Danelectro DJ-20 Rocky Road Spinning Speaker

not much to using it, as I'm sure you know, although you might want to have a dainty little foot. I typically use my fingers.

I used to own 2 leslie speakers. Believe me when I tell you that this is a very effective simulation of the doppler effect and whole lot less money and weight. This is worth it's weight in gold....except the dreaded gain problem that everyone talks about and I will also in a minute.

hasn't broken

Totally worthless. I called and left messages, sent e-mails etc. Finally I sent a disgusted e-mail to them from their website. I said I wasn't going to waste much time writing the message since apparently they never read them anyway. I was rather harsh. Lo and behold I got an e-mail from the national sales manager. He is a very nice guy and helpful. He wanted to know where I got the special e-mail address that nobody is supposed to know about. I told him it was right on the Dano site. Anyway, I certainly gave him my 10 cents worth and I hope some of it sank in. I wish them the best of luck, but they really need to improve in this department or they'll be in serious trouble.

Would have been a 10 except for the gain problem noted elsewhere. I don't think the other posts have adequately described how incredibly difficult this modification is. But it is well worth undertaking. Arm yourself with good weapons. Get a friend who has sharp eyesight and isn't drunk. Get magnification instruments. Resistor 44 is not labelled well and is very close to an LED. Don't burn the LED up or anything else. Apply heat from a very fine tip soldering iron in short periods. Maybe improvise a heat shield for the LED. I thought the other people here were exaggerating. They were not.

It came with no manual or instructions, but it's fairly easy to figure it out. Getting an acceptable sound requires that the modification to cut down the gain be first performed by anyone that owns it. It took me about 5 minutes to make the mod since I knew what I was doing. The mod is not something that first time electronic enthusiasts should attempt especially with a large tip soldering iron. My recommendation for anyone making the mod is to go to Radio Shack and pick up an $7.99 15 watt soldering iron (#64-2051). Also pick up some 30-gauge wire that is commonly used for wirewrapping. The resistor that needs to be jumped or shorted is R44 as described by others who have posted on this mod. What I found that worked best, was to tin the bare wire with some solder before touching it on the small resistor with the soldering iron. I did it without any eye-loop magnifier but it would certainly help to use one. Once you take care of this issue the sound is not bad. It's a sound that can almost be mimicked with a flanger or phaser set to fast speed. At least that's what it sounded to me. I am almost certain they are using a delay chip (BBD) for this effect. I would love to get my hands on the schematic for this to come up with a better mod for the gain problem.

Other than the gain issue, overall sound quality is acceptable for a pedal at this price. A bit noisy, during silence but that is typical of most phasers and flangers that I have used. Nothing that a noise gate couldn't clean up. The case itself is not shielded, and in my situation was picking up some RF interference from some radio station. This may or may not be an issue with other users. I can definitely get that SRV like sound "Couldn't Stand the Weather".

My unit came with a clear protective shield that goes around the controls so that you doen't accidently step on it. This is a good design since without it, there is good chance you'll step on the tiny controls and possibly damage it. Other than that, the construction looks pretty solid.

What customer support? These guys don't even have a support number to answer questions. The main number leads you through a maze of choices that are only for repairs. I hope that Danelectro reads these reviews. I sent them an email about a week ago, and I haven't heard any response. I agree with other users regarding their lack of response. I am surprised that a company that has been around for this long would not have evolved with time, to keep up with customer support. This is probably the weakest point for Danelectro. How about addressing the gain problem, by offering a fix for "free"?

I've playing on and off for about 20 years and am mostly into blues and rock. I like playing SRV and this is a good low cost pedal to get those cool sounds without a bulky Leslie cabinet. I probably wouldn't replace it if it were lost or stolen. I know I can get that sound out of my Boss GT-3 if I played around. I love its small size, but it could have been designed a little bit better in terms of gain and better shielding of the case. This is where Boss pedals are far superior than all the rest. Overall, the DJ-20 is an acceptable pedal but not something that I couldn't live without.

