Danelectro DJ-13 French Toast Octave Overdrive

I found this wee trinket very easy to use-there are so many sounds and tweaks available it has not become boring or tiresome and its easy to dial great sonds just by setting it at random!!!!!

i usually have my zoom ultra fuzz at the start of my buzz-line and have been using it more as a clean boost to compliment the french toast. The toast rules along with the other "summer of love" pedals "chilli dog" and "pepperoni" but it does get tired. Works well with my digitech whammy and my boss v-wah. Its quite a unique sound but more of a fuzz than a distortion. Quirky!!!!!!!

very reliable so far but i may break it.

I bought this pedal in the "summer of love" box and it was exellent value for money. I play real hard molodic metal (deftones/alice in chains/fear factory inspired) and wounl recomend it to anyone. Its cool!!!!!!!!

Actually pretty easy to use, takes time to find the right sounds. Each time I use it I find a new sound I had never previously been able to get, its all about exploring.

It sounds great when more bass is added to it and the toggle switch is on the bass end. It can give you a fat sound or a tinny shrieking sound, I prefer the warm fuzz sound. It's really sweet for what you pay..... You can get Presidents Of The United States Of America fuzz tone, example "Volcano", "Man(opposable Thumb). and tons of others.

It's reliable and the protective attatchment helps as well.

Never talked to the guys

Its really great if you want nice fuzz and have no money. Not my favorite Danelectro though, I think BLT Slap Echo is my favorite, but then again you can't really compare the two.

It was pretty easy to use. It has 3 knobs (volume, distortion and tone) plus a flip switch to turn the octave on / off.

There wasn't any manual included.

I have to take 1 point off for not having a LED to let you know when the pedal is on / off (because when I first plugged it in it was on and I didn't know it, until I hit the strings on the guitar).

I tried this pedal with an American Standard Stratocaster through an Ampeg Superjet SJ-12T tube amp.
The pedal was only noisy when the distortion knob was turned up past 3 o'clock (which is very common with fuzz pedals).
The fuzz with the octave switch off it was a cool sounding retro (old school) sounding fuzz can get pretty muffled if the tone knob it set to hard left and can get the tinny fuzz when the tone knob is set hard right, but using the tone knob about 11 to 12 o'clock it sounds pretty good. With the octave switch on the fuzz starts to sound like the octavia pedal Jimi Hendrix used on alot of his earlier recordings. You can make a few chords using this pedal ... mostly power chords though (as long as the distortion knob is not set too high) and the octave notes really start to come through the mix when you play past the 12th fret.
One thing I was surprised about was if you turn the distortion knob hard left the pedal cleans up pretty good (there is still some fuzz in the signal but not much) and with the octave switch still up you can have a semi clean octave effect ... which sounds pretty interesting.
I haven't tried the pedal with other pedals yet so I won't comment on how it works with other pedals, etc.

I have quite a few Danelectro pedals (8 including this one) and I haven't had any problems with any of them with an exception to most of them going through batteries pretty fast (but I use a power supply on all my pedals now). Sure this pedal's case is made of plastic but as long as you take care of your equipment it should last for years.

I've never dealt with them but they have a cool website.

I've been playing the guitar for over 10 years and own lots of gear and play quite a range of music styles (Gospel, blues, country, classic rock, etc.)
I've been wanting a decent octave up pedal for awhile but I didn't care too much about having another distortion / fuzz pedal but after reading on this site that this pedal can get semi clean I thought I'd try it out and it's pretty cool little pedal.

Simple...didn't discover that it beared some useful sounds without the octave as well for like a week.

here's my rig, get ready.

lace sensor strat or es-330 knockoff-ts 808 overdrive-french toast-digitech synth wah-boss eq-tuna melt tremelo-boss ce-2 chorus-vintage tc electronix 12 stage phaser-danelectro delay-vox wah-fender blues junior amp.

since i have EVERYTHING else i bought fuzz to round off my arsenal, i'm not a fuzz nut. The octave up sound is great if you have good lead chops and wanna really pump up your sound. It's something you kick in half way through an overdriven solo. The fuzz without the octave does the job but isn't a kickass fuzz like a big muff or anything. If you wanna make fuzz your sound, don't use this thing. my "sound,'" solo wise, is just overdriven neck pickup tone, so i got this fuzz cuz for 20 bucks it's a good addition to my rig.

