Danelectro DJ-20 Rocky Road Spinning Speaker

No manual, just a couple of pictures on the back of the packaging. Two foot switches (on/off, ramp). One turns the pedal on, the other "ramps" the speaker either up or down.

Just like a Leslie, when the pedal is on, the speaker is rotating. The "ramp" pedal determines whether it's a fast spin or not.

Two control knobs affect the speed of high-speed spin and the "Drive". "Drive" appears to be the same as "Gain".

There's also a single toggle switch that determines whether the ramp up/down will be fast or slow.

I'll give it a high rating because you really don't need a manual -- would have liked a little better explanation of the "Drive" function. I'd rather just use my Tone control on my guitar to handle this.

Well, it works in that it does kind of sound like a spinning speaker -- but it doesn't really sound like a Leslie. The pedal is very hissy when the Drive is set high. More bearable when set to zero or thereabouts.

Just got it so no opinion

Have other Danelectro pedals, never needed support.

Used to play through a real Leslie way way way back when. This is a reasonably close approximation of the sound.

One thing I didn't like was that there was no discernable "click" (either audible or pressure-felt) when you engaged a foot button. As a result, wasn't always immediately sure if I successfully toggled the ramp button (since it ramps, there's not an immediate audible change in the spin rate to let you know you engaged the switch).

I got this at a music store Used for $20. When I first plugged it in, It didn't even work. After some swearing and throwing of things, I tried it again later and so far it works. WTF? Anyway, It's tricky to figure out at first.

I use this with a bunch of guitars, mainly a '63-ish Hofner 182, an oddly well-made and heavily modded Squier Affinity strat, and a mint '93 (I think) Kaman GTX 33. On the high notes (i.e soloing range) you get a really nice Univibe sound a la Hendrix (see: Star-Spangled Banner). On the lower registers, it gives you a nice percussive chorus-ey sound. Kinda like a cross between a chorus/Univibe/tremolo. The ramp speeds could be faster, but It's still a great little box. Gonna do the mod later.

My only gripe with the construction is the fact that it's in a plastic case (but that's why it costs so little).

I'm still kinda wary of the thing dying again...I had an Ibanez SM7 that did this same thing, and it quit for good after a while.

Dunno, don't care.

You can't beat the sound quality of this for costing so little. It's almost a sin NOT to have one.

It's pretty straightforward to use, two knobs, a switch and the two pushbuttons (TINY pedal!)
No owners manual but enough info on the internet to find tips and it's easy to play around with to get the sound you might want

OK, i use this thing at home with an Epiphone Valve Junior, and a Holy Grail, Carl Martin Red Repeater, and a Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus pedal.
I have an Epi Les Paul, a Japanese Strat from the 80's, a custom built Tele clone, an Ibanez set up for bottleneck, and a Jay Turser JT133 I won in a contest.
I bought this pedal based on my experience with the Cool Cat, an all metal, noise free chorus pedal that is GREAT. unfortunately, the DJ-20 doesn't live up to it's big brother. As soon as the pedal is engaged, the noise level is there. the other pedals are dead silent, the DJ-20 is noisy at idle.
Hey, it was 40 bucks, so i got what i paid for!
The effects are OK, hardly a Leslie, but decent sound for the price

I don't use it out of the house, but i don't think it would hold up to any abuse.

I had to send back another defective mini pedal, a Peanut Butter and Jelly delay, and they promptly exchanged it with no grief. that pedal now sleeps with the fishes since the Carl Martin got here

I play some Jazz, some blues and lots of rock and pop-rock,
i've been playing since 1967 and i've mentioned my gear above.
i also have two acoustics, a 1967 Guild F-212 12-string I bought new and a 1974 Espana 6-string hand made in Finland of all places
if it was stolen, i'd wonder who was so desperate?
Overall, tor 40 bucks, it really is OK. Now it's a temporary stopgap until my Songworks Rotary Wave comes next week. (I CAN'T WAIT!!}
so i'll give it a 7 for being worth the money and a 5 for performance?

A couple knobs and a switch. ?

With this unit the sound is related to the price:in my vase 38 bucks.
It ain't a leslie or a chorus, so much as it is it's own thing, and will like any piece of gear, sound different accordingly.
I like it. It does what I'm looking for right now which is a vibratone-
type effect.
It is a useful effect,and that's the bottom line.
I couldn't find too much in useful clips on the web, so I put up a small
demo on you tube. It's just a small camera and so you know what to expect. URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA10HemTMVE

yeah

NA

Pretty decent for the price. Listen to my demo.

Simple to use without a manual. Didnt come with a manual and didnt need it. Did the 1:1 mod even though I could have used it stock for a boost in solos with my floor setup. I think the boost was about 3 db turned down.

