Danelectro DJ-13 French Toast Octave Overdrive

Not too hard to get a good sound. I'm using it as a cross between getting Jimi and Trower mayhem, and just flip the switch off on the octave for a more regular fuzz.

I've seen some here say it can't do this Jimi thing or that, that's nonsense. If you want to do all Jimi songs, then you can set your rig up using this pedal for sure. Of course if your amp and guitar suck,,and you suck,,,then you are S.O.L.

Don't buy this pedal if you want to make Nice Mellow quiet sounds,,,lol,,this pedal is for solos with giant balls,,Rock On!

Not overly "noisy", I have a 80's fender jap strat going into:
fulltone wah-dejavibe-french toast-fulltone ocd-artec delay (GOOD)-boss tuner-peavey classic 30 with matching ext cab

maybbbbeeeeee,,,,,it colors my fulltone ocd a tiny bit,,,just my first impression that maybe I heard just a little Octavia, after a few minutes,,a few adjustments,,everything was fine. So maybe I am wrong

I got this for Jimi solos,,,and early Robin Trower solos,,like from Trower's first live album,,,,this does the Jimi fine, and kinda makes my Trower sound more Jimi,,,lol,,does that make sense?

I'll bring my cheap backup fuzz just in case.
Heck,,they are so cheap, maybe I'll just buy a backup one.
no opinion for now. I'll hope for the best,,it's on a safe pedalboard, and I have that clear plastic protector thing on it

who knows?

great match for anything requiring fuzz with BALLS, and solos with Balls.

This is NOT a tubescreamer

Pretty easy to use. The treble can get a little bright on the octave settings.

I have owned a vintage Foxx Tone Machine. This sounds exactly like it. I sold the vintage one for $350 and kept the $35 French Toast.

Reliability is probably questionable, but if it breaks, I'll but a new one.

If you want to sound like you are playing through a Foxx Tone Machine, get this pedal.

hard to get a good sound out of it at first, because I started it out using cheap solid state practice amps, had to adjust the amps eq well enough to reach the well balanced tone for this pedal- but not a problem through a bigger/tube amps. Too bad this unit does not come with LED also

This pedal does not suck tone or maybe subtle not noticeable, it is also very quiet when bypassed and does not hum like other dano pedals when generic ac/dc adaptors are used.

Very warm and dynamic. tru-tones ring out when you find it's sweetest spot. BUT also had to compensate for the treble and take time to balance the amps and guitar tone as well.

I can say this is a tubescreamer-like tone but of the distortion zone. It's like MUFF.

Octave function is psychedelic/experimental and not too musical in my opinion

plasticky

gives me eric clapton tone in his song "cocaine" at the CROSSROADS concert way back 2004

overall im happy with it- it's worth every penny spent

easy as any other fuzz/overdrive pedal. 3 small pots
distortion/ output level and EQ for increasing and trimming high frequencies.
The octave up effect is switched in with a small toggle switch under the dials.
Easy peasy lemon....never mind!
Not a huge fan of the small push button switches danelectro pedals use but im lightfooted so no particular worries!
Could really do with a LED indicator so you know if its on or off without finding out the hard way in a live situation....

quick general set up break down.....
ibanez custom JS100 into pedal board-----vox wah - behringer dynamic compressor - Danelectro chilidog octave - Monte allums DS-1 Rectifier tri gain mod - stock Boss Ds-1 - (effects loop switch)danelectro frenchtoast oct/dist - Boss compressor - Boss Chorus - Digitech expression factory.
2 boss DD-3 Delays staggered in the effect loop of a laney GHL50 into a 4x12 crate blue voodoo Cab.

Well well i got this baby used off ebay for ??11.00 and its one of the best ??11.00 ive parted with.
Certainly its not a Fulltone octave/fuzz but im not one to shell out or do i have over a ??100 to throw at a boutique pedal. Let me say with this affordable/ and replacable if the worst happens, pedal you can instantly achieve a very close approximation to the higher end fuzz//octave boxes and other than cosmetic and true bypass features isnt that what we want. A cheap useable pedal that does what it says?
I use mine to get that fulltone ultimate octave sound that in particular Joe Satriani uses to great effect, and i get it!
The fuzz alone is very useable, nice full and warm.
I suppose it helps a lot being aware of what amps to put these pedals into.
Self contained gigs i send them all into a peavey envoy 110 and mic it up through my pa, lovely sound! and in a band set up i send them all into the clean channel on a Laney GHL50 into a 4x12 cab, again very low noise and very very useable!
You got 20 english pounds in you pocket and you want a fuzz/octave pedal......Get the FRENCH TOAST....now!

as stated i got mine used ive been using it 18months and i record, gig solo and with bands......NO TROUBLE.
My experiences problems if you are the noob who likes to take jumps onto his/her pedalboard.
As mentioned also it really could do with a on/off light.
I run it through a fxloop footswitch with a indicator so i get by!

never had to deal with them!
website is a little cakka though....

i play a whole array of popular music styles, i heavy amount of rock/blues/pop and instrumental guitar based music.
The pedal does what it says to a above average quality.
Anyone who wants this effect....the french toast for the money and certainly worth it....i thoroughly recommend it!

fairly easy to use if you tinker with it. I give it a 9 because of the octave up switch.

All of my pedals are danelectro's, including the mini amp pedal and the Milkshake chorus pedal. by itself, it has a thick high pitched sound that is not easily described. with octave off, it is a basic fuzz pedal. the sound does imitate any artists that I know of and is original. with chorus it sounds very sonic and glitsy

so far, so good, and yes I would use it without backup.

never had to deal with them but would if I had to.

I play slow paced Black metal with Blues and Classical thrown in for good measure. it brings originality to my sound very much.

Fairly easy to use, especially if you're used to fuzz and other dirt boxes. And actually, surprisingly, there aren't many bad sounds in this little thing. There is no manual, per se, but there is a one-sheet containing a single setting suggestion, which I suppose is a good start, but I quickly moved on from there.

There is all sorts of Mudhoney in here. For the money (and even disregarding the money), this is a spectacular fuzz pedal. By switching pickups and adjusting volume at the guitar, you can get a wide range of fuzz tones, from a dynamic dirty-clean to splattery crunch to endless, singing Big Muff-style rubber.

The octave up effect is pronounced and a lot of fun. You can definitely get Hendrix/SRV-type tones, or you can mess around in near ring modulator territory. This is my first octave-up pedal (which is what prompted me to buy the pedal), and I'm definitely enjoying it.

I've been through a lot of fuzzes (currently own a Skreddy Mayo, Tone Factor Ultra-Lord, Everman Fuzz-Drive and Sovtek Green Big Muff Pi), and the French Toast stands up to my lineup. Does it *replace* any of the other pedals? Probably not. But I could see buying the same pedal in a boutique package and still being thrilled with the sounds.

The French Toast is not particularly noisy for a fuzz. There is noise of course, but nothing you wouldn't expect. The octave effect actually seems to make the pedal *less* noisy in my setup, which was a surprise.

I'm using medium-hot humbuckers (Gibson L6-S) into a very-slightly dirty tube amp (Ampeg VL-502).

It's a lot more solid than I was expecting, especially the footswitch. I think the pedal in general is probably going to be fairly reliable. The knobs are definitely the weak point. They feel weak and flexible when you adjust the. I'm running the French Toast through a true-bypass box, so I don't have to worry about stomping on it too hard or anything. Once I find a "set it and forget it" setting, I'm not worried about it breaking unless something falls on it, etc.

I would definitely use it at a gig without a backup, for the reasons mentioned above. Plus, I have a bunch of other fuzz pedals, so unless the octave effect was *crucial*, having it not work for some reason wouldn't really be that big of a deal.

Haven't needed them yet.

I play noisy rock. This is a perfect match for what I like to do.
I've been playing for many years now. Most of the gear I use daily is listed above.

If the French Toast were stolen or lost, I'd probably get another one. It was only $30, and I really enjoy how it sounds. It's much more flexible and useful than I was expecting.

I do wish it had an on/off status LED, but my bypass box has one for it, so no problem for me specifically. It would still be a good idea in general.

The French Toast definitely helps me make music. The first couple of hours I had it I came up with 3 riffs that were worth recording for later use. That alone was worth the $30.

I like this thick, booming sound from the bass, but the pickups needed adjusted to get much sound from the highs. The highs are terrible.

I use a roland amp with my guitar, And the bass is great.

I've had mine for a few months and it's working fine.

I play alot of different styles, but usually the heavy metal. It looks awesome. If it was stolen, I would definately get another BC Rich. I think I'd go for the Tribal. I chose this guitar the minute I saw it- I love how it looks. I hate the trebles, and I love the bass and that it has the extra frets. I really, really wish this had a whammy bar, that would definately make it perfect.

I can't get a good sound with this pedal. I use a Roland amp, and a BC Rich guitar most often. The strings on the guitar depend a lot, I noticed, for more feedback and squeals I use Guitar Boomers. I really liked this pedal at first, but I crave a different one now.

Just recently it wouldn't work right, then all the sudden it worked again, I had good batteries too.

Easy enough: a stompbox with Level, Distortion, EQ and Octave On/Off toggle switch. Points deducted because there's no LED to tell you whether the octave is on or off (you'll hear it, though).

Wild 70's fuzz. Instant sonic deconstruction, in fact. The French Toast is erratic, noisy and brilliant fun; don't look for smooth or subtle fuzz tones here, as there are better pedals available. This green meanie will cheerfully wreck any combination of high brow amps and guitars; what it does it to turn every set up into a plywood guitar and a cheapo amp in meltdown. This - as everyone should remember - is what rock'n'roll is about.

With the octave function off, the French Toast delivers ludicrous quantities of fuzz. The EQ knob is vital here - you can dial in beeswarm treble if you wish, or roll it back for a more useable tone. There are no subtle settings - even at low distortion levels this pedal is aggressive and mean.

Toggling the Octave to "on" takes you into guitar funland. The French Toast's octave tracking is erratic, doesn't like chords or double stops, and can be made to make the most bizarre ring-modulated type noise. This is not unusual for octave-fuzzes (even Roger Meyer's Octavia does this), but whether you enjoy this lunacy depends on your sense of fun. If you want to get serious and Hendrix-y, you'll need to use the neck pickup with the distortion and tone rolled back, and stick to cleanly picked single note lines. Otherwise there's enormous fun to be had in exploring the noises that can be extracted from various diads and triads, all of which have their particular fuzz-blasted intermodulations. In this respect the French Toast punches way above its weight - it makes the kind of free-form noise that people associate with Ampeg Scramblers and Fender Blenders, pedals that cost hundreds of pounds more.

This is not a pedal that you'd want to use as a main tone - but for those moments where something off the wall is needed, the French Toast is the real deal.

Danelectro provide cute little plastic shields to stop the control knobs being kicked off, but otherwise this is a plastic pedal and should be treated as such. It will break if you jump up and down on it, so don't.

Great fun. Boutique makers will charge three to four times the RRP price for effects that are neither as convincing or as much fun as the French Toast. This pedal is a grin-inducing monster, and entirely in keeping with Danelectro's cheap-and-cheerful ethos. A good job all round.

Dead simple - like the rest of the 'mini-dano' range. Guitar in one end, amp in the other, fire it up and play with the controls until it sounds right.

I'm really only using this as an octave-upper. My setup is a Telecaster into a Crybaby - French Toast, Tuna Melt, Arion DDS-1 - Peavey Classic 30. There's enough drive to make a difference to the sound of the amp - and also to stand alone as a fuzz / overdirve unit. Metallica / Sepultura it is not, but it doesn't pretend to be.
What it is, is a Fuzz / Octave pedal that sounds great with everything (except drive) set to about 1 o'clock with the octave switched on.
Other people have spoken of background noise - I don't have any I'm pleased to say.

I will definately gig with this unit.
I've owned (and gigged) a mini-dano Tuna Melt (tremolo) for about 7 years now and it's never failed (really!).
Maybe the better you look after your Gear, the longer it lasts.
Dunno - other people complain about the cases being plastic - yes, they are - so don't jump on them! If the plastic case is an issue, re-fit it in a cast box - the sounds are certainly worth it.
Like I've said, I've already had 7 years of hassle-free performance from other Pedals in this range.

Hmm - thankfully I've never had to call them.
There's not much information on the Dano Website, so I would imagine they're fairly difficult to get hold of (also not much contact info supplied with the pedals...)

Soo, for the style of music my band plays (RHCP / Rock / ambient originals) this is perfect. I'm really looking forward to the next rehearsal (or Gig!) to use this pedal at a loud volume.
All this for less than ?20 - I'm a fan of these pedals (can you tell?) - and while it's certainly true that you *do* get what you pay for, these little pedals stand out as being a great way to play with new sounds without bankrupting yourself.