yeah it's fine...pedals don't crap out on me. I think it sucks batteries, but i'm no expert, i've been powering it with my voodoo lab pedal power 2 since i bought it

shrug

I guess you should call it a FREEDOM toast octave distortion box. HAHAHAHAHA!

i bought it on e-bay without trying it or comparing it to other gear or anything like that. my friend has a big muff and i thought "i could use a sound like that sometime" so i got the cheapest, tiniest fuzz box i could find...the octave up thing was a bonus. i wasn't dissapointed, but my hopes weren't up either.

so i don't know, i like it...i give it a solid shakey thumbs up. you have twenty bucks? why not buy one?

...i sure did.

Awesome pedal.

Excellent at everything it's advertised to do. I just canned everything else in this department.
For those goofs who want it to clean up ?!?!?
IT'S A FUZZ BOX for cryin out loud!
By the way it actually cleans up pretty darn good for what it is.

shoot for $20 I could care less.
Seems fine.
Considering I can get 15 of them for the price of a lot of the competition & close to 60 of them for the price of an old Fox Tone Machine...it's a NO BRAINER.
The thing's awesome.

At $20 condiering the fun this pedal provides I'll buy them lunch.

I play everything.
35 plus years.
Try running a Boss Octave oc-2 before this thing & have some fun.
I've been reading a lot of reviews & playing a lot of stuff side by side I this will fit in my rig.
For me to plug anything in my 1955 Deluxe it has to IMPROVE the tone. Tall order?
heh heh
I'd give this hunk of junk a 12 if I could.
GOOD CLEAN FUN!!!!

I needed a basic distortion pedal because I got a tube amp from the early 70's (Traynor Mk III Twin) that doesn't have a built in distortion circuit or channel switching features like the modern amps. The added bonus of the octave switch kinda sold me on the pedal, and of course the price being around $20. It has distortion, volume and tone controls, an octave switch and an on/off footswitch. It is not easy to switch the octave switch on and off because it is so small and stuck inbetween the volume and tone controls, which also are small. Overall, the entire unit is kinda small too, but it works. With all of those controls, it should be easy to get a good sound out of it. I found what I wanted.

I exclusively use Yamaha strat style and 3 pickup tele style guitars through this pedal into my 74 Traynor Mk III Twin amp. It is an 80 watt all tube combo amp with reverb and tremelo. It has a great clean sound, not quite as crispy as a Fender Twin, and a nice mild overdriven sound when you utilize the master volume control. That's why I need a distortion pedal to get just that little bit more distortion you need sometimes. This pedal does that and more. With my particular guitar and amp combination, I have to back the tone off to about 2 or 3 to reduce the treble, because otherwise it was too shrill. I change the volume and distortion controls to suit the amount of overdrive I want for a particular song, which usually isn't a whole lot for the blues flavored stuff I play normally. I say normally because now with that octave switch, it opens up a whole new tonal territory. It duplicates the sound that Hendrix got with the octaver he used on some of his records pretty well. The unit didn't add a whole lot of noise into the signal path.

I have only had it for a couple of months. Seems OK.

Never dealt with them. They have a website so I guess I could contact them if I had to.

I have been playing for almost 40 years. I haven't owned alot of pedals because most of the modern amps have the minimal effects I want built it. Playing the blues doesn't warrant alot of tricks anyways, just pure feelings from the soul. I use nothing but Yamaha strat style and 3 pickup tele style guitars thru a 74 Traynor MK III combo tube amp with this pedal. The pedal adds the little bit of extra overdrive I want occasionally and much more if I desire. I like this pedal. It does what I want and more for $20 +/-. It would be alot more user friendly if it were physically larger to give a larger platform to mount switches and controls on to make them more accessible, but for $20 I will learn to adapt.