This thing reminds me of one of my first pedals I had which was a large Mestro phaser pedal that had 3 buttons and sounded the same.It had a slo medium and fast button with simular ramping speed to this one. I used to use it live where I would speed it up for solos and slow it down at the end of a song. This one does the same except its onlt 2 speed. It would be cool to rebox this in a larger box and put in another switch that would max the speed controll. Set the speed slow for a medium setting, then the switch would short the pot and give a hi speed. Also I could space the switches so I wouldnt have to use my big toe to turn the ramp or bypass switches on/off. also replace the ramp speed switch and add a switch for the mod for a boost when needed. As far I like it. I've done some recordings with a steinberg plug in leslie effect on some takes which sounded great but it was impossible to recreate them live. This pedal fixes that.
It will sound different depending where you put it in a chain i.e before or after distortion so experimentation is needed here. I'm probibly going to put it between to od/distortion units so I can either power into it or drive a distortion/od unit like a phaser/preamp would. This unit is very small but Since I have a specific need for this and it has a time delayed speed ramp, I give it a high rating.

Very solid dont see a problem here at least not mechanically.

n/a

I paid more for this than I should. I could have found one on ebay for half price but didnt want some amatures solder mod hack job. If you're an electronic tech like myself and want to expand the design it has some possibilities. The mod is easy but have someone who knows how to solder do it. You can get this sound from other phasers but the ramp is the key item. I may take a look at the caps that controll the ramp speed. I'm pretty sure the togel switch selects between 2 different caps or 1 cap with a resistor. Another cap/resistor value might speed ramp up. Soldering one of the same value under might mod the switch to doubble the speed of the ramp.

It wasn`t very difficult to get a good sound from this unit straight out of the box.The drive knob seems pretty useless.I keep mine all the way down to avoid distortion.One thing I do have to say is that the switches are very close together.You hit one,you are hitting them both!I solved this problem by putting some superglue on the ramp switch,and mounting a rubber knob on it.That way I`m not turning it off or on when I want the effect.I usually keep the effect on for a song,and kick in the rotary/ramp as needed.I never bothered with the manual.Pretty simple hook up.

You can get those great Beatles"Lucy In The Sky" effects,or Ringo"It Don`t Come Easy" kind of sound.Pretty darn close!I use mine with a Hofner acoustic guitar through an Akai Headrush pedal(for looping)straight into the PA.I do have to keep the volume way down on the acoustic to avoid distortion.Also when I use this unit,I have to re-EQ my acoustic a little.Roll off the treble and presence about 50% from the normal setting or it gets very brittle.

Seems dependable.Yep I use it without a backup.

Never dealt with them.

I play original Power Pop supporting my CD doing acoustic shows.In a typical 45 minute to one hour showcase set,I will kick this unit on at least twice,just to add another flavor to the show.I have been playing for about 25 years now and own TONS of gear.Fenders,Gibsons,Gretsch,Danelectros ect.If I had to replace this unit,I would probably look into something else.I really like the sound.I don`t like the distortion feature or the way the switches are so close together.They probably could have made the pedal a little bigger,then again that would defeat the whole"mini pedal theme".Might work well if I were a dwarf.I pretty much chose this for the price,and because Danelectro has some pretty cool stuff on the market.
If you are looking for a an inexpensive Leslie in the palm of your hand, go out and get one!All and all I`ll give it a seven.

Funny, i cant see the 'huge' volume increse that you guys are talking about, so maybe dano has fixed this up?
Ill check it against the mod's and see whats different.
Things are easy to use, I want to speed the slow setting up a little bit, shouldnt be too hard to do.
It is really bloody small, tiny, so im definently going to remount it in my pedal box.

I got mine yesterday afternoon, and i think its great, although i have never owned a real lesie, or any other leslie effect (apart from guitar rig, which has a stereo leslie sim that God would sell his soul for).
One thing that hit me was it is less prominant than i though it would be, especially on slow. It does brighten up the sound a lot though.
On fast speeds, that seemingly true vibrato kicks in, and kicks major ass.
There is a little hiss when it is turned on, as well as a -little- volume boost on my pedal, but i think that most of the boost is in high frequencies.
My plan is to add a tone control and master volume on the output, try and get that gain contained.

I have an old Hamer Slammer Centuria running into a Laney VC15 with no other effects at the moment, apart from onboard reverb. The pedal makes a really plush sound when the amp is on the drive channel, pre-gain of about 5 or 6, single coil pickup, and guitar tone rolled just about all the way off. A really great friving, spinning sound, almost organ like.
It is also quite good with a generous amount of reverb thrown in.
Things would sound good in the effects loop of the amp, but i havent got the cables for that at the moment.

