Danelectro DJ-9 Surf & Turf Compressor

Just two knobs. I couldn't figure it out simpler.
It comes w/out manual, anyway even if u don't know how a compressor works u can adjust it by ear, u could start setting the level so that the overall volume with the clean channel doesn't change by turning on/off the effect, and then tweak it by taste.

Rate: 8 No matter how easy it is, it's always worth spending two words on how a thing works....

AWESOME! This little green heart-shaped box is more versatile than you could even imagine.

The compression itself is wonderful, it kills dynamics a little (hey, this is a compressor, and compressors mainly work by KILLING dynamics), but at least it doesn't kill your tone unless you turn the effect knob all the way up.

But the marvel of this box is that u can just back off the compression knob and play with the level knob to use it as a boost, just like a tubescreamer (but at 1/3 the price)... I've used it that way and the results were wonderful! The tone stays always good, I mean it does color your guitar's sound a little bit, but not in a bad way (at least for my musical tastes).

Actually I'm using it wih my backup rig which consists of

REXX 602 solid state preamp

Marshall Valvestate 8008 solid state poweramp

Marshall 1922 2x12 cab

I actually use it to add that tubey feeling to the preamp's clean channel, but in the past I've used it to give a boost to my Mesa/Boogie V-Twin pedal preamp's Lead channel and it was a blast!

Uh, well.....

It comes in a plastic case, which ain't encouraging, and other reviews I've read on Danelectro pedals added doubts to doubts.
I haven't gigged this pedal yet, nor I'm planning to do it because I already have a compressor in my main rig (Mesa TriAxis->TC Electronic G-major->Mesa 20/20) and the TriAxis really doesn't need a boost(!), anyway I think I'd buy another one as a backup if I ended up gigging it (at that price u can really afford it!).

To be sincere I've had it for one year and it hasn't failed on me yet.

Never dealt with 'em, so dunno.

Some stuff works great regardless of what music style you are playing, and this is one.

Anyway I play Melodic Rock (a la Scorpions/White Lion) and some Dream Theater sounding Prog stuff.

This is a good effect, it is actually capable of two different works: the compressor and the booster, always with a wonderful tone.

I really suggest anybody to try one, you'd be impressed!

Takes a little twiddling, but like most of these units, not too much to really get wrong. With compressors less is more. This has a useful level range which adds a nice clean kick for playing Santana. Keep the sensitivity low, though, less than 10 o'clock. More than that and it starts sounding like a flat tube screamer, which may be a useful effect for some stuff, but kills all dynamics.

Tele and Strat, couple tube amps

I have seven of these little buggers and have had no problems. They do chew juice. Many of the reviews where people complain of the things not working are simply that the thing has killed it's battery.

The time-modulation-type units like the chorus, delays and flanger will kill a new battery in a couple hours. WIth a dead battery the FET in the unit will not even pass good clean tone. First they start sounding crap and then you get ringy mettalic distortion, then they stop. I had to go to a 1 amp 9 volt regulated supply to prevent hums and buzzes and careful routing of the lead is required to prevent getting crosstalk from other signal cables and power leads. The Dano supplies may work OK, but Oz has 240 volt power so they're useless here.

Keep good clean power up to them and they are silent-switching, no effect on tone when off and sound at their best.

Reasonable website. No-one knows much about them here, and the low price means people don't offer much in the way of support.

I play everything from 60's pop to modern alternative, from ballads to Zeppelin and beyond. I find these Dano's to be good for the bux and a cheap and easy way to add variety. My favourite is the Black Liquorice octave disortion. Don't much like the French Toast or Pastrami. The BLT delay, Milk Shake Chorus and Hash Browns flanger all stay on my board.

What can i say? This is a great equalizer. Its 7-band and has a volume slide.
I use this for bass, although it works with any other instrument. The only negative thing i can think about this pedal that the construction is not as good as the bigger dano pedals, but still very rebiable.
There is nothing wrong with the sound: no hiss( if other equipment doesnt hiss) and makes my sound better. One review said that fish&chips does absolutely nothing to the sound. I had that problem once with my cool cat. Then i realized that these dano pedals are quite picky about the power supplies(lights go on, but sound stays the same). Some dont work even if the settings are correct on the power supply(which are usually 9v and some other things i dont remember  ). Make sure to test power supplies with all dano pedals. Some work, some just dont.
Like i said, what this pedal does to the sound is excellent. I have to give a 10 to it because there is absolutely nothing to complain about. And very cheap pedal, ill probably buy another one of these cause its good have a fast equalization change, if i need to do those for example during a gig.

