Danelectro DO-1 Daddy-O Overdrive

Very easy to use, just use your ears.

Im using this with a Laney Hybrid LV200 and Boss ME50mfx. I find that the ME50's ods/dist can be a little harsh and this pedal warms them up just great. This pedal is very good used as a boost I find.

Had it for 4 years now and no worries. This pedal is one of the older style Dano's and is built like a tank. Very dependable

This is a great pedal for what I use it for. A nice warm sounding overdrive, which can do crunch and fuzz if tweaked.

Its easy to get a ok sound out of this box, but the knobs are too small and too close to each other, so even if my fingers are thin its hard to fine tune. the box is kind of large, so i wander why they have to make the knobs the way they do. like that it has a 3-band eq, makes it more versitile. the manual is ok.

Loved the sound until i tried something else. TS9, vox v810 and fulldrive 2 are all pedals far greater than the dady-o, the first two are in the same pricerange. I sold it years ago. Just didn't like it anymore. the sound lacks quality. it dosen't sound like a cranked amp, a beautiful distortion or a strange noisy peace of crappy wander. Now I use a fender japan tele, TU-2, CS-2, V810, TS9, Muff, Maxon CS-550, DD-6, PN-2 throug a fender Princeton and a Hot Rod Deville 212.

The only thing that can break is the knobs, and they will break if you step on them. The box is so heavy that i almost belive it's made of ledd. nothing can penetrate that shield! Give it a 5 because of the knobs, which is an essential part of a stomp, but everything else seems relieble.

I play mainly british rock, but dont think that influenses my opinion. this pedal just isn't great. It's not even good. It's OK, and ok is not good enough. You can get better pedals for less. I would like to share some thoughts about the design. It's different, but not good different. It's f.... ugly. The size of it makes it difficult to make place on the pedal-board.

Knob (indicators) are hard to see. Tiny little close-spaced knobs are hard to turn. Volume/Gain/Tone labels are hard to read to see which knob does what. Making this pedal relatively difficult to adjust on stage on-the-fly. Most pedals don't need too much tweaking so maybe this is nit-picking. Especially considering that this pedal pretty much sucks regardless of where you turn the knobs to.

I've always liked the BIG 'ol push button though.

This has got to be one of the worst sounding overdrive / distortion / gain pedals, whatever.. that has ever been created. Thin, bad tone, unresponsive. If it were just a little worse it may be bad enough to be good in a unigue way. If you like good tone I would stay away from this one. If you have a bad guitar, bad amp, AND you are a bad guitar player, buy it!!! Because it won't matter. And it does look cool so if your into looks more than tone, this could be a good buy for you. Maybe it's just me.. but aren't all the good pedals just square boxes. And all the bad ones look like a stealth fighter or a '57 chevy?

100% reliable. Never a problem. I think it is well made, quiet and consistant. The case is cast aluminum or zinc and "built like a tank". Insides are cheap-o but they always work. And this thing has been beer soaked and danced on many, many times.

The pedal has been reliable. So N/A.

My guitar playing style as is a diverse variety of hard rock, roots, country twang, blues. This pedal is not a good match to my playing style. Probably because I LOVE GOOD TONE! I have been playing steady in working bands for over 30 years. I have many tube amps (5watts to 130watts) from Fender, Mesa, Vox, Harmony. And I play real & old Les Pauls, Teles, Strats, 335. All stock, no fancy added stuff. I have used the Daddy-O on and off (over 10 years) as a back up or for a "less gain" sound to my vintage ProCo RAT. I have to say this pedal is not a good buy at any cost. It may be better than nothing. So for $10 ok, if that's all you're willing to spend. But I have never been pleased or inspired to play better while using this pedal. The Daddy-O & I just don't get along. It has overall a thin and nasty tone. So much so that I hesitate to use the word "tone" in decribing this pedal. I would not recommend this pedal to anyone. Sounds funny but the reason I have used it lately is that the name of my band is The Daddy-O's. So it was more for a laugh. I have decided to bury this pedal at sea by flushing it down my toilet. So my musing here is it's epitaph.

Dislikes: Tone-sucker: overall sound quality is poor. Knobs are difficult to see and adjust on-stage.

Not so easy, there's gain to be equalized!

So volume, gain, plus a gain equalizer... It's a lot of options,
and not all of them sound good. Could've been done simpler, that's all.

Another point-eating thang is that the knobs are small and bunched
together, so no play-by adjustments.

Nice one - I use it for a little crunch 'cause I like it.
It's attached to my Bolt-60 amp, and I'm feeling versatile and good.

I find that it sounds exceptionally lo-fi on higher drive
settings; it's not rude or shrieking, just not so good.
Charming for me, maybe, but people will generally say it sucks.
No shame in playing it that way a little just for fun, though.
Better stuff is to be had for high distortion sounds.

