrive, which requires cool neighbors because Classic 50's are LOUD!!! I love this tone, especially when pushed by a modded Ibanez TS-9. But what I am looking for is a DISTORTION tone, nearly but not quite over the top, and definitely not OVERDRIVE, because I have that one perfected (or imperfected).

Plugged in to the Fab Tone and the first thing I noticed is this pedal has very little range in distortion sound....PERFECT. I want distortion, not a pedal that does everything. The flexibility in the e.q. knobs is what sold me. Obviously with 4x10 speakers there is not a lot of bass present in my rig; however, I tweaked this pedal enough to make my little combo sound close enough to a 4x12 cabinet.

The Fab Tone right now tops my list for distortion pedals that sound good in MY rig. It works great for the heavy stuff and is a flat-out steal in terms of price. I'm finding that I can create a great sounding rig with a cheap amp, cheap pedals (O.K. I have some expensive ones too), and cheap guitars (G&L's only). Mesa was nice, but everyone at the studio had one. The Fab Tone is a great distortion pedal, 9 out of 10 because nothing is a 10!

Built sturdy, but haven't had it long enough to comment.

Great tone, great price, great pedal.

4 knobs. One for volume, treble, bass, distortion. The manual has some good settings also. Not that hard to use.

This thing is WOW. The distortion sounds real and smooth not like the crappy and cheesy Boss Metal Zone. This thing sustains really well, has a nice thick crunch and really growls. It doesnt sound mushy when youre playing chords. Dont even think on using this as an overdrive unit cause this pedal at low settings is like an overdrive at its maximum settings! I think This pedal is the best and most affordable distortion out there. The boss DS-1 and DS-2 are weak and too brittle.(i noticed they sounded good only on expensive amps and guitars). The metal zone is one processed digital crap. The RAT is okay. The re issure big muffs are very good also but that thing falls apart quickly and not as versatile. The fab tone is simply the best choice.

You should see how this thing is constructed! Its heavy, huge, simply solid pedal. Although the output/input jacks looks plastic, the rest are pure solid steel. And it looks cool too!

Currently I'm playing a bizarre amalgamation of metal, punk, alternative, pop, and R&B. I also occasionally delve into classic rock and blues. This thing works great for it all except for the last two, but my amp has a good overdrive, so it works out anyway. If it were stolen I'd go out and buy another one in a heartbeat. Recently I got a little gear aquisition syndrome and compared it to the ProCo RAT, Big Muff Pi, the Boss DS-2, and the Boss MT-2 and only the Big Muff and RAT could come anywhere close to the amazing sound of this petal. The RAT just couldn't turn out enough fuzz and the Big Muff just didn't have the definition, I'm now more committed to this thing than ever :) The only thing that I think could possibly improve this pedal is if it had an overdrive setting, like the DS-2 so it could tackle all distortions, but at the moment I think this thing is the pinnacle of distortion.

Oh WOW!! A little update to my earlier review here.I just discovered that using an eq pedal with my Fabtone Makes it sound even more incredible if that's possible. After I sold my Metalzone I still had my GE-7 equaliser (absolutely necessary to counteract the thin, shrill tone that passes for distortion with the Metalzone)and I was curious to try it with the Fabtone. All I can say is I'm stunned beyond words at the power this combination generated. But now I've gone one step further. I've traded in the GE-7 for the infinitely superior DOD FX40b equaliser which gives a fantastic 18db of eq and it now sounds beyond belief.

The knobs are quite unforgiving with the wrong settings, you can get extreme flattening bass to screaming treble if you're not careful.... and in the words of mcbain: 'The fab knob, it does nothing!'

Three words. Nine Inch Nails. You want to sound like you've just shoved your guitar through your speakers and you are now kicking the mangled wreak into the ground with big steel capped boots, this is the pedal for you. Don't get me wrong, this is a GOOD thing! It's loud, noisy and sounds like your amp is being destroyed into the ground. Crank it up and cut sick! Music? No, you can't make music with this. This pedal is for one thing. Amp death. I use it on the last chord on one of my songs and let the sustained tortured scream ring out for about 5 minutes. Bliss! I give it a one, because, sometimes, you want a pedal that does a 1 :).

The power thing keeps falling out. I'm resoldering it as we speak.

Meh.

