Danelectro DJ-9 Surf & Turf Compressor

It is very simple to use, as long as it has only two knobs: volume and sustain.

I use it with a fender stratocaster 1996 and a fender frontman 25R amp. I bought it because I need more sustain for the fender strato. And thats what i got. The problem is, with the knobs at high volumes and high sustain it becomes very noisy, so the sustain is somewhat limited. And it rounds up the sound (as it should), beyond the sustain.

The plastic box looks fragile. And when you open the battery compartment all the circuits become exposed, what I believe is risky. I would be very carefull in handle it...

It's common in Brazil when you got equipment with defects, the store where you bought substitute it for you. But after this guarantee period (usually 3 months), you will have to rely on your own trustworthy technician. Customer support from manufacturers is fiction for us.

I bought this effect because I found it has the best cost-benefit relation among others that I have tested (boss and MXR, that cost 2 times more).

Very simple as everyone else has noted. Two knobs.... thats about it.

Very nice, little noisy but hey we're guitar players, it's our job to make some noise. Sensitivity knob at 10 acts as a limiter. This function when used with the level knob is sweet. Don't notice much tone colouring, but im sure there is some.

I have had several Dano pedals and I'm under the impression that those who have had trouble with them breaking abuse them. Never had a problem with the EQ, Back Talk, Tremolo or Compressor. Get an adapter, your batteries won't make it through a gig.

Never had to, but they are in the States. So if you aren't in the States than you're f$#@ed.

Been playing for about 10 years and I must say that most guitarists are bigheaded knobs, who are wank when it comes to music. If you aren't one these types of guitarists than by all mean save yourself 100$ and buy the surf and turf(and EQ) pedal with confidence.

easy to use, two knobs, level and sensitivity. does not appear to suck tone.

not useful, will actually muddy up guitars that already have good clean sustain. where i did notice an improvement is ones with stock distortion pickups like the parker night fly (dimarzio stuff) and the max cavalera sg that rip your head off distorted but sound thin when clean. this does not affect distortion (almost regulates it which is good) but will thicken up a thin clean guitar with deeper tone. sens. control gives you clearer attack if you want it.

use a power pack and 9v battery backup silly!

n/a

will keep this as a studio tool, nothing more. wouldn't gig with it unless i had too. better than a cheapo arion compressor, i'm guessing the mxr or boss ones might be better, but you have to have a need for it.

Very simple operation: level and sensitivity controls! Easy to use.

I use the Surf & Turf with an Epiphone Dot & Fender Princeton 65 Amp. I use it for lead work only. I set the level to boost my volume for solos so I don't have to manually turn up the guitar (I can keep my hands on the guitar when I solo). The pedal adds clarity, sustain and a natural volume boost to my sound. My other effects are all Dano as well (flanger, phaser, echo, wah and EQ) the Surf & Turf works well with these other pedals.
Compressors can be naturally noisy so I advise you to find the "sweet spot" on the unit that is workable.
In clean settings compressors can give you that "sparkling edge" which is great for country.
In overdriven settings compressors tighten up the low end to create a penetrating sound. Also very useful!
Basically, this pedal gives you control and clarity in a live setting.

Very dependable like most other Dano products. I would use it without a backup unit.

Dano is helpful when contacted by email. (Slow but helpful!)

I play in a "classic rock" band and have played for over 32 years now. I'm presently using an Epiphone Dot (ES-335) guitar and Fender Princeton 65 amp (two reliable pieces of equipment). My effects are all Dano products (and have served me well for about two years).
I have used other compressors (Ibanez & MXR) in the past...the Ibanez was unusable and the MXR fell apart after a few years of use. The Dano seems well made and with proper care should last for awhile.
In closing, I'd like to thank HARMONY CENTRAL for letting us share our views on the products we work hard to buy and make MUSIC with!

$50 Bucks;Canadian Pawn Shop
Volume & Sensitivity...easy as shit. Have you ever used an MXR Dyna Comp? Enough said.

Set up #1(Blues/R&b/Cuntree): Various Strat's & Tele's,Les Paul Jr.(P-90),Fender FR-50 Dobro, Bravo Mini Classical Nylon -> Surf & Turf (comp) -> PB&J (delay.delay..delay...)-> Fish & Chip's (eq) -> 1972 50wt. Fender Bassman 10.

