Danelectro DJ-10 Grilled Cheese Distortion

Too simple to use.

I read a whole bunch of reviews on this little beastie, and I honestly don't know what the heck anyone's talking about. Anyway, I tried this little pedal with a Les Paul and a Strat, both through a Mesa Rectoverb and an old Silvertone 5-watt tube amp. In any configuration, it yielded what I consider to be many variations on 80's metal. There is NO muddines in the distortion, and there is clearly a midrange peak that sounds like a wah pedal. The "Resonance" control adjusts the vowel of the wah. Excellent for palm-muting stuff. Played through my little Silvertone amp, it sounded great. Played through my Mesa's clean channel, it had one hell of a kickin' sound, because the Mesa allows for more low-end. Damn it's fun to play with!

I think they'd be very reliable if you took care of them and didn't drop them. Not tough like Boss, so minus a few points here for the plastic, but still pretty good

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I really only bought this pedal to play through my little Silvertone amp. I just ditched a new Boss MT-2 Metal Zone the other day becaise I hated it. It too had a similar "wah in the middle postion" sound to it, but NO character. I like this little alot pedal better. Is the 'wah' sound overbearing? Yes. Is this pedal a 'one-trick pony'? Yes, except for the adjustable 'Resonance'. Will it make smokin' 80's metal riffs pour out of any amp? Yes- infact that's all it does. If some fat bastard stepped on it and crushed it, would I buy another? Yes. Not for professional use, but a hell of a lot of fun! P.S. The distortion is adjustable via your guitar's volume knob.

This pedal is very easy to use, and easy to get the sound you know you want from it. (raunchy 60's fuzz!) with just 2 knobs to control it, you can't really go wrong.

I've seen reviews of this pedal that miss the point entirely. For what the Grilled Cheese pedal is supposed to do, it does it WELL. Like I said, it's raunchy, ugly fuzz. Very 60's garage/psychadelic sounding. On my amp (solid state) it nailed the lead riff to Satisfaction. Nice!

It's a little bit flimsy . It's not a metal covered tank. Simple plastic covering, that will treat you well if you don't abuse it. I'm careful with my stuff, so this pedal will last a while.

Never had to deal with Danelectro.

I play in a psychadelic, new wave type band. For an awesome 60's fuzz sound, this pedal nails all of that. Also, just hearing the kind of sound the pedal makes is really fun in itself.

Plug yer guitar into one hole and the amp into another, twiddle a few knobs and there you are. It's about as easy as they get.

I did not like it. It wasn't what I expected. It sounds a like a distortion pedal played thru a fixed WAH. Think of the solo on Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh. That's the sound. I guess I wanted that Cream or American Woman kind of sound. I did buy it unheard over the net. I sold it for what I paid for it on eBay.

If this is the sound you want, it DID have a quality sound. I just did not want or ness. like it. I did get a T-Bone to replace it and LOVE it.

It ought to be OK as long as you don't drop on a hard surface. It has a heavy plastic shell with a steel base. Treat it with the respect any musical device or instrument deserves and it sould last forever.

I wouldn't even bother for the price I paid. The web site at Dano is slick but spartan. I get the best support right here at HC in these blessed reviews.

Style of Music: Blues/Folk/Roots/Alt.Country/Old Timey.
Playing for 32 yrs, sounds like 2.
I sold it after 2 months.
Sounds like a fixed wah.

It is really easy to learn how to use it as it only has 2 knobs (level and resonance). The resonance knob is function is a little bit weird, but once you understand what it does, you can get a really cool sound.

I am using it with my American Standard Strat, and it's followed by my Zoom GFX-707 and a Boss FV-50L volume pedal all run to a Crate GX-30 amp. With the resonance knob set around the leftmost point it can get a little noisy, but not too much. I like using it with the resonance knob around the middle, a little turned to the right.

Although it has a plastic cover, the plastic seems to be durable, so I think It is reliable for a gig. I would use it in a gig without a backup, but I would be more confident with one.

Never needed them, but the fact that it came with one of their batteries was a good detail.

I play a lot of Satriani like stuff. I use it with a wah and a compressor (both in the ZOOM), and it works fine, but I'm thinking seriously of changing it for another pedal.

If it was lost, I maybe would replace it, but I'd rather buy a better one.

I love the high ended distortion it gives me, but I hate that I don't have much control of the distortion. I wish it had a knob to control the level of distortion.

I compared it to a friend's Ibanez Mostortion. I liked the Mostortion a lot more.

I think now it gets in the way for me to make music, because of the lack of distortion control, though it's good to make experiments.

Super easy, u'd have to be a dumb ass not to know how to use it

superb quality, but no for you if u are looking for some seriously heavy distortion. It's great for putting an edge on light rock

Bit small, looks as if it could break easy, but it hasn't for me yet

Never needed any

Needed one, got one, it was perfect, i recommend it for all types of decent rock.

guess

I am from the 60s. I used to have a real fuzz box. They sound like crap. This sounds good in comparison. It was way better than expected. My expectations were so low it would have been hard not to exceed them. I figured it would not be useable, basically just a novelty sound as one other totally irate reviewer has already said.

don't even think about it. Read my comments in the Rocky Road reviews.