I never use it for anything other than instant amp death, and that's what it does. No matter what amp you have, or even if you *own* a guitar, it doesn't matter, hell, just get the loose cord and whack it against something, it makes the same sound. I pay good money to get that NIN sound. You heard downward spiral? The song hurt? It ends with 3 HUGE chords that just ring out with guitar and amp death.... that's the sound. Beautiful. Oh, if you buy this pedal for anything else, you're fooling yourself if you think this makes anything remotely 'music like'. Bah! Who need's music like when you have danelectro!! AMP DEATH COMINTA Y E E E E A A H!!!!!!

First of all, im a bassist who uses this effect for bass. It has 4 knobs and is very easy to use. The button could be a little larger, though. The sound is works suprisingly well: fatone doesnt take out the bottom end(even though it requires that bass knob is pointing to at least 3 o'clock). My settings is almost always this: bass knob pointing to 5 o'clock (=max.), treble pointing to 10 o'clock and fab points to 9 o'clock.(the volume varies depending on overall volume). This sounds cuts through with either my warwick 5-string fretless or my ibanez soungear 6-string. The bass sound is huge even with the b-string, especially with warwick. I dont understand why doesnt the fabtone manual say that this works also for bass.
And as for the distortion part, its also great. One thing i wished though is that fab knob should have more bigger part on the sound. The difference is not big, if the knob is pointing to either east or west. That makes this effect pedal a little more limiting. Also theres too much distortion even if the fab knob has the ?minimun set? . it sounds good, but still i wished for more variety.
One funny thing about this is the volume knob, the sound is huge even if its pointing only at 12 o'clock. I have never turned the volume all the way up, cuz im afraid my amp will broke up &#61514;
Other effects that i have are pandora px3b, morley bass wah, fish&chips and a cool cat. I get very cool and ?sick? tone by using cool cat and fabtone with the bass wah and playing some fast things. The sound is just so awesome!
I recommend this for bassists, who need a strong (strong is all you get) distortion which cuts trough and brings the bottom-ends with it! works probably best for metal,but can be used also with when playing music.
Btw: quite cheap thingie.

Hey........nothing to it, i mean come on its a distortion pedal, not a high compact multi-modes effect. But hey if you are a versitle distoritor........this is your new son of distortion!! Also check your manual for very true to the sounds settings...it's worth it, trust me!

SUPER DUPER.....i would say in it's diehard sound! And with the help from the manual you can get many alternate sounds, ranging from a Blue's solo to a 60's distortion!!! Don't judge this pedal as a retro sound in a hard cast box........cause you'd be freckin' wrong and probly a terrible racist to different musical instruments as well, but hey, you do have your opinion, not gonna' interfear with that! Just try it out if you are on a search for the distortion of the century!

HEY...........SO FAR SO GOOD(knockin' on wood though!) Besides it's a little tank cover'd in all the hard shelling like that. Boy i'll tell you it have to take alot of stomps to bust through this sweet thing!

HEY.........no bothers yet, but if so i hope they have the time to be helpful!

OH MAN!!!!!!! A long hair'd friend of mine who everyone thinks is JESUS introduce me to this wonderful creation and all i can say is..........THANK YOU JESUS!!!!!!!!

Really easy to use. Watch the level though! It seems to be preset a bit high compared to other pedals Ive used. youll fuck your speakers if your not careful. Maybe it's just my model.

Totally unique and awesome sounding distortion pedal. Ive used a Metalzone for years Until I heard this unit. I have seen the light.... Not for the faint-hearted, it sounds like standing next to a jet engine but with more power( go get a stupid fucking Metalzone if you want to be Mr. Average!!!)I can't get this sound in any other pedal. Who needs versatility when you've got Sonic Armageddon in a box.

It seems even better made and designed than Boss pedals . Get a power supply though coz this fucker eats batteries like Homer Simpson eats donuts!

THE HEAVY METAL PEDAL *PAR EXCELLENCE* IMO. Pisses all over the Ibanez Smashbox or Boss Metalzone (And to think I used to be a fan...) Nothing more I can say but try one of these and be amazed.

I was searching for the perfect (perfect for me, not everyone) distortion pedal for my bass setup and I steered clear of the Danelectro pedals because they seemed to be aimed at people that wanted retro tones. Someone suggested that I try this one out, I dialed in a sound by braille before hooking it up, plugged it in, cut the treble back, and I was sold. 4 knobs, use them.

I wanted a sharp, thick, grinding distortion for my bass but was let down by too many pedals that just didn't have enough gain. This is one of the only pedals I've used that does. Make sure the battery is fresh though to avoid fuzziness. I have to cut the treble back a bit (set about to 9oclock) or I get too much sizzle. I haven't tried it on bass, but I stand by my statement that this is the best distortion pedal for grindcore/deathmetal/powerviolence type bass sounds.