I've had the pedal for a month or two, and had decided that the unity gain problem (stock, it's much louder when 'on') was making it unusable, so I started searching the web for modification tips. I found Dale's mod here on HC, and decided to try it. Whew. What an ordeal. He wasn't kidding when he said those resistors are tiny. At one point the whole resistor had come off and was sticking to my soldering iron. I finally got the jumper on (although it's probably just as much a solder bridge) and the resistor repositioned, and when I bench-tested it unassembled, it actually worked! So I put it all back together, plugged it in and when I switched in the effect, all I got was a tiny, raspy noise. Hmmmm... Took it apart again, tested it; it worked. Put it together; same thing again. Finally I figured out that if you put the screw in that holds the spacer card that keeps the battery off the main board too tight, it shorts.

Anyway, Ease of Use: without the mod, it's basically unusable (unless you leave it on all the time). The mod itself is not physically easy, nor is it much fun. However, now that I've completed the mod, I'm looking forward to using the pedal. It's very simple to operate, although the switches are too close together. Mine was new, but there was no manual in the box.

There is a certain amount of noise, but the hiss actually resembles Leslie noise, so I can definitely live with it. The 'Drive" knob is awful; while the Leslie simulation is very realistic, the distortion sounds cheap and nasty. I keep the knob all the way down, and that still wasn't 'down' enough, hence the mod.

I HOPE it's dependable. It seems to be pretty solidly constructed, but I'm not sure I trust the job I did on the mod. I'd definitely use it without a backup; if it failed it'd be no big deal.

Who knows?

easy, now

this is a follow up to my previous post. thanks dale for the info on the gain mod. it worked wonders; very scary to perform. my soldering iron tip was wider than the resistor itself! i took a very deep breath, dropped the wire on it and got it the first time. very lucky; i don't think you'll get any second chanches with this one! the mod knocks the gain down to unity and now makes the pedal totally usable on stage. did an uptempo chromatic harp instrumental last night and this thing delivered, big time. with dale's mod, this is the best cheap leslie simulator out there, in my opinion. i own a leslie model 16 (fender vibratone). 10 for the money spent($60) and performing the mod. 0 without doing the mod

it's surprisingly solid feeling

with this gain mod, it is excellent for the money spent. it's a lot more involving than a fast chorus and it rolls off a small amount of bottom (so does the vibratone, if memory serves)but i don't find it a problem at all. neck pickup strat and tele tones are excellent. a nice sound for a couple of songs a night; the guys in the band really like it too. overall, i have to say yeah. thanks dale!

Unusuable. I tried this for 2 minutes at a music store and the huge gain boost between bypass and active made me put it back on the shelf before even checking out the tone.

I ran this using a stock Fender Strat into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

I was excited when this product was announced because I was looking for a no-frills rotating speaker simulator. But I didn't want a rotating speaker with a fixed mondo gain boost. I can't imagine how anyone could use this unless it was always engaged or if they had a switchable attenuator in series after it.

If Danelectro re-releases this with an input trim control and an output gain control I'd love to give it another chance...but that would be hard to do in a mini pedal!

Very easy. The leaflet that comes with the pedal is pretty useless, but setting the ramp speed and effect rate is a snap.

Let me echo what everyone else has said: the gain boost is a pain in the rear even with that knob turned all the way off. The effect in itself sounds wonderful if a bit hissy. I tried it out with my Fender Strat with touch of Surf n Turf Compression through my Fender Blues Jr amp.

Those elements seem to agree with one another very well for that "retro" sound, very pleasant to my ears!

Those Dano minis are deceptively rugged! Since I've decided to get a Danelectro pedal carry case, and since I take care of my gear I have no fear. Besides, these pedals are cheap! Replacement won't break your bank account

I've read mixed reviews on Danelectro's customer support, some praise it, some dis it; I can't judge it either way since I've never had the pleasure ...