The equalizer is worth it's weight in gold for me, because I can
iron out my P-90 equipped guitar's sound, 'nuff said.
A smidgeon of drive gives me the honk I need when I dig in,
and I feel that this little tin-can responds to playing dynamics.
Not in a grand way, like an overdriven tube amp, but still
it shows some feeling, and it's better than none.

Certainly no noise, hiss, volume drop or boost - it's quiet and
peaceful.

If it stayed true in higher gain settings, it woulda earned
a niner easy due to the super-useful equalizer. More expensive
things don't have it.

Sure!
No backup needed - this thing is durable and thick,
plus it's designed fabulously for all vintage freaks.
You don't have to like it, but the design really works
for people of a certain sensibility.

Speaking of sensibility, my Daddy-O has been kicked and
banged around quite a bit, but still works like a charm
and keeps batteries for months. Good one.

Never tried. Assessing from the looks of their webpage,
I don't think that would ever be a clever idea.

Works for me! Can get into that Scofield vibe a little,
can even try and push it up a notch and hammer-in a few riffs too.

If it were stolen, I would buy something better-sounding,
then forever regret the lack of 3-band drive equalization.
Unless...

Five knobs, fiddle around a bit and you got it.

On my strat it produces a nasty fizzy tone, very transistorish and plasticky. This was one of my first few OD's but I quickly sold it because it sounds plain nasty. I modded mine, changed the op-amp and other stuff, sounded a tad better but still sucked.

Low gain simply doesnt work on this one, you need dirt at at least 9-10 o'clock. Anything higher than 2 o'clock sounds like angry hornets in a tin can.

The only reason anyone would get this pedal is the cheap price.

Casing is solid metal but sockets are plastic. Why?

Ok cheap beginners OD, play with it a few weeks till you tire of the artificial sounding nasty raspy buzzy tones, and get a decent pedal. Even the digitech bad monkey is a great OD compared to this.

Pretty easy to use, if you start with everything at 12 o'clock and work from there making small adjustments you can't go wrong. Easy to put you foot on the switch and the led is big so you can see it easily. The color is very purty to, awwww how sweet lol

Wow, how cool is this thing!?! It is really pick responsive and has a slightly loose and fuzzy lower string sound when plucked softly, give a distortion type tone on the middle strings when you dig in, and has an overdrive sound on the higher strings. When you use a bit of delay and chorus/flanger higher up neck it gets a fusion type of overdrive of the typical 808/ts9-ish variety but totally in a different way, namely without the lack of bass or huge nasally mids but it's definately a crisp overdrive sound not a distortion. I guess I should point out that I am using it to 'overdrive' my valve amp which is by itself giving anything from a proper clean with guitar volumes low up to a pushed clean to a mild overdrive with volumes up. So that is the sort of amp situation I am using when I describe the sounds and response of this effect box. Comparing to a Boss Blues Driver it is miles ahead because it doesn't sound like a sterile processed overdrive and I'm talking even with the Monte Allums H2O mod. I did do one of the Indyguitarist mods to this DO-1 to make it smoother, as well as changing out the TL072 to an RC4558P ala the ts-808's other widely great sounding IC. BUT.... even stock I imediately liked the sound of the Daddy-O. I would like to give an 8.9 with mods and an 7.9 without.

Seems built well, but the plastic knobs mounted onto plastic shafted pots mounted on the pcb poking up through a plastic retaining section seems to be asking for failure. Don't kick the knobs off the unit and it would be fine. The push button is military strength, and the switch is also very big -- way bigger than boss.

I like it a lot. I have tried a few pedals for dirt to and I am liking this one.

Boss SD-1, DS-1, Zoom 2020, Fuzz Face, OS-2, MT-2, Zoom G2.1, BD-2 and Daddy-O. This list is pedal, not including amps, TSL etc.

Pretty straight foward stompbox. No bells or whistles here. Just adjust and go. Set and leave. Whatever. Controls are good and tight. LED included.

I bought this initially because Steve Howe uses one.

First some background on overdrive pedals. You are making a mistake if you think a pedal labeled "overdrive" should be a modern "distortion" box, for example a Boss DS-1. The ABC's here involve a little history about the development of the business, so just realize what it is exactly you have purchased. The microchip design of the Ibanez Tube Screamer and it's related cousins (vice earlier 60's-70's era transistor Muff styles), require at a minimum an all-tube amplifier. The basic function of the 80's style pedal, is to raise a buffered signal level, or active signal, or powered signal, however you want to define it, then hit your front end of the amp with that higher voltage. Raising your signal beyond a saturation sine wave for the power tubes, helps them clip into a soft edged square wave. Hence, the label --> overdrive. Ever wonder why the amp had a volume knob...AND a gain knob?! Raise the knob labeled volume first, then bring up the knob labeled overdrive secondly. (The pedal, not the amp.) The subtle characteristics of overdrive pedals is what separates them from boost pedals. The modern distortion circuits, "process" the waveform more directly, therefore I did find my Boss DS-1 into a tube amp, actually lacking when compared to my old practise Peavey Transtube solid state amp, for instance. The distortion pedal into a Randall is what separates the Pantera/Sevendust sound from the early Metallica/ACDC Mesa/Marshall sound. They both sound very close to each other, but not quite. It's just a preference. Warning! The Dunlop 535 Crybaby Wah works in a similar manner, unlike their 95 re-issue. Completely different circuit components.

