Danelectro DJ-1 Pastrami Mini Overdrive

Two words - Trained Chimp. Actually the chimp probably wouldn't even have to be trained.

This pedal is a good sounding little overdrive/fuzz pedal. I say fuzz because at extreme settings it does sound kinda' like a fuzz. My guess is that a lot of people in the reviews below crank the gain knob pretty high. I get a nice overdrive at low gain settings. I also don't experience the thinning out that other players seem to be experiencing. That being said, I usually turn the bass on my amps up pretty high and I don't cut my mids that much if at all. I have a ton of amps that include some vintage 100 watt Hiwatt heads and Fender and Marshall vintage reissues. For guitars it's American Fenders and American Hamers mostly. I have found this pedal to be really good for lightly overdriven rhythm work with all types of pickups and and pickup positions. It can also get pretty rockin' for higher gain sounds, but it is not a tight bottomed chunky metal sound. That's what the Metal Zone or Rampage pedals were created for. I have played in chunky heavy rock bands ala Quicksand and Helmet. This is not that pedal. Lately I've been playing more 60's, 70's and noise pop sounding stuff like likeT-Rex, Bowie, Built to Spill, My Bloody Valentine and even my old favorites, The Smiths. This is that pedal. I have and have had many pedals and overdrive/fuzz/distortion effects including the Full Drive 2. Does it sound as good as a Full Drive 2? No, and to be perfectly honest, I'm surprised by the reactions of those who seem to expect a $19 import overdrive to sound as good as a hand built $200 overdrive. Get real. What this pedal does is sound good for very little dough. Good for recording. Good for live use, you just have to know how to use it.

Mine works well, but I have tried other Danelectro pedals in the store that didn't work properly. If I used this as my main overdrive pedal, I would probably have a backup, but at $19 a pop that's still cheaper than a single Boss overdrive.

I have not had to deal with them, but I hear they replace their pedals without too much hassle if there's a problem with them.

Good sounds at a silly price. If it broke or was stolen, I would buy another.

It is self explainitory.

It sounds ok. I can get close to jimi Hendrix, and maybe a little Bush...I have found that it does a decent job of Audio Adrenaline too. There really isn't much tone range, and it is more like a fuzz.

It has lasted me so far, but it is plastic and that always ends up braking. i haven't gigged with it yet, but i might use it as back up one day.

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Overall it is a pretty good pedal for its money. It could use some more tonal range, and maybe a better casing, but it suits my purposes, and i have no major complaints about it.

Only two knobs. Pretty darn simple

I use a epiphone les paul through a zoom 505 into the pastrami overdrive and into my marshel. I use it mainly as a volume booster and also to take some of that digital edge out of my zooms distortion. Sounds great for punk like that. By it self it works quite well for mellow stuff. Not much bite to it though.

It's plastic, but strong plastic. Don't pick it up by the knobs though tey will fall off.

I play mostly punk at high volume (200+watts) and for a volume booster it works great. I also have used it to play some Red Hot Chilie Pepers stuff and it works for that too. Pearl Jam stuff sounds good through it as well by itself. I've played 2 1/2 years and don't really consider myself an expert but for the price it cant be beat.

a trained monkey could use it

It's great for experimentation with sounds, to hollow your sound out and fuzz it up. It doesn't really have "crunch", it just frazzles your sound up, and kinda cuts lots of bass out. DON'T expect an overdrive sound or death metal sound. I love it.

I don't know if I trust the mini-pedals yet, but it works!

uhhh....

Cool, fun pedal.

It has two knobs and a button ... duh very easy to use. Turn the dials, step on it to turn off/on

I didn't really like the sound quality - kind of hollow, not very overdriven or distorted. It was same for both my Peavey 110 and a friends Fender mini combo amp. This thing is really noisy, not transparent at all. The volume also seems to double when you turn it on, not a good thing...overall a weak sound

Both handles broke off in about a week - they and the unit are made of plastic (I wasn't being super-careful with it, but still ... it should have held up better.

Never dealt with them.

It's a shitty peadl, but it is only $20 bucks. Good if you want a hollow crap sound.

2 knobs, no tone pot, so its pretty hard to make it sound bad

It sounds ok, but definatly not like an overdrive, sounds like distortion. I use a les paul special w/ humbuckas into a pod with a crybaby. This thing is noisy as hell, especially when u use it as a distortion boost, which is what "overdrives" are for. Its like a ds-1 without the flexability of a tone knob. i returned it

plastic, i dunno, played it for 2 days

it is usefull if you're looking for a sort of "hollow" distortion. Not a od at all, u can't use it for a boost.

Plug it in, fiddle with the nobs. More distortion? Turn the drive knob. Want a more boosted volume for loud distorted lead tones? Turn the volume knob. You can get a pretty nice sound (and a wide variety at that) within a few seconds. Nice.

I'm playing it through a Fender Mexi-Strat (with Texas Special Pickups) and a Fender Deluxe 112. The pedal is not noisy as far as I can tell. The distortion is way better and much much more bottom-end than the distortion on the Fender amp itself (which I guess is expected, but after using amp distortion for a long time, it was a nice wake-up call to hear bottom-end again). You can get a wide variety of sounds through it, from subdued slightly distorted chunka chunka rhythm to psycho monster distorto sounds. I played this at Guitar Center and was surprised to see how easily I was able to get a really nasty "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" tone. I think I pissed off more than a few people there, though. Except the buttrockers.