At first I though that pedal was a dud: battery connected, amp on cables connected, the LED wouldn't come on. After a few attempts, the LED lit up and the pedal was working, so go figure ...

Then hooked it up to the AC adaptor & the other pedals, same thing! I then relized the foot switches required a firm push to engage the effect! The switches on the Surf & Turf compressor & French Toast were more touch-sensitive than on this one it seems ... but now I know: press down on the switch firmly and it will work.

I ususlly love to Tinker, but to go through with the resistor-jumper mod on this pedal while it's brand new ... no thanks. Espescially with such small parts and my natural klutziness ... no way Jose!

I overall like this effect very much and am sold on the Ramp function, I love it! So my solution (while unperfect, it works)to the annoying gain boost is to patch my trusty Boss Limiter between the Dano pedalboard and the other pedal effects I own.

But the people at Danelectro should really address this problem, it's a nasty side-effect to an otherwise wonderful effect!

Simple to use - Speed, fast/slow (more on this later) and drive controls along with two footswitches - One to control "ramping" and an on/off switch. OK except that putting two footswitches on a little spud like this is a bit problematic...I'm never sure which one I'll it - if I hit *either* one.

OK, here I want to follow up on previous posts - I have also modified my unit by inserting a jumper wire across resistor R44. Now, with the "drive" control all the way "off", no additional gain is added when the pedal is kicked in.

Note that *without* this modification, the RR is the most useless pedal I've ever encountered. Oviously there were no Mensa candidates (or musicians) involved in the design of this thing, or they would *never* have added so much gain to the signal. Attention, Danelectro marketing - look up "focus groups" and follow the directions...

Anyway - as modified it has a decent Leslie emulation (I use a real Leslie, so I could compare). The ramping (speeding up/slowing down) function is killer, and contrary to what one reviewer posted is probably the most useful feature for a guitar player. The fast/slow switch changes the ramping speed - "slow" is really cool, as the unit sppeds up in a lazy, drifting way.

For stage use it's an OK, usable effect (if you can hit the footswitches)...it is quite noisy, but the noise gets pretty well buried on stage anyway...

If you don't like soldering on little tiny traces using magnifying glasses, a steady hand and small tools, though - don't buy one until they change the design - if they ever do.

If it broke I'd flush it. Fun but not necessary - it's a backup for when the Leslie is too big or too tempermental. I only kept it to try the modification and see if I could actually make it useable.

I have asked Dano questions by email on several occasions with absolutely zero response. I have another pedal I'd like repaired, but they have never responded to anything I've sent them about that either. Not the epitome of "Service". While they make neat, retro stuff (especially the guitars) I am gun-shy about buying any more products from a company that won't respond to questions.

The design of this thing is an absolute mistake...but modified it's kind of fun. Dano should take heed and re-release it with the noted modification. I'd email them to suggest it, but I doubt they'd read it!

How can any simple pedal be hard to use? Theres really nothing to it. The onlt thing you have to figure out is the ramp function, and thats nothing much. It's also not worth much imo. All it does is speed up or slow down the speed gradually. Not something i, or probably many guitar players care about.

Others have expressed a problem with the fact that the unit has a big volume boost over the off position even with the drive set all the way down. I agree that it makes the unit almost worthless because every time you step on it you'd have to lower the amp's volume. I figured out a fix for this and now it seems to be at unity gain when set all the way down. However, i'll have to wait till a gig tommorrow nite to see how close it is. At least one review below asked for someone to post a fix, so i'll address that as well as i can later, tho it's not easy due to the small parts.