Straight forward, yep, the big plus to the Daddy-O, all you Moon Dog big daddies out there...is that over the Tubescreamer...this has an equalizer! The Ibanez has a built-in circuit mid boost for large spaces at high decibels, but the Daddy-O gives you a little more control in the bottom end of that eq. I use it in small spaces for practice only. In my rig right now, it's a stand alone pedal chain buffer, vice a compressor pedal. Sustain should come from the thickness and weight of the guitar body/neck.

Maybe maestro Steve uses it alone, I have no idea. There are other ways to use it, don't get me wrong, and I probably paid too much for it, but just don't get too excited if it won't do an all-in-one digital thang on the cheap. Digital delay modulation and time effects should never be summed before power tubes, or intermodulation distortion will result in a decay/destruction. All-in-one devices need to go with solid state amps only, but some digital "distortion" clocks out fast enough up front with good software. Breaking up the signal can be done, but it WILL sound sonically maximized and flat, if not extremely loud at ALL times. I prefer the picking dynamics, impedance reactance of the tone/volume controls, and multi-harmonic orders of vacuum tubes, played clean. It's a cut and paste ProTools world though. I never said I liked what was popular, just what was available on my "crunch" palette. Don't even get me started on British punk pop. America's Mississippi Delta is where the blooz gets played.

Initially I was disappointed with my Tubescreamer purchase to tell you the truth, against the Danelectro, but now after reading the history of the business, I realize it was just an "application" issue. In other words, my living room prefered the versatility of my Daddy-O.

It now gets swapped back and forth with the TS-808 re-issue, depending on the decibels needed for my space.

The Ibanez has a more transparent sound than the Big-Daddy, so it's better for other uses on my pedalboard. It's all experiment, but I prefer to think logically about it, so it stays for now.

It doesn't sound anything like a fuzz face in my book.

No issues. Attractive design.

No failures.

Besides my Wah, it's the only pedal I'd sell.

But Gear Aquisition Strategy...is part of the fun anywayz.

My 4 Real blooZ.

GAS

It's an ok pedal for the money. I paid $20 for it, second hand, which is about as much as I'd consider paying for this pedal. The 5 controls take a short while to get adjusted to but it's easy to get a fairly decent tone out of it.

Is this an overdrive? A distortion? A fuzz? I just can't figure it out. It seems like a cross between all three. When the gain setting is all the way down, it's quite irritating to use, there's just a hint of the signal breaking up, but no way like a true tube amp, it's like a little transistor farting. Gain between 9 o'clock and 1 o'clock is ok, anything above that and the pedal sounds like a high pitched trebly farty fuzz.

Maybe it's ok for some zz-top or some old ac-dc, but useless for anything else.

Dunno. The sockets are plastic, but the body seems to be armor plated. I'm more worried about the sockets though. Why couldn't they have spent a little more money and given us steel sockets?

Never needed any.

Well it feels solid, but the sound leaves a lot to be desired. I would look elsewhere. The boss sd-1 is a great starting point.

Takes time to find the right setting's for your amp/amp's and the mid knob in the center should be left in the middle.

I have many distortion /overdrive pedals.But this pedal really supprized me.It has a great smooth sounding dist sound thats not over the top and great for chording.Black crow's style and Bad Company sound with just the right amount of buzz.Not powerfull enough for solo's but i beleive people should have two overdrive pedals in their chain anyway.Here is an example of my setting's

volume @ 2 o'clock
bass @ 3 o'clock
Mid @ 11 o'clock
treb @ 2 o'clock
o'drive @11:30 or knob position pointed right at the "o" in O.Drive.

This is not a death metal pedal or dimebag derryl sounding.

Insted it is smooth and can give you fuller bass response than allot of other more expensive models.Not noisy at all.

Solid built well and looks great!.

N/a.

I have about 10 diff dist pedals and out of the lot i only use two.
My Daddy o and an OCD fulltone for thicker drive and for solo's.

I use it with a Marshall 2204 and 4 12 marshall cab.
Fender strats,gibson SG and les paul pro 1976.

for the money this is a real value and should be part of anyone's arsenal.

I use a custom tele or washburn hb35>this beast>dano fish n chips>dt-10>music man 212-hd 130>ashdown 4x10 bass cab. Sound is amazing, especially with extra eq. Set treble to 10, bass to 10, mid to zero, gain to full and you're laughing. it's great for don caballero riffage (funnily enough). A very stylised distortion/overdrive hybrid. doesnt growl at all, it's very smooth but with a big bite to it.

solid as a rock

n/a

it's good enough for ian williams & it's good enough for me.