3 knobs (the standard ones), and a toggle switch for the octave effect. pretty easy, the only problem is that there is no status light. though, maybe i'm overly picky in wanting to know all the time what is on and what is off.

my setup goes: mid-eighties telecaster OR late 60's arai daimond hollowbody telecaster clone > danelectro tuner > ibanez powerlead > french toast distortion > chili dog octave > blue danelectro phaser > rocktron phase shifter > dod envelope filter > sunn beta lead 100w head through an ampeg 4x12 cab.

okay, i bought this pedal from musician's friend. it came in their "summer of love" pedal 4-pack, which included the distortion, an octave, a tuner, and a phaser. ups arrived and i pulled them out ofthe box, and i thought "gee! these are cute! i hope they sound good." well, the tuner is crap, right out. the phaser is awsome, the octave is very groovy, but this fuzz! wow. it sounds like a cross between that vintage acid-induced fuzz droning of the late 60s and psycho over-saturated 80s indie rock a la pixies, my bloody valentine, etc. it's very nice. however, if you are looking for note definition, you should have another pedal in your rig. and yet, it's very good at what it does. it seems to blend very well with other effects. i don't know why they put the octave switch on there, though. with the octave turned off, it sounds very tinny and looses a lot of the warmth of the fuzz. of course, i'm playing through single coils, but damn, i just can't find a use for it.
anyway, i think this pedal stands up to all competitors. the other guitarist in my band uses a big muff reissue, and it's good, but it's not as good as my cheap little plastic dano pedal.

we gig about every week, and i've been using it constantly since i bought it 3 months ago. the battery goes fast, so i run ac power through it.

yeah, so what if it's plastic. the world was built on plastic. i weigh 200 pounds and step on things very hard, and it seems just fine. the knobs are a little fragile seeming, but i don't step on the knobs. no harm no foul.

backup? you think i have money for backup? this is the first piece of equipment i've ever bought new!

i have never dealt with danelectro, but i hear they work with you. of course, i didn't send in the warrenty card, so i'll probably never talk to them.

my band plays origional rock music. it's kind of our own style, but when we cover other bands, it's usually the flaming lips, pixies, and mogwai. that should give you a good idea. this pedal works very nicely when doing sonic-youth style sonic destruction. i mostly play rythm and sing, my other guitarist is the real magic maker. we've both got half stacks, and we're pretty loud, but the dano pedal still allows for definition of notes within the whole band, as much as there is definition at 120 decibels.

i've been playing for 10 years now, and have owned many many distortion pedals (boss ds-1, dod grunge, boss bluesdriver, big muff, etc.) but what i like about this pedal is that where the other pedals reached their peak, this one is just beginning. it's over the top, and yet it mantains character the whole way. sometimes i do solo gigs through a `60 gibson explorer 18 watt amp, and i turn some of the settings way down on the french toast, and i get the sweetest, most soulfull blues sounds. the only thing i would change is giving it a status light, and i've been thinking about wiring one in on my own. the bright side to this is, if i fuck it up, i can buy a new pedal for like 30 bucks. which i would do anyway if i lost this one. all in all, the perfect pedal for someone who likes their sound with some serious fuzz and saturation.

Easy enough to use - not so easy to get a good sound out of.No real Manual at all exc. 1 diagram displaying th eknobs.

Used with MIM Strat into Marshall MG DFX 15watt amp. In my humble opinion , this pedal is the most useless piece of crap I ever spent money on. Only got it cause it was on special for #19 thinking HEndrix Octave sounds as per Band Of Gypsies. In a word, BRITTLE no matter what settings u try to tweak it.This thing just destroys the original tone of the guitar and heres a first - it seems to make the rythum strat pickup sound more trebly than the treble pickup. With or without the Octave switch on, it sucks tone. Also bought the Pepperoni Phaser with this and I love that pedal, although noisy.

Dont know, dont care, will try and move it on.

N/A

Strongly recommend first listen to it before parting with cash. Can not see any use for it at all given the tonal short-comings of it.

