Danelectro DJ-13 French Toast Octave Overdrive

cmon, its a fuzz w/ octave option. turns knobs to taste....wail

if you want noisy, obnoxious fuzz, a 10. for the price, 15. its noisy when not playing, and not the most subtle effect, so 7 will do. please note this pedal can be more subtle than some have claimed, though don't expect it to clean up with guitar volume knob. however, i found both fuzz and tone knobs to be very effective. to be safe, if you have any doubts about owning a 'noxious loudmouth fuzz, do not buy.

though i have not had this pedal long, i have found other mini dano pedals to be very (that's right} very durable. yes i have gigged with kicked around, spilt beer on etc...... maybe i'm lucky

who cares, buy another one.......it was less than a carton of cigs

again for the price, the worlds best novelty act with some real substance to it. i play garage psyche of a 60's nature, not hendrix more MUSIC MACHINE!
meeeeee liiiiiiiiike!

I got my "French Toast" in a multi-pedal + case pack for under $50.

It's a pretty basic pedal... 3 knobs and a switch for the octave effect. Like others here, I wish it had an indicator light. I found it hard to finesse the amount of distortion... Perhaps this is more a "sound quality" issue than an Ease of Use one.

Perhaps this pedal isn't for me, but I thought the distortion was way too heavy, especially when paired with the octave effect. I was hoping for a lighter fuzz with the distortion knob set on the lower setting to a heavy grind up top, but it goes from 0 to buzzsaw in the first few millimeters of rotation of the distortion knob. It gets too heavy too fast, and it's nearly impossible to get a lighter fuzz out of it. I was very disappointed.

It's a Danelctro Mini... light weight, plastic, inexpensive and easily damaged if you're not careful on stage. I don't have a problem with that, but some people might like a nice metal stompbox like an MXR much better if they're concerned about rough gigging. You get what you pay for.

No experience with this.

Well, it's inexpensive as hell... and you basically get what you pay for. I think the distortion is too heavy even in the low settings. You'd probably be better off getting separate Octave and Distortion pedals so you can control the separate settings a bit more discreetly. I wouldn't have bought it if it hadn't come bundled with the other Denelectro Mini pedals in the multi-pack I purchased.

It's a verys simple stomp box. Only 3 buttons, level, distortion and equalization. And another knob to turn on/off the octavia.

For the price I paid it's a very nice pedal. I can simulate very closely the Hendrix Sound, and the octavia effect is very cool too. Using this pedal with an overdrive pedal (after the fuzz) you can really emulate that classic fuzz sound from the 60's. In live gigs it sounds good too. I use a peavey bandit 112 and I can get a nice buzzy fuzz. I have an Ibanez RG type and a japanese stratocaster, and the pedal sounds good with both of them. I think that using a tube amp it will sound much better.

It's made in cheap plastic, but it likes very solid to me, I am using this pedal for 6 months since I boght it, almost every day, and I never had a problem. I gave 9 because it's made from plastic.

I have never deal with them.

I play blues, classic rock and some classic metal too (80's). I'm playing for about 10 years, but only like an amateur. In my chain of pedals I have a boss compressor sustainer, boss overdrive (sd-1), the french toast,a mxr phase 90, a crybaby wha, and I use them in the effects loop of my RP-1 (digitech). Sometimes I use the distortion of the Peavey too (Bandit 112). I mostly use a Corean Ibanez RG 270 and also I use a Japanese Fender Stratocaster for blues and 60's stuff. With this pedal you can also get that sound of early Black Sabbath, it's very nice! I will bought it again if it were stolen. Before I bought it I compared it with the boss fz-2 and ibanez serie 7 fuzz and the price and the sound of the danelectro where so much better. There's a thing that I don't like about this pedal (the only one): It doesn't have a led to show if it's on or off. But it's a great buy.

I was about to get on here and just bash this thing to no end! BUT...over the past few weeks I've played with this box quite a bit and I have been completely amazed at the sounds that I have been able to get out of it. It's a little difficult to get great sounds out of, but once you learn how this thing works, you can get some sweet sounds!

I have a Cort M200 (don't laugh, it's a freakin awesome guitar), a Danelectro Tuna Melt (Tremolo), Arion Flanger (very good pedal if you can find one), Boss DS-1, and this thing going into my little Crate practice amp (GFX-15, to be exact, not awesome, but it's ok for practice). Recently I have used this pedal just as much if not more than my Boss DS-1. I have gotten some great sounds. I was lookin really hard to find a good Chevelle type distortion, until my brother gave me this (he though it was crap, but he probably didn't mess with it much to unlock the magic, like I have). After playing with it, I got some AWESOME super distorted Chevelle heavy metal. Sounds sweet with palm mutes. REALLY chunky and bassy sounding. It's soo tight. Then I've gotten quite a few other great sounds out of it, from really light distortion to heavy. But mind you, I NEVER turn the distortion knob past about 1/4th of the way, and usually have the EQ knob about 1/2 way, maybe a little less. Sure, you can get some real nasty crap out of this thing if you crank any of the knobs. It sounds horrible, very harsh. I never use the octave, cuz I've never been able to make it sound good and fit into what I'm playing. But it gives you some awesome ballsy, chunky distortions. AWESOME! I'll give it an 8 only because the distortion gets way too insane too easily if you turn the knob very far.

