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.