Danelectro DJ-13 French Toast Octave Overdrive

Very easy to understand, since there are only 3 knobs. However, some tweaking is required to really appreciate this pedal. Never just crank the distortion and the tone and expect a pedal to sound awesome. I know some players tend to do this.

I noticed also that the lowest distortion settings (9 o'clock and less) are a little useless. The effect seems to dissappear here.

My settings are pretty much around 12 o'clock for all 3 knobs. This works well with my set-up.

I like this pedal paired with single coil equipped guitars, especially my MIM Strat. Like others have noted, it sounds best with the neck pickup, with the tone rolled back slightly.

Try it first WITHOUT THE OCTAVE SWITCH ENGAGED.

If you don't like the first impression of this pedal, just play with the controls and tweak them very slightly in every way. I promise...you will find a sound that you really like. I was blown away from the start when I played through this thing. It is like the fuzz that I always wanted, but didn't know existed...at least not for 30 bucks.

This pedal has a sweet, heavy, scooped sound that I love. On chords it sounds thick and full. On single notes it sounds grindy and "chewy".

Now that you love the regular fuzz sounds, engage the octave. This to me is just an added bonus that can be used for really adding cool emphasis to a solo. Throw another fuzz pedal in front of the French Toast with the octave on, and you really get a great effect.

I've never used a Foxx Tone Machine, but I find it VERY hard to believe that this isn't a darn good clone. In other words, I don't think the Foxx can be much better than this, just way more expensive.

Good so far. Seems solid for being plastic.

Obviously, if you slam down on plastic, it will break.

One day I might buy another French Toast and re-house it in something metal. Just for fun.

N/A

I love 90's Grunge-era stuff, as well as jazz and reggae. I can use this pedal for all of it.

The first sound I noticed with this pedal was very similar to Iommi's "Paranoid" tone. From there it was easy to find a Smashing Pumpkins sound and even a Hendrix tone.

Paired with the Big Muff, I can get different fuzzes with different characteristics. If I tweak them just right, they can achieve the same signal boosts and clarity. The Big Muff does a better job at sounding big and loud, but the French Toast has a better overall sound in my opinion.

Very easy to get a good sound out of the French Toast. Mine came out of the box almost perfectly set-up already. No Manual, I guess none is needed.

This is a Fuzz most certainly, with a choice of octave via the toggle switch. I play Fender, Danelectro and Gibson guitars with fender twin reverb. This sounds great fuzz of the mid to late 60's, sounds almost like the Mosrite Fuzzrite in a way. You can play mid sixties Garage rock with the French toast. I figured out today if you match the Frech Toast with the FAB Overdrive you can get quite a warm sounding fuzz, by itself the French Toast is Treble/Nasal Fuzz killer for those bottom end scales like it should be. People say it's modeled after the Foxx Tone Machine, I wouldn't no what one sounds like, but this is awesome.

Dependable, Yes. This is a pedal not a stompbox, so it should hold up if you press on it and not stomp.

Don't Know

I Play Rock, Punk, 60's/Garage, Surf, Rockabilly etc...
Like I said earlier this is great for 60's Garage stuff and some punk. I would replace it, but would not be heart broken, cause I got such a good deal. I like the color sea foam green, real 40's or 50's style. I'm into the switch that lets you decide from fuzz to fuzz w/octave.

I found it gets the best tones when the EQ knob is at 7 or 8 o'clock. The octave switch is a little small, but that can be a good thing. Various gain settings are easy to dail in.

I've used it with a Stat HH and a Fender jazz bass. Sounds AMAZING through both. It really shines with a bass, however. I've never heard such a smashed out, thick tone before. It tends to cut off bass frequencies, so an EQ is usually necessary to make up for that. Pedal is rather noisy when the gain is up all the way, but totally worth it for the tones you get. Octave off is just as exciting as ocatave on!

I bought it second hand, and it hasn't caused me any problems yet. Haven't played with it live yet.

I play lots of heavy rock. Not metal, more stoner rock. I suits classic rock style also. Overall, this is a beast of a pedal, ESPECIALLY ON BASS!!!!!

Super easy to use, but the battery compartment is a little weird. It's still pretty boneheaded simple which is good.

It's noisy as just the fuzz, but with the octave it's fairly quiet-I expected the opposite. The octave effect is very good for the price. It's not as good as the Fulltone Octafuzz, but what is.
This is a great pedal to introduce you to vintage tones such as Hendrix's fuzz/octave fuzz tones. You have to know how to use this...the octave fuzz works best when used on a strat neck pickup. It sounds best on single coil neck pickups, but it does sound fine with bass and any other guitar. I own some nice amps/guitars/pedals. I mainly use fulltone and maxon pedals and this Dan-o pedal is fun for the price and inspired me to sit down and play more than I have in a while. Well worth the money I spent so far.

