Danelectro DJ-10 Grilled Cheese Distortion

Two knobs, level and resonance.

This is definitely the most fascinating pedal i ever tried. When i first played it at the music shop i thought it was the most horrible thing ever created and i had to fake a smile when my cousin gave it to me for my birthday. But fooling around with it i didn't just starte appreciating it but actually loving it! The resonance can give a quite unique distortion if you find a setting that fits, plus it can do something cool if used cleverly. I still get asked by many hearing my band's demo what's that fucked up leslie sound i get on one solo, that the grilled cheese with my bassist fucking around with the resonance while i play. SWEET!

Too much plastic, i would keep it away from any heavy stomping feet

never dealt with em

Well if you look for a distortion with a cool gimmick, that's it. For anything else look elsewhere. But in the end it's so cheap that you could get it for fun (Plus it's so odd that many people return them cause they can't figure it out and you can get it super cheap used)

Very easy, just 2 knobs. The level knob acts as a volume and you have to use guitar's volume as a gain. Other than that, pretty simple.

I'm using a Fender Fat Strat with a Princeton 65 amp. This pedal creates very little "noise" in that there are no irregularities. Of course, when switched on, that's all it is, and oh, what a beautiful bit of deliciously irritating static it is! This is a great pedal to experiment with, and the sound you get can vary from a mild texture to a full out scream. It also increases sustain. Fun to play with; a good vintage tone. If you're looking for a sound near to the Satisfation riff or any of Clarence White's far out work on The Byrds 1969 LP, Dr. Byrds and Mr. Hyde, this is the way to go. Fantastic!

Plastic, breakable, but I take good care. Haven't really put it to the test yet.

no idea

I tend to lean towards the 60s rock style, also country and folk rock. This is a great vintage style distortion that you either get or you don't. It doesn't work everywhere, but you'd be surprised at where it can work nicely. Overall, a great value for the price (long live ebay) I think Danelectro has a great variety of vintage style gear; just getting into it, really. It's not so much trying to sound like something that's already been done, but that a lot of those sweet tones of yesterday have vanashed, and it's refreshing to hear.

Ease of use for a two-knob, single-button stompbox is almost implicit. But if this topic were questioning how easy the Grilled Cheese is to use musically, that's a whole 'nother story. Right up front, folks ? this is a one-trick pony, relevant only to those who already have their signature distortion sound and want a brash, what-the-hell-is-that alternative to break things up a bit. Upon first hearing this pedal my initial thought was: here is a sound that could only work for the kind of sparse guitar parts you hear in techno and white-boy hip-hop (like Beck or Pop Will Eat Itself). And definitely only for recordings, not performance. It actually has a bit more breadth than that, though it will take some time experimenting as you try to figure out how to place it in a song.

As noted by many other reviewers, the sound is pretty much a fixed-position wah over a solid-state saturated distortion. The Resonance knob determines the range of the enhanced or notch-filtered frequencies. The 12:00 position or nearabouts can give a fairly sane-sounding distortion, allowing for an equal range of more extreme tones that tend toward more dull or more shrill. There's no knob to alter the Gain ? you'll have to use your guitar's volume, but altering its gain wouldn't be necessary for just a quick riff or a lead, which is how this sound works best. Given the relatively low self-noise, and a variable output level that can easily match or boost the unaffected signal, I'd say the quality of sound is excellent, obviously taking into account that it's supposed to sound snotty. Those that think of this as a specialty pedal, and don't try to make it a core component of their sound, are going to be much happier with the cacophony it creates.

Don't get me wrong ? I love these little Dano pedals, and most of them sound good enough to deserve careful handling. But I'll always be skeptical of their funky footswitch, the tiny knobs and plastic In/Out jacks. For me, these minis will just be stay-at-home gear ? for live playing I'll stick with Boss, MXR and other types of stompboxes that are designed to stand a bit of accidental abuse. Ironically, these minis will command more value in the years to come if they DON'T hold up well to a bit of kicking around.

Others' experiences with customer support indicates a mixed bag. In general, Danelectro seems to just replace any pedal deemed to be defective, no questions asked - that's a good sign. Personally, I have not had the pleasure, and I hope I never do.