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.

Very easy to use...on/off switch for octave up sound...level, distortion and eq controls as well.

My main reason for submitting a review here: there's an effect called the Ampeg Scrambler which fetches entirely too much money retail or on eBay; probably because it's a cool pedal to have. This $30 pedal produces basically the same sound. Down the neck with octave up on it sounds like trash can lids smashing together (in a good way, of course)..up the neck you can really hear the second ocatve...nice ping to it...with the octave up switch off, it's a nice warm fuzz pedal...as said earlier, controls give you a wide range of tone...but KEEP IN MIND, this is JUST AS GOOD as the Ampeg Scrambler...don't fall into the cool pedal trap.

I would recommend highly one of the hard polymer knob "Protectors" as I've broken the cheap plastic knobs off of one of their pedals before...I don't gig but I probably wouldn't expect this to take much of a beating...that said, it's a $30 pedal so, buy another if need be.

Bottom line here is: it's cheap as hell, it sounds pretty good (no way you'd want it as a primary distortion pedal but for fun/change of pace it's solid) and you can do some cools things with it. I'd recommend it if you like Jimi, stoner rock, Sabbath or just want to irritate someone (the sound can get quite trashy).

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Don't play chords with the octave effect. Also use the neck pickup it will track much better, especially around the 12th fret.

Yeah I can see how it might sound crap, but I got some very nice sounds out of it. And you know how? EQ! Yeah as with most dirtboxes, you can tailor any tone you want if you change the eq on your amp or on a pedal or soemthing. That said the EQ on the French Toast is very good too, it's more like a low pass filter in my opinion, so you're cutting off the higher frequencies the more you turn it down. I'll give it a 5 because it depends on so many factors. The upper octave is good, but not as good as other upper octaves I've tried. It doesn't track well, but the sound is the same on any upper octave really, just soiunds like controlled feedback.

Hmm dunno, it's mostly plastic and surface mount and stuff, but I've never had a Dano pedal crap out on me so who knows.

I'm sure they'd be helpful. I hear a lot of people just get new pedals sent out to them if they break under warranty. Thats the benefit of cheap pedals.

I suppose it depends on what you're expecting to sound like when you get this bad boy. I have a thing for fuzzes/octaving etc, but I don't own a Jimmy album so I have no expectations.

As at least one reviewer has already pointed out, it is much easier to get a good sound out of this pedal with good equipment. Any pedal is going to sound like #### playing through a 15 watt transistor practice amp. Also, a little goes a long way with this pedal as far as the settings. Keep your tone down around 9 to 10:00. The gain is most useful at the lower settings as well. Use your ears. Keeping the gain low on your amp is critical as well. It should be remembered that Jimi Hendrix kept his amps in a lower gain structure, and colored that basic tone with his pedals.

I use this pedal with a USA Hamer Studio with Seymour Duncan P90 pickups into a Crate V5212 tube amp. At present, this is the only pedal I use other than a Buddha wah. At lower settings I find it to be as quiet as you can expect from a distortion pedal. I use it primarily for solos with the octave off. Through this rig, I am very pleased with the sound. I would like to compare it with a fuzz factory, rat, big muff, or fulldrive. For the money, I think this is a very entertaining effect.

Although the construction of this thing is far from robust, I have had no problems with to date. it has actually held up better than other more expensive pedals I have used in the past.

I have never dealt with the company after five years of use.

I use this as a significant part of my sound playing blues/rock/alternative country etc. If it were stolen I would be tempted to try other fuzz pedals as well, but for the money, it would be difficult to find its equal.

3 knobs (gain, level, eq) plus small toggle for octave. not hard if you're experienced with tones, setups, effects, etc....

using different guitars(strats, dan dc , dano u2,i'm primarily a sc player), variety of distortions/ od's into a peavey classic 50.i tried it out in the store with a gretsch import with a single pickup into an old vox ss twin 'verb...you could get the jimi sound, no probs..

took it home, and i love it even more...using the octave in the lower position it nails the solo from "little sister" from queens of the stone age.
i leave the eq at about 5, distorion varies from 3-8(it varies, has a lot of gain)...
bottom line: for the bucks, it's great. i paid 20 for it new (didn't have a box)..you can dial in some good classic fuzz/ jimi etc sounds, but you can also get heavier, modern tones ala muse, some radiohead stuff,etc....if you're into metal you can also make this thing get nasty as well!

yes, it's plastic. but, i've got a 5 year old dano "black coffee" that's still going..on the other hand i've got pedals i paid 140 for that are already going bad in less time....same as everything, hit or miss.

most of the dano stuff, either you love it or hate it. for the bucks, you generally get some good sounding stuff. i paid 20 for it, it's fun, has lots of useable tone.....it's certainly going to make some unique tones for me!

You have four degrees of freedom on that pedal. Level, Drive, Eq and Octave-Switch, which alters the tonal quality of the effect quite drastically. Basically, it is rather a fuzz, not a dostortion. Getting a good sound out of it is hard, but once you have understood the trick, it
is a source of fun. It can produce some fairly disgusting tones. Think of mosquito nest in a beer can. If you want to play guitar weirdo, simply dial in the most disgusting sound you can imagine (it's easy, trust me, tip: eq far right!) and let your friends doubt your mental sanity.

Ease of use if you want to hurt your ears: 9.
Ease of use, if you want to get some usable sound out of it, that is somehow pleasing: 5. Excellent sounds are there, but well, the pedal has a wide range of tones and interacts heavily with your equipment, so there are no general rules. Steep learning curve, but the magic is there.

I give it a solid 7. No manual included by the way. Would not make sense anyway.

This little thing is a disgusting monster, but if you treat it right, it will treat you right.

My first approach: Epi Les Paul->Toast-> Vox Pathfinder 10. Sheer horror. Buzz, squeak, hum, fizzle. A very harsh sound. But there is a lot to be explored. I think it's essential to set the output level that way, that your (cheap transistor) amp can hadle it without getting into ugly distortion itself, but of course, you can have that if you want, up to the point, that all harmonics are swallowed. I think this thing is good for driving tube amps. So my Vox, which has a _really_ nice clean sound, is no good for that application.

Next Setup: Epi->Kampo 901 Tube Overdrive->Toast->Vox Pathfinder 10.
Well, useless. The toast renders the EQ-Knobs of the tube overdrive useless. Everything is mudd.

Next try: Epi-> Toast -> Kampo 901 -> Vox Pathfinder 10.
Nice! In addition to the different sounds the Toast can produce (in combination with the guitars volume knob!) I haven an additional three band EQ on the tube pedal to shape the fuzz to my hearts desire. Too much "icepick"? Eq low on toast or heights down on the EQ. More mids? No problem! Ok, your amp can do that too, but-> kick in the tube distortion and have some extra fatness. Hit the octave in and well, good! Power chords work well with added octave!

Ok now, what about adding a Wah and trying it with a Pod, for the VOX is not really made for that impact.

Epi-> Cry Baby Wah -> Toast - > Kampo Overdrive -> POD Brit Classic
Bad, bad, bad! Wah? What Wah?

Next try:
Epi-> Toast -> Cry Baby Wah-> Kampo Overdrive -> POD Brit Classic
Damn! This is crazy! The wah really shines with the octave hit in! And the overdrive adds some additional fatness to the sound and there is much more to be explored! This is where I stopped last night after 6 or 7 hours of fun and frustration, so beware!

After all, this pedal is difficult. It adds quite a variety of tonal possibilities to the rig if used right. It's definately not a plug and play device! Care for it, and it cares for you. Know, that you have a volume knob on your guitar, and that you can use that to fuzz or unfuzz the sound. Set the levels in your effect chain right. Don't overdo with cheap low wattage amps. Experiment, take some time, take a trip to fuzzland.

If you want something, that makes you sound good: 0 Points.
If you want to make something sound good: 10 Points.

So I give a solid 5.

Plastic housing. Wiggly kobs. Nasty, shocking look. If I giged with it I would be in a mode of "I don't care, if you care" so it would not be a problem, if it broke. ;-)

A really nice feature would be an appropriate metal housing with a footswitch for the octave effect.

After all I would give it a 5.

Don't know. Never talked to them. But if you send in a registration card, you get 1 year warranty. Never used anything from danelectro before.

For now, I really like that thing, because it added quite a lot of tonal flexibility to my setup. It was not build to sound good out of the box. You decide how to use it, and it can really spice up some things. It's quite good for solos, and with the right settings, you can get some really nice, fuzzy sounds, and interesting power chords with added octave up and possibly more. It really shines in combination with a wah, if you are into that. But you can also wreak tonal havoc easily.

In my opinion either you hate that thing, or you love it. It reminds me of an ugly doll. So as always: your mileage may vary.

For me, the overall rating is 7 because of the cheap housing. But the fun factor is a good 10.

Not easy to use at all, it's unusable

Sad but true that this gets good reviews and I read them and believe it. And thats true of alot of FX. I'm using quality hand built guitars loaded with gibson and dimarzio pickups, a modded SD-1 a Teese Picture wah and a Marshall JCM 800, 2205. Incredible sounding rig until I ran this thing with it. I tried it in different positions in my short chain and honestly couldn't get a usable sound from it. I was obviously expecting more from a $25.00 pedal than was possible. And if they say this is modeled after the Foxx tone machine then I could safely say that sucks too. I was lookin for a Hendrix kind of thing with my strat but I got earpiercing , buzzy noise even with the distortion all the way down. I realize different strokes for different folks but I really hope I never hear anything like this pedal on my radio from a band. If I did already, I'm sure I thought it sucked.

Wouldn't know, I actually threw it out because it's not worth selling it to some unsuspecting person

I've siad enough.

well it`s easy to use like all these guys say!

i dont like the sound of this pedal it`s very bad tone sound like mud!
good is the switch for the octave, switch it on and it sound much mudier!

it`s plastic
i wonder why it isn`t broken yet!

one of my danelectro plastic pedals was dead and they gave me a new one for free!

this pedal is better than the dod supra distortion(the new one, the old is great) but it is too noisy to me
for an octave fuzz it is very cheap and it does it`s job, but remember the best danelectro ever did was their old guitars!

When I got it I have to admit that I really didn't like it. But you really have to fiddle around with it to get a good sound and the little knobs are a bit small, especially with the plastic guard on. It's a very fiddly operation!

I'm very pleased with my setup at the moment, it goes something like this:
Variax 300>Boss SD1>French Toast>Frontline Chorus>Danelectro Wasabi Delay>Marshall MG50DFX
I've really started to like the sound and variation of different pedals and they all work really well together.
It's got a very distinctive sound, and I think that if you turn the distortion knob up too high some of the character is lost. I tend to have it at just above 9:00 and then I can boost it with my SD1 if it needs it ;-). I don't really use the octave function because it makes the sound a bit tinny, which is why I'm giving it an 8.

I think that it is solid enough even though it is made of plastic and I wouldn't have a choice to gig with a backup so that doesn't really apply.

No Idea!

I've been turning into a bit of an idie kid and this pedal suits me fine, I just wish that the knobs were a bit bigger. I shouldn't really have bought it blind from eBay and I should have tried a few out, but I don't think that it was that bad a choice. If it were stolen I would probably shop around and just test some others, but it does fit in very well with the vibe of my pedal board, so who knows!

Not hard to use. The "octave" switch is not labeled on or off and the 'down' position = 'on' which seems backwards to me, but maybe it's alluding to a vintage pedal that works the same way, I know some effects that are based on older ones purposely mimic the controls of old originals, even when they're not exactly conventional. I've read this is based on the FOXX TONE MACHINE but I've never had one of those, so I don't know if that's the case. Technically the word 'octave' is under the switch, which you say says it all, I guess. Either way you'll hear what's on and what's off.

There's no 'blend' for the octave, but you really don't need it (more on that later).

One little peeve: the knobs could be better, sure they're cheap plastic which is I guess not a big deal considering the price, but what bugs me is that I can't easily see what my settings are without getting a close look or having the light glare hit it just right. I guess I can and probably will sharpie a line or arrow on them, but still it seems like an oversight, especially for a fuzz pedal, in which setting just the right settings can be important.

It's a minor gripe, but if you have or get one of these you'll be tweaking a fair bit too, and you'll know what I mean about leaning in close over and over...

An LED would be nice, but as stated below you don't need it, you know when it's on.