The plastic is thick, it has some weight to it, but the foot switches are close and small.

I had been hunting for this pedal for a while, a bit dissapointed with the retail price in guitar shops, saw it on ebay, snapped it up like that. Looking forward to a healthy relationship, and i hope it lasts a while.

Danelectro DJ-20 Rocky Road Spinning Speaker MOD !
VERY easy to do, one piece o wire, one soldering iron.

Ok.

Of course.

Ok.

There seems to be a problem with some cats having messed up their Rocky Roads while attempting to mod the pedal.

This cat here :

http://home.comcast.net/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm

Has found an easy, cheap and REVERSIBLE way of doing the same, which will NOT void warranty.

Also, there's a cat wanting to mod pedals for ohters for 16.50?, that's a true ROBBERY ! Don't fall for it, just follow the link and carefully do as shown

I'm posting this as a "warning" to those that may be tempted to buy one and "do the mod". I have some soldering skills and after trying the volume mod my pedal stopped working. I never even got to use it because after I initially turned it on and was thrown back by the volume increase, I knew it was mod or die. Too bad - I was looking forward to playing around with it. Anyway, the damn circuit board is REALLY small and there's little room to work. If you're unsure about mod'ing, you may want to hold off and find someone with good eyes and a steady hand.

I literally plugged it in...turned it on...and it was SO loud that I yanked it out to mod it. I think it would have sounded really good had I not killed it.

I understand that there or only two knobs and one latch, with two foot switches, on this pedal, so it's not THAT complicated to use. However, there is one design flaw in this pedal that nearly gave me a migrain when I took it out of the box. I'm not talking about the gain-boost issues.

Invariably, when you buy something that includes a battery, the battery will be dead by the time you try to use it. Ok, no worries, you've got a boss AC adapter, rated at 9V +tip 200mAmps, about as accurate of an adapter you could hope for to use with a Danelectro pedal. You plug it in, the light comes on when you press on the right footswitch. The gain knob gives you a beautiful distortion, almost a perfect replica of an over driven leslie... but the speaker isn't rotating. There is almost no discernable chorus effect. After pulling out your hair, and trying for over half an hour to find which combinations of settings will produce the sound you heard in that mp3 file from that website.... nothing. Until it dawns on you, there's a dead battery in there... what if?

Right, so for some reason, if you are connected to an AC adapter AND have a battery in the pedal, it will favour the battery. This could kill you if your battery dies during a gig, because plugging the pedal in won't help you, and the batteries are inserted from underneath.

That said, I love this pedal and it sounds great, but because of the migrain it gave me when I took it home, I can only give it a 5 for "ease of use"

This sounds like a single rotary speaker. It sounds a lot like a single rotary speaker. If you really want the sound of a dual-speaker rotary effect, don't buy this. It's not what you're looking for. However, as far as matching that SRV tone (you know the one I'm talking about) ... yeah, it's pretty close, and the best possible option for the price.

In fact, it occured to me that buying two of these pedals, rigging them up to an 800 Hz crossover, and giving them both different "ramp" settings, would be a less expensive simulator than most that produce the dual-speaker sounds.

This pedal sound great with my Strat, but I bought it for my keyboard set up. I've tried it with various organ patches on my Yamaha TG-55, but it only really works if you remove any kind of LFO from the synths. It actually sounds best with one or two triangle waves (place them an octave or two apart). It will take any triangle, sine, or square wave and make it sound like an Organ. Which is why I use it with my YC-10A http://www.combo-organ.com/Yamaha/YC-10A.jpg , a simple Yamaha organ that doesn't produce more than just beeps.

Now I must mention again that this pedal has THE sound of an overdriven leslie. It is the perfect sound if you want to emulate that growl of Chest Fever by the Band or that sheer crunch of Deep Purple's Lazy.

As long as the power doesn't go out, I can rely on this pedal. But I would not trust it with batteries to save my life.

Never tried. Their web-site sucks, though. There is nothing helpful, just pretty pictures of their gear.

Overall I think this pedal has a wonderful sound and if you don't find Danelectro products aesthetically pleasing, something is wrong with you.

As I said, the fact that it favours the battery over the AC adaptor sucks. Appart from that, the ramp times, are rather slow, but I tend to play keyboard anyway, and I'm constantly sarting and stopping the rotors, so I usually keep the speed hovering, so it doesn't slow down all the way.

I recommend this pedal because it is remarkably inexpensive and it sounds great.

Rock on.