When I first saw the composite Sound Quality score of 7 here for this pedal, I figured it must be cheap-sounding and pretty much unusable. In contrast, once I got to try one I realized that here was a distortion pedal designed to sound quite unique with no apologies. It's kind of like having a spice on hand that you wouldn't want to use every time you cook, only when you want a really different flavor. I suppose the GC might be hard to control in a live situation but it's just the ticket when recording a series of songs where you don't want all guitar parts to have exactly the same "perfect" distortion. Think about it ? many memorable classic guitar parts really stand out because they were recorded with a purposely imperfect tone. The Grilled Cheese doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is, a specialty distortion. If your main sound is still a work-in-progress, I don't think the GC will be much help to you. It's a steaming heap of fun only when you're ready for something different, and then the dirt-floor price makes it a no-regrets decision.

You must be in serious mental trouble if you can not operate this pedal!

This thing sounds AMAZING ! Yes absolutely amazing and EXACTLY as it is advertised! You must be crazy if you buy this pedal for a full,fat and warm overdrive sound.This pedal sounds horrible and cheezy but in a GREAT way.LOADS of personality and cheeze tone.LOADS of output too.
SOME PEOPLE NEVER SEEM TO UNDERSTAND THAT SOME PEDALS ARE MADE FOR SPECIAL EFFECTS,not NICE but SPECIAL like this one.
But than again SOME PEOPLE......

I've had two other mini pedals in my heavily toured pedalboard for 2 years now and they still operate with ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS.Yes they are plastic but they have metal bottoms and are built VERY well.
Just don't crash on the whole pedal wearing vermaht boots with steel soles you baboon!!

If you want to cover a very hard to reach distortion tone zone buy this pedal.You will love it.
If you want a vintage ,warm sounding pedal buy another one and stop whinning!!

Two simple knobs. If you can't use this then...ahem, um...yeah.

blah. I tried this out in a music store once and to tell you the truth it was the worst sounding distortion I have EVER heard. It's so bad that it hurt my ears. I had to turn the damn thing off...it was making a bit of noise in the pedal chain too. It seems to "squawk" rather than growl. It sounds like a chicken on a short-circuted PA with an injured wing or something.. I gave it a second chance though, just to make sure. I gave the pedal a rest and tried out some others...and I happened to like some of the other dano pedals. When I turned this one on again, I had to ask the store for some asprin, because one of their pedals had given me a migraine.

well, actually I think dano pedals are cute. they're so small...I can't believe how reliable some of them are though. As long as you don't STOMP on the things, I'm sure they'll be okay, but they make you feel uncomfortable nonetheless.

don't own one, so I don't know.

like I said, some dano pedals are great, but some...like this certain one, just aren't worth buying. If you're looking for distortion, go with something from Boss or get any other pedal. This thing is horrid in my opinion. If you want danelectro distortion, the T-Bone is slightly better, but almost anything is better than this box.

Level and Resonance are the knobs on there, easy to use like any Danelectro Mini Pedal

I use this on my JB Player Les Paul copy with a crate GX 15. With a noise supressor you won't have to worry about noise. All my high gains leave a hum with the amp. I can play alot of kewl tunes with this pedal. It's great. Mix it with Chili Dog Octave and it's a killer 60's retro sound.

Everything Dano holds up for me, nuff said.

I would have given a 10 if it were cheaper by a few bucks, I've been playing goin on 2 years now. I love the sound it gives. Put Resonance on 1 o'clock. Dano stuff is simple to use. I love it. It helps me make music easily since I can do harmonics easier.

Easy -- two pots, a switch. In and out jacks
are clearly marked, and are mounted at the front
of the unit. The resonance control determines
the frequency range being emphasized.
Changing the battery requires removal of the unit's
bottom, so I need to dock it 1 point.

I use Strats and Fender tube amps, usually with nothing between
them except for a cord. I dabble in overdrives and fuzzes.

My impression of the aptly named Grilled Cheese?

Yeeek! I was expecting something a little bit more
straightforward. Admittedly, I hadn't read much about the
pedal's design philosophy -- the catalog blurbs just call it
"classic '60's fuzz" or something, which to me suggests, say,
a Fuzz Face. Not even close. It's actually the single-pedal equivalent
of a fuzz running into a Wah set to a particular frequency (hence the "resonance" control.) The fuzz itself most resembles a DOD FX55
distortion -- one of the nastiest, cruddiest pedals ever built.
If I'd known that, I wouldn't have bought it -- my distortion
needs are limited, and this one doesn't make much sense for me.
It does what it was designed to do, though (very in-your-face,
nasty, cheap-ass fuzzcrud through a frequency filter) so my
bad for not having understood that. It's also noisy, though
you're unlikely to be able to pick out the noise from the
by-design caterwaul of this little yellow monstrosity.
So the long and short of it is that, as for usefulness to
me personally, it's a zero. For meeting its design philosophy,
I'll give it a seven. Its design philosophy is not, however,
very well explained in the product's promotional blurb. I only
spent twelve bucks on the thing, so I'm not crying. And if
you're looking for what it does, then the price is sure right.
Just be prepared -- it ain't no sonic beauty queen.

