Danelectro DE-1 Dan-Echo

Very easy to quickly get good sounds...simple, smart setup. About what you'd expect in a stomp delay unit--mix, delay rate, number of repeats, a switch for choosing long or short delays, PLUS!! a high-cut knob for adjusted the tone of the repeat. I only wish they'd made the knobs a bit bigger. It's a minor gripe, though, as I mainly intend to use it for short, slap-back delays with a minimum of on-stage noodling.

This is without a doubt the cleanest stomp unit I've ever owned. I use a variety of guitars (tele, les paul, strat, SG, etc.), through either a boogie 50W head or direct via sansamp, and I would definitely consider using this pedal direct to the console. I typically use a crybaby/rat distortion/sansamp pre-amp with various others depending on the situation, so I'm not noise-phobic, but I'd have no qualms about using the dan-echo in either of these situations. Incidentally, I own a much pricier digitech unit that is quite a bit noisier, and which alters the tone quite a bit. I've gotten great results using a clean tele sound for rockabilly sounds, or with the les paul and cry baby, getting that early zeppelin sound.

I would definitely use it on a gig without a backup, but then again, if it broke down, I'd probably survive just fine going straight to the amp. I'll say this though--it's the sturdiest construction I've seen this side of the rat box, and much larger in size than I'd expected. However, time will tell......my rating is based on my expectations...

I've never dealt with the company. However, the salesman at Sam Ash, who sold it to me, also managed to sell me a power supply to go with it. Delays eat batteries, so I figured it might come in handy. Unfortunately, it wasn't until after I'd made the thirty-minute drive home that I realized that he had sold me the 18V adaptor for the Dan-electro chorus box, which might have damaged my unit if I'd gone ahead and used it with the Dan-echo (which is 9V). A big thumbs down to that guy, so eager to increase his commission that he'd sell me the wrong thing. When I brought it back, I had to go through a security clearance just to walk back into the store with the unit and my receipt. Sam Ash sucks. So, always check the fine print and save yourself some gas. My rating is not of Danelectro but of the morons at Sam Ash.

You can get them for 89.95 via mail-order, if you look. I got the unit mainly for rockabilly and surf rock covers, but it has a variety of applications. It's great for getting those sounds, and although I've never owned an authentic tape-echo, I'll trade some authenticity for reliability. I love the ability to control how much high end you can roll off, and the fact that it looks like a 1950s Chevy Bel Air is pretty cool too. It works very well with other effects and settings, but so far the best situation I've found is with a telecaster through a clean tube amp with just a little bit of dirt dialed in. Great for replicating classic sun studio rockabilly or modern retro Brian Setzer stuff.

For those familiar w/ delays this thing is pretty intuitive. The Hi-Low switch gives it fairly large sweep of delay times w/out having to have watchmaker abilities to dial in your time. The manual is great for giving good refernce points for common sounds. Again, the Dano folks have made a real cool looking machine, but on a dimly lit stage you'd better know which knob does what. Further, those little indentations on the faux chrome knobs don't show up either.

'Though this is designed to give analog sounds, it is a digital unit w/ true bypass switching, so it's real quiet. The cut knob muddies up the repeats as you turn it down, which can give you cool and accurate Echoplex(and Ecco-Fonic !) type sounds or make it sound like dirty tape heads (quite authentically on the dirty heads part!). I mostly do the rockabilly/chicken pickin' thing and it excels for this. You can also dial in repeats for that Albert Lee/Danny Gatton trick where the notes repeat at certain intervals and you sound like yer playing two million notes a minute and not just one million. It's tricky (they use(d) rack mount delays for that) but it can be done on a Dan-Echo too!

I've had it for about two weeks and it still has the same battery in it! My Boss pedal would have chewed up and spit out a Duracell by now-so I'm giving battery life on this thing a big thumbs up. It seems sturdily built. I thought the same of my Daddy-O, but it died pretty quickly. I'm hoping that was a fluke. The main housing is tough, but the electronics and jacks are all mounted in a plastic housing, exactly where it needs to be toughest.

Previous experience was poor (7 unreturned messages in @ 9 weeks!) but I haven't called 'em about this thing yet. Hopefully I won't have to.