When I first fired it up it sounded awful, really fizzy and not warm in character, but after exploring the knobs some I found some really nice sounds. How much "dist" you dial in makes a big difference, it's a totally different sound at max than it is set low. Set high it can be really noisy and hissy, but that's true for most any pedal of this nature, and it's no noisier than others of it's kind. The noise is chaotic when you're playing, so some may really LIKE this factor, I have fun with it anyway. For most of my purposes, I generally like the distortion dialed maybe by half, and here it is not so noisy though still has bite.

Putting this first in my chain of effects is where it shines for me, if you're not getting the character you want from this, definitely try it first in your chain too, it made a differnce to my ears. I haven't tried it after a boost or EQ, but I'd bet it would react differently to different inputs, so experimenting is recommended. I found what I like simply putting it right after the guitar, and then adjusting the guitar for different shades of the sound, which works well.

Also turning the octave on and off doesn't just omit or add the upper octave, like you might think, but instead changes the overall tone of the effect. It's almost like 2 different fuzzes to me. The octave 'off' fuzz can be nice and is worth checking out, but IMO the octave 'on' is so sweet that I rarely turn it off.

Like I said above there's no "blend" but it's not a problem because the octave harmonics are not extreme and lay in the effect already blended, in a sense. I LOVE heavy harmonic tones like synths, ring mods etc, but this is NOT what this pedal does. It has a very guitar-centric, classic flavor of it's own, not industrial or metallic. It can be aggro but still warm, brash but still inviting. Play it and you'll know exactly what I mean.

The EQ knob is a ESSENTIAL to usefulness of the this pedal. Without it I'd chuck the pedal, because through most of the dial it's WAY too shrill for me. Icepick central. But roll off the EQ and you're in business. I rely on my guitars' settings to keep the sound clear and mud-free, which works way better than reaching for the EQ on this pedal for desired crispness.

The bridge pickup and playing near the neck tip has been covered, but it really does make a big difference for bringing forward the upper harmonics.

Though I haven't yet, I would gig with it. This effect isn't something I use all the time so it still files under non-essential, though that may yet change soon, since I'm using it a lot these days.

I wish it were metal obviously.

I've never knocked on their door, but my general impressions are only so-so. They were nice at the last NAMM booth I peeked in, but I don't know that they're all that invested in their products, given the mass production and inexpensive construction. Who knows. I wouldn't make a fuss over something so bargain-priced like this anyway.

I've had a lot of gear, lot of pedals, and consider this one very cool. It has, surprisingly, replaced my main fuzz. I won't say what that was, to be fair, but it's a much pricier pedal that's very highly regarded, if that means something. The dano just has that special tone that works best with my playing at the moment. If I needed to replace it, I think I'd shop around for something boutique that has a similar tonal effect, since it's becoming a favorite of mine and I could justify upgrading. But for the price, of course, I could always replace it with another french toast, which I would do without concerns.

I wish it had a foot switch for octave on/off like so many similar pedals seem to have these days, and maybe a 2nd EQ, one for each on/off setting. Sure maybe that's a lot to ask, but then you'd have a 2 channel superpedal. I guess I could just buy a 2nd french toast... but if they saved us the trouble that'd be fantastic.

OH YEAH and I wish it had a GATE knob/control. That would really be awesome. Tame the hiss and have that vintage gated sound too!

Even still, it's a 10 in value no doubt about it.

Very easy to use, just set the distortion knob (really a fuzz knob), EQ knob, and level knob then decide if you want the octave switch on (yes you do if you can play lead worth a shit)

What is with the negative responses concerning sound here?

Whatever these guys here who have reviewed it negatively have been taking - I just want a 1/2 of one??

All kidding aside this pedal is really good at what it is intended for. Getting that very fuzzy fuzz sounds with the choice of using an octave up effect. It was modelled after the original FoxxToneMachine?, so yes its a fuzz.

The fuzz is very fuzzy on the edges, but can be very creamy when used in combination with an Overdrive or distortion unit. Great for 60s tinted trips.

The octave up tracks so well I can't believe there has been anything bad said about it's sounds. The octaves are dead on, and the overtones change with your dynamics. Also, the unit responds so well to your tone/volume knobs. I think it's one of the best deals around for folks who like fuzz, even if they are already set with thier favorite fuzz.

I can't in good faith give it as high a score as I would a ruggedly built metal housed pedal. It may hold up well over time and I hear they actually do not break easy, but I still cannot give it the score I would a tank of a pedal.

Again, guys who have replied negatively about the sound - hook a brotha up, I just want half of whatever you took when you heard this pedal and/or replied here.

I don't know what else I could say. If you like Hendrix's music and would like a very fuzzy fuzz sound while ALSO having the option of a very well balanced octave up effect that tracks better than some units costing MUCH more, this is it.

I would have to say the fuzz alone is great for single-note riffs. If you also use a seprate overdrive then the fuzz is a nice creamy one for any other use. Add the switch, play up high registers with the neck pickup and watch out for that SPLAT!

Easy to use. Has 3 knobs for Level, Distortion, and EQ (which is more like a Tone knob) and an Octave mini-toggle switch. The toggle switch basically switches between a more fuzzy version of your settings to more highly pronounced Octaver.
Pretty easy to dial in a decent sound amongst the shrill garbage.

First off, the good. It's pretty versatile for a little cr*p pedal. It has a decent fuzz-like sound and a pretty good Octave mode. The octave is fun because it is very sensitive to how you strike your strings. You can get a really nice singing Octave sound, high up on your neck. If you back off on your attack, you can get some trippy ringing notes that sound ding dong belly.

Now the bad. One, forget playing this through a solid state amp. It is very trebly and only enhances the cold feeling of those type of amps. Unlike a Big Muff (I know, different altogether), it makes everything sound a bit smaller instead of larger (I think that will make sense to the people that own a BM). Through a tube amp,
pretty much the same, but not as bad.
Okay, now here's where my pedal really sucks. I usually practice everyday around the same time every afternoon. This thing picks up radio signals, and I hear Jim Rome (sportcaster guy) over my amp! I mean loud. Iike the guy is right next to me!

I'll try to put some shielding in there, but I think that cheap plastic covering stinks. Doesn't really hold up to my other pedals.

I play a Fender Am Strat with Kinman noiseless Pickups. Rickenbacker 360. Through a Roland Dac 15-XD for practice, and Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with Weber Blue Dog speaker.

Knobs are really cheap. The small plastic knobs are countersunk, meaning, if one falls off, there is no metal "knobette) underneath that you can turn by hand. You'll have to use a screwdriver to make adjustments. Made of plastic, but pretty heavy because the bottom plate is thick metal. If it's on your pedalboard, it'll get trashed and unrecognizable real fast.

I would not use this in a gig situation, without backup. Picking up radio stations is funny, but c'mon.

Never had to deal with them.

It's cheap and it's fun. Starts getting not so fun when you start analysing it's sound quality. I hate talkradio...it picks up talkradio over my amps. Works ok in my concrete basement.

This isn't that hard to use, just don't crank the knobs way up.

I play this through a Crate MBX and a Samick Fairlane 4-string bass and it sounds great. I love the octave effect on it, but it's hard to switch on and off without picking up the pedal. The fuzz sounds good, I can get a great Cliff Burton (Metallica's first bassist) soundm but you can't crank the EQ or distortion knobs too much or it gets too harsh and a little buzzy. If you screw around with it for a while you can get some real good sounds out of it. Also, it picks up radio signals, but they're really faint even when you're not playing and you can't hear them at all when you're playing.

It's cheap plastic, but if you don't abuse it then it will last.

I play metal and hard rock mostly, and this pedal is good for that. I've been playing for about 3 years and this is my first pedal, I've tried other ones from my friends (marshall jackhammer, DOD FX55B, the other danelectro distortions) and i liked this one better for what i play. for the price, the best pedal you can get IMO

Easy to get decent sounds, easy to get crap ones too,just use your ears, not your eyes when setting the knobs. You may find that you need diffeent settings for octave or non-octave use, in which case get another pedal if you want to use it onstage. They're cheap enough.
No LED, but you will know when this little toy is on, believe me. It'll make you grin.

Gibson style guitars and Marshall valve amp.
Bloody awful, by which I mean bloody marvellous! The distortion is FUZZ, a slightly fizzy harsh variety. You would'nt buy this pedal for this alone but switch on the octave up and it goes mad! Erratic wierdness on the edge of controllabilty and great fun. LoFi magic indeed. Keep the dist down if you're overworking an overdriven amp for solo boost.

Yeah, its plastic. Its also cheap as chips. God Bless Ebay.

Dano minis have the WTFWT factor-you turn 'em on and people say What The F**k Was That?! Get a load of 'em and hit one for each solo in your set.
They all suffer from some bad points: they're too small if you wear wide-toed shoes, they're plastic, the controls are fiddly. Who cares, they're fun and cheap.
Don't leave 'em on the whole time but use 'em to create interest and unpredictability. If you want great classic tone save a LOT of money and get something else, in the meantime have some fun.
I've got good gear for the meat'n'bones of my sound and setup, but like Dave Lee Roth says if your cake is good then pile on the frosting. (He's American, we say icing and drive on the wrong side)

This is an easy to use box, guitar in - out to amp. If you can't figure it out, take it to the city zoo and have a monkey show you how to use it. There is no manual to speak of, but all the knobs are self explanatory. Oh yeah, no LED? Open your ears, jackass.

My guitar doesnt matter to all of you -BUT!!! This unit will give it's best octave sound on a NECK POSITION SINGLE COIL PICKUP. It goes to say that your Les Paul on the bridge pickup may not get the best (any?) octave tracking. The fuzz itself is very fuzzy fizzy 60's, and when you crank down your tone knob it can really sing. Even with the octave effect out, you get that first octave feedback that kinda sings into the note. Very cool. And this at 'bedroom' volumes, too. I see this getting a LOT of studio use. The octave effect (when dialed in right on your guitar as well) is right on. Only complaint here is the treble boost the seems to kick in when you throw the octave switch. This would be a bummer live if you wanted it as a plain fuzz for one tunes, then wanted to switch in the octave. You might blow the thinning hair right off the heads of the front row hippies.

It is not built like a tank, but nice enough. Put it in an extra footpedal case or risk snapping the PLASTIC(!) 1/4" jacks. Metal jacks would be nice, even if it would have cost another 10 bucks. Otherwise its well built.

Havent had to deal, but Ive only heard good reports.

The price/performance ratio is unreal. Other pedals that do the same thing cost five times as much, and really do the same thing. If you added a 'swell' (volume effect) to this, it would do the same job as the $200 Prescription Electronics 'Experience' pedal. I really don't care about the missing LED- not only because you can really hear this effect when it's setup correctly, but also because an LED is a big drain on batteries! Regardless of it's few (construction) weaknesses, this baby gets an overall 10 for value.
AS WITH ANY FUZZ; DON'T FORGET TO PLAY WITH YOUR VOL/TONE KNOBS! That's where all the sounds are really hiding...

It's not hard to get interesting sounds out of the petal. But it does take some fiddling to find usable sounds as it can create as many narly sounds as good one. Mainly, you have to play alot with the tone as it can get way too bright and thin. It's switches are tiny, but nice and firm to adjust.

Okay, I owned an original Foxx Tone for three years and, although this is based on the Foxx Tone circuit, it does not sound exactly like a real Foxx Tone Machine. If you at all believe in vintage equipment, made from vintage parts, possessing certain sound qualities, then you need to question whether this box crafted from completely difference parts can sound the same. My opinion is absolutely not. I find the French Toast much brighter and thinner than the original Foxx Tone machine. It has none of the ballsy presence of the original. I can't achieve some of the same harmonic effects that I could with my original (which, like a dope, I sold to buy a new axe). Overall, the French Toast is much more anemic than an Original Foxx tone, with none of the smoother, buzzier, more organic "vintage sound" that you get from period petal. A real disappointment. I was hoping for at least 90% of the original sound. I would say this deliver about %60. But do I like this pedal. Yeah, I do. You can make some raucous sound with the French Toast that are wonderful. I use it quite alot in recording. It's just not, sadly, a Foxx Tone Machine.

I was very surpised at the excellent build quality of this box. Plastic it may be, but it's super sturdy and well designed.

Haven't need help yet.

A lot of fun and capable of driving some people insane, which putting others into noise nirvana (like myself), but, unfortunately, I'll still have to lay out $500 to get a real Foxx Tone to get back the sound I lost. I guess I better start looking into decent clones (I hear Prescription Electronis Experience is supposed to be good). As a Foxx Tone Machine clone, the French Toast may have the pedigree, but the soul is missing.

I'm referring to the octave effect - the fuzz effect is a no-brainer to set up. However, the octave effect takes some juggling. I think a 7 might be harsh here since any other octave effect is also going to require some experimentation.