Set up #2(Rock/Blues) Various Strat's & Tele's,Les Paul Jr.->Surf&Turf->RotoVibe->Cry Baby->Fuzz Face->BD-2 Blues Driver->OD-3 Overdrive->Fish & Chip's EQ->PB&J Delay->Cool Cat Chrous(stereo)->#1 amp: 1972 50wt Bassman 10, #2 amp: 1981 100wt. Marshall JMP w/ Traynor YCX212 Cabinet

Set up #3 -> Whatever the Hell I want to throw together for whatever reason I want. Anything goes type of thing...you know what i mean? Hey, we're guitarist we can do what we like!

I think that due to the use of SC's the pedal only elevates the noise of the guitars. Overall the pedal on it's own is quite quiet. In the 1st rig there is really no noise. Just the usual hum from the guitars. Now, in the 2nd rig, there is a considerable amount of noise, but that is due the size and complexity of the rig. I do not try to sound like any other guitarist's, although I do have many favorite guitar players in various genre's. The pedal gives my a really nice edge and great clarity, and most importantly no coloration of tone. Very good.

I would use this without a back-up. It is placed 1st in my chain of FX and is on all of the time. i would like to recommend to anyone using a pedal like this, which is on all the time...GET A POWER SUPPLY. If you are pro and gigging like the rest of us ROAD WARRIORS are, you need to do this. If you are bedroom wanker(pun intended), do whatever you have to do. Although it is plastic i find it to be very reliable. I only step on it 5 times a night depending on the venue. My back-up is an MXR Dyna-Comp which has not seen the light of day since the inception of the Surf & Turf. Although the MXR is a great pedal, i do not find the need to use it. I love my Mini FX. They sound great!

have not had to deal with them.

Overall Rating: a B-I-G - 9! I WAS LEARLY AT FIRST, BUT THEN MY EARS TOLD ME THE TRUTH. IT IS A GREAT LIL'PEDAL. FOR THE DENERO'S YOU CANNOT GO WRONG. WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY I LOVE THE LITTLE BLUE BASTARD! ROCK ON DUDES! OH YEAH, I'VE BEEN PLAYING FOR ABOUT 10-11 YRS NOW. AND HAVE HAD A TON A GEAR. I KNOW WHAT TONE IS. AND THIS LIL'BEAST ACCENTUATES THE DYNAMICS IN WHICH I ALREADY POSESS.

Very simple two knobs twist them till you like the sound.

I use it to give me that edge on rifts. It did its job well the first time I owned it, but I sold it. The second one I bought made so much noise that I couldnt tell what it sounded like. Needless to say this rating is for the first one. I've used this with a fender reverb, Peavey Encore 65, R50C Rampage, and a roland GC-405. I played an ibanez small body acoustic electric, american strat., Jay turser tele., and a hagstom Viking II. All sounded good. This little pedle dose what its suposed to do tighten the sound and power it up.For the mony it's a good buy. Just don't order one, go to the store test it out then buy THAT ONE.

This is were I get a little perturbed. I owned this pedle 2 years ago, then sold it. I was going to go pure acoustic, but that was short lived. so a few months ago I bought another one from musicians friend. Silly me thinking that it would sound the same. Noise Noise Noise. The noise it made was so loud that it rivaled the guitar. Im a battery man so pluging it in might have stoped it. I just through it in a drawer and left it. Btut thats what you get ordering cheap equipment. My first one (the one that woked) was a half way good pedle, for the price. It wasnt built like a boss, but you be good to it and it will last you a while.

Didnt bother wasting my time for the cheap piece of junk.

I'v been playing Cristian country for 4 years. I mainly sing, but the lord has blessed me to play pretty good.This is a great peddle for lead work (telecasters and strats love this pedle). Other than what I listed above, I own a 712 taylor, a arion SDI-1,and a rogue eq pedle.If you need a comp. pedle,boss turbo overdrive and are on a tight budget,think about this one if you can get it at your local store. If not look through the other reviews for something else. If mony isnt tight, why are you looking at this? If it were stolen, I wouldnt miss it.

two knobs....

i really want to give it a ten....but i cant. like everyone else says it does get noisy when things are cranked up, but who cranks everything up anyways (at least with their pedals i mean) i think when you crank any pedal up it will destroy your tone. anyway, this compressor does the job great. it helps you get the sustain in your overdrive/distortion without too much feedback and noisy junk, and makes your clean sound punchy. perfect fit for my pedal board which consists of boss tu-2>Boss blues driver>fulltone fulldrive 2> surf n'turf comp> tunamelt tremolo> and boss dd-3 into a fender twin reverb or fender blues deville. the great thing about this pedal is that it can just about go anywhere in you effects chain, to me though it sounded best behind my overdrives.

yes its plastic but i own three dano pedals and have never had a problem with any of them. of course it would last if you threw it all over the place but who throws their pedals?