I'm pretty easy on my pedals. I don't smash em or kick em, so I haven't ever had any trouble with this pedal. But I imagine it wouldn't be that difficult to break if you really whacked it hard. The knobs can slip of pretty easy if you are rough with them. I know this from experience with my other Danelectro pedals, but it's never happened to this one. I have gigged with this without backup, and had no problems. But like I said, I'm not hard on my gear. Just lightly step on it and you should be fine.

Wouldn't know.

I play lotsa hard rock and metal, but also some light melodic rock. I use my Boss DS-1 for the light stuff and when I want brighter power chords, but I use this all the time for my hard rock and metal. It sounds so good. I've tried several Boss pedals: mega distortion, super distortion, and my boss ds-1, but I couldn't get a very good Chevelle sound like I wanted with any of them. But after playing with this, I got JUST what I wanted! AND MORE! This pedal sounds so great after you know how to use it. Don't give up on it if you don't absolutely love it at first, it's got some kick anus capabilities.

Its hard to get a good, distorted sound from this pedal alone. I have found little use for the octave, except with extremely low gain, and the regular distortion is limited by only gain and tone controls. AN INDICATOR LIGHT WOULD ADD 3 POINTS IN THIS CATEGORY'S RATING!

I have it in the effects loop of a fender HotRod Deluxe and play a Fender fat strat at bridge position. I mainly use this pedal to beef up the low end by turning the gain ALL the way down and adjusting the tone to add some bass. Leads sound too thin from strats, especially on the high E? I was considering a closed cabinet before I got this guy. It makes those single notes sound fat and juicy with no audible distortion until you play chords (gain all the way down of course) and even then it's minimal. Like I said its in the effects loop so I use my amps gain (good, warm, tube distortion, but lacks real crunchy lows) for my distorted sound and it sounds great. really tightened up and enriched the muddy low end. Haven't usd the octave much. High gain is noisy.

After one gig 2 of the three knobs were missing. However, it turned out to be a good thing since the sensitive tone knob was exactly where I wanted it and the distortion I use all the way down anyways. It's never died or broke (besides knobs) but it's all plastic and I wouldn't be surprised if it crumbled in the next 5 minutes. But so far so good.

havn't dealt with company

I know this pedal in a lot of ways is a piece of shit and I don't blame the dude who bashes it in all capitals below. But the point is it saved my sound and money I would be spending on a cabinet. If it broke, I would replace it in a heart beat, several times actually, but remember it solved a very specific problem for me. Dont expect beautiful high gain tone from this puppy alone. For the price I paid, however, and how much better it made ALL of my other tones sound it is crucial.

Pretty easy to use...if you've used pedals before or know the difference between your right and left hand, you'll get the hang of it.

I really dig this pedal. It's probably one of my favorites actually. It gets a great, trashy fuzz tone that is really cool and expressive, especially with the octave on. In my experience, it really seems to respond in nice, but subtle ways to pick attack and pickup selection. When I want the hgih octave a little more ubdued and buried, I can do it by altering my picking and pickup...if I want all out spitty high toned fuzz, I just dig in and it comes right out, all without turning a knob. It's more of a noise pedal in my book...great for spaced out fizzy solos, big swashes of feedbackish tones, and cool, '60 style garage band rampages. The fuzz is modeled after a vintage style fuzz, but it has some modern qualities to it. It's not incredibly tweakable, but it's not bad either. Without the octave on, I think this thing just loses its character, so I keep the octave on all the time. To me, this thing just oozes coolness, and it definitely has it's own vibe...it stands out nicely in my arsenal of 20+ pedals, half of which are some sort of fuzz or distortion.

It seems sturdy enough, though I would probably carry a spare...they're cheap enough.

n/a

I like a lot of things, but I mostly go with shoegaze, brit pop, and similar stuff. I dig Ride, MBV, the Vines, Spiritualized, The Who and all the regulars. This pedal is probably not going to make it into my regular rig, which I try to keep as simple as possible, but it would definitely make it on to my noise board with my other favorite, the MXR Blue Box...I like to think of this pedal as a slighty better-mannered Bizarro Blue Box (though not it's equal in the pure mayhem category). Plus, it's so damn cheap! A great pedal all around. It also has a certain Big Muff quality to it as well, though I can't really place why it reminds me of a Big Muff because on it's face it doesn't really sound like one...I think it more how the pedal "feels" in a way.