I don't know yet. I can't imagine it would be dependable and I wouldn't gig with it. It must be a tone-sucker.

I don't think you could go wrong buying used like I did. I wouldn't buy it new because I don't support buying things made overseas when I can. These pedals are sweatshop toys. Don't buy these new if you can help it. I don't care what your opinion is regarding my "buying" opinions, but they use these hokey diner-style American-a names and slap these together in China. Screw Dan-o...buy used.

Dead easy. Turn it all the way up and put on the octave switch for that chewy, upper-octave enriched fuzz tone popularized by Adrian Belew. One footswitch.

I only give it an 8 because we are rating so many different kinds of devices here. Considering what the French Toast is -- a copy of the vintage Foxx Tone Machine octave distortion pedal, in an economical package -- I think it's reasonable to expect a good deal of background noise. This is not your grandpa's fuzz pedal, but it is a reproduction of grandpa's pedal -- so you get grandpa's noise along with it.

The fuzz tone works best when you play from the neck pickup, giving the pedal a warm, bassy sound to work with. The tone you *hear* is a thin, violin-like razor-edged fuzz with an extra upper octave overtone, on most notes. Not every note on the guitar, mind you, but most of the ones you'd want. It's the tone you hear all over Adrian Belew's work, so if you want to jam on "Elephant Talk" or "Paint The Road", this is your pedal. It just feels like you're playing glowing, high-tension wires. Hot. Zingy.

Chords will sound totally weird -- this is a FUZZ pedal -- and doing a double-stop bend will give you some totally sick ring-modulator-esque tones. It can be interesting to turn down the "Dist" knob sometimes to get a barely distorted, crackling, raw sound with that upper octave sizzling on top of a metallic, ring-modulated clang.

Cheap as these things go for, I think I'd buy a couple extras if I were gigging with it. I don't gig with it.

It's made of plastic, and it looks and feels cheap and fragile. Although it's a footswitch, I try not to step on it much, or very firmly.

Never yet had a reason. Doubt I can imagine bothering for a $30 pedal.

It's an unbelievable value! Here you get the til now rare or expensive Foxx Tone octave distortion, for pocket money. Bless Danelectro for having the guts to make one this cheap for us. Even if you only play it for a few songs, or just a few afternoons, it's worth the price. Copping the exact sound on the rideout solo of "Purple Haze"? You tell me your price. I'm glad I found this pedal for so little cash.

Pretty simple

I run this pedal with a Rhoades 73 electric piano with a RotoVibe through an Ampeg bass amp (RotoVibe first). I hated this pedal with my guitar rig but tried it just for fun with the Rhoades and found a great sound. The sound is really grindy, good for open and 7th chords, but noisy as hell. It has lots of hiss and sometimes picks up FM radio. The amount of hiss seems to depend on the power supply, and this weekend the venue's supply is really bad. It sounds like a waterfall when I'm not playing. I dig the sound in the studio but wish for less noise. With the Rhoades I would give the sound quality an 8 on a good day. With guitar it would be 0. If it could do its thing with the Rhoades without all the interference from neon beer signs and flourescent lights it would be perfect.

It has worked perfectly for two years with no problems.

Don't want to deal with them.

The style of music played with this pedal is Floyd, Can, Pixies, Velvet Underground things. This pedal works well for the style but the crappy nature of the pedal sometimes gets in the way of good sound. When the crowd complains about the hiss from the pedal you know it's time for something better. If it was stolen I would move on. I think I will try something else, maybe a Keeley mod Blues Driver. I want the grind but with less noise from the Toast.

Pretty dirt simple. The only controls are Level, Distortion, octave on/off switch and EQ. I got it used, no manual.

So far the sound I'm most liking it just the fuzz sound without the octave up. It's not pristine or smooth like a big muff. It's kind of ratty, but in a good way, if you EQ it right (if you EQ it too far to the treble side, it will sound like crispy crap). It's not something you're going to use all the time, but it's okay.

The octave up sounds is a bit brittle for my tastes. I get the feeling that it would sound awesome with a bass guitar though. Power chords are interesting with this thing. It will track them in a freaky kind of way.

It is noisy, and sometimes picks up radio stations.

Seems fairly reliable.

I wouldn't pay full price for this, but if you could get it extremely cheap, it might be worth checking out. Dano has other, much better mini pedals though (The Fish n Chips and Tuna Melt spring instantly to mind).

easy to use. 3 clearly labeled knobs, one switch. The switch doesn't have on/off labeled, but it's pretty clear when it's in octave mode or not.