If you don't have the manual (I didn't) I can see where the growl knob would get you into trouble. Turn it all the way down for quiet clean operation and turn it to 10 o'clock for a little boost with out to much noise. Crank it from there for distortion and noise. The next thing that the speed knod control the maximun speed of the ramp up. Once you know that it is up to you to decide how fast you want the wobble to be on leads. After overcoming those issues 10 minutes of fiddling I was off to the races. There is a learning curve if you buy the pedal with no prior knowledge because there is alot to consider for the set-up. Now that I kow what the pedal does I have three settings that I use for different things.

I favor a Schector tele copy going UHF wireless thru my whole chain: TC Elect. experience pedal, Crybaby wah, RP-50, split with a morley a/b box to a Cavin x100-b half stack with m-70 celestions and to a 70's Peavey Classic with Phaser. The split going to the peavey has a Boss Noise gate with a metal pedal and digital delay. Usually, to get the Jimi thing happening I use the wah, the experience set to octave, and the rocky road, the carvin on a medium crunch and the delay on a slap going to the peavey. I turn on the experience and wah for solos and play with the rocky road an delay the rest of the time.
Setup #2. This is a great pedal for those times when you want to keep it simple (One guitar, one pedal, one amp)because the ramp gives who three effects (Slow chorus, ramping, fast chorus) with out any knob twiddling. I have read the whole two ramp speeds, slow and slower. These people are missing the point. those selections are for control of the pedal. Here is the deal. Option A. 1.Leave the pedal on for the whole song. 2. Ramp up for the solo. 3. Ramp down after the solo. This works great with the ramp speed on fast. Option B. 1.Leave pedal off. 2. Turn on to get ramping rotary sound at desired time. 3. Use ramp button to keep the speed where you want it. This is easy to accomplish with the ramp speed set to slow. I hope this concept will help people apply this effect with more taste and success. This pedal is swirly enough if you are using a low wattage set-up. This is because you have alot of gain going just to get some volume. With a pro rig it is a little dry. The good news is that if you throw some Digital modeling (RP-50 for instance)in front of it, and another analog time delay pedal after it (try a phase shifter or flanger) this this will go nuts in a good way. I always keep the growl down when I have it in a chain of effects. This pedal is a very easy way to get the vibe of alot of great players. It reminds me of hendrix, stevie, and zz top when used alone. To get into Pink Floyd or Trower land you will need to stack another oscillating pedal with it. I am giving it a ten because the ramp is worth a couple of hundred dollars and I paid $20 for it. If you want a leslie buy a leslie and drag it around.

I have read where some of these don't work out of the box. That is not reliability. that is poor quality control. This is plastic. If you are going to be moshing around leave it at home. If you take care of a piece of gear it will take care of you. This means to wrap it in cloth with you are not using it. Do not toss pedals around.

N/A

I play blues,country, classic rock, shred metal. This pedal is for classic rock/americana.
I am 38, I have been picking on electric/acoustic guitars, basses and mandolin since I was twelve.
I would replace this piece of gear. It has to be the altime bang for your buck pedal.
The tone is great, the smaller and crappier the gear set-up, the better.
The wish list would include stereo outs and an expression pedal input.
I think Dano should make a $200 dollar full size version of this pedal with daddy-o distortion (for everyone crying about the growl and for the volume mod. crowd)in the front end and the stereo out & expression pedal input on the back end for me.

I have to give this pedal a lower rating, because it takes a few minutes to fix the volume problem. If you have minimal soldering skills you can fix it with no problem (see mod below). Once I did the mod . . . WOW!

The thing to do is to give the little guy some room. If you look at the pedal, there are cutaways near the knobs that represent the tip of your foot. If you give the pedal room on either side, it will be easy to use.

This pedal is the ugly duckling of my rig. All other pedals I use are high-quality, true-bypass units: Keeley Modded Crybaby, Stigtronics Compressor and Overdrive, Tremulator, and an Ibanez DL10 delay (another gem). I have had many of my peers laugh at this unit, but when they hear it, that's another story. I've used this pedal for a couple of weeks on a tour with another band, and I've already talked the guitarist into buying one.

Okay, here's the skinny on the sound. It reminds me of an old Fender Leslie at times, though it has a slower ramping speed. For your dollar there truly is no other Leslie simulator that will cut it for the money. I tried the new Line 6 Roto-Machine . . . wasn't impressed at all. The Rocky Road, though small and sometimes tough to get around due to pedal size, is a bargain and a half!

Once you do the simple mod, the levels are even and the unit just shimmers. I REALLY like this pedal!

I doubt it will break, but it IS plastic, so it might someday. I'm thinking of buying a backup to have just in case.

Don't know . . .

Darn simple - see other reviews!

