Danelectro DJ-20 Rocky Road Spinning Speaker

Not much to it. The lower score is due to the mod that needs to be performed, so if you're not comfortable opening it up and soldering the thing, it's gonna be a PITA dealing with the gain boost

I use this pedal with my Acetone TOP 5 combo organ. The Leslie effect is very chorusy. Instead of a close-miked Leslie sound you get more of a room-miked Leslie.
The pedal also noticably thins the sound of my organ out. It just seems to loose some of its bite.

Played through it, and hated it.
Modded it, played through it again, and still hated it.
But at least it hasn't broken down while sitting on my shelf

If you want a chorusy washy Leslie sound, and don't mind you sound losing some teeth, then this would do you fine.
If you're looking for a distinct, close miked Leslie sound, then the Rocky Road probably isn't for you.

It's fairly easy to use. I was a bit confused about the ramp effect and the switch, so here's the skinny:

The On/Off switch is simply an effect bypass. The drive knob is supposed to emulate the drive often found in overdriven rotary speakers, but it's far too gainy and unnatural to sound like overdrive. The Speed knob determines how fast the rotary speaker will rotate at it's fastest, and the ramp button toggles between the fastest speed and the default slow speed. Of notable mention is how the unit actually ramps like a real Leslie winding up or slowing down gradually. The switch toggles between two ramp speeds, slow or fast. Slow is so gradual that it's nearly unusable, but the fast is perfect speed.

At any rate, a few minutes of toying with this unit will yield satisfactory results. I got a pretty convincing traditional Leslie settings by having the drive completely off, the speed at 12 o'clock, and the ramp speed on fast.

Now there are quite a few nay-sayers against this unit that have their panties in a humongous twist because of the noticable volume difference from when this unit is engaged and when it's not. While this is understandably an issue for some, it certainly isn't for me. I'm using it in a studio setting for one, and for another thing, I'm using it in the context that one would use a real Leslie. I'm not using it as an effect that I can stomp on or stomp off at my convenience, I'm using it like one would when playing through a Leslie; more or less on throughout an entire song, with an occasional ramp up or ramp down. In that context, it sounds great for vocals, guitar, and keyboards. In that context, an increase in volume is rather inconsequential to me.

At any rate, the sound is really good. Although the sound could be approximated by a slow chorus of shallow depth, the ramp up is the biggest treat. That alone made it worth the $20.

Allegedly Danelectro has some QC problems, but of all the Dano equipment I've bought, I've never run into a single one out of the lot that went bad on me.

I hear they suck pretty bad...

If you can get over the volume issue, or do the mod, this unit is a very usable, and considerably realistic Leslie sim. I got mine from Musician's Friend for $20, and at that price it's worth it, even if you think the volume issue is a crime against humanity, like some of the whiney bitches in here.

Easy to use. Footswitches a bit fiddly, but this reflects price.

Was noisy until i tried the mod (http://home.comcast.net/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm) which gets rid of unwanted drive at zero setting. The man who posted this info is a true gentleman and has made me very happy! I use this pedal to get that Malian/West African/Super Rail Band sound and it's gorgeous. NOT a leslie sim IMHO. haven't tried it in my keyboard setup, but with my cheap and nasty guitar i like it! Has anyone else noticed that after the mod, the drive gives extreme overdrive with slight ring modulation anywhere past zero setting? I mean a real big boost in level... Or have I melted something else on the board with my clumsy soldering??? Please could you post a reply on this page if the same happened to you... Thanks.

not had it long enough...

n/a...

other pedals if you're interested... dod overdrive, mxr phase 90, crybaby, ibanez metal charger (great!), maplin echorder, big old ibanez flanger (fl303 i think), etc...

this pedal definitely inspires me to play in a different way, which is what it's all about, i think. ;-)

p.s. try the mod, it's reversible, so if you don't like it...

I don't understand the reviews slamming this pedal, all it needs is a bit of knob tweaking (speed and drive) and it sounds fine!
I performed the mod as described on this site: http://home.attbi.com/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm and it fixed the volume boost problem thoroughly.

No manual, but really guys, tweaking the desired effect (in my case a Dark Side of The Moon swirling effect) is easy! The ramp button switches from slow to fast at the touch of the footswitch, I like that a lot!

Fender Strat and/or Les Paul through Marshall JTM-310. With the Drive control all the way off I get unity gain, thanks to the mod. I owned (and sold) another Rocky Road pedal previously, I can tell you the difference that mod makes is amazing. Originally, the only way was to solder on top of a tiny resistor, this version of the mod (http://home.attbi.com/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm) is simpler and even a klutz like me managed to perform it successfully!

I probably could ... for the price I could get another one easily, just in case as a backup.

I have to tip my hat to Danelectro and their Mini pedal series: compact, inexpensive, they sound good ... purists will have an issue with the plastic enclosure, but I can vouch for the fact that it's a rugged one.

Overall a great bang for the buck!

Seems to be fairly easy.
Check out this page if you want to modify it!
http://home.attbi.com/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm

Ok, haven't had it long. Did the mod. DON'T SOLDER ON THE RESISTOR. Better method here: http://home.attbi.com/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm

So far I have had good luck with the Danelecto pedals.