Fairly easy to use. There's a volume, a drive, an EQ, and an octave switch. Watch out for the knobs though, mine tend to fall off quite a bit.

I've never played a Foxx Tone Machine before, so I can't compare. However, I can say that, with enough tweaking and whatnot, you can get a pretty sweet, vintage-like sound out of this pedal.

Of course, that requires some growing.

When I first got this pedal, I plugged it in and away I went. I got nothing but shitty sounds out of it. I tried fiddling, and found it difficult to get anything worth having out of it. Octave on, octave off, whatever, it all sounded bad.

However, after a good little bit of fiddling, I got an excellent power-chord sound out of it. It has a very unnatural "chuck" sound to it, almost like a synthesizer. Be warned, though: much like any synthesizer pedal, when the octave effect is on, you're best to try to keep it monophonic, or just power chords. Open chords sound indistinguishable and lack definition with the octave effect engaged. However, if you keep it to just power chords or lead lines, you can get a very mechanical, choppy, textured distortion, which is very good.

Without the octave, this is basically just a second-rate distortion pedal. Nothing too outstanding.

Well, two of the three knobs keep falling off, and the case is plastic. It's times like these when I say "Well it's a good thing I'm a studio rat" because this thing wouldn't hold up past the first gig.

erm.... not really.

Overall, this pedal is a good one-or-two song pedal, but I wouldn't make a career around it. When you couple the unreliability with the difficulty of getting a decent sound out of it, along with the limited nature of the one good sound, it's nothing to write home about. However, I've never played through a pedal that gave my guitar that "chucky" mechanical sound, so for that I'll keep it around.

I got this for free with the Danelectro Cool Cat, so I've no room to complain.

GOOD SOUND????? WHATS THAT????? I HATE MINE,,..THE MANUAL SUCKS EASY TO USE ,BUT THAT DAMN SWITCH GOES FROM SHITTY BUZZING TO LOWER SHITTY BUZZING...I GIVE IT A 9 FOR IT BEING IDIOT PROOF..

LIKE I SAID BEFORE IT SUXS.. AKA CHAINSAW ON STERIODS IN A SOUP CAN

I DON'T KNOW BUT WHEN I THREW IT ACROSS THE ROOM IT DIDN'T BREAK

NEVER DEALT WITH BUT IF I FIND WHO THOUGHT UP THIS CRAP I WOULD GET HIS ASS FIRED AND SHOT

DON'T DO WHAT I DID.. I GOT THIS FROM MUSICIANS FRIEND IN THE "SUMMER OF LOVE PACKAGE" THE TUNER MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE BEST THING I GOT BUT THE REST , WELL THE PHASER ISN'T TOO BAD. SUCK THAT OCTAVE IS USELESS UNLESS U WANNA PLAY "HAIR OF THE DOG" ALL NIGHT

This pedal does require a little tweaking to get a good tone. The distortion by itself is very buzzy and rich and to me sounds best at about 9:00 with a very slight gain just into clipping on the amp. Going into a pure clean channel the distortion is too trebly and piercing.

I think it sounds better with single coils than humbuckers on the octave effect. If you warm up the amp to just getting into grit the distortion is outrageously cool. For me it nails the Billy Gibbons tone on Rhythmeen where the guitar sounds like its breaking up.
The octave effect gets a lot of bad press here, but if you have ever heard Jimi Hendrix 1st or Axis, Jeff Beck from the Yardbirds through Wired, this thing gets the sound as good as the original fOXX at a fraction of the price.

I use it with a mod I've posted here: http://www.devkings.com/hotlicks/toast.htm
The octave/distortion toggle switch is pretty worthless so I've outlined a tutorial that takes you step by step into a really cheap and easy fix for that thing.

Haven't dealt with them.

I absolutely love this pedal and am looking for another to mod as well for a backup. It's not for eveybody, but if you 'get it' it's the coolest pedal on earth, aside from the original. Jimi's "Gold and Rose" tone

easy to get good tone if you are conservative on the settings and know what you are doing. this sounds good on tube or solid state, however dano screwed up again DUE TO NOT GIVING IT ENOUGH LEVEL. maybe they were afraid the kids would blow up their crappy speakers with the octave fuzz features on this pedal.

sounds awesome with the octave shift up and mild distortion, this thing will pile it on and go into mosquito mode if you push it. to me that sounds like crap tho. i use and sg and an orange head. if this had more level i would give it a 10.

use a 9v power pack and a battery backup.

n/a

if you want fuzz to change up the usual overdrive/metal distortion type deal, here is an option. would sound good with semi-acoustic electric guitars like a thinline tele, a strat, etc. rockin. i will probly buy something else though because of the volume loss when going clean to dirty.