Even the mod - see below - can be done by a no-armed man ;o)

Yep, I've done the mod - witch is really, really simple, even in this tiny box and I'm totally unexperienced!!! - and it sounds just great. I'd give it a 10 for the plain sound itself, but it's somewhat noisy and you can hear the modulation wave even when not playing. That doesn't bother me at all, but it's there and it could be annoying to some people. The sound itself is really quite leslie-ish and the value for money is outstanding. I'm looking forward to own the Line 6 Roto Machine but will definetly keep this little miracle box - it's really, really great sounding !!!

Let's just see - time will tell... ;o)

Teh Germany distributor, Warwick, is pretty darn helpful !!!

This is a real bargain: If you're looking for a decent leslie sound at no cost and if you are able to do the mod (and you are, believe me!!!), this is absolutely outstanding!

Great little pedal. I have THE mod. Want to know how to have the LED flash in time with the speed? E-mail me and I'll tell you.

My unit has been upgraded. I did the infamous gain reduction mod. I wanted to mod the pedal so the ON LED would flash to the speed of the pedal. It took a while to figure out, but it's an easy mod. I will draw up the mod on a bmp (I don't have a digital camera...I'm disabled and money is tight).

Now, if I could only speed up the ramp up and down a little...I'm working on it. It's hard without a schematic.

It hisses in front of some amps, but is quiet in effects loop, and best if the loop is series, not parallel.

It is just a chorus but the depth adjusts automatically between slow and fast...as does the Pepperoni Phaser.

I love Leslies and have a few of them and use them on guitar, and the high end of my bass (300Hz and up) in my effects amp.

Works just fine, and it is the best (and only) unit like this in it's price point.

Who knows?...it's more surface mount throw-away technology. I'd use it without backup. I have the optional plastic guard that protects the little knobs.

NA

NOW I'm happy with it except for the slow ramp up and down. I can see the speed of the pedal. I also added a jack to allow me to add a pedal to control the speed so I don't have to try to hit the speed button without hitting the bypass button.

I play anything...

Many Leslie simulators are little more than modern versions of the Univibe, which was just a crude 4 stage phaser. These don't get close. This pedal is closer.

I wish it was stereo...but for the money, it's great.

E-mail me if you want the "Flashing LED Mod".

The sound is OK. More later...

No patches just a speed knob for the fast speed, a fast/slow switch which should be called SLOW/SLOWER, and a volume knob. Yes, I did the mod.

It is hissy going into the front of an amp (and I have several), but in the effects loop, there is no hiss. I've only played with it using guitar. I will try it with my "ancient" B-3 "clone", a Roland VK-9.I have modded the pedal so I can switch the speed remotely. It should mix with the Roland's internal "leslie simulator", which is just a chorus.

We have several Leslie single rotors here at home, and it really doesn't come close. I also still have the treble rotors (2) out of my old Yahmaha version of a leslie.

I got hold of a plastic protector that goes over the knob end of the pedal so I expect no problems.

I build, modify and repair my own stuff...I don't need no stinking company...

It will be used along with other similar units and will add it's flavor. The ramp speed even set on fast, is slower than any of the real leslie's we have. I figured out how to make it slower, but haven't figured out how to make it faster.

I may do that with an external circuit...the LERA found on the GEOFEX website.

If stolen, it wouldn't bother me as much as with most of my equipment. I'd still hunt the skunk down and teach him or her a lesson, but the 9mm through the palm would be excessive. A couple of 22long, shot loads would do the trick. The right butt cheek, and the top of one foot works well for minor education.

Since my girlfriend Tiffany just LOVED her single six 22 Ruger, I may get one myself so I don't have to borrow hers.

And FWIW, our guns are not in our home, but they are plenty handy on a moment's notice when the need is there.

Gees, I'm glad I got over all that hippie-peacenik nonsense from the 60's. Thank you Richard Nixon for setting me on the RIGHT path...pun intended. (my first election at age 18)

Do I put GSP chips in ALL my equipment? Try me and see. There's a reason we have 4 antennas and a dish on our home. They ain't for watching TV...we have cable.

Two knobs, speed and drive, and a teeny little switch for the 'ramp' speed. Once I realised why there was a drive knob on a modulator pedal, I was away.
The Ramp function speeds and slows the modulation but the footswitches are so close together on this little pedal that its almost impossible to get right.

I use Gordon Smith (Gibson type) guitars, other Dano mini FX plus others by EH and Line 6, a Pod and a Marshall DSL combo.
All this stuff about the volume mod is lost on me. As a device for simulating the lush wobbliness of the Leslie, this pedal is rubbish. The Pod does it much better, very close to those shimmering chords near the end of Dark Side Of The Moon. BUT... by giving lots of drive (and don't forget real Leslies do add a certain amount)I use this for boosting solos and giving them a slight shimmer. This makes it a fun and useful tool for adding interest once or twice a gig.