It has a plastic housing, but I'm not one of these hats-on-backwards thrash-ass psycho brat kids that take the term "stomp-box" literally, so I wouldn't worry about breaking it. I would use it on a gig without backup. Come to think of it, I've had it over a month now with regular playing and still haven't needed to change the battery, so that's great.

One thing: when you fill out the warranty card for any of the mini-pedals, if it asks for a specific serial number, THE MINI-PEDALS DON'T HAVE SERIAL NUMBERS (for some odd reason). I couldn't find one on my pedal, so I e-mailed the company. It took them a few days to get back to me, but I DID get a response, which is better than nothing.

In nearly six years of playing, I've played everything from classic rock to modern, Radiohead-esque rock, as well as blues, jazz, and country, but lately it's the Radiohead stuff. It's pretty great for that style. Thrash-heads will complain that the pedal isn't "heavy" enough, but who cares? If they want to buy a $300 mondo thrasho pedal, let 'em. Which brings me to my next point: At $20, this pedal is a steal. Best investment in effects I have ever made. If it were stolen or lost, I'd go back to Guitar Center the next day (if not the same day) and buy another one. I really can't say enough good stuff about this pedal. Oh, if you try it out in a store, try playing "Won't Get Fooled Again" (by the Who) through it. You will be amazed.

Just 2 knobs. Level and Overdrive. The level on this thing can take to wisper quiet to windowshattering very quickly, and thats with my amp volume on 2! The Overdrive botton, does that, overdriving in the signal into fuzz land.

For $20 this thing can't be beat. I really dig the sound of this thing. I'm playing it with a Squier Strat and a Peavey Rage 158 amp. IMO, it blows the Peavey's distortion away. Its produces a very cool buzzsaw Ramones style tone which is great because I play many of their songs. Yes, its a bit noisy, but damn can it amplify! If I turn down my volume on the guitar I can pickup AM radio...cool. I went to the Danelectro site and checked out the recommended settings. They are great!

Sure I can depend on it. Its steel footplate is heavey, and looks sturdy. The knobs come off a bit easily. If I were to, yep I'd use it at a gig w/o backup.

never dealt with dano.

I play punk rock and rock in general. This pedal is great for old school fuzzed out sound of the Ramones, Iggy Pop, Minor Threat, etc. It sounds good through my amp. I would definitly buy this again if it got stolen. It has been very helpful in my music, now I can go from clean to distorted and back...helps those slow/fast songs. I've been playing for about 5 monthes. The best thing is the price. Dirt cheap. Great value

not that hard to use.. it's two knobs, and two jacks, and hey! it even has an Ac adapter jack. heh heh. it is pretty easy to get a cool fuzzy sound out of this

not very noisy. has a very cool light fuzz sound to it. it sounds like a ds-1, except better i think. it is a little "wilder" than a ds-1. i play through an epiphone strat copy with all single coils (yes i actually kinda like single coils, but i am looking at this custom guitar with a hotrail in the neck) i plug in through plenty of effects. guitar-->jimi hendrix octave fuzz (cool pedal)--> turbo RAT--> TS-7 --> pastrami --> Morley wah --> DOD ice box stereo chorus --> fender frontman 15r and yamaha thirty 112 at once. this pedal does lack some high end, but it is more like a fuzz, so that is understandable. with this i can get that sort of fuzz like on "foxy lady" by Hendrix. the low notes aren't very saturated like the highs, but i can commbine this with my TS-7 and get this really cool, totally saturated high end-liciouse distortion that i can use for some really cool heavy metal sounds. i only knock a point off because it doesn't saturate the low notes too much and it doesn't have much high end

seems pretty sturdy even if it is plastic. i have had it for about 2 months now and it hasn't given me any problems yet. but i do have a slap echo that one of the nobs fell off on, but it was easily put back into place.

don't know. don't care. it was 20$ (or really free for me as a birthday present).

i play rock. pretty much all types of rock. metal, alternative, hard rock, classic rock, blues rock, straight blues, almost anyhting except rap and pop like the backdoor boys. this pedal, it rocks; especially for, um, rock. not really heavy enough for metal by itself, but when combined with the TS-7, it can pass for metal. i have been playing for almost 1 and a hlaf years, but i am pretty advanced when it comes to effects. if stolen, i wouldn't even waste the time to track down the culprit unless i was really bored, i would just buy another. i do wish it had a tone nob. and it does help me make my own brand of rock and blues and metal.

This thing is very easy to use I mean it has two knobs COME ON!!

I am using a Kramer Focus Pastrami Overdrive and gorillia 15 watt amp
This was relitivly good except when i turned it up pased 5 it created this really weird scream but its just probably my amp. This pedal was always sounding great. Now i can finaly get the sounds of Randy Rhodes!!

I mostly play metal and rock and this thing suits it perfectly. I've been playing for about 4 months and this was my first pedal and i will definitly go for dano pedals again!! If I lost it or somebody stole it i would track them down and beat them silly or just buy a new one. :) This has inspired me to write 4 songs. I suggest that all the new players who want a metal sound for not alot of money get this pedal. WELL WORTH IT