I use American std or a Jap 50's reissue loaded with Duncans and Dimarzio's. For amps I use a Fender Blues Jr, or A Peavey Classic 30 or a Marshall JCM900. As for effects those in my live pedal board change regularly, but currently are as follows:
Boss CS3 compressor > Voodoo Labs Microvibe or Danelectro Mini Phaser (more reliable than the Voodoo Labs!!) > Occasional Boss BF2 Flanger > French Toast > Origional TS808 > Boss DS1 > Boogie V Twin > Boss DD2 > Boss Chorus Ensemble or Dano Rocky road > Boss TR2. The French toast does not seem very hissy, but I do experience more humming with this pedal than any of my other overdrives. I only use the fuzz very sparingly - my aim is to get the KWS Blue on Black sound - and the pedal nails that spot on. I've also found that the phaser in front of the Toast means that the effect swells rythmically which is too cool. Satch also uses an octave effect, and it is possible to get a whammy pedal effect from it as well. All in all - I have to say that for #30 it's unbeatable.

I have 3 or 4 of the mini dano pedals, and although they're not a boss, I've gigged them many times with no problem whatsoever. I wish I could say the same for the Voodoo Labs, which I have not found to be reliable.

I play rock and blues, and so get at the Hendrix / Doyle Bramhall sound this effect if essential. Since I bought the toast, I've started noticing how many artists use this effect. The problem with this pedal is obvious - the lack of an LED, although there is absolutely no way Dano could have left out any of the other controls, since the effect needs all three to be useable. I did consider shelling out #125 on a Roger Mayer effect, but I have to say that I'm blown away by this little gem. If this pedal had been even #70 (which would be half of any of its competitors) then it might only rate a 7, however at about #35 - how can it be anything expect exceptional value?

very easy, if you can read you can use it!

i'm giving it a 9 instead of a 10 because the toggle switch for the octave up effect is so small and placed almost in between knobs making it difficult to engage on the fly

its a very nasty fuzz, and some settings can be extremely painful (in a good or bad way depending on your tastes), but i am giving it a high score because of what it CAN do with the right settings.

the fuzz is nasty, so if you set it bright it will really pierce into some ears. but with the tone control set anywhere below 12:00 it can be very useful. i use it with the distortion (really fuzz) on 0-1 and the level up all the way as a boost. the octave switch is usually engaged so when i step on the pedal its already set to burn!

it really can add a really nice crunchy boost, especially if you are using a marshall with medium level gain. enough gain to rock when strummed hard, but light enough to sound smooth & sweet if picked easy, even breaking up. with those settings its great.

i dont hold the fact that its housed in plastic against it. if it were in a metal house im sure it would cost MUCH more because it sounds great.

but it can be broken if you are rough with it so i cant give it anything above 7

i have dealt with them 2 times (in 5 years), they have been very helpful and solved the problem in minimal time

if you have a strat, marshall & wah and want that extra something for space-age craziness, this is the deal.

using it like i said but without the octave engaged, you get a great boost, just enough for taking things a step further and getting attention.

now if the octave is engaged, get ready for some trippy splat sounds! i find that with a strat the octave effect is way more noticable if you use the neck pickup, and even roll back the tone for more intense octave.

as far as the sound itself.....its great. very clear and it is dynamic, the sounds you can produce will vary depending on the attack, you can play the same note over & over but vary your attack (pick soft, then hard, then medium, then hard with a pinch) and it will show you what it is capable of if you use dynamics in your playing.

also, i dont like the octave down effects, personally i say let the bass guitar do that job! but i find the octave up effect alot more usable.

for the fuzz, its very nasty if you crank the EQ (to the treble side), but if you keep it somewhat down its great for single-note fuzzed out riffin"!!!


oh yeah, and my ho's all love it. they do crazy dances when i start to splatter some notes (among other things)

I read the reviews and wasn't sure what this thing does, but hey it was on eBay for 15 bucks, so WTF?

I plugged it direct into my DSL 100 half stack's clean channel and it sounded like SHIT..but wait -I dialed it up like I had seen here, level full(you have to do that), Distortion minimum,(on 1 it's a bee's nest) and the tome about 9 o'clock. I messed around with the distortion channel until I found the combo that works: I put my Boss SD -1 after it and run the FO like I said before and the distortion on the SD-1 about 11:00, the French Octave sounds FANTASTIC! I used it at a gig last week and stepped on this thing - the whole dance floor turned around with a Whoa what is that?!?!? look - I went into total Jimi mode and it really made the night.

It is really cheap and crappy (made), why doesn't Danelectro make a better version of this, I dunno. If it broke I would get another.

Never dealt with them

It definitely looks to be a tweak it till it sounds right sort of pedal, I can tell you it sounds like hell by itself, but with a Boss SD-1 after it, boosting and distorting just a little, this thing sounds like stepping on a laser. Works great for little punches in and out in chords and for short attention grabbing moments in solos. Easy to overdo it and lose the novelty.

I find it pretty easy to use, though it's small size & lack of led can make it hard to operate on a dark/cluttered stage. Getting a sound I liked happened INSTANTLY, but over time I've found it has a few extra tricks up it's sleeve that you won't appreciate in-store, specifically it's interaction with your other pedals, amp and guitar, effect order, etc.

Well, it's been covered by many below... but anyway, I play a '76 Ibanez 'lawsuit' strat into a '68 Ampeg Reverberocket. I have the French Toast at the front of my pedal chain, Octave ON, level MAXIMUM, Distortion MINIMUM, tone on around 10-11 o'clock. Then it goes through a wah pedal, into another fuzz pedal, into a sampler, then into the overdriven amp. I don't switch the French Toast on without selecting a really dull sound on the strat- usually position 4 or 2 with the strat's 2nd tone control on minimum. This helps the octave track better/jump out of the mix a lot more.

The impact this thing has had on my sound, given how little it costed, is amazing. Solos above the 12th fret can get those Brian May style lead tones (think 'Show Must Go On'), My Bloody Valentine style wall-of-fuzz ('Loomer'), and completely new sounds by using my imagination, volume and feedback... the feedback is just wicked. I'll strike a power chord with the french toast on, the other fuzz on and the amp overdriving on full- with the octave on, this is a sound which has no hope of regenerating into a single pure feedback tone - it sustains and sustains, full of beautiful, rich harmonic movement and texture. And filtering it with the wah makes it controllable! I began referring to this sound as 'meltdown'.

I appreciate that not every player has a place in their sound for this sort of insanity- but it suits me fine!!

By itself, this pedal can sound very cheap, tinny, fizzy, hollow, muddy and plasticky. I couldn't see it working very well with high-output guitars.

So that's why it gets a 5. Most people are going to try it and hate it, with good reason. It's a pedal that really needs help from the rest of your gear to make good sounds. It will get a passable Jimi/SRV sound by itself with the gain and tone low, but not without the right guitar and amp to help it along.

For me, in my set-up, it's essential.

The little toggle-switch broke, so now I have to buy another. Oh well, they're cheap!

I bought it in NZ before moving to the UK, so my warranty (if any) won't be valid here. I've never had to deal with their customer service team before.

a few knobs and an octave toggle...very easy!

NASTY-ass fuzz is what this pedal is about, with optional octave effect, added. If you want something loud and proud, this is it...if you want something subtle, go somewhere else. Not for the timid, or those who want to play full chords with every note defined. This is for single string-line sickos with a kitschy ear for the groovy 60's and 70's.

si, senor!

no dealings

Best 15 dollars I ever spent in a pawnshoppe! Does "Psychotic Reaction," "Foxy Lady," Ike Turner's/Ernie Isley's 1970's riffs,well...you get the picture!

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.

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!

Level, Distortion, Tone Knobs and Octave on/off switch. Mine came with a smart plastic cover thing that keeps the knobs from getting kicked while stompin'! A good sound? This thing is designed to get nastay soundz and thats just what it does. No manual, just a suggested settings booklet. Word is that this has been discontinued. Its easy to turn the knobs but to get a sound you like is really tricky. Oh yeah, the knobs are very very small so if you have big fingers like me you better get your old lady's tweezers out!

I play Strats and a Paul thru a crybaby, fulltone FD2, Boss Dimension C chorus, Voodoo Microvibe, dano mini delay pedal, french toast into a 72 Vibrolux. Its not that noisy, even with single coils, but as mentioned earlier, it does make strange squeaks and squawks like a nest of angry birdies, but thats only with the octave engaged. I dont think this is uncommon with octave fuzz pedals because ive tried a couple and they all do it. Oh yeah, this pedal is no overdrive; it is fuzzier than my dog's ass! Very smooth, too smooth maybe. Im looking specifically for the solo tone in Jeff Beck's "Come Dancing" from Wired and cant get it gravelly enough. Purple Haze and that BLue on Black song are easy to nail. Octave is very noticeable; considerably more so than the Voodoo Lab Proctavia or the reissue roger mayer. It is the 2nd closest match to a Foxx Tone Machine, Prescription Electronics makes an Experience pedal that really nails it but I didnt feel like dropping 300 bucks on a gross sound. It does drown out all other effects but a wah strongly pronounces the octave. Has a 9v adapter jack and works fine with my SKB pedalboard thing. If you want people to make a "what the fuck?" face when you play, get this pedal.

Hard to say, the bottom is metal but the case is pretty thick plastic. Since its really a novelty thing, i would gig without a backup.

Overall, its fun and cool but can get old fast so use it sparingly. If you dont feel like dropping lots o cash for the octave sound, get it. I bought mine for 15 bucks because apparently it is being discontinued so snatch em up fast. Ive played for 12 years and have had a hard time finding a good octave-up pedal until now. Dano pedals are kind of silly but I think for rarely used effects, it is ok. Lots of sounds to be had with this thing. Like I said, if you want to make really NASTAY soundz here and there, this is a wise buy with a convincing sound.

level, dist, and eq knobs, and the octave switch. no manual, but it came with a little book with suggested settings. the suggested setting worked okay, though not what i ended up staying with. this is not an easy pedal to play through, no fuzz is, especially with an octave up added. not for new players! no led either. trust me, when this pedal is on, youll know!

okay, setup is: dillion dse533 deluxe or squire project tele->a/b->FRENCH TOAST->crybaby->ds1, led and cap mods->cool cat chorus->tuna melt trem->eh holy grail reverb->arion tuner->fender champ, silverface.

is it noisy? my god. this pedal does everything it shouldnt. picks up radio stations, totally destroys chords, tracks oddly, sputters, chirps, and generally creates mayhem. its a fuzz pedal, so the noise is to be expected, and when this thing gets going it is hard to concentrate on a bit of hum.

the fuzz effect is alright, im reminded of a dano fab tone actually. harsh, loud, grating. this is all fine stuff. not easy to use like i said. many claim that dist and fuzz boxes cover up a lack of technique. hardly, they emphasize it. playing through a strong fuzz box is like playing a new instrument. this one does good. the octave effect is sweet! ring modulation on the upper strings that just sends shivers. not to mention squaks. it renders the guitar tone knobs useless, put a wah in front of it and it just laughs. does not play nicely with other pedals. wacky.

i have heard this described as an cheap ticket to hendrix tone. correct. hendrixs nutty early boxes and this one do have a resemblance. however, it will not turn a mediocre player into hendrix in any way. serious dedication is required to use this pedal in such a manner. good luck. for those less ambitous, spend some time with one of these and you will quickly be able to do all sorts of fun, tom morello type wacky tricks.

i love setting the distortion down and playing jazz licks on the upper frets, or turning the dist up and going off. its a very fun device. i give it a 10, but only for me.

ive only had one issue with a dano pedal, and it was a fab tone. the ac jack came loose. 5 minute repair. their customer service sucks to talk to, but they are great about replacing pedals that crap out without asking questions.

im a bit concerned about this one, as there is a funky black wire on the down side of the pcb, just hanging around. for some reason this bothers me. so far so good though. i take good care of my gear, as i dont have much money and dont need to be replacing stuff all the time.

see above.

i play blues and rock, big suprise. this pedal lets me do what i like...taking traditional blues and jazz, and throing them bodily into the future. its a tiny terror. i would definitely replace it if stolen. i love the sound, my only two real complaints are that any chords get mutilated through it, and the adapter thing. i cant use a standard adapter with it, the only one that works is a general electric 6v. anything else makes it go crazier than usual. not a big deal really. just odd.

as i said before, it makes a lot of odd noises and does a lot of strange things. to me, that adds character. all the boutique makers are bragging that their fuzz pedals do weird unpredictable things...well, welcome danelectro to the world of boutique pedals.

if anyone knows of any fun modifications to this, let me know.