The thing is satisfyingly heavy and tough, but unfortunately they use crappy jacks and I've messed it up a couple times. Not broken permnamently, I took the thing apart, jiggled it around, put it back together, and it worked fine, for a while, now it cuts out a bit. Granted, I am tough on pedals, I play many rowdy parties where we kids get out of hand and sometimes a misplaced stomp hits the cables rather than the button.

I love this pedal. My dream would be that Danelecto made a rackmount that had this (the fabtone), the DanEcho, the Coolcat (chorus), the Daddy-O, an eq, fx loop, and a compressor. All analogue signal path, midi channel switching, saveable presets. Then we'd talk. Something like the ADA MB-1 but for today with these tones. I love the Danelectro pedals but I don't like to put breakable things on the ground.

Fairly easy to use, 4 controls: Vol, Bass, Treble and Fab(Fuzz). I bought this pedal used so I didn't get the manual with it. The controls are self-explanatory so no big deal.

My setup consists of a 1989 MIJ Fender Stratocaster (with the original stock pickups) and a VOX Cambridge 30 (1x10). It is no more noisy on the 'Fab' or bypass settings than when I just play straight thru the VOX without this pedal. The strat pickups are just noisy, so I'm used to it, so I can't honestly say this pedal is exceptionally noisy.

I play this pedal thru the VOX's clean channel, as the VOX's gain channel has a natural 'tube distortion' overdrive that is exceptionally 'crunchy' in it's own right.

As for the Danelectro Fab Tone's sound, it is relentless over-drive distortion from position "1", and that's with the 'fuzz' turned off. From there it just gets more outrageous, if that's the type of 'fuzz/crunch' overkill you're looking for.

I found the most useful settings (for my tastes) as follows: Vol - 11 o'clock, Bass - 3 o'clock, Treble - 9 o'clock, and Fab (fuzz) - 7 o'clock (barely on).

Of course YMMV, depending on the type of music you play. If you like heavy metal, i.e., Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pantera, Korn, etc, the Fab Tone will be more than accommodating. Especially if you crank up the 'Fab' control.

When I use this pedal I play a Strat thru it and it's more distortion than I usually need. I actually prefer the VOX's gain channel for the the stuff I normally play: Stones, Led Zeppelin, Who, Nirvana, U2, Beatles, etc. But the Fab Tone is lots of fun when I goof around with Henrdix stuff like 'Purple Haze' and 'Foxy Lady'. It's also outstanding for over-the-top renditions of 'Summertime Blues', 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Black Dog', 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', etc.

Overall, the Fab Tone is an exceptionally rude and abrasive sounding distortion pedal, which makes it either perfect or horrible, depending on whether thats what you're looking for.

I don't play in a band, just at home or with friends, so having a backup is not an issue for me. The metal housing seems durable enough.

I contacted Danelectro from their website for the manual, which their site said you could send for. It's been over a few weeks and I haven't gotten a response yet. Not a major crisis, as like I said, its very easy to figure out. Just wanted the manual to see what settings Danelectro suggested, so no big deal.

As far as repairs go, Danelectro also says on their site if the pedal's not working to send it to them pre-paid and they will send it back fixed in about 3-4 weeks. No mention if they charge you for this. If I ever hear back from them regarding the manual, I will ask them about that.

I'm not a very experienced player (about a year), but I do know a good sounding amp or effects pedal when I hear one, and I think the Fab Tone definitely delivers as an 'brutal and nasty' sounding distortion pedal, if maybe a bit more extreme than I need. It's also very easy to use, once you experiment around with it.

If you?re looking for a crunchy, raucous distortion pedal with plenty of outrageous ?fuzz? tones to add to your setup, the Danelectro Fab Tone is definitely worth checking out.
June 29,2002 lr**
Seattle,WA

Tiny knobs are hard to get at when changing settings on the fly, and the "fab" knob doesn't seem to do much at all. But I guess it is pretty easy to use, once you realize that it's pretty much a one trick pony you can just step on it and open the flood gates on the rock resevoir.

I use a 50 watt selmer tube amp and play a strat and a peavey t-60. Regardless of what guitar I'm using, what pick-up combination I have, or what amp settings are in place, it always sounds the same...It always sounds like a rusty chainsaw attacking a herd of migratory yaks in labor...which is cool....if you like that sort of thing.

seems sturdy, I've never had a problem.

This is one hellion of a pedal. Just a straight ahead, no frills, distortion beast. Garaunteed to rock your socks off, but don't expect it to do anything else.