The tiny little switches and controls on this range of tiny pedals makes them tricky to use, and they're cheaply made. Don't rely on them. All mine have the clip-on collar to stop your toes crushing the controls. But as a little bit of spice they're fine.

I wouldn't bother for such an unimportant bit of kit

I play in a covers band but I don't get all anal about exactly mimicking the sounds of the original artist, I'm not a parrot. I love Dano minis, they're cheap, fun and all do something wacky that you don't expect. I have a load of 'em that I use to spice up solos, I rarely use 'em more than twice each in a set, and people really notice when I use 'em. They're not the sort of FX to create a sound for an entire song, more like special FX to use once or twice. And they're cheap.

I want to add something.

Ive had the rocky road for a few weeks. That is my review below that I made yesterday, and just like I said - I did the volume mod.

It did just what its supposed to, which was make the volume even at the lowest gain setting.

BUT, the pedal did loose some "punch". I dont just mean a little volume, but even when turned up it did not have that punch and the "growl" that it had before.

Also, I play with my volume knob alot so it will be easy to get used to. I found that with the rocky road, i just roll the volume back on my guitar right as I turn on the RR. And sometimes I can hold a note and make it seem like its sustaining much longer by rolling UP the volume knob slowly as the note fades away.

So you may want the volume mod if you dont want to mess with your volume knob, but I personally like the sound better, it seems more defined before the mod. But the mod is easy and does drop the volume - it just depends on what you need. I personally have reasons (stated above) that I would rather have this pedal UN-MODDED.

Also I want to add again how much I love the sound of this, and if it needs a more "watery" flavor all you have to do is add a slow chorus before or after and its as liquidy as needed.

A great sounding little pedal!

Very easy, just a few knobs.

If it turned itself on and off when I wanted it to (ESP, but not extra sucking power) then I would give it a 10, but it cant do that so 9 it is; after all the 2 knobs & 1 switch take no effort to find a setting

I think this pedal sounds damn good, not just considering the price but overall. It definately is a little dry compared to the classic sounds one wants to capture, but add a slow, semi-deep chorus after or before this pedal and it sounds great.

Nice & wet and really does a good spinning sound.

One thing though, the volume boost you have heard about is very true, and very loud. Pretty much unusable in a live/jam setting. It could be great for recording as is, but I am going to do the simple mod and drop the volume on this thing today.

Its plastic so it gets a 7, but I wont give it any lower than that, Ive never actually seen a dano mini that had the plastic case busted.

Im sure you could bust it if you tried but why do that?

I had 2 pedals with a problem (my fault with my attempted mods) and they replaced them both for free with no hassle at all.

I really like the sound and what this pedal can do.

It mixes real well with my other pedals (crybaby, ts808, dano EQ, pb&j echo/delay, boss CE5 chorus).

It really likes a good tube amp to push as well. I was looking for a little something extra and I found it with this.

Now Im off to do the volume mod, so peace. 9 G's

It's as easy to use as any pedal. But the "ramp" button doesn't give a feedback, so I have to use my ears. That's no problem, but I would find it more comfortable if there would be a feedback.

Not easy to say. For me it's o.k. - more than o.k.!

At home I play on an old Technics Piano. Few weeks ago I bought a very odd organ expander (Orla DE 49) at ebay, which I connected via MIDI. This funny piece of plastic provides 9 satisfying sinus waves, but the built-in "leslie" effect sounds even worser than an old Bontempi keyboard. So I looked for an appropriate effect and found the "Rocky Road".

The first try was disappointing. The slow chorus is kind of usable, but the fast "rotation" is very dry and without this living sound of the real thing.
Then I switched on the slow chorus of the Orla and the fast of the Rocky Road simultaneously. Wow! The two effects in combination give an impressing sound!
Years ago I played a Korg BX-3 organ with a small rotary cabinet made by Farfisa. And this combination doesn't reach the sound quality of the italian-crafted wannabe Hammond module together with the Dano pedal!

The pedal itself sounds not really good and not really bad. But together with my equipment it gives the critical part of a very reasonable sound.

Now to the noise. It is absolutely inexcusable. And it's totally unnecessary. When I switch on the pedal there is an obtrusive white noise. For sure I will make the mod described below. I know it voids the warranty, but the noise voids the pedal.

I have the pedal only a few days, so I can't say anything. But from my point of view it was a good idea from the manufaturer to apply a piece of translucent plastic around the area of the speed and drive controls. Otherwise you step on it and they are broken.

I didn't have contact with the support. But I am sure the support is bad. They couldn't ignore the noise(gain problem, which is discussed since years. And nevertheless the didn't fix it at all. It seems they have a sense for music, and they care for the money of their customers, but the customers themselves aren't a matter to Danelectro.