Very easy to use, typical 3 knob- one switch set-up.

This thing sounds very good! In my opinion it's the Nobels ODR-1
of fuzzes. Very cheap cost but, high quality sound. I got mine for
$24.00 shipped brand new. That's as good or better than 60's prices.
I've seen some reviews that say this probibly isn't the same a the
Foxx Tone machine cause it has an FET but, I believe this FET is
just for switching the pedal on/off. I happen to perffer FET switching-to the SPDT switched that came stock on many vintage
effects. Much quieter and more transparent. I'm not totally convenced
true bypass is supperior. I own 2 peadal boards-one with nothing but true bypass/ and the other FET pedals. I like the FET board better,
guess what- it was alot cheaper to build. Be smart-look for the good
values, not the bullshit hype. Great Fuzz! Nails the Foxx Tone Machine
to a T.

Despite the cheap plastic case-these things are pretty strong, I
played in S.F. CA with Jazz/Funk band Raw Deluxe and used a
Chicken Salad Vibrato for Herbie Hancock's (Hang up your hang-ups)
The pedal always worked great-never let me down (and I didn't bring
a back-up).

Unknown

One of the best fuzz values on the market. If you don't need to
spend $200.00-$400.00 to feel good about your tone-then give this
one a shot. You'll be very happy!

This is quite easy to use, only problem and this isn't a big one (for $33) the knobs are really small.

This thing is good for crazy riffs and really heavey stuff that doesn't require technique. Even if you did use technique it would be lost in the extreme amounts of fuzz. You can't solo with it but I love using it for really exaggerated heavy/fuzz tones.

I feel like at any moment it will crush under my feet, but it's in great shape. I've only had it for a couple months so I really can't say.

Haven't needed it yet.

I play an wide variety of music, all rock tho. I felt like just getting it for the heck of it. I've found a place for it in my music, but it's definately not my main distorted sound.

I got a good sound immediately - just set the ammount of distorion and treble, than balance it with the standysound by twisting volume. If you want to loose control, use the octave switch.
there was no manual - could be a bit difficult for someone who never worked with a fuzz before. Just use your ears.
Knobs are a bit tiny - but the overall small size can be an advantage if you just put it in your guitar case or gigbag.

It bites, it frizzles, it sizzles, it destroys the sound of your guitar, in some - that's what I bought it for. it's perfect.
If you want a smooth overdrive buy another pedal or a good tube amp.
I use a fender pro junior and a mesa with it. I play teles and a danelectro - the guitar you use, doesn't matter much anymore. I also fed my proco rat with it. insane.
The octave effect is weired, you Would not want to use it all the time. but in special situations you must make your point...
This little barbie-box got charisma!

Can you depend on it? I hope so, it seems robust enough although it is made of plastic. I would not throw it in a box with other pedals, but I handle all my tools with care. I just got it so I can't relly judge
Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
If it's gone, it's gone

don't know, I hope I won't need it.
I apreciated finding a battery in the pedal.

I love it.

Tree knobs, Level, Dist and EQ - plus a toggle switch to add the Octave effect.

If you like sick, raunchy over the top sounds you'll like this unit.
What I like is that the bottom end stays tight and it cuts though the mix. No mushy sound like a Big-Muff.
Also, depending how hard I hit the strings, I can get a vast array of sounds out of it. Real organic and dynamic sounding. The octave effect is not really strong, but on the higher frets it has sort of a ring modulator thing going.

I don't know the FoXX tone machine, but this pedal sounds better than many expensive boutique stompboxes and Fuzz /Overdrive replicas I've tried.

Not as fragile as it seems at first sight.
The plastic case with the base metal plate is pretty sturdy.
The only things you'll have to look at are the knobs.

I always thought Dano's are crap and I have to thank the sales guy who insisted to try this pedal because otherwise, I wouldn't.
This pedal is great.
I also own a Boss HyperFuzz. Also a great, sick sounding fuzz pedal but only good for over-the-top effects and not as versatile as the French Toast.
With lower gain settings, you can use the French Toast as well as overdrive pedal.

A bit intricate. The prototype - fOXX Tone Machine has volume/sustain/octave/tone control. This one - level/dist/octave/EQ. Why?

My setup is - HOHNER Rockwood strat with 20W HIWATT Bulldog Bass Amp (by Fernandes Guitars) I was trying to achieve a complitely Jimi Hendrix "acid" sound. I think - only one way to close up to Jimi is a use Roger Mayer equpment http://www.rogermayerusa.com/aboutus.html
But I live in Russia and there are no RM dealers. Just Boss, DOD, Ibanez, Danelectro or Marshall stompboxes around. OK, once I read an article about Adrian Belew (King Crimson, Bowie, Talking Heads guitarist) - he says that the fOXX Tone Machine is his favourite effect, Jimi used it on Purple Haze. Adrian Belew was wrong. Jimi uses Arbiter Fuzz Face prepared by Roger Mayer, his friend and technitian. But I like this idea about Tone Machine. If we say Tone Machine we mean Dano French Toast nowadays (also I read a Dano French Toast review in "Muzikalnoie Oborudovaniye" (Music Equipment) magazine - reviewer said - it reminded him an old MXR Distortion+) You guys scraming - AWESOME. Salesman at music shop screams to me "Don't be a moron! Don't buy this plastic chinese crap just becouse you read something on the Net. Listen to this" and he plugs in a Dunlop's Jimy Hendrix Classic Fuzz. I said this one sounds sterile and faceless. "Man, there is many teenagers lurking around asking for Boss Metal Zone. They got it and can't have THIS sound - becouse they haven't expensive guitars, amps and whatever expensive stuff that those metal guys from MTV have. And you too - like those teenagers. Just listen to the sound! Dano sounds like a cardboard box!" OK I go to another shop, buy French Toast and try to use it.
First impression - wasting money. Chip, crispy, noisy, muddy and weird sound. Where is octave effect?! When toggle switch up or down? Give me my money back! But when I sit on a chair and turn on Axis: Bold As Love album I try to play with and it's rocks!!! From feedbscks "Good evening ladies and gentlemen wellcome to radiostation E.X.P..." to Castle made Of Send. Adrian Belew was right.
Level - 10 o'clock. Octave on - Dist & EQ at 10 o'clock. Octave off - Dist at 10, EQ at 2 o'clock. Amp setting - gain 7, master 2,treble 7, middle 7, bass 9, contour 0. Are you experienced?

Looks like a toy. Plastic on plastic. If only French Toast have a metal body - no salesman would dare to call it "chinese crap"

N/a

This is very close to "early Jimi" sound effect. As close as it's possible for 44 bucks.

could it be anymore simple?

i'm running tube fenders and custom tele's.
It sounds like a good fuzz should,with the right dialing it reminds me of slowhand back in the days of cream

I wouldn't want to STOMP on it

N/A

It's as good a fuzz sound as youre gonna get whatever price you pay

It's cheap due to the shite plastic casing and jack's

Exceptional value and all though im getting a Bigg Muff.Companies like E.H better look out

Level, Dist and tone knob as well as octave switch. Easy to use.

I am using a setup consisting of an Epiphone Les Paul, Ibanez Talman and Hamer Sunburst into a Boss GT-3. In the external distortion (basically an effect loop for the GT-3 itself), I have a Dunlop Crybaby, Ibanez Tubescreamer, Dano Octave Distortion and Marshall Jackhammer. I use the GT-3 for chorus, reverb delay and other modulation effects that I see fit (flanger, phaser, tremolo). I can't give it a 10 because the sound isn't "pristeen". It's extremely insane though and works great for sick sounding leads. I even use it as a stand alone fuzz box, but if the gain is past 1/2 way, it just sounds way too trebly and splatty.

can't give it an opinion yet but I am going to be very careful with it since it's plastic.

I love this box and for $14, it was a steal. It's better than an Ibanez fuzz and it's just as good as a big muff for that sick fuzz sound. I love what it does for leads. I try not to sound too Hendrixian, but this thing is just as good as a Mayer Octavia and for about $140 less too. I just have to be careful with it.

Dead easy. Tone, Level, Distortion, and an Octave switch.

This pedal is quite insane. I find its best use is adding an edge to a raunchy guitar sound. Play an open A chord with the distortion cranked and the octave engaged, and your guitar will sound like razor blades. It also does a pseudo-ring modulator effect when you do big bends on two strings up the neck. There are better fuzzes and distortions out there, but none I've tried ride the ragged edge like the French Toast. Awesome.

For being made out of plastic, it seems pretty sturdy. I'd use it without a backup, but I may go back and buy another just in case. For $16.99, you can't lose.

This is a great pedal for making your sound edgier. I bought it on a whim, and the first time I kicked it on it immediately conjured images of Steve Jones' tone on "God Save the Queen."

Easy- but the knobs are small and close together. Still better than having a bigger pedal.

Great for over the top noise, the octaver sounds really raunchy. For what it is i love it. The chili dog into this into a filter factory sounds really great. I use it with the distortion off but the octav on 80% of the time. Really adds an edge to my guitar sound, as I am shooting for an analog synthy vibe. I love it, but if I wasn't into wacked outsounds I might not be so gushy.

Im gonna be careful with it, thats for sure.

Got it for $69 with the chili dog, tuna melt, and the pedal tuner in a package. Great deal. I love this pedal, if it were stolen, i would get another one just because it is so friggin cheap.

Very easy to use.

This is a beautifully noisey box capable of some very unique tones. The fuzz on this is insane. Some have compared it to a Big Muff, but this has a ton more fuzz, a tighter low end, and more compression/sustain yet lower fidelity giving it a very unique tone. I've read this is supposed to be a Foxx replica, but this doesn't sound like a vintage fuzz to me...more like an industrial/alternative buzz sound. Great for fuzzed out power chords or on the edge "my amp can't take it" type sounds. The "octavia" is equally impressive. Very pronounced, capable of crazy sceams and dissonant squelchs. Works even better using the octave feeding another overdrive or fuzz. This pedal is not smooth, creamy, brown, buttery or any other words used to describe traditional good guitar tone. It is ugly, raw, gritty and perfect.

Plastic, small knobs, exposed small toggle. I've used it live but I don't expect it to live forever.

The sound of this thing is incredible for the price. THere is nothing like it in its price range. I love it and when it dies I will buy another one. Thinking about taking the guts out and putting it into a steel baox along with another footswitch to control the octave on/off.

This pedal is pretty straightforward, if you're hip to the anarchic possibilities of ring modulation-type octave-up distortion. Purported to be a re-creation of the early '70s Foxx Tone Machine, which means the French Toast is a fuzz pedal with an octave-up option (a la Jimi Hendrix's Octavia). Three knobs (distortion, tone, level) and a toggle switch (for switching between straight fuzz and octave-up effect). I have a pretty crowded pedalboard and couldn't see making it any bigger than it is. But... I wanted an octave-up fuzz. I also wanted a straight fuzztone. I had tried the Roger Mayer Octavia and that pedal's size is enormous (even though the circuit board inside is tiny), which would necessitate gutting my pedalboard, so I did an online order for the French Toast, figuring its small size and option of switching between fuzz and octave fuzz would be ideal for my rig. I put it in place of my vintage Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff on my pedalboard and haven't looked back.

However, I wish this pedal had an LED to let you know when it's activated. Apparently, cramming three knobs and a toggle onto this mini pedal prevented Danelectro from having any room for an LED, which their other mini pedals have. Oh, well. But players should be able to tell they've got this fuzz monster on by listening ('cause it ain't subtle).

Show me a fuzztone that's not noisy and I'll also buy a bridge from you. Yep, this thing's got plenty of hiss. (I used this little mint-green devil recently in the studio and just hiked the threshold to the max on my Noise Suppressor to decrease the noise). The straight fuzz effect is fat and goopey like the old E-H Big Muff, but with a bit tighter sound so it doesn't sound as sloppy on the bottom E string. However, I'm finding that I'm using the "octave" function more and more. This is where dynamics and touch sensitivity really come into play. I find the most faithful octave doubling effects are obtained in this mode by cranking the level knob, keeping the distortion knob to a minimum and keeping the tone knob on the bassier side (this is also where this pedal beats out the Mayer Octavia, since that pedal doesn't offer a tone pot and brother will you need to roll off the highs in octave mode). I also find that playing single-note lines LIGHTLY around the 12th fret and above aids the pedal in correctly tracking the octave. Also rolling off the volume knob on your guitar gives the pedal a better chance at tracking as well. Completing rolling off the tone knob on your guitar also can prove helpful for tracking. Works well with humbuckers or single-coils, although I think the single-coils might have a slight edge. I use this going into the overdrive channel of my Crate Vintage Club amp with the master volume up fairly high and the gain knob between 9 and 12 o'clock.