Only 2 knobs, but still takes a good bit of tweaking to get the desired compromise between sustain and noise.

I'm using this behind a wah pedal, in front of 4 other danelectro pedals. I play a Gibson Gem Series Les Paul, 1978 Fender Strat, and a Hendrix Edition Strat. I really only use it for clean stuff (adds clarity and definition) and for solos (adds sustain and slight volume). I like it, but man, it sure does make a lot of noise. I give it a because of all of the unneeded signal noise.

Well, it's never broken down on me, but it doesn't look very reliable. Plastic housing - you get the idea.

No manual, but helpful website.

Does what I ask of it, which is to add clarity and definition on clean stuff and sustain on solos. The only bad point I can name here is the noise it generates, expecially with other pedals. Overall, not bad pedal for the money.

This is pretty easy to use if you're familiar with what a compressor does. If you're ignorant like I was when I first got it, you just keep turning the knobs and the sound just never seems to change. (Duh, it's not really supposed to...but it'll save your other pedals or your practice amp!) All things considered: easy.

The only thing I've noticed that seems wrong with it is when you turn the sensitivity way up, it just suddenly adds white noise to your signal. Other than that, the pedal is quiet.

Once I finally figured out what this pedal actually does, I use it with EVERYTHING! I've tried it at various places in my effects chain and it always works well, but it just seems to make the most sense at the end of the chain.

I use it at the end of my chain when I play bass with the church worship team (Fender Jazz=>Dano Fish & Chips EQ=>Surf & Turf=>direct box and some kind of Peavey practice bass amp). It really helps tame those annoying resonant bursts that just pop out of nowhere when I play.

I also use it when I play guitar with my band (style: modern rock/post-grunge, a la Pearl Jam, Nirvana, etc.). I use a modified Phantom strat copy (with hot rails, etc.) or a Fender Mexican-made strat=>Big Muff=>Vox Wah=>Dano Tremolo=>DOD Harmonic Enhancer=>MXR Noise Gate=>Dano Milkshake Chorus=>Dano PB&J Delay=>MXR Flanger=>Surf & Turf=>Dean Markley practice amp=>Vox Pathfinder. This compressor has saved my amps--on more than one occasion--from being overdriven (not always a good thing) by the Muff or just by my hot pickups.

Hasn't failed me yet. Some question the plastic casing, but it should always hold up if you don't act stupid with it. I've dropped it in the parking lot before; still works fine. Oh, batteries have a long life in it too. I haven't had to change mine yet.

Tried e-mailing them about something relatively unimportant once, but never heard back. Otherwise I've never dealt with them.

I think I've said about all I can. Great pedal: it really clean up any volume discrepancies in my sound. saves pedals, practice amps, and money. Try it...you'll like it!

2 knobs, as everyone says. But I'm a relative newbie, and without any kind of manual, I've had to play around to figure the settings out.

My setup:
Les Paul Junior Special (2 P-100 stacked humbuckers) > Surf & Turf > Vox Wah > Peavey Classic 30

I just got it today, but I'm hearing a good bit of noise...that's one of the things a compression pedal does, though, is to bring out those little noises. I think it's the pickups on my guitar.

Anyway, other than that, the thing sounds great. I haven't quite found the perfect spot for my guitar, but it boosts the volume nicely and brings out a lot of the guitar's character. I'll have to play with it some more to figure out the best way to set it.

The sustain is nice, but not spectacular thus far...then again my LP sustains forever anyway so I guess that's not much of an issue. When I played it on a Strat at the store, the sustain was far better.

I can't say for sure...the first one I bought was a complete dud, didn't work at all, but that was a demo model that the store was getting rid of and I bought that one real cheap.

The one I have now is new and it works fine, although the knobs do wiggle a little bit. I wouldn't throw it against a brick wall, but it seems pretty sturdy.