For my homemade organ grinding the pedal is great. And on gigs? Without the mod: No way. With the mod: We will see.

The overall rating is 8 because for my purposes I am satisfied. The relation between price and value is good, although the piece is more expensive in Europe than in the USA. For professional musicians the pedal may be far less applicable. I don't know.

(BTW: Don't be astonished about my funny english. I had to try, because the review had been much less helpfull for many visitors of harmony-central if I wrote it in german.)

Easy to use, tougher to master. The reviews below are in disagreement, apparently (ha) about what does what. I used my ears, no problem. The only snag is waiting for the (slow) 'ramp' sound to change fully, so you can adjust appropriately.

OH HOW THE DEBATE RAGES...

It sounds great!

I've had several pedal-style approximations of THIS sound. Perfect? NO. Just as good as a zillion-$$$ rotosphere? Hmm, well, that's up to you. Better by miles than the schools of pricey uni-roto-vibe-s? YES YES YES.

OH... the infamous volume-mod-flaw ISSUE:
Yeah, that IS just sloppy quality control...

However, add an EQ pedal = NO PROBLEM.

A 8 rating... it's NOT perfect.

Don't know, but it's been used HEAVILY for going on 2 years, no issues. I use it with guitar, keys, and more. Wish they still made it, cause for the price I'd replace it without a single complaint.

Dont' know... but if they exist ...hello, hey, make an upgraded (METAL) version of this pedal!!

Out of curiousity, I've tried most of the mini-danos, and some are one-trick toys, but a handful of others are quite good. This is the only one of the bunch I'd really HATE to lose. Why? Because there's NO COMPARABLE replacement for anywhere near the price.

Wish it didn't have the volume problem.
Wish it was metal, with real stompers.
Wish it had a drive on/off foot switch.

LOVE IT ANYWAY.

Dear Danelectro, make a another one. A better one.

My rocky road did not come with a box or manual...which shaved a few pounds off of the purchase price!....not a tragic state of affairs because this unit is easy to use. It posesses the neccesary features one would expect from a leslie simulator. Not 'usable' in fx pedal context without mod

Rickenbacker 330 through a Marshall G80R CD with this unit inbetween.

Debate rages about this pedal and I would wish to consolidate some of this into my review. I personally decided to go for the mod as I was unhappy with the volume boost. That said someone rightly pointed out that it means you can only use this pedal in a true leslie context - after all......the real thing is fairly noisy.

The original design is indefensible....it is an effects pedal....and therefore requires some degree of compatability with other electronic equpitment.......without the mod this pedal is useless as a pedal. As a leslie simulator it works.

It does sound real and the ramp up and ramp down (speed of the rotary 'horn') is great (hendrix - angel being the important comparable i wanted to imitate). Get the pedal....get the mod and (short of getting the real thing) you should be happy. Would have liked a stereo output and a bit less chorus when the ramp is down.

i am not confident it will last as long as my other units. Nothing else on market for similar price.

The fact that the customer has to resolve the main problem with the product is abysmal..........danelectro should be ashamed of themselves. It would not be cost effective to offer to fix them all......but still...they could have either discovered the defect before putting this product out.

I'm obsessed with the doppler sound...i cant fit the real thing into my room.....could afford one if i wanted....but this is a more compact alternative......its reasonable

Last night, I did the R44 mod to my brother's Rocky Road. I was following the instructions posted by John Adams when I noticed something that John overlooked (or at least didn't mention).

He suggests that rather than soldering directly onto the R44 resistor, one should use a wire to jumper between the middle terminal of the "Drive" pot and the solder pad between the "R7" and "R46" markings.

When I was examining the PC board before adding the wire, I noticed that if I followed the circuit trace from the solder pad up and to the left, it ends at an unused plated-through hole between the "C3" and "R47" markings. You can use this hole to mount the wire going to the "Drive" pot instead of just laying the wire on the solder pad and soldering it in place.

Doing this mod certainly makes the effect muce more usable.

While the Rocky Road doesn't sound exactly like my Leslie 205 (I know, a rather unusual Leslie to be using with a guitar), it sounds good and is much more portable, although the $25 that I paid for the Rocky Road is 25 times more than I paid for the Leslie (picked it up for $1 at an estate sale where no one else knew what it was).

Now that I've figured it out, its easy to use - but it took me a while without any manual.

I posted a review below, but have just done the mod and the sound is light years better. In the mean time I'd bought a Boss Chorus (CH5?) which did quite a nice Leslie sound, but this blows it away. The sound is much more liquidy. Without the mod, I would not use the effect with much distortion, but now it sounds awesome not matter what setting I use. The slow setting is magic with really heavy overdrive, but I guess 4 out of 5 players are going for Cold Shot! I use a couple of strats (USA standard & Jap 50's Reissue loaded with Seymour Duncans) into Marshall JCM900, or a Peavey Classic 30 or a Fender Blues Junior. Other pedals are too many to mention - Boss compressors, TS808, flangers, delays, the usual. The effect is certainly not noisy.