Then... there's the total anarchic, ring-modulation flavor you also can explore (a la Hendrix's "Machine Gun" solo) where you crank the guitar volume and hit the pedal hard with a lot of double stops with a hard picking attack. The pedal responds not by offering two notes and their respective upper octaves but a splatty, very electronic sound. Great for avante-garde jazz (ala Nels Cline) or tripped-out psych.

If you appreciate how tubes respond to your picking attack, you'll enjoy the outrageous qualities the French Toast's octave mode can offer by varying how hard and how easy you hit the strings. In the octave mode, this pedal lends itself more to staccato phrasing as tracking tends to get a bit haywire with legato passages. In the straight fuzz mode, you can go either way.

Here's my gigging rig: Hamer Solidbody Archtop (Les Paul-style) axe/ modded Ibanez RG 570/Squier Stratocaster>>VHT Valvulator 1>>Budda Bud Wah>>BOSS PH1r phaser>>Danelectro French Toast>>Maxon OD-808 Overdrive reissue>>Dunlop High Gain volume/clean boost pedal>>BOSS Noise Suppressor>>Crate Vintage Club 5212 50-watt all-tube amplifier. In the effects loop I have: an old DOD Bi-Fet Preamp>>Demeter Tremulator tremolo>>Ibanez AD99 Analog Delay.

This pedal will make a solo leap out of the mix. On a recent jam, it grabbed the attention of my fellow guitarists, several of whom reacted by saying they would like to buy a French Toast.

I prefer to create my own sounds and forge my own style, but if you're into mimicry, this thing will allow you to get the Woodstock/Band of Gypsys-era Hendrix sounds, Jeff Beck's fusion-era octave-doubling stuff, as well as Stevie Ray Vaughn or Kenny Wayne Shepherd octave-up soloing. KWS's "Blue on Black" solo features an Octavia, I believe. This pedal also makes a good match with my Univibe-sounding vintage BOSS PH1r phaser pedal to get that Hendrix at Woodstock flavor.

Well... I'm careful with this pedal because it has a plastic case. I am concerned that a slip of the boot might wreck the knobs, but so far, so good (knock wood). I live near a heavy radio transmitter and the French Toast became a faithful carrier for the local sports station, which was quite unnerving. Fuzzes can do this sometimes, but I'm pretty confident the French Toast's plastic case didn't do me any favors in the shielding department. On the advice of my guitar repairman, I provided additional shielding by placing a piece of cardboard (to which I attached some heavy-duty aluminum foil)between the lower circuit board and the bottom panel. The foil needs to be on the side of the cardboard facing away from the circuit board (otherwise it will short out the circuit). I then attached a wire from one of the screws in the circuit board to the foil, closed the box, and Voila!, no more radio station. Perhaps Danelectro should shield this pedal a bit better. The footswitch is a bit difficult to kick on and off as well, so I've hoisted it higher than the other pedals in my pedalboard to make accessing it easier.

Still, for $40, I can't gripe too much. Most of the other octave-up fuzzes out there that I'm aware of don't offer a tone knob, and that is vital since the octave fuzz mode can get extremely trebley to the point of ice pick intensity.

Initially, when I experienced the radio station problem, I e-mailed Danelectro about the situation. They told me to try moving the pedal to a different part of the room I was playing in. Didn't work. I think they need to improve the customer support a bit, if that's the best solution they could offer.

I play psychedelic, blues, hard rock, free jazz, experimental. I love chance and anarchy in music. With this pedal, you can get some pretty rude, unpredictable sounds by cranking the distortion in the octave mode and hitting it hard with your pick attack and by playing double stops. Or, you can use it as a straight fuzz or as a more predictable octave-up doubler. This pedal has a lot of personalities. I've been playing guitar for roughly 23 years and I'm finding I'm having lots of fun with this pedal. It's great entertainment. Recently, while recording, I used it to double a wobbly phaser lead line and it supplemented the line just great.

Still, the out-of-the-box radio station interference problem knocks it down a couple of notches. Danelectro was no help in correcting the situation and if I didn't know a very knowledgable guitar/pedal tech, I'd still be competing with baseball broadcasts whenever I kicked this on. Now, it's fine, but it was quite aggravating until I performed the additional shielding mod.

On the plus side, the compact size was extremely appreciated and allowed me to integrate both fuzz and octave-up effects into my pedalboard with a minimum of hassle and headache. Mayer could make the Octavia pretty tiny as well (have you seen that mini circuit inside that pedal?), but I guess they're going with nostalgia by keeping the original outer space pedal design (which looks cool--don't get me wrong).

I also like that this pedal has an EQ knob in addition to distortion and level controls. (Neither Mayer's pedal or the Dunlop octave fuzz offer a tone knob).

Simple and effective, no need for instructions.

This thing sounds great. Period. I can not believe all these people who say something to the effect of " I plugged it in and it sounded horrible..." Well DUH? do you always buy something with no clue what it does, or did you look in a music catalogue and say" uh that must be cool" I bought this pedal because it sounded like that, very chaotic.

Knobs feel flimsy.

NA

This pedal is perfect for someone who wants something different...no I mean really different. TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT. don't be one of these dudes who feel like danelectro sold them a horrible pedal, when the real fact was that they were morons and didn't really know what they were buying. this pedal is designed to be expressive and unique.

It's as easy to use as any other pedal except for the octave switch. You can't get to it on the fly.
Dano should have put two foot switches on it. One for fuzz, one for octave.

Pretty cool unless you bought it to use as a distortion pedal.
It's a fuzz pedal!
The octave up effect is kinda cool, but a little subtle. A separate level control would be cool.
WARNING- Only use the octave up effect for single note runs, if you use it for chords they become very dissonant.

It's plastic, but low priced, maybe even disposable.

I got this for free with a Dan-O Wah.
If it was lost or stolen I would not bother to replace it.

A good sound is obviously subjective. Out of the box, I found a sound I like immediately (10). Octave off = great fuzz. Octave on = insane, unique, very cool noise. The three knobs are very close, but this really is not the problem. The problem is with the mini toggle switch shoved between the distortion and eq knobs(5). They could have at least put it on the outside where you could get to it with your size 10. In short---easy to get a cool sound, impossible to switch octave while playing.

Again, remember that OPINION of sound quality is very subjective

Setup===tele > dano french toast > dano dan-echo > blues jr.

Noise?
In the octave-off setting, anything past 10 o'clock on the distortion knob creates noise; but no more than expected from a fuzz pedal.
In the octave-on setting there is just a little noise (instead, I am blessed with the local hip-hop radio station...which actually adds a some humor to the line-up.)


The effects are very unique.
In the octave-off setting you get a solid big muff-like fuzz without that bass guitar eating frequency. The fuzz is a little more articulate than the big muff, but could easily be placed in the same category. The tone is big, loud, and very usable.
favored settings: Level==5 o'clock Dist==8 o'clock EQ==1 o'clock

Now the octave-on setting is not for the faint of heart, or anyone searching for that natural, organic tone. This tiny switch will put you in a chaotic, frizz-fried, sonic paradise! The octave toggle adds a note one octave above the note being played. THIS TONE IS OBVIOUSLY NOT FOR EVERYONE; but for those looking for some inexpensive inspiration, or that unique solo sound...search no more. It really shines with the higher notes or 'fake' harmonics. Single notes have more sustain and definition while combinations can get totally unruly. The French Toast tends to "fart out" when it is trying to locate an exact pitch. It acts confused...this is awesome and adds an extremely cool 'lo-fi' edge.
favored settings: "ON"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In short---if you have a few extra bucks and are just looking for a cheap thrill: put one of these bad boys in line, step back, and enjoy the frenzied disorder you are about to experience. Great sound, but obviously NOT FOR EVERYONE.

A lady at dunlop once told me not to abuse my pedals. This was just after I told her I had blown up my phase 90. She made me apologize to it and promise it that I would never let anything like that happen again.
I took her advice to heart and now treat my gear with care. These danos can use some extra care. The plastic housing is not the most reassuring trait, but it is surely easy on the budget. Realize how little you paid for this plastic jewel and treat it accordingly. I try not to drop it, throw it, drown it, or jump on it(I think it can endure the occasional 'stomp').

Backup? heck, for this price, and if you love it that much, you might as well buy two.

I have never dealt with the company or attempted factory repair service.

Style of Music?
Modern Alt/Rock. Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters, Radiohead, Violet Burning, Flick, Smashing Pumpkins, etc. Mixed with a filter or flanger you could probably nail some of the solos on Siamese Dream and could definitely experiment like J.Greenwood.

I have been playing for several years. In those years I have acquired a few distortion and octave pedals (never a fuzz+upper octave). I have never played or owned a foxx, so I can not say if it is the exact replica---which dano claims. list of pedals owned: muff, boss ds-1, daddy-o, h&k tubeman, fuzz face, boss octave, digitech xp100 (whammy/wah)...

Lost or stolen? Gotta have another!

Like? The overall vibe is way cool, and the tones offered are unique and inspiring. I wish I could switch the toggle with my foot, but that is gonna take a little modification or mucho practice.

I chose this pedal because of price and reviews. The French Toast was part of a package deal and I was actually needing the other pedal in the package and this deal was too good to pass up. The 'little' added 'bonus' was a nice surprise to say the least.

I wrote two songs as soon as I put this mug in line. It will never be my only live distortion, but the sounds it offers will benefit in both my live and studio applications.

You thinking about getting one? Stop thinking and start playing...these bad boys freakin' rock!

It'd take an idiot to not figure out how this thing works.

I got a BC Rich NJ Warlock, a Strat, and a no-name pawnshop vintage beauty. I run this into a Peavey Rage practice amp, or an old Peavey Basic 40 or a custom stack that i can't really explain what kind of amp it is.

Noisy as hell, but then what did you expect? This ain't no chamber music, Hoss. The effect seems to be a fuzz distortion and an octave. I expected an ordinary octave effect but this isn't an octave down, it's an octave up. This means you can get shrieking, ear-piercings sounds out of this wonderfully noisy unit.

To be honest, I have no idea why anyone would want to get the sound of their favorite artist. That's actually what i dig about this pedal. I crank the distortion all the way up, and the bloody thing puts out a tone i've never heard before in my life. I don't know jack about the Foxx Tone machine cause as i said, i don't go around trying to sound like Jimi Hendrix. As a matter of fact, all Jimi's tones were total crap to my ears.

Remember that 'quality of sound' is in the ear of the beholder. What sounds good to you does not sound good to Billy Bob next door. That's why he keeps calling the cops on you.

I'm giving this a 5 because it's entirely opinion based.

Before i commended the toughness of these pedals, but that opinion has ended. Last time i tried to use it, i found it didn't work. Upon taking it apart and close inspection, i found the reason was that the plastic that formed the DC input, the line input and output was broken/cracked. This damage came most likely from me picking it up in the kitchen to take back to my jam room and dropping it on the floor. It only fell 3-3.5 feet (a meter for you non-americans) onto an ordinary linoleum kitchen floor that's really not hard (i've breakdanced on it, and wrestled somebody on it without so much as a bruise).
Bottom line- steel is steel and plastic is plastic. Plastic is never gonna be steel. This pedal is plastic. Be careful with it.

Never dealt with it.

Overall rating: I'd give it a thumbs up. This is basically an effect you're gonna hafta go to the store and listen to yourself. Or find somebody that has one and go to their house. This is something you're either gonna love, hate, or mildly dislike.
I do really like this pedal and have half a mind to use it for punk rock. I've used it on an industrial song which you can listen to at

www.mp3.com/danielperea

Listen to the song Tin Man and hear the guitar tone for yourself. I should mention the tone on this recording is with the axe all the way up, the distortion all the way up, and that crazy octave on. I'm sure it's capable of a bit more variety, however i've never felt the need to find those Purple Haze tones. I hate that song. What i like about it is it's cold, shrieking, inhuman sound specifically.

The single best thing about the pedal is it's price. I mean, even if you hated it, it's dirt cheap. Danelectro rules.

By the way, you should listen to my other songs too. You might like them.

Three knobs, 1 switch, blablabla... Easy as hell. But I do miss the LED.

Sounds great! I use it in combination with my bluesdriver. It sounds even better that way. More mids. At first the effect was very noisy, but after I put in a battery instead of using an adapter all the noise was gone. You can't even tell when the effect is on when you're not playing, it's that quiet. I mostly use the octave setting, for over-the-top soloing. Fuzz sounds good to, but a little to smooth for me. Chords are not an option when using the octaver (though powerchords can be done) but who cares. It's not a rhythm players effect anyway. Only complaint: It doesn't work with my Wah very well.