This replaces my Boss DM3 for my slapback machine-which I thought couldn't be beat. Sonically it behaves more like a tape echo delay than an analog stomp box, but has the ease of use of a stomper. It's clean sounding and quite flexible. The hi-low switch seems like it might be a bit on the fragile side, but that remains to be seen. I think this thing'll keep me happy both down on the farm and in my occasional psychedelic excursions (on the guitar that is...)

This pedal is a pretty easy to use. The names of the controls for the most part are intuitive, and if they aren't, twisting them makes clear what they're for. In any case, the manual is excellent, with many good suggestions for settings, and then it's no problem to tweak their ideas or find your own. The controls are mix, speed (should really be called ``length'' because it controls the length of each repeat), repeats and hi-cut (explanation below). It also has a hi-low switch that switches between a range of short repeats or long ones.

I use this with a Dunlop Cry Baby, a Danelectro Daddy-O and a Voodoo Lab Microvibe into either a Pro Reverb or a Princeton Reverb. I have Strats, Hamers and a Danelectro U-2 reissue. The Dan-Echo is dead quiet on all settings. Although it is not true bypass, it has no effect on tone. The controls make it possible for it to be anywhere from subtle slap-back to over-the-top spaceman echo. The hi-cut control, which reduces the treble of each repeat, really gives it an old tape echo vibe when used. The high-low control also makes it more flexible.

Time will tell, although it is quite solid and my Daddy-O overdrive has never caused a problem in the year I've had it. The rating is based more on my Daddy-O experience.

No clue.

I play mostly blues and related stuff, and resisted getting this or any delay pedal. But having it and the Microvibe, which I got around the same time, has been an impetus to experiment more outside the usual bounds I've had for four or five years. So it's valuable for that alone. I adore the fact that it's so flexible and easy to manipulate. It does more than other similar pedals from Morley or Boss do, and it's cheaper to boot. Plus, it's purple.

Easy to use if you have the manual. It gives you a ton of great sample settings. However, without the manual it would be somewhat confusing to use.

I'm running this with G&L S-500 and Danelectro U-2 re-issue guitars into a Fender Vibrolux Reverb amp (no effects loop). It is very, very quiet. It always sounds great and you can get some really cool effects. From long slow decaying delays, to rockabilly slapback, to spacey echos, deep reverbs, and single note echos. You can even get that tape echo sound using the cut knob which cuts high frequencies with each repeat - just like a real tape echo!

Seems solid enough - thick metal casing with thick rubber bottom. I would gig without a backup. The footswitch looks a little weird at first, but it works very smoothly.

Never dealt with them, but it came with a cool sticker and one of their "Vintage Power Source" batteries.

This is an incredible echo/delay effect for the money. It's a valuable addition to my rig and one of three pedals that I regularly use out of the 7 that I own (others are Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-9 and Boss BF-2 Flanger). A wonderful addition to any rig if you're looking for a quality and affordable echo/delay pedal.

A lot of choices and knobs, but each on does a lot. I plan to to come up with a few choice settings and draw a plan to go on the floor next to my set list for quick changes.

I play a '56 Strat into a Peavey Classic 30. Very clean tone and the Dan-echo helps me keep this tone. My main thing is Rockabilly, so I look for that warm tape-delay slapback and this unit delivers. I A-B'd it with my up-to-now favorite delay unit, the Ibanez AD-99 which I love. I tweaked and tweaked until finally came up with a warm tone which was I'd say 95% as good as the Ibanez. When you add to this the fact that the Dan-echo is far more versatile (flick the hi-lo switch and you've got incredibly long delays) plus works on a battery (not to mention has really cool tail-fins), the Dan-echo is definitely the way to go. Mystery Train, here I come!

I would say very dependable and I would use without a back-up. One word of caution: changing the batteries on my Danelecto Cool-Cat chorus, the metal connector ripped out. The store replaced the unit right away, but be careful when you change batteries.

No idea.

Perfect match for Rockabilly. I've been playing for 30 years and I've been looking for an authentic sound for a long time. I'd definitely buy another. Be nice if it had fx settings which could be saved and recalled easily, but that's like wishing you '55 Chevy had a digital speedometer! Speaking of which, these Danelectro babies are worth it just to sit around and look at. Contact me if you want to ask questions.