As for the sound, my personal opinion is that as leslie simulators go, this thing is REALLY good. some seem to think not, but i repaired a dunlop for someone a couple weeks ago, and at $300 i feel it doesn't sound nearly as good as the dano. it sounds much more modern and bland to my ear. I believe that one of the reasons for the bad reviews is the monstorous, unnecassary volume boost, but also because tastes vary wildly as leslie/univibe type units go. to me this sounds more towards a leslie than a univibe. I bought it for those SRV tunes, and it nails that pretty well. It's in a whole different league than any processor based rotary effect too. Not even close...the dano is far better than any processor i've used. If you like that "as my guitar gently weeps" tone, this gets close for a pedal. Im giving it a 6 because of the volume boost problem, but it would get a 9 from me if not for that. minus 1 for the lack of a depth control,tho it's depth is so right that you almost don't need one.

As with all cheap pedals like this, i doubt it'll be there for the long run unless you can repair it yourself. I can, and so thats not a big deal to me. Besides, most anything you buy today breaks easily. BUt for how cheaply they're made, i think they made the best of it by using very strong plastics and a switching setup that looks like it may well last, and pretty good construction design. So it's definatly a lot better than the ibanez soundtank series for reliability.

who knows. doubt theres any.

Overall i think it's a great pedal except for the boost problem. So i'll try to explain how to fiz that. In units like this they use micro resistors that are little rectangular jobs that are about 1/16" long and 1/2 as wide. This makes it reall hard to work on. A loop or magnifying glass is almost absolutly necassary unless your eyesight is incredible. [maybe mine is just really bad at 40 something *S*]

Basically, what you have to do is jump a resistor. thats means you have to solder a wire from one end of the resisitor to the other so the signal passes thru unrestricted. There are 2 main circuit boards and a little one for the switches. The one you need to get to is the one on which the speed and drive pots are located on. Take off the board on top first by removing the 2 screws so you can get to the target board. Remove the connector between the 2 boards. Then remove the knobs and screws from the target board and lift it out. It'll still be connected to the switch boaed by a ribbon cable that u cant remove, but it has enough length to work with it. Directly in bach of the drive pot you'll see 2 resistors. Thone closest to the pot is the target. one end of it is up close to the L.E.D.'s. A small soldering iron tip is necassary to do this. Solder a piece of very thin wire from one end of the resistor to the other. Thats all there is to it. However, as i said it's VERY VERY small, and it may be intimidating to some.
I'm willing to answer emails for those who have question regarding the fix, but if i get swamped don't be surprised if i stop !!

I noticed none of my Keyboard brethren had made a review of this pedal, and I needed a cheap leslie sim to use instead of my Pro3T and real Leslie. So I marched out and bought one to try for the next couple of days. Most of you are probably curious how it sounds with the Voce V5; here's my 2 cents worth.

Fist off, I hate to have to diss Dan Electro, they are a great company with equally great customer service. I'm grateful they are making nice pedals available at very affordable prices. I adore the chicken salad pedal, its great with keys, doesn't distort and it's plain fun. Same with the tremolo and Eq.

No manual , it took a second to figure out that the "slow fast" little switch controls the ramp up/down speed, and the speed controls "rotation" The "slow" ramp is incredibly slow to reach the fast level, it might be nice for that long braked sound, but I didn't find it all that useful.

In order to get it to sound something like a leslie I found this setting: speed @10-11 o'clock and switch at fast ramp. You can then hit the switch to go between the speeds.

They got the ramp down very close to perfect. . But you can't run this pedal with any volume whatsoever from a keyboard, it was made for guitar without a doubt. You might be able to pull the typical first 3 drawbars out to maybe 3 or 4 but if you dare to run full organ you'll break it up and not in a good way. Through an amp it was more forgiving then in the studio; but the V5 [which admittedly has a hot output, versus a real Hammond or my vintage cx3] won't even begin to sound like itself unless it's run at least the first couple of "dots" on. {about 1/3}
With the V5 barely turned on , I could hear what this pedal was capable of. I haven't tried it with my CX3 yet, which has a dedicated low level output, I'll let you know.....