I't's plastic, but seems sturdy enough. I'll gig with it. The knobs are kinda flimsy though.

I use it for weird solo's, be it blues or rock or whatever. I really like it a lot. Great sound, especially for this price. It's almost to good to be true. This one is a keeper.

Real easy to use. You got dist.{fuzz-level}, overall level, EQ, and the octave switch. Each knob controlls that function. The only reason I gave an 8 instead of 10 was the octave is on a flip-switch instead of a botton {footswitch}. It is a pain to flip it on mid-song.

I love this thing!!!! It's a little noisy but so what? I'm a noisy player. I already had an overdrive, but needed something to boost it. DAMN!!! Now I'm using this pedal alone without the overdrive. It really is an over-the-top fuzz. It sounds great. Really grungy but not limited to grunge. Each setup is different but screw around with the knobs (on your amp, too} , this thing is full of sounds. And dont get me started on this bad-ass little octave!!! It rocks.. I use a strat copy with H.B.ers going to an overdrive, then to the french toast, then to an analog delay, then to my amp. I play anything from Hendrix to nirvana and all in between. This thing covers pretty much everything I need..Go check one out if your interested in fuzz or an octave up effect. I personally hate the octave-down boxes, sounds too much like a keyboard{even with distortion.

well , it is plastic. But I play in my room and at a buddies shed for jam-sessions. For me, its really dependable....for you crazy bastards who think $35 should get you a tank, it prabably wouldnt last a month

never dealt with them, but I hear good things.

This thing gets good grades in my book. I can't express how good this sounds {to my over the top taste} without sounding like I sleep with this thing. My only quarrel is the octave switch being stuck in-between the knobs..

Okay - this pedal is meant to sound really trashy - that's what the Foxx sounded like and it dissapoints me when people who so obviously don't want a sound anywhere near this type try an effect and post a review claiming it's crap and worthless. Come on guys, humor us wackos for a change.
From the perspective of someone who actually DOES enjoy a little funk and quirkiness in his sound, I have to say that the Toast is a great sounding pedal. I actually bought this hoping it would make for a great beefy hi gain fuzz (ala Bigmuff) alternative that would be easily available (trying to get EH in New Zealand is both expensive and frustrating) for not much money - sure the octave would be cool sometimes, but I wanted chunk!. However what I ultimately fell for was the octave setting.

It kicks. It tracks superbly on both singles and HB's and sounds cool as for psychedelic bits and sharp, angry noisey chords. If you dial down the fuzz and play 7ths, minor 7ths and other such non powerchord voicings you can really hear the unruly ring mod style atonality going on in the background. Wonderful. Trashier than a hooker who lives in a trailer park.

As a straight fuzz I would prefer if it had a bit more rasp or grit - maybe if it sounded a bit looser. However the EQ works well for anything between a muffled blast o bass or an evil shriek that would make your pets leave the house. I am yet to make it sound like a big stinky ol' muff, but it certainly has alot of thick fuzz. It also seems to be a bit low on midrange for my liking as a straight fuzz, however the octave mode is what really impresses and I love every bit of it's raspy, noisey self.

I think I'll find someone to put this in a big ass steel box with new pots and footswitch (maybe one for the octave?) so I can step on it without thinking it's gonna bust - I would have paid more to have it in one of their full sized enclosures, but I guess 36 instead of 37 flavours of ice cream ain't the worst scenario in the world...

For NZ$80 (like $35 US) this thing is a winner. If you wanna read about the original go to
http://www.tonefrenzy.com/2/foxx_tone_machine.htm

Have a listen to the audio files. These are the sounds that pop out of this box. I didn't expect a mainstream company like Dano to release such an authentic (ie wacked) sounding replica of a cranky old pedal like the foxx, but when I plugged in I was really surprised. Kick ass! I can find something else to fulfill my ideal of the fantastic fuzz tone for rhythm, so I am rating the Ocatve sound. Go check it out and go nuts.

Easy to use if you decide you want to

Custom tele thru 71 silver face deluxe reverb. yes it's noisy. Terrible sounds. I mean awful sounds. Got it as a package deal with a chorus pedal. I would send it back but I'd have to send the cool cat chorus back too and I happen to like it.

Will find someone to give it to.

Will not ever need it

Bought it just to play with a fuzz to see what the hype was about. I've been playing long enough to know I don't want this. Hope someone steals it. Will never buy it again. Have not compared it to any other fuzz boxes. Please don't waste your money unless you won the powerball lotto and just like to throw money away.

Aww,ain't this a cute little box?Does anyone else notice a resemblance between the danelectro pedals and epilators,y'know,those things that they used to have on tv fer women's leg-shavin needs?Well that,in a sense is what this little guy does-it shaves yr tone,filing it to a razor-sharp fuzz.I use it with an epiphone SG thru a PEEVEE amp.I own 12 other stompboxes,but the one I most commonly use with this pedal is,get ready,the fabulous 2-knob DOD envelope filter!I can hear the heckles from the M.I.T. grads n' gearheads now.Let me explain:with the octave switch engaged on the Dano and the range on max and the sens.3/4 of the way up on the envelope filter,you can nail the tone of the EH micro-synth.Be sure to turn the tone knob on your guitar all the way down and the distortion and EQ all the way down on the French toast.that enables yr octave to ring thru,creating nice ring-modulation effects.As a stand-alone the little booger kicks ass.French toast,indeed,made with moldy bread.It is quite noisy and keeps you up on current ball game stats but to avoid this,keep playing.

well its plastic and cheap.Highly replaceable,if need be.I don't gig right now so Ihave no need fer a back up.I just record and do guest spots on my friends'demos.Hasn't crapped out on me yet.

haven't dealt with em.

I play a peculiar breed of music.This thing helps me simulate analog synth tones over phat beats and echo-phased,tremo-ringed,humanized trippy geetars plus low-note casio Clav and bass cello.I've been playing guitar unconventionally fer 15 yeeers so I know what sounds good but its really all about taste.If you want pristine,go Digitech.I like ugly slimey tones cuz they remind me of my mom.If anyone stole this thing I'd laugh my ass off because cats around here aren't into fuzz and experimentation,no, they prefer the solace of ripping off Van Halen and driving Camaros.As stated before they are very replaceable.

It is rather easy to use 3 knobs and a switch. If you ever used a overdrive pedal before it shouldn't be a problem.

This pedal sucks tone, sounds harsh and distorts in a very unmusical way. I have tried it with a Strat, Epiphone Casino, Danelectro U2 and a Gibson Flying V. No good. Crap. The only thing I found it good for was for very noisy stuff.

It is made of plastic. My prior experience with plastic pedals, says no. It will not endure live use, with people spilling beer and stagediving. The knobs dont feel very solid.

Ha Ha

I dont find it very usefull, and I will trade it in for some other overdrive pedal. I play both pop music and freejazzhardcore stuff, but I could not find any use for it. The color was nice though. I used to have a Foxx Tone Machine, who craped out for good, so I was hoping that this pedal could replace it. No.
But check it out, could be just the sound you are looking for. It just didn't work for me.

How easy is it to get a sound out of it? Pretty simple. You got your level control, which controls the level of sound. Distortion control, which controls the amount of distortion coming out of your amp. Your octave switch, which turns it one octave higher of lower. Then finally you got you EQ control, which controls the clearness of the sound. Last you got your distortion button itself. Simple!

I have put a submission in here before and decided to twick it up a little bit. I use a Fender stratocastor and a fender frontman amp. If you have your settings the way you want it you can't get a very good sound quality out of your distortion pedal along with your amp.
It is noisy when you start to turn your EQ up maybe about half way, probably not even that. I can turn my selector and put my tone on my guitar to a certain spot where it'll reduce the noise coming out but unfortunately you can't reduce it all. The effects are amazing! It has a nice crunch to it, better than some distortion pedals out there. If you know how to set your amp and your guitar you can make it have a great sound.
There are some artists that I can get a almost near perfect sound. One is prince. If you listen to some of his songs, he has his distortion turned mighty high. And another is tool.

Reliability. If you were going to gig with it I would make sure I would have another one on hand or use this one as a back-up. It has a hard plastic body and it probably won't stand up to hard stomping, if you plane on doing that. I would recommend one with a hard metal body. Overall I think I could depend on it.

Well I had delt with them through a music store. I never talked to them but I had to get my distortion pedal fixed. (for the first time). My jack out put was loose. I was disappointed when I got it back though. They hadn't quite got it back to normal. The jack wiggles around in the output. So if you move it just slightly it will turn off the distortion pedal. That is the only drawback with the company.

Overall I think this is a great pedal. I'm very happy with it. Great sound and easy to use. There is one thing I wish it had was an LCD light. Sometimes its on when you don't want it to be. I highly recommend this pedal for anyone who doesn't want to spend a whole lot a money but still wants a great sound.

About as easy as trying to make a piece of shit sound good, which is hard. No manual-- they probably couldn't come up with any example settings no doubt.

I have a guitar, I plug it into an amp, sometimes I use pedals. This thing sounds like crap no matter what. Absolute terrible sound. Can't believe they actually market junk like this. You know what they say though, a sucker is born every minute. If your trying to sound like shit then here's your pedal.

I can rely on this pedal to sound like shit.

If a company actually tries to sell this kind of garbage to people how trustworthy can they be? It's made in China, so we know Danelectro's reaping profits since they probably use child labor. Don't you just love these companies that love Americans so much that they send all our jobs to China? First we lose our jobs, then we gotta pay $40.00 for a piece of shit pedal. Then again the Chinese are smart and never pay full price like us, since they buy everything from the black market. They copy everything from computer games to Microsoft Windows and sell them for dirt cheap over there. Only us dumb American consumers pay the full prices on shit. Good thing there's dumb people like us to keep those rich people in buisness.

I play my own style of music. This pedal is useless. I've been playing for 8 years. Overall rating = crap.

this pedal is pretty easy to use, sometimes its a little tricky to turn it on and off because its so small. also its kind of hard to tell if its on or not because there is no led indicator. but other than that its super easy to use

Sound quality is pretty sweet. its nice and full with the distortion by itself, and with the octave swicth on its great. you just have to fiddle with the knobs until you figure out what you like. i like to use the neck pickup on my strat and roll down the tone to about 3 or 4. i think this pedal souds better when you use it with the distortion channel on the amp with the gain up to about 4 or 5 , it souds less shrill, its also less noisy this way than the using clean channel

i wouldnt rely on it to much, its only plastic

i am definetly happy i got this pedal, it couldnt get much better for how cheap the price is, the only thing it needs is the little red light to tell you if its on or off

Argh. It's a pedal.

My current setup is Fender Japanese (Reissue) Vintage Strat -> Vox V847 Wah -> Danelectro DJ-13 -> Vox Cambridge 30 Reverb. I, of course, like the sound. I thought that fuzz might sound better with the clean channel of my amp, but was wrong. Gain knob at abt. 1 o'clock in my amp, without the gain boost on sounds really good, especially with the wah. But I can't see no point in listing setups here.
The thing is a bit noisy, especially with higher distortion, but that's no wonder, considering the amount of 'fuzz'. I rarelly use the octavizer.

Plastic, small. Compared to my other pedals..

Very nice pedal. If you want a fuzz, this is great. If you don't, then stay away from this thing.

I think if you push the round button in the middle it makes it go on...

The knobs turn... uuuhh

I think this pedal sounds pretty damn good. I have never used a vintage effect of the sort but i like it. Personally i kind of think that the new trendy binge of vintage effects purchases is rather annoying, all of these people basically hoping that spending $400+ will make them better guitar players... oh searching for that classic Jimi sound you say? GET A LIFE AND BE ORIGINAL

but yeah, uh , anyway... this pedal sounds good
although noisy as hell, i need a noise gate

Whoever decided that plastic knobs would be a good idea has hopefully been shot. I think danelectro developed a process by which they could weaken the plastic used to make the knobs so that if given enough time the knobs just break themselves. I know that one day i will step down to turn my pedal on and will find a pile of dano knobs under my foot.

Once I could not get this pedal to turn off. The switch did not work and it wouldnt turn it off, so I just put it away for a while, i just recently took it back out and it works great again.

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I love the sound of this pedal
I hate dork guitar players who want vintage equipment because they think that the amount of money they fork out will make them better.
I hate cheap plastic and self destructing pedals...

but we can blame it all on communist china- RIGHT GEORGE?