This thing is a snap to use right out of the box, and their extremely user-friendly owner's maunal provides 14 suggested settings to achieve a plethora of killer effects out of this awesome-sounding unit! It's controls and descrips as they appear in the manual are as follows: MIX [Use to select the mix of dry to echo/delay signal.], HI-LO [Use to set long (Hi) or short (Lo) echo/delay times.], SPEED [Use to select the length of echo/delay within the LO or HI speed range selected.], REPEATS [Use to set the number of repeats.] and HI-CUT [Cuts the high frequency on the delayed signal. Each successive repeat suffers further high frequency cut. This simulates a vintage tape echo.]. It only requires *one* 9-volt battery (unlike the battery eating Cool Cat which requires *two*), or runs off a neg (-) center 9-volt adaptor.

Granted, I've yet to hear it through my live rig (Rivera BoneHead half-stack w/ Rotovibe and Cool Cat chorus) since I just received it yesterday (6/22/98), but at home through the Pig[nose] along with Dano's Fab Tone distortion it sounded *WAY HUGE* even for such a small setup (would you say tweaking on it for six hours is enough time even if it is brand new?)!!! The unit was extremely clean (no extraneous noise that my ears could detect), and it's tweakable dry-to-wet "Mix" control allowed for the effect to be as transparent or saturated as I wanted. If legend holds true, this Dano, like the others, is also "True Bypass", so I'm sure that when I try it out with my live rig tonight that it won't colour my tone when it's not in use. As far it's flexibility goes, it may not be quite as flexible as some of your higher-end digital delays from Boss and the like, but I can say that you no-nonsense cats out there like myself won't be left wanting more after running through the 14 sample settings they provide in the manual. Everything from Rockabilly/Chicken Pickin' slap back to Classic Rock/"L.A. Studio", "Psychedelic 60's", "70's Rhythm", "Tape Echo" (a'la Echoplex) and many more! I've owned a mid-80's Boss analog delay and a digital delay from Ibanez before, but neither could come anywhere close to the coolness and vintagey tones that the Dan-Echo can.

Like I said before, if legend holds true (i.e., if it's built as well as all the other retro Dano stomps currently available), then I'm sure I won't be having any probs with it whatsoever. My Cool Cat and Fab Tone units have been through HELL and back without a problem one, so I'm sure I'll be able to say the same for this unit on down the line. Basically put.. these little tanks are built like "brick sh*thouses", and I would think it practically impossible for anyone to find more bang for their hard-earned buck than what you'll get with *any* of the Dano stomps!

Never had to pick up the phone once, so your guess is as good as mine as to whether or not Dano's CS dept. is as shining as their products. Who knows... maybe they canned their CS dept. altogether since most satisfied folks like myself felt no need to call? ;-) I do know that their manuals are some of the best, most straightforward in the Biz, although I would love to see the manuals contain a little more *detailed* specs in the future (i.e., generic low-down on it's features [true bypass, etc.] and signal-to-noise ratio, etc.). That's just a little issue of mine, but hell, I'll get over it. ;-)

This is the echo/delay unit of my dreams, baby! I only wish they could've put them out sooner, but at least they [finally] put them out! Yes, these things are on a backorder list from HELL a mile long, but I was fortunate enough to receive mine as a gift from a friend who knew someone who knew someone else, you know how it goes. ;-) I was quite pleasantly suprised to find it on my doorstep yesterday, however, my wife wasn't all that thrilled since I played with the damn thing for just over *SIX HOURS* last night! What can I say, I'm a sucker for great-sounding gear. As far as what I'll be using it for in my live set-up [ "Eclectic Redneck Rock" - www.black-label.com ]... well, pretty much just for some added ambiance when soloing, since I don't feel it's wise for me (at this time) to rely too heavily or base an entire song around a certain effect. Granted, I think effects are great when they open new doors in the player's mind for exploration or to inspire new tunes, but I have this daunting fear that as soon as I write a song based on a certain effect I'm using that it'll crap out on me at the worst time and thus cause a debauchery that I'd rather not deal with. [Ever wonder what would happen if The Edge (U2) somehow lost the use of every delay and backup unit he had in his rig during the course of their show?] So anyhoo, I pretty much plan to use it the good ol' fashioned way to enhance certain aspects of soloing, but I do hope to add some odd coolness here and there for colour/texture -- especially in the studio. All in all, a "Must Buy" for echo/delay fans everywhere who don't already have one!