I have 18 effects pedals. This ranks in the top half in terms of plain old fun. Remember, you're not going to get a Steve Vai tone. This is for the age of aquarius stuff.

any idiot can get a sound out of one, there are two knobs that you twiddle. the problem comes when trying to find a 'good' sound. there is no manual, but you dont need one....

I used this pedal with a epiphone g-310 (sg shaped doodah) into a fender blues deville. this thing sounds dire! '60s distortion it says... its horrible. I play everything from 60's surf to '90s grunge. this pedal is good for nothing, except maybe a novelty noise every now and then.

it is made of flimsy plastic, with crappy little plastic knobs sticking out of it. it is tiny too, which doesn't help... my big size 12 shoes are in constant danger of breaking something. and it is too small!! tiny box, with a tiny button!!

never had any reason to deal with them

I hadn't been playing for long when I bought this thing, and the only reason I did was to get distortion from my crate practice amp without finding the tiny little button on the front. I will never again buy a product from a mail order catalogue without listening to it just because it is cheap. I really tried to like this pedal. I defended it when my friends mocked it. I plugged it into a Gibson SG, a squire strat and a fender tele, and into a multitude of different amps, including my Blues DeVille and a 100w marshall stack. I have all sorts of music trough it. and it has repayed me with novelty crap. it has nothing going for it. I eventually managed to sell this thing on ebay for about 20 squids. I was glad to see the back of it.

Migrain in a box?Tonal buzzsaw?This Jondus-colored pedal is the shit.Hats off to Danelectrofor it's 2 finest distortions-this and the frenchtoast.Resonance all the way down and tone knob rolled down is superb.Res. at max is great toowith its sinus-y,feedbacking underbelly.The only recognizable sound I can get is the riff to"Satisfaction".That's actually a good thing though.This is a unique pedal.Even those who like it might tell you to use sparingly.I say use it has often as you want.Using it as yr main distortion would be a very ballsy move.This ain't gonna go over well with the metal community nor with tonal puritans but suited for noise architecture and tone texture fiends like me.Yes definitely an aquired tastelike the MXR Bluebox or the DOD Gonkulator.Use this with a smallstone to avoid its usual tone-vampirism-perfect for each other.

I play lush,pretty stratospheric music-no good for that-wait sure it isyou can actually get a nice overdriven sound with it by toning down the level to taste.I also play noisy fuzzladen cathartic shit-perfect for that.Play synthy weirdo kookoo shit with envelope filters,octaves and such again,you may want to consider toning it down to keep the filter from sounding like a cat's tail under a rocking chair or maybe not.This thing perfectly suits my style/s.I've been playing guitar since I got my first chemistry set on my 9th birthday.Today's my birthday and I'm 24.I've always been a little off-kilter in my approach and would take my testtubes from my chemistry set and slide em up and down the neck of my guitar.Enough with the bio this thing is a perfect match for me.

only 2 controls - volume output and a resonance control (probably a notch filter)

I usually play a Gibson SG Standard into this pedal using a small Peavey Envoy amp. The sound is VERY biting, hard-edged, razor-sharp and almost turns the air into "swiss cheese". However, unlike what other reviewers have said, the sound is not like that rotten 1960's transistor distortion. Oh this is edgy, and very much on the "trebly" side but not what I would call tinny. If you listen to the Yarbirds' "Shapes of Things to Come" or "Over Under Sideways Down", THAT'S the kind of sound it pushes out. One great advantage of this peadal is that you can get some serious distortion and sustain at very low volume levels. This is great if you are practicing in your apartment and don't want your landlord evicting you for disturbing the peace. For those who say they wouldn't use it all the time I agree. Some effects are like that. Would you want to use a Wah-Wah pedal for every song? This is the kind of effect you would use for a wild solo such as the Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction" (but as stated before - not as tinny). Definitely a pedal for the garage band sound.

It's still working.

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My musical style - "garage band", classic rock and hard rock and I've been playing guitar for decades now. The only word of caution for those of you thinking about buying one - this effect REALLY stands out, and should therefore be used sparingly. Good value for the money.

This is VERY easy to use, with only 2 knobs, you'd have to be Very stupid if u dont know how to use it. There is the Level knob (volume) and the resonance knob(tone)
if you have the resonance to the left, you get a very tinny sound, and if you have the resonance all the way to the right, you get a very muffeld sound that sounds like its coming out of the back of your amp. there is no manual for this pedal, but i dont think you need one

It sounds great! if you like to play punk rock, I would recomend this pedal! I'm not sure what it sounds like for 60's stuff though
I play with a Fender Squier P-Bass,with a scronnie BP-15 amp and i play alot of cliff burton/old metallica stuff, with a wah pedal which sounds great with this pedal. It sounds wierd when you play along with a different band, but, whatever

i guess it depends how you want your distortion to sound

Its not a stomp box, so i would recoment stomping on it and its made out of plastic, and i havent broken it, so i guess its pretty good plastic
i play with it live and i've never had any problems, but i would go with a backup, just in case

Nothing to say about this

Its great!!!! i love to play nirvana stuff with it and if my grilled cheese was stolen, i would cry, then buy a new one!! Its way better then the DOD distortion have, it sounds better
i love the sound from my grilled cheese, its a total chick magnet!! but, i hate, well....nothin! I would have to say this is the best pedal! atleast for me!!!