Pretty good. Tiny knobs make it almost impossible to change settings on the fly, but I don't do that, so it's no concern to me. Manual is kinda helpful in helping you find settings you like, but not much else.

I'd have to say this is my new favorite distortion pedal. I had a RAT 2 for a while, but just got bored with it and it's excessive midrange, so I sold it. After shopping around, I decided on this baby. And I'm glad I did. I play old school, Ramones-style melodic punk, and this is perfect for it! Perfect gain levels, near perfect EQ (seems to be a little trebly, but nothing wrong with that). I can get an almost dead-on "Road To Ruin" sound with this baby (not exact, but close enough for my tastes), and an all-around good classic Ramones tone. Also works well for Sum41 and some Incubus. I do kinda wish there was some way to lower the gain, since all the Fab knob seems to do is change the sustain level, but...meh.

My setup is a stock Fender Cyclone (soon to have a DiMarzio Norton in the bridge...hopefully) with a Vox Pathfinder 15 combo (damn good for a solid-state!). Occasionally I use a MXR Distortion+ and a Zoom 505 multieffects, but this baby is my new main distortion.

I'd say it's pretty reliable. The plastic footswitch kinda worries me sometimes, but it's held out so far. Everything else is made out of good, solid metal. Eats batteries like a mofo, but if you either replace them regularily or use an adapter, it shouldn't be too big of a concern.

Dunno, never tried it. For the record, the store I bought it from is kinda cool (they have one or two nice guys, everyone else is just pompous and snotty to guitar players).

Like I said, I play melodic punk (it's too hardcore to be called 'pop punk', but too melodic and happy to be 'hardcore') and this is a perfect match for it. A bit trebly, but that's adjustable. This pedal is great if you wanna lead the crowd (and your band) into a rousing rendition of "Beat On The Brat" (believe me, it's happened).

When I sold my RAT, it came down to this or the Daddy-O. Now, I might not have given it a fair chance since there seemed to be something TERRIBLY wrong with the in-store demo model, but I don't regret my choice. This pedal is great (and it sounds really good when all your other guitarist has is a DOD Supra Distortion and a Peavey Rage :).

If it were ever lost or stolen...meh, live 'n let live. I'll just use my Distortion+ or something until I save up for a new one. I don't think these'll be discontinued any time soon.

All in all, I love this little bad boy. If you play any kind of music that requires high gain (since it's gain level isn't amazingly adjustable) and you don't mind a little treble, buy one. You won't regret it.

(one more thing...visit my band's webpage at http://pthuronpunk.topcities.com and feel free to email me with any questions you might have about this pedal!)

Plug in, stomp, and tweak.

I made the mistake of judging this pedal by its corny retro 50's vibe, and then my friend stepped on it, and it tore me a new one. This pedal is designed for HIGH GAIN applications. The only reason I give this pedal an 8 is for its lack of versatility. Even setting the distotion knob (Fab) on zero produce a high gain, hard rock tone. Definitely not the kind of pedal a blues player would want, but I would definitely recommend this pedal to anyone who wants to rock loud and proud. This pedal goes right up there with the Boss Metalzone.

One time my parents' house flooded (bad plumbing job gone horribly wrong), leaving my precious Fab Tone pedal in at least an inch of water for God knows how long. But once the pedal was dry and clean, it was working like new. That says alot about this pedal as far as reliability is concerned...

I've been playing for 7 years. I like so many kinds of music, a list of what I don't like would be much shorter. If it were lost/stolen, I'd look for another one, but not before attempting to track down the would be thief and beating him severely. I love the high gain tone it dishes out; great for Sk8 punk, hard rock, or metal. I'm not too worried about the fact that this pedal doesn't do any low gain, bluesy tones, since I've got other ways of getting that tone. To summarze, 10 for kick ass high gain, 8 for lack of versatility, and therefore a 9 overall.

Very simple and laid out well. Not a light distortion as stated in a previous review.

Exactly what I was looking for. Until now I used a Sans Amp classic which is wonderful in it's own way for overdrive but I could never get that over the edge nasty distortion like the Fab Tone

Owned it less than a week

See previous

Most certainly would replace if lost or ripped off. Not a metal or useful smooth rock distortion, this one is for the sicker, meaner tones.

Fairly easy to use. However the volume knob is VERY sensitive.

Im using a Strat with a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker pickup. The pedal does not sound very good in the middle and neck positions to me. My amp is a Sovtek 50 watt tube amp.

The distortion is strictly a high gain crunch. It almost sounds like a Mesa Rectifier but not quite. Think Nine Inch Nails, Pantera, and Metallica. I can even get a decent hendrix tone.