It looks pretty, ahem, cheesy. I'll have mine forever (my stuff
stays home, and this won't get used much anyway) but as far
as road-readiness? No way. Let's face it -- it's a $20 pedal
brand new, and is built by slaves from correspondingly cruddy
parts.
It is not, in other words, an heirloom...

Hee hee.

I was looking for something more straightforward, and
just hadn't done my homework (tho the product lit was not
very helpful.)
If you're into really trashy-sounding fuzz, then you may like
it. Mine simply adds a splash of color to the room.

Pretty easy to use. Basically, this pedal imitates a fixed-position wah with distortion. The level knob is just what it says. The resonance knob is basically the position of the wah. I give this a 9 because the level always seems to be obnoxiously high and because of the high tones, it's hard to get a sound out of it that will be pleasing to the ear.

Like I said above, this is a very loud pedal. The level seems to be obnoxious. There is a tremendous boost to any signal that goes into it. Other that the loudness, it's a pretty neat sounding pedal that imitates a fixed-position wah. For many people, this isn't a very useful sound, but those who do the 60's retro-rock, classic/psychedelic/experimental stuff, it's right on.

Anyway, I play a mexican made Fender Strat through it, into a Peavey KB60 Keyboard amp or a Vox Pathfinder. I've only used it a couple times, but felt the need to experiment with different combinations. All were loud. I also used it with a Dano Pepperoni Phaser, Dano Surf & Turf Compressor, Dano Fish & Chips EQ, an Akai Intelliphase, and a Vox wah. All were loud. On higher notes, there was almost always a nasty, high-pitched feedback. Not good if you're just practicing and not gigging.

In the end, I've decided that if I want the fixed wah sound, I'll just use one of my other distortion pedals (Dano Pastrami Overdrive, Big Muff, Rat2, Dano FabTone) through the Vox Wah. I'm currently selling the Grilled Cheese on eBay.

Never gigged with these, but the plastic is pretty thick. If you take care of it, it shouldn't break. I don't know too many stories of these breaking.

I e-mailed them once about something relatively unimportant and never heard back from them. Never dealt with them otherwise. I'll just withhold my opinion here.

Basically, I summed everything up about in the Sound Quality section. I'll review:
*loud
*fixed-position wah sound
*works for 60's/retro/classic/psychedelic/progressive rock
*I'd rather use another distortion through an actual wah and do things manually. Guess I just prefer a long string of analog effects to something that tries to do shortcuts.
*Don't try to eat it...it'll break your teeth.
*You can't steal mine, but if you want to bid for it on eBay, it'll be there until 4/20/02.
*I wish it had less volume.
*I wish it could grant wishes.
*I wish it was an MXR Flanger...okay maybe not.

In summation: not the worst, not the best, could be better.

How freakin hard can it be... level, resonance, and a big button right in the middle... it's not neuro surgery...

This was my first pedal, and i still could tell it sucked ass... it hums really freakin loud in my fav. pickup settings (i.e. bridge), i could get the sound of my favorite band if my favorite band was Captain Schlorb and the Mighty Defenders of Justice, otherwise, no such luck. Overall the sound sucked.

You can't really depend on it, i don't think... mine gave out for no reason at all, then came back one day. it's a little plastic p.o.s. what do u expect.

Never dealt with 'em, no upgrade/repair or anything

While this piece of shit is easy to use, it sounds like it was built by retarded monkees and sent to the U.S. for people to buy and get pissed that they ever wasted money on such a little travesty of sound.

takes about 2 seconds to figure out

you either get quiet or loud, and both sound like crap

this thing lokks like it'll fall apart any second. One drop and boom! Play live? yea right.

never dealt with them

i was thinking this would be just a cheap little pedal to fool around with. It's cheap, but you can't fool around cuz there's nothing to fool around with