Fantastic value...ive got to admit, dano gets looked over often and i wish that people would realize that not much separates these pedals from a boutique pedal (probably some micro chips here and there). to be honest i wouldnt buy a boutique compressor anyway. back to this little bugger though. i recommend this pedal to everyone, an outstanding buy that adds to your tone in a good way and if it ever gets stolen is easily replacable. this pedal will not leave my pedal board ever.

Simple to use. Volume and sensitivity control. No problems here,

In contrast to the guy who have this unit a "1" , this cheesy looking unit works perfectly for me (I've been playing for over 30 years, and, No, I'm not tone deaf). Unlike the Boss CS-2 and CS-3, that I owned, this compressor hardly colors my tone at all, and for 30 bucks, who cares if it did?!? However, my one complaint is that when I turn the sensitivity past the 3 o'clock position the compressor becomes somewhat noisy. But once again, IT'S ONLY 30 BUCKS!! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?!

So far I've had no reliability problems. However, it sure doesn't seem that sturdy (what can you expect for $30 worth of plastic). I wouldn't want to test this things reliability by throwing it around on stage.

Haven't had to deal with them.

These days I just play in my worship band at church. On my own I focus mostly on SRV, Clapton, and Keaggy.This compressor is cheesy looking, has a stupid name, is limited in its capabilities...and absolutely perfect! I wanted a compressor that compressed without altering my tone too much and that's what I got. Yes I would definitely buy it again.

Simple as with most all pedal compressors

I'm amazed at the reviews that say this thing doesn't change your tone ! These reviews must be submitted by people who haven't been playing long or just have no ear. This is the worse compressor i have ever used. Been playing semi-pro (weekend gigs) for 20 years, and been thru a truckload of gear. This is probably the worse buy i've ever made. It changes the tone so radically that my Van Zandt single coils sound like the worse pickups i've ever played when the Dano is on. It just sucks all the tone out leaving you with what sounds sorta like a cheap keyboard synth on a guitar patch. If you've ever heard those you know how bad they are. My advice is stay away. Mine will not be plugged in again. I don't even think i can sell it in good concience.

The little danos are know to be hit or miss as reliability goes, tho i have the E.Q. which has served me well for a few years and turned out to be just the opposite of the compressor. IE: great !

who knows

Junk, pure and simple. And believe me, i can't even recall buying anything else i've been so hard on as far as opinion goes. I'm not one to complain about gear really. I usually will just say i don't like it, but thats just my opinion. This isn't just my opinion......it really is garbage !

It's a compressor, it's not rocket science. No manual, but with about 5 minutes of playing, you'll figure it out.

If anyone has ever used a Keeley Compressor, you'd realize this could never get a 10. That being said, it's a pretty good little box. When the Sensitivity is cranked, the sound seems to have this touch of spongy popping latency, but keep it at 2 o'clock or less, it's cool. FET bypass that does slightly color the sound, but, then again, most mass produced pedals use electronic bypass, and this colors the sound just as much as any boss/ibanez/DOD/MXR you can think of. Remember, this is a <$50 box, for the price, it's not too bad. Oh, it works really well as a volume boost, too. One note, this pedal picks up the local radio station in the city where i live if a distortion is on. Just you let you know.

I use a Keeley I bought instead of this, but I did gig with it before, and it held up fine. Any physics lovers here? Density? Mass-to-volume ratio? Sure, it's plastic, but this sucker is actually kinda heavy for it's size. Remember, the smaller something is, the less can go wrong. The footswitch seems durable, but it is kind of a pain in the ass to turn on when you wear shitkickers on stage. So, play barefoot!

I think i'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so.

For under 50 bucks, it's a really good value. There are only two Danelectro mini's that I like, this and the EQ (Fish & Chips, I think). A couple of others are ok (the spinning speaker and tremolo come to mind), but don't fit my style. The rest just suck, IMO. So, you could either spend $180 on a boss compressor and Boss Equalizer, or spend $70 on The Dan-o equivalents that actually sound slightly better (especially the EQ, but thats another review), due to the fact that the inherent Boss Tone is non-existant in Dan-o's. Plus, these take up much less room on everyone's already crowded pedalboards. I'd tell anyone to try one of these out, I mean, unless you go boutique ($200+), all compressors are basically equal, so why not save a couple of bucks? Of course, Bossclones won't agree with me, but, thats because they're Bossclones(can you tell I don't like Boss?). Bottom line, it's a good pedal until you feel the need to spend tons of money for a boutique.