Check out this page if you want to modify it!
http://home.attbi.com/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm

As easy as any stompbox.

I just got the Rocky Road, and having read the reviews here, I wasn't sure whether I'd soon be sighing and returning it, or really liking it as I do the other Danelectro boxes. I've been playing kind of a garage/psych/rock/surf sort of sound for a while, so my tastes run more to the strange than the subtle as far as effects go, and I think the Rocky Road sounds reallllllly cool. Really I was looking for a vibrato sort of sound that ran faster than the Chicken Salad(?), and this box did the trick, additionally adding other sounds that give it more of a spinning effect than a swirling effect. Seems to be some sort of vibrato/phaser/chorus hybrid. It kind of has the same feel as the Chicken Salad, though, which is perfect, and all sorts of cool little chirps and warbles depending on how you hit the strings. I'm not sure if it sounds exactly like a Leslie, but it definitely gives the effect of your guitar being run through some crazy spinning-speaker set-up, and that's all I was asking for... The ramp's really cool, and as far as the drive knob goes, I was all set to do the mod- expecting the same sort of fizzy, abrasive distortion that comes with the Danoblasters, but I was surprised to find that I thought it sounded really nice- a real overdrive that sounded good on its own. The gain problem would be a problem, though, especially live- but check it out, though, before you automatically do the mod.

Haven't had any problems with any of the little boxes.

I'm looking forward to getting lost in the cool sounds that this box can produce. I forgot to mention that it also gives an organ-with-vibrato sort of quality to certain tones- seriously! This box'll always be rated according to tastes, and for mine, it's a great substitute for a real spinning-speaker set-up, without the back spasms.

It took a while to figure this one out, no manual no nothin'. Getting on the Danelectro website yielded absolutely no info. It's pretty simple to use once you figure the switches out.

Why is there a chorus on this thing? Why can't you turn it off? Kind of made the whole thing worthless. I already own a Milkshake Chorus that sounds tons better.

I just read about the r44 mod. Until I make that change it's a hunk of junk.

How easy is it to get a good sound out of it? Virtually impossilbe to get a good spinning sound.
How is the manual for it (if there is one)? Very basic but no worse than a standard Boss manual.
2 foot buttons are available (on/off and ramp) the ramp switch does nothing that I could determine. It also feature 2 pots one of which is labelled drive turning this above this minimum setting drives your amp to a nasty disitortion. There is also a mini togle swithch between the pots that agian has little or no effect.

No spinng sopunds where available no matter how much I played with the settings. I used this with a marshall DFX50 on the clean channel.

Only tested the pedal

only tested the pedal

This pedal was on offer at my local guitar shop for half price (new) but still I wasn't the least bit interested in purchasing it. This pedal makes some ok sounds (non of which I would say spin, more choursy) but someone can probaly find some good aplications for it. If your looking for a spinning speaker effect with out breaking the bank I would look at the DOD Vibrothang as this does a great spinning speaker as well as vibrato and phase.
My advice to anyone interested in this pedal is try before you buy because you may like it. I thought it was a usless pedal and it was rather obvious why it was on offer at half price (normally #55).

Contrary to other people I found it difficult to get sounds out of the pedal. The sounds were all good, but I had no idea what was going on or what any of the knobs and buttons did? How can there be no operation manual at all??!! So my opinion is divided - easy to get good sounds, but hard to know what you're doing except by trial and error.

I use a Japanese 50's strat loaded with Seymour Duncans and Dimarzio's through a bunch of stuff, not necessarily at the same time - Standard Jim Dunlop Cry Baby, Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer reissue, Boss CS3 compressor, V-Twin, DD3, Boss BF2 Flanger, Boss TR2 Tremolo into either a 100 watt JCM900 dual reverb combo or a Peavey Classic 30.

Problem is those itty bitty buttons, and they're real close together. I have not gigged the pedal yet, although I certainly will (if I can get the details of the mod). I also have the danelectro phasor, which sounds good but too subtle for me. But it has the same problem - really difficult to switch easily live.
BUT, for #45 how much reliability do you expect. I can buy 5 of these for the same price as a Jim Dunlop Univibe.

N/A

I play blues predominantly - SRV, Eric Gales, etc etc, you've heard it all before. If I lost this I would certainly buy another IF IF IF

IF I can get details of the modification to disconect the drive. CAN ANYBODY HELP ME?? Everyone mentions the mod, but I have no details.

HELP! PLEASE!

The R44 mod is essential to make this pedal usable. I recently performed the mod and the results are much better. Quite easy to do actually. I used the drop of solder trick and it worked perfectly. That is the reason I give it a 4 is based on user inconvience to correct the error.

Never found it particular pedal too noisy. For the money a decent rotary effect. I wasnt expecting Hughes and Kettner quality but for a live guitar or keyboard this sounds pretty darn good.

No problems outside of modifying the unit.

Danelectro's lack of customer support is appalling. Email yields nothing. I believe they make some good products but this policy of non-communication with their customers is inexcusable.

Buy only if you have a soldering kit and like to open up gadgets at an amateur level and tinker.