I got this pedal as part of the Tone Freak box set. (7 of the mini pedals that the saleslady told me were being discontinued by Dano) When I tried this at first, I loved it.. It was so over the top and fuzzed out.. Then.. the more time I spent with it, I started to get a little put-off.. I found it a little TOO fuzzed out.. I worked with the nobs and it found that once no matter what poisition the distortion nob is on doesn't really matter.. It is fuzz all the way as soon as you turn it 1/4 of the way.. The octave switch just adds a little punch.. Why have a switch anyway? With it off, the sound is too brittle anyway.. Also, I noticed over time that when you switch it on and off that there is a VERY noticible "pop" .. So.. if you were recording with it, you might wreck your track if you are jumping between it being on and off., I took it to rehearsal with my band, and they HATED it.. it was banned (along with the chili dog octave pedal) .. So, I just put it in the closet for a few months. Then, we were recording.. And, there is a distorted line I play with boss pedal.. but, it was too normal sounding.. I needed something that hit hard.. So, I bought the pedal to the studio.. When I played the line with the box, again the eyes rolled.. But, I held my ground.. When we listened listened back with the drums and guitar, the jaws dropped.. It was THAT good.. the pedal is saved.. It is in now on my board (but just for that one song.. maybe it will be worked into some new material)...

I play bass.. with distortion, flange and compressor.. Is this pedal noisy? YES.. very! If you don't play anything your amp sounds like a tornado. I have played this pedal with both guitar and bass, so I can speak for both. Chords are impossible to play with clarity.. Don't even try. This pedal is great to play sparingly to add some "what the hell" sound to your style.. Just to add a little spice. If you want to play the intro to Purple Haze convincingly, this is the pedal you need.. This is THE sound if you are doing psycedelic freak out music.. If you play in a Creed cover band, you won't have any use for this..

This pedal seems well built.. Eventhough it is made of plastic. I have seen some Danos go through HELL and they still work.. The nobs are a little flimsy looking though, and one of them is crooked now. Just treat it nice, and it should be ok..

I won't cry if this breaks..

Eventhough this pedal is very limited in what it can do, it does it VERY well.. I only use it for one song, but it is THE sound that was needed.. Call it being in the right place at the right time.

Looks simple enough...3 knobs for distortion, tone and output and a switch to turn the octave on/off. Didn't come with a manual or list of suggested settings as others have mentioned but I reckon it's best to find your own way around these things.
Easy to get a good sound? Ummm...it all depends on your definition of good! Let's just say be prepared to learn how to tame it first.

Danelectro's version of the ol' octave fuzz.
Ok, I'm running it into a Line6 FlextoneII XL and have also run it into a Peavey Classic 30 and a Soldano combo, usually with a G&L ASAT or a modified Tokai strat.
First off, this thing is noisy - but you gotta expect that with fuzz and this is sure is fuzz, not overdrive, ok?
The bottom line is I really like this pedal. For a start, you actually kinda get two pedals in one. With the octave turned off, you get a nasty, growling fuzz that stands up to most I can think of. Switch the octave on and you have a very different beast altogether. Not the easiest to control, although you can just let it take you into a land of sonic sickness, if that's your thing.
Very Hendrix, very psychedelic. I found I had to keep the distortion level and tone down to get the best note definition. The octave effect is very sensitive to the dynamics of your playing. The softer you play the more the octave can be heard above the original note and it's best, I found, with the neck p/up engaged.
As with any octave fuzz, you can forget trying to play chords, but here's a cool trick: when you play power chords or any first and fifth chord variations you get a octave below the root note and it sounds posivitely HUGE! You can hear Hendrix doing this on the Band of Gypsys album. Just be careful with your speakers and valves - it'll shake the hell out of them.
I also combine it with a leslie simulator for a great Hammond sound.
Hammer-on a 5/1 chord softly and sweep a wah slowly back and forth at the same time and you have the most pukey, demented synthy, ring modulator you can imagine. Good stuff!

I've been using mine for about a year and a half and despite its dinky appearance had no problems. It's not the sort of sound you'll use alot - unless you're a real sick puppy. I can gig without it and do often - mostly due to lack of space on stage (yeah, I know it's small but you should see the size of some of these stages!), although there have been times I've missed it.

Hasn't been an issue so far.

I've been playing rock, blues, country, alternative...all sorts for 20 years now(geez has it really been that long?).
With the Line6 amp I don't have too much need for other pedals, but I do also use a Danelectro Chicken Salad(highly recommended) and my trusty Vox wah.
If it were lost or stolen I'd probably track down another - it's rare to find something as wierd as this. As I mentioned earlier, I've found a few different ways of using it and I'm sure there's plenty more waiting to be discovered.
For the price and amount of fun I've had with it, I think it's a winner - although certainly not everybody's cup of tea!