Its as easy as falling off a rather big log to get a fantastic sound out of this. I ran home, set it up and almost died with ecstasy. Although I only have a Squier strat, it was exactly the sound I was after. I had to mess with the tone to get rid of the noise, but then it was heaven.

It came with no manual, but then thats kinda good, since you can mess around and discover stuff for yourself.

I'm only using a Squier Strat and a practice amp, and it was really difficult to flip the overdrive switch during mid-lick so I was contemplating gatting a Big Muff, but then I saw this and read many good things about it so thats where my money went to.

Its only noisy if you have the tone up on single coil guitars, especially using the octave toggle.

The distortion is great, it sounds orgasmic even with the volume a 1/4 of the way up. If you fret a note above fret 9 on the higher strings the note will wallow and swallow itself. The sustain is also brilliant using this.

I wouldnt depend on this since its only plastic, man.

I'd use a backup, since if things got pretty hectic during the song I might smash it (It seems pretty sturdy though, no problems yet). If i didnt use a backup, it might destroy the songs, since you NEED this type of sound on stage.

I've never had to deal with them.

So i don't know.

I doubt my opinion is very good, since I've only been playing a couple of years, and i only own a Squier Strat and a Hohner Classical acoustic. Theres a Jagmaster coming my way soon though (I did have doubts because of the 'Squier' headstock, but, by all accounts, Its basically a Japanese made Fender with the samller frets, Thinner neck etc. Anyway...). I think these would be better used on guitars w/ humbuckers (another Jagmaster reference). I really only bought this for the distortion but when i got it outta the box, i realised this things filled with great noises! If you turn the octave effect on and turn the tone down, and then hammer on the notes above the 9th frets its gives it a kinda synthy-like sounds. If it were stolen or lost, I would get another one but I'd probably just invest in a cheaper overdrive or distortion to see me through. I doubt they would be as good as this though. The only complaint about this is a little LED indicator, but once your playing, its become clear.

This baby definetley helps me make music, with all its excellent sounds and strange noises.

This is the easiest pedal I have ever used!! One of my friends has an Ibanez distortion pedal, and mine is easier to use. There is a level knob, distortion knob, a octave switch, and a Equalizer knob. Then the distortion button.

I have a small room so I use a Fender Frontman Amp with my pedal. The higher the distortion the more buzzing sound you are going get through the amp. For me the buzzing noise does not bother me, but to each its own.
The sound is very amazing for how little the pedal is.
Some songs I can get the sound I want but not all the time.
The distortion can sound very excellent if you have you settings on your amp just right.

I would not gig with this pedal withour a backup. The casing is a hard plastic, and I imagine you don't want to stomp on it. If I had a second pedal I would you the Boss Brand.

Never had to deal with them.

I play any style of music (besides country) and it seems to do the job.
I have been using this pedal since last christmas.
If it were stolen there would be a great chance that I would buy another one.
At the music store they only had the danelectro pedals so I did not have a chance to compare with others.
I wish it had more tone knobs, but its good enough.

Pretty easy to use. Just takes a little bit of tweaking and the right amp, although the French Toast Fuzz will sound good with most amps.

I play mostly noise pop and vintage rock (50's 60's and 70's). I own many killer tube amps and several American Fender and Hamer USA guitars. For effects I use mostly fancy (i.e. expensive) boutique pedal effects. The Dano French Toast is obviously not a high end unit, but like many of the Dano mini pedals it's very cool for the money with a sound quality comparable with units costing up to twice as much.

This effect is not for the faint of heart. Sort of like a Big Muff on crank (it's my understanding that it's pretty much the same circuit as the Foxx Tone Machine). I don't care much for the octave effect (unlike some of my friends), but as a straight fuzz, it's a demon. Very big sounding in a Big Muff sort of way with more bite. This isn't a pedal that everyone will love, but if you are into it, you will really dig it. Don't use it with really harsh pickups.

No problems. Get a backup if you're going to use it live.

A good fuzz pedal for very little cash. Since you can get Big Muffs for $59 it doesent rate as high in this category as the Danelectro Tremolo, but it is still a great value none the less. Makes a great gift.

easy to use Level, Distortion, and EQ with a teeny tiny toggle switch for the Octave. Twist turn and Flip until you find THE SOUND...
The Tiny Toggle is a bit too TINY.....

used with a Marshall DSL100 head and a 1960A 412 Cab
with a Strat, Tele or Les Paul, works fine after you get it dialed in
a bit of Hum but no worse than a FOXX Tone Machine

Don't Gig it I use a Foxx for That I use this for Practice Would Like to see an LED on this....The button is too small but it hasn't failed yet.

Had a missing knob they offered to send one to me. I would say pretty good.

I play a little bit of everything works great for practice or in a pedal drawer but the Button is too small for stage use.

Like many others before me, a red light indicator could help as could a more easy way to turn the octaver on from a standing position(It is possible to flip the toggle switch downwards with your foot, if you have good balance.)Other than that, pretty straight forward.

Well, I was gonna buy the normal dan octaver, but I saw this one next to it and figured that I could just turn the distortion right down and use the octave function clean.This didnt really work as the unit is still pretty grumbly and fuzzy with distortion on low.But I didnt care because the fuzz tone was just what I was after, really rich and quite squelchy.The sustain is brilliant and I thought that I had two pedals on when I first tried it.Distortion with the octave on is a little weird, I use it for one string riffs and simple solos.It adds crunch and breaks up into feedback with a beutiful crackling sound.
Unlike most, I didnt get this pedal to play Hendrix stuff (Mainly because I'm crap and cant) I play ska punk, grunge and other more retro rock stuff as well as Dire straits and Queen. This pedal is good for a weird, thick grungy sound and with the fuzz turned down, is really versatile. I would suggest, actually, that if you have the octave on, you turn the fuzz down a fair bit and also be easy on the tone, this will give a real nasty, fat gnarly sound and is good for chugging away with.For #30, a bargain, better than a Dod Grunge at twice the price.Buy one.

Not had it long so I cant really say, looks a bit suspect with a plastic case and a really small button, dont know, could last or could just crumble under foot as things get a bit hectic, which they usually do when your playing with a good distortion tone.

Who knows.

Good pedal, not a really good octaver though.The fuzz is unreal if not a bit noisy when not in use. Good high gain tones, nice crisp low gain tones.Cheap ,cheerful and, erm,pumping.

There is usually not much to do wrong with distortion boxes. There is a gain, level, EQ, and octave switch. It would have been nice to have a little guidence on the octave switch-- there's nothing to tell you which position is octave and which is fuzz, but once it's plugged in you won't have any trouble figuring it out.

I haven't heard anyone else complain, but I suffer a severe volume drop when this pedal is engaged. This can be a problem when kicking the machine on and off, but I view that as a limitation, and make due.

The sound is beautiful. It is long and soft and sustains for an obscene amount of time. I fretted a note and while having a conversation with a friend about the quality of this pedal, and when the note was still sustaining as we talked, the two of us broke into big grins-- "Can you believe this? Forty dollars!"

The ocatave is a lot harsher, with more bite, and much dirtier response to chords. It loses a lot of the fat, beautiful, fuzz warmth when the octave is engaged, and becomes a much more screaming pedal.

This is a fairly noisy pedal, and prone to feedback. That's just what the pedal is. Buy a noise gate or-- better yet-- embrace the feedback.

I haven't had it long. It is plastic, but it doesn't look ready to collapse.

The quietness when the pedal is engaged is a little disheartening...

Given that this is my prettiest sounding fuzz box, I just can't complain much about it. It is nothing short of beautiful, a real suprise coming from pedals I originally dismissed because of tiny boxes and cheesy asthetics. But-- three knobs, a button, and a switch: would it be more versatile if it were in a Boss housing? Honestly?

I break this campy little thing out whenever I want to be underestimated. Playing it straight, with no other effects, no one expects the tone that comes through it.

Didn't take long at all to dial in great sounds...three knobs and a switch is not to confusing for most people. Just don't forget to plug it in! Didn't have a manual in the box.

My word this thing sound bloody great. I am running first into my Marshall ED-1 compressor and then into the French toast. Seems to favor the neck pickup on my '52RI tele when using the octave mode. Sings beautifully with or without the octave up. Without, pretty much nailed Bob Seger's "Main Street" tone. Also provides some great chugging distortion for playing hard rock rhythm. With the octave up, sounds every bit as good as the high priced units by Mayer, Fulltone, etc. in fact I think it sounds better. Unit I evaluated at the store picked up some radio station, unit I took home doesn't. Something to watch out for.

I have used it without a backup and will continue to. So far no problems, although it is hard to trust a plastic case! But it's not an effect that stays on a lot, so if it breaks at a gig who gives a rip? If it had a metal case, I'd rate it pretty high. Due to the plastic, gotta rip it down some.

Dont know.

I play all kinds of pop music, and have played for 35 years. My favorite guitar is my '52RI Telecaster, but I've got some other good ones as well. I'm using a Flextone Plus for my primary amplifier now. This unit has its niche. I'll probably buy another one just 'cause its cheap and good fun. This is a high fun-factor pedal. I would not pay boutique prices for the effect, since it is not used all the time. But now that I have this little jewel, I'll use it somewhat regularly (I don't like to overwork ANY effect). It has a very musical voice, inspiring both for playing and songwriting.

For fuzz, it was good. The "octave" effect was kind of an additional sizzly kind of sounding thing which wasn't at all what I was looking for. I was hoping for Hendrix first album, and this wasn't even close.

I tried both a single coil guitar and a guitar with humbuckers into a peavey classic 30. Again, the fuzz was good but the so-called octave wasn't much of anything. The layout of the pedal isn't all that convenient either in that in order to activate the octave you need to flip this mini switch.

It seemed pretty solid actually from a build quality standpoint. As far as gigging, I would defer judgment.

n/a

I was looking for the Hendrix octave/fuzz sound, and this wasn't it. I returned it pretty promptly since I was so disappointed in it.

Easyexcept for which position the octave switch had to be in.

Horrible. The exact reason why i retutrned it and got an Ibanez Fuzz.

No. Sh**ty design, to small to hit the button, knobs too flimsy

When I emailed them asking them about compatability 3 times they never sent s**t back

Never by this pedal

This pedal is very easy to use. I would suggest figuring out that the octave switch is down for on/ up for off before playing at loud volumes with the bridge pickup activated. Ouch.... Aside from that, just play with the knobs until you're satisfied (and take everyone's advice about the front pickup/no tone with a Stratocaster, it sounds superb).

This doesn't sound as good as my Rocktron Purple Haze octivdivider. However, that was a beast from hell that inevitably drove my bandmates and roommates crazy. This is like the little brother of that pedal, more controllable but less scary. In a way, I feel more comfortable stepping on this box because I know it probably won't give anyone tinnitus. But it can if that's what you like.....

I used to own the Purple Haze, a fairly pricey and esoteric device, and this little piece of plastic puts their efforts to shame. I don't expect this to work well five years from know but it might still be going. If it is, I will have gotten more than my money's worth. If not, then I'll buy another and maybe the slapback echo to replace my aging 8-bit delay. These guys really know what they're doing (nifty looking, super affordable effects boxes!

I don't own one of these (yet!), but I would just like to add a note from Art Thompson's book "Stompbox": that Steve Ridinger, the president of Danelectro, was also the founder of Foxx. That makes it particularly appropriate that, as several people have noted, this pedal is a clone of the Foxx Tone Machine. The Tone Machine was Foxx's best-selling product.

Easy but I wish it had a little red light like other pedals. HA HA
I also wish the octave up could be turned on with a remote jack switch.

I used to have the coveted Foxx octave fuzz wa with real black fuzzy
stuff on the outside from '73 to '75. I lost it. THIS IS THE SAME. Any vintage freak who thinks differently probably goes around spending 40 dollars each for his nine volt batteries and 230 dollars each for his patch cords.
But he really should just get his ears cleaned!!
Sometimes the french toast is so noisy it actually squelches and sort of swallows its own noise! Cool!!! I really think this is what Hendrix has on purple haze and other things. I read that once. Anyway he surely could have got that sound with this unit! Some of those other octave up pedals sound pukey compared to this. Mark Farner used a tone machine on Paranoid on Grand Funk Live back in the early 70's. A player should sometimes use THE WOMAN TONE with this (neck pickup with tone rolled back) as you will get a sweet high violin sound.

I'm going to get more just for fun.

????

If you know what to expect from it you'll love it.
you could get a dozen for the price of an old FOXX tone machine
If Danelectro keeps surprising us with this type of thing
they are going to scare the hell out of the boutique manufacturers.
If guitar player mag or whoever says this isn't the same as a tone machine they are full of shit and have been bribed or something.