It is fairly sturdy. i would use it without a back up.

never needed

I love the raw high gain sound it produces. Tweaking the tone knobs can get a great industrial fuzz tone. I only wish the volume knob was not so sensitive. The pedal is so much warmer sounding than the metal zone.

Please email me if you have any questions.

Ok, there are soooo many people in here who give this pedal a lot of shit. it all depends on what you are using: guitar,other effects,amp/halfstack,and most important...the fab tone settings. I have come to the conclusion that yes, it is a one trick pony, but you guys probably havent sat down and tried to dial up a good sound. Ive had my share of pedals, and especially boss. Boss pedals are incredibly overated. The fab tone beats ANY boss dist/metal pedal. Like io said. it does one thing , and it does it well. takes a while to get THAT tone, but i found it, and stop complaining about feedback, the only good boss pedal i have kept was the noise suppressor (NS-2), get one and stop complaining

I use a Jackson Ps-3 Rhoads with duncan JB in bridge through the fab tone into the boss Ns-2 and my Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus in the fx loop (soon to have Dan echo delay pedal too), into a Randall Rg100es head and Legend 4x12 cab. I have always been looking for that 80's metal tone like Iron maiden,old metallica,slayer,testament,motorhead,iced earth......and i hit it on the nail. I you guys are fimiliar with kill 'em all by metallica, i have it mastered perfectly with this pedal, it sounds exactley like the recording (then again, YOUR equipment will be different, so make YOUR OWN settings. great sound! (take the time to sit down and play with it) you WILL like it

i sure can depend on it, i will use it gigging, for i have a noise suppressor and awesome settings.

never dealt with danelectro yet.

I play heavy metal and this pedal works perfectly. before i found the fab tone, i was lookign for that METAL distortion pedal. i tried the boss line and effects processors (dont get one) and amp distortions. Then i tried this thing and was blown away, full metal pedal! i would buy it again if it were stolen, but it wont be so.....i love tone and the crunch and just the general metal sound. There is really nothing i hate besides the fact it does have more than usual feed back but get a noise suppressor and BOOOOM, perfect tone with 2 pedals.

very easy to use

use this with a fender strat, and a brownsville thug, through a music man amp. kicks well but it is very versatile. can get more than one flavor of distortion

it is very dependable

been playing 33 years and my son has been playing 3 years. this was bought for him and i love when he's gone. I get to use it

play with it and you will either go blind or find that sound that gets you going there are a few useful settings in the manual

i use this with a POS guitar and a Peavey TNT 100 (yes i know its a bass amp) or a fender sidekick 10 the sound is good as long as you know how to set it my settings are everything but the volume at 10 sometimes i might turn the treble knob down to 4

big heavy and can injure someone if thrown i never was a fan of plastic jacks but as long as you dont beat on them with a hammer....

definately worth the $30 i paid its worth considering at $60 for a new one definately worth considering if you buy it while musicians friend is still selling it for $60 with a chicken salad

It takes a little futzing around with, but you'll figure it out if you have half a brain.

I play a Fender US Strat through an 80 watt Peavey 'Revolution'. Yeah, that's right, it's a Peavey! and all of you brand snobs out their can just piss off, like the guy with the 'vintage' marshall and hates Sunns(btw, you sound like a total geek. I hate people like you). Anyway, I haven't found a problem with noise at all. Well I guess that's not entirely true, some pick-up configurations can buzz a bit, but nothing outstanding.
If I try to emulate anyone's sound, which I tend not to, it would probably be that of 'Man or Astroman?', or the old fuzz/ garage guitarists of the '60s, which I can do with this.
I do wish I could bring the gain down a bit, it's pretty fuzzed-out even when it's on '0', but I guess this is a 'distortion' pedal.

All of the full-size Danelectro pedals seem built to last. They're like tanks.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I play fuzzed-out garge/ surf tunes. This pedal is perfect for that. I've been playing for 13+ years. I collect '60s transistor organs, guitars, effects...too much to mention. I would replace it if stolen, it's very inexpensive.
I compared it to: Sovtek & EHX-'Big Muff', Boss-'Metal Zone'/ 'Distortion'/ 'OD'/'Turbo OD', a Pandora distortion pedal, the 'Vintage Rat', Guyatone-'The Fuzz', etc...
I would say this pedal is the perfect combination of the fuzz-tone and sustain of the Sovtek-'Big Muff', the chunky distortion of a Boss-'metal zone' and the sweet tone of an overdriven tube amp.