A very nice pedal so far...I was disappointed that the first one I got sucked. But this one is pretty nice. I'm looking forward to really working it out hard. I play melodic, jammy sort of rock, a la Grateful Dead & Phish, and I love the way this pedal brings out the best in my tone. The sustain is nice.

only two knobs, it's pretty obvious. read up on how compressors work before using this.

i use this with an electric mandolin (fender converted to 4-string). there is a large amount of hiss from it when you use an adapter, which is what i used (on a pedalboard). isolating the transformer didn't work either. it was quiet when used with a battery though. my setup: mando-> compressor-> danelectro EQ-> pharaoh boost-> danelectro octaver-> morley wah/volume-> boss os-1-> mxr noise gate-> peavey ecoustic 112. the compression was pretty good, i could get everything from U2 to percussive jazz/blues. volume gain was considerable, if there wasn't just that @$*&% hiss, i would have loved it. especially when i kicked my boost pedal on, the hiss was SERIOUS, it came from both level and sensitivity knobs, so no way around it. 9 for the compression, 3 for the hiss. i switched to an MXR dyna comp, sounds very similar but without the hiss. but if you are going to use a battery, by all means this compressor rocks.

made of plastic, so if you stomp hard, go elsewhere. i treat my pedals really well though, so no problems here. i would gig without a backup.

no idea.

i play lead for a rock/indie band, using violin and mando. been playing mando for about 1 year, violin for about 15 years. i love old blues greats, so compression is a must for that sound. this thing was too noisy, but if i used batteries, then i would love it. would replace instantly if lost, it's so cheap!!! i like that there are only two knobs, i don't have time to fiddle with the 4 knob boss onstage. small size is a plus for limited pedalboard space. i compared it to the boss, and mxr. mxr was quietest, boss had not as much character, chose the dano for its $ though. ended up getting the mxr too. that's about it- no hiss = killer for the money.

It isn't easy to use, you have to spend some time with it to get a decent sound. Two buttons should be easy, but set some limitations to control the sound.

If you turn the buttons all the way up, you will get some hiss. It is difficult to use it with other effect, the surf & turf makes any noise in your setup bigger. But at last I've found some settings for my Gibson Les Paul - and the surf & turf is best, when I switch the humbucking to singlecoil (why doesn't every Les Paul have this feature?).

I am a little disapointed, especialy after reading all the good reviews in this database. I think it has something to do with humbucking-pickups, that compress the sound anyway. So as I stated, the surf & turf is best in singlecoil-mode - and there it is a killer!

Has two knobs, very easy to get the tone and sustain you need. There is no manual, but do ya really need one?

The only thing I may recommend is to include a small sheet of paper to tell what the knobs do...in case someone is a newbie...

Fernandes Montery Pro => Danelectro Compressor => Danelectro Delay => Ibanzez TS9DX Tube Screamer => Dunlop Crybaby Wah => Volume Pedal => Fender Hot Rod Deluxe.

I turn the level to match the volume of my amp and crank the sensitivity about 3/4 of the way. No extra noise or unwanted tone coloring...sounds natural.

It makes those tubes freaking sing.

I've not had it long but seems pretty durable. Not made out of metal, but who cares...I saved a buttload of money over going with a more expensive metal pedal. Plus it's in my pedalboard case so if I don't stomp a fat boot on it, it should be fine for years to come

Not had to deal with them....

I play a lot of different styles in our praise and worship band. We also do covers of oldies like 'I'm a Believer' type stuff up to Creed. Goes great with everything we do.

I've been playing about 4 years now. If it were stolen, I'd buy another one.

Danelectro pedals are the way to go...all the quality of higher end 'name brand' stuff at half the cost. I can't believe I played without a real compressor for so long. It WAS the missing piece of my sound.

Could'nt get easier unless the two knobs set themselves. I guess that's why there's no manual. I use the Dano mini case and that is really handy, just fill it and go.

I use the surf and turf with several other Dano mini pedals and a TS-5 Ibanez tubescreamer for overdrive. I play various guitars either built or modified by myself with mostly humbuckers through an ancient Univox head on the bass channel with a Marshall 4X12 Cab.

I have seven Dano mini pedals of various food groups and I have never had a problem yet. A bandmate had one malfunction and Dano promptly sent a replacement gratis.

Did I mention that free replacement?

Overall I would say it's a buy. You'll buy more once you're hooked on the bang for the buck.