The drive, is terribly ratty sounding. It might be great for guitar, but with the V5 it was dismal. I would of loved if they had left it off in favor of an input level switch.

You would have to use a buffer of some sort to even make this pedal work with keys, it really screws with the tone otherwise. The V5's distortion, which is already not the greatest, was really putrid through this pedal. Same if you used the V5's leakage.

It is noisy. Just running by itself it wheezes a bit. In the course of a loud club or casual gig it would probably not be all that bad. I brought it to a small intimate jazz gig and put it on my Rhodes for kicks. It was fun, but not something I would use regularly, in between songs you could hear it breathing. If I actually brought it to my regular gig (large venue-show band with keys mixed in PA), I'd be worried about the residual noise.

BTW I bought the thing with one of Dan Electro's power supplies to give it the best possible operating conditions.

I agree with everyone else here, if you don't get careless these things are fine.

Took a while to hear from them but very helpful and didn't just send a form mail.

IMHO if you can't at least do a Rotosphere or pro3T then maybe this would work. I still found it preferable over some of the rack mount multi- fx type leslie sims in the Lexis 500/100's etc but having to run your source at next to nothing and cranking your amp is no good.

If you could find a tech/repair shop who could maybe do a pad mod, letting the Rocky Road accept full line level, you could use this thing. I'm considering this option if I keep it. Perhaps I'm losing sight that since it's $60 street, you could factor in a the $50-$100 modification and have yourself a pretty good mini leslie sim for $150 bucks or so.

In previous emails to Dan electro concerning the same problem with their very nice pepperoni phaser, they've suggested using their EQ as a way of knocking down the volume. but at that point, you start having to bring more stuff. To be fair, I 've had the same problem with lot's of other guitar pedals. eg: MXR phase 90, and some of the DOD stuff. I'm using an assortment of new and old keyboards depending on the gig. But even with my vintage Rhodes which IS at guitar level output, many pedals still distort. It's probably true pedal companies are not releasing these things with the average keyboard player in mind.

Really needs a level switch like the HK has, between guit/keys. The significant output boost when you engage the pedal wasn't a problem for me used with organ. I would just leave it on, as I rarely run just straight organ.

Too bad, it works nice, but the input situation is a drag. I'm giving some serious thought to keeping it because it's relatively cheap, and it does sound pretty good as cheap last resort. When I kept the input level to a bare minimum it was fairly useable, if not all that inspiring or workable . If I couldn't get a leslie, pro3 or HK, then I would probably use this. (BTW Finding the Korg simulator is next to impossible, and they are usually overpriced when you do find them.)


I was looking for something for showcase, European travel gigs, low key gigs, etc. where bringing/flying my usual rig would be a pain. The HK is a bit of a luxury for me since I've already got the pro3 and the real thing, but it's starting to look like a necessary option.

Curiously, I let the guitar player on my jazz gig (who was playing a Gibson Howard Roberts jazz box) try it. To my ears it was sort of like the George Harrison/Badfinger sound most guitar players would probably associate with Leslie guitar, but it lacked any real depth and magic ( granted he played it with clean sound and also the pedal's distortion) I think if I was guitar player who needed this sound for just one or two songs only this would be a cost effective solution unless your chorus can pull it off.


Maybe DanElectro will make a keyboard version , but I doubt they will re-tool the r&d on this unless it just plain doesn't sell. It's a shame cause they could sell a boat load if they were in tune with what would work with keys, even it was little more expensive.

I went to Guitar Center to see if this thing was as bad as the reviews its gotten. Well, its easy to use but it SUCKS.

My Boss Chorus sounds better than this thing. I was looking for a Univibe sound for cheap, you won't find it here.

Some products just should not be released. I wonder why manufacturers put into production effects and toys for guitar players that no one in their right mind would buy. The DOD Tuna being one that never should have hit market. This Rocky Road thing is painted a suitable shit brown for good reason.