This thing really surprised me. I was thinking of building an octave fuzz, but This thing was about as cheap as building a FOXX tone Machine clone. I was looking for an octave fuzz and had heard good things about this little guy, so why not? I tried it out and was amazed. with the octave off, the thing is a BMP, but crisper if you know what I mean, less muddy and more defined. I was surprised such a cute little box can create such bassy distortion/fuzz. Pure awesome. The octave on was pure gritty heaven. Excellent octave effect, it rips things up. It works well with other pedals and is nice and small. Responsive pots, good eq, not much bad to say about the sound.

thick plastic casing, mine came with a control protector. I can't see any reliability issues. I use a few pedal boards, It'll hold up fine. Seriously, don't abuse stompboxes by jumping on them, it's not necessary. If you gig, use a pedal board to protect your gear while travelling. There is no reason for this thing to break besides an idiot band member.

website is not so good. Like most effects manufacturs. I heard someone found the contact info for them.

I probably paid too much for it, but it's an excellent fuzz pedal that can easily compare to boutique octave fuzz clones. This little guy really surprised me, I'm questioning what to do with my Big muff after years of it's loyal service. If you're going for octave fuzz, definatly check this pedal out. You can mod it to FOXX tone machine specs very easily. Don't pay for a Fender Blender while this thing is still in production. Not a normal fuzz liek a fuzz face, but a very good octave fuzz that can compete with the Tone Machine, the Blender and the Ampeg Scrambler. Awesome value.

This has three knobs, one switch and a stomp switch. Easy enough to plug in and play, but enough control.

This is not an overdrive as it says on the box. It's a FUZZ. I've heard that this is a clone of the foxx tone machine. I have not tried the original so I can't comment.

This is a nice evil fuzz sound. The EQ knob can go from scorching to bassy. Lots of nice sounds, and it can give you a smooth sustain if you want it to. The octave up gives you some ringmodulator sounds or some clanging sounds if you play chords. The octave is quite discordent and only of interest to experimentalists.

Plastic pedal so you wouldn't want to stomp on it.

No opinion.

This is a great fuzzbox. It's got some nice smooth sustain for classic rockers, or some nice noisy sounds and interesting overtones for experimental players. Turn the octave off if you want to play Hendrix, turn it on if you want Sonic Youth.
Fuzzes really are a very personal taste - there's such a huge variety you have to keep trying them and find one you like.
This pedal is great value for money. I wouldn't use it live due to its reliability but it's great to keep handy in the studio or when writing. I can't believe that something so cheap sounds so good and its definitely worth a tenner of anyone's money.

As other reveiwers have already mention this can be a tricky little bugger to get the hang of, but with some fiddling you can get a some glorious fuzz tones.

I'm a vintage fan and use a '61 Burns Vibra artist and a 64'Harmony Rocket, through either a Traynor 100w all valve head and 2x10 or 4x10 Fender cab, or a Vox AC50 head and cab or Fender Twin. Through all set ups and with different guitars this thing sounds great. It really does depend on your set up if you have a 10w practice amp (which I do) and a cheap guitar it will probably sound terrible as with most effects pedals. With the valve amps overdriven a bit it warms up the fuzz sound a lot.
Is it noisy??? Of course its noisy its a bloody fuzz pedal, and not a nice clean modern version either it has a hint of that uncontrolabilty of the old (Maestro) fuzzes but this one can be tamed! This is not for everyone but a lot of good sounds can be got from this little box. I managed to re-create (as near as dammit) Count Fives Psychotic Reaction, plus the sound of Music Machine/Seeds fuzz and a multitude of 60's garage bands, although you cant get that (Maestro) 'Satisfaction' sound its as near as you'll get for $30.
As far as fuzz pedals go they all vary so you really have to hear it first before buying, but if you dig that raw buzzy out'a'control 60's fuzz tone than you'll like this pedal, as it has the sound without the humming, feedback and reliabilty problems, so good for live stuff.

Well it doesnt look the strongest pedal in the world, its a bit plasticy and the knobs are a bit fragile so cant go kicking it about, but other than that its been very releable not had a problem with any Dano gear.

Never dealt with em, probably never will.

I play 60's Garage Punk/Surf and primitve rock'n'roll, through beaten up vintage equipment for 15 years and this little pedal works a treat. It aint exactly the same as a vintage fuzz, but as they all vary greatly that doesnt matter, the only thing that gives it away as a modern pedal is its quiet when switching in/out and doesnt feedback no where near as bad. Ive not compared to other new fuzz pedals only vitage ones and this compares pretty well.
Buy this pedal its only $26 for gods sake, everybody needs a little fuzz in thier lives.