Mmmm. I had to take my first Rocky Road back to the store and get a new one because it just stopped working after a week or two. Just by stepping on them, you know they can't take too much abuse. then again, you could buy 5 of these for the price of a Hughes & Kettner.

Overall, I had given up on the pedal without the mod, but its been re-inserted in prime place in my pedal board - and it will stay there! The sound is really beautiful.

OBF Very intermittant operation.

Not very reliable Bought new off Ebay factory sealed with factory
defects. Product is not service friendly due to plastic control
knobs being super glued onto the plastic control shafts that break when you pry them off. Bad solder connection found in multiple locations and the cause of intermittant operations turned out to be one pin on an 8 pin IC was not placed through the whole but bent out on the top of the PCB. Bad not good!!!!
Obviously...no quailty control or functionality testing exists at Danelectro.

Can't find an email address anywhere on their web site to
let them know what kind of trash they MFG

Not worth $2 in parts.

It's not hard to get a good sound out of this pedal. The controls are simple- 2 buttons, 2 knobs and 1 toggle switch. But (as others have said) it gives you an unwanted volume boost when on.

If you plan on leaving it in your signal chain, do the gain modification at http://home.comcast.net/~adamsjohn/rocky_road.htm. It's not hard, and you can reverse it later. All you need are basic soldering skills.

So, I'll give it a 4 for Ease of Use. It would've been a 9, but I'm subtracting 5 points for needing the mod.

I'm using it with both a Fender Strat and an Epiphone SG, going into a silverface Fender Pro Reverb. It's not noisy. The effect isn't weak, despite the lack of an intensity control (you can only control the speed and drive).

I can't say that I've ever owned a real Leslie or Vibratone, but I've heard lots of keyboardists and guitarists use them, often in small clubs where I could get close to the speaker cabinets. So this review is based on my subjective ears and memory... and comparisons with other effects boxes I have.

At fast speeds, The Rocky Road SUGGESTS the sound of a Fender Vibratone cab. It will get you close to a Stevie Ray Vaughn sound. But it doesn't quite nail it. It's sort of a simplified version of the effect- about what you'd expect from a stompbox. It's somewhere between a chorus, a vibrato, and a phaser. It swirls and throbs like the real thing, but doesn't sound as juicy or dimensional.

I like the ramp up/down button. It aproximates the effect of a rotor accelerating & decelerating. But seems a little too gradual to me (even when the toggle switch is set on "fast").

At slow speeds, the RR sounds like a chorus pedal... a good chorus pedal, but not a rotating speaker. This is understandable, because a slow leslie sound is nearly impossible to duplicate. If a Univibe can't do it, I'm not surprised when a cheap little Dano pedal can't.

Now here's the weird part - the drive knob. Why? What possesed the designers at Danelectro to include this? Sure, real rotary speaker cabinets can be overdriven for that cool Spenser Davis "Gimme Some Lovin" sound. But why try to duplicate that in such a small pedal (especially when there are so many overdrives already available)? If you turn the drive up, you get a weak distortion. But even when it's all the way down, your volume is boosted. The mod mentioned above can fix this. But I think it's just poor design on Dano's part.

I've used other Dano mini pedals at gigs without backups. The Tuna Melt tremolo was a staple of my sound for years (until I got my vintage Fender amp). I've never had any problems. They're plastic, but they're pretty durable.

N/A

All in all, it's a decent effect. I used to have a DOD Vibro-Thang, but I sold it because it made a loud thump every time I hit the switch. This pedal has a totally different personality. The DOD was warm and dark (think "No Quarter" by Led Zep). The Rocky Road is brighter and less adjustable.

I tried the RR side-by-side with my Peavey Dual-Clock Chorus (cool pedal, see my review). The Peavey can do a passable faux-leslie sound, so I wanted to compare them. I was surpised to find that the Dano sounded very similar to my favorite setting on the Peavey. Go figure... I also compared it to the "Rotary" effect on my Digitech RP-100. No contest. The Rocky Road sounded better (the RP-100 has too much tremolo in the effect and not enough vibrato). I wish I still had my Rocktron Vertigo Vibe to compare it to.

I like having 2 speeds in one little pedal. Plus the Dano takes up a lot less floor space.

If it were lost or stolen, I might look for another one. But then again, I have too many effects as it is... Maybe I'd save my money until I could afford an H&K Rotosphere.