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.
<p>
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.