Danelectro DO-1 Daddy-O Overdrive

The small knobs aren't the easiest if you need to reach down and tweak them during a gig. If you get a sound you like, though, no big.

For a fairly inexpensive pedal, I've found it to be pretty quiet and quite stable. I've used it with a Marshall Vs100, Blues Junior, and Traynor YCV-50 with my Jazzmaster, Jagmaster, and Teles. It gets some pretty decent sounds, but I'd like to be able to use it to punch up the volume more and use the overdrive and tone settings to add a touch of overdrive and warmth. It just doesn't punch up the volume the way I'd like.

Nice rugged construction ... I don't worry about this thing falling apart. It has space for a second battery .... damn, is that a great idea or what?!

Decent sounding pedal ... just doesn't have an incredible amount of flexibility with the sounds it gets. Stageworthy rugged construction and stability.

great with 3 tone knobs a lot of flexibility . i set it to my taste and forget it. . . control of the mids is always important

I use it with various amplifiers fenders / roland whatever. I think it will as reported sound very different with diff amps, so Daddy-O> Boss CE-3>BossDD-3>BossRV-3> behringer GDI amp sim/driver. Im really happy now after trying a lots of distortion/OD pedals. in combination with the behringer on a clean boogie setting, my strat Rocks on any amp..with a lot of headroom with the volume pot. try it you'll like it. it has a kinda weak drive, but thats why it retains some real guitar tone. with the driver at the end of the chain though its screaming, with a "thwump". i want a crunchy jangle and i get it. other pedals are too metal, or like a ds-1 or rat, too little attack and dynamics for me.

well 2 of the knobs are a little loose, i think maybe if you stomp on the knobs you could damage it...doh
plastic input/output jacks i aint worried

n/a

I play punk/post punk/ grungey rock. its perfect i love a crushing sound but with definition. this box is special i think. in no way fake or prcessed sounding at lower drive levels.It can sound like early zeppelin w0w. I wish i had an awesome tube amp to try it with , but my fx setup with various (crappy) SS house-amps is really hot IMO. been playing 25 years so i get that its about the combination of gear in the chain and amplifier. daddy-o may match your amp or not.. try n buy.
oh its a little noisy cause i play single coil strats.

well reading the reviews here helped me find it, so i wanted to share my sucess. after many sleepless nights wondering what to do with my fx chain. now i can rest... its a solid box -o- Tone!(but not too much..)

it takes a while to get the tone you want out of it but thats only cos its so versatile

im not gonna give it shit for hissing cos its impossible to not have it without a noise gate which only really sound good if your playing really clean distortion metal. the gains pretty crap for anything smooth when turned up anymore then just over halfway, on full it does sound very good for really dirty punk. it does seem best suited to more mild distortion but not quite mild enough for blues in my opinion, depedns what you kinda thing is. the EQ is awesome on this pedal, the treble isnt too harsh when the drive isnt up loads, the bass makes it REALLY full sounding and the mids are proper hollow.

i think its best suited to rythm, based on the deep crunch you can get out of it, ive only tried it with single coil guitars so far but it doesnt really seem like the kind of thing that would suit gibsons and the like, very nice with fenders though and (surprisingly) danelectros

my rythm guitarist uses mine for my surf/punk band and i couldnt ask for a better sound to back tinny reverb heavy lead surf guitar

as everyone else said the amp ytou put it through REALLY makes a difference

the metals solid as fuck itself, mines 2nd hand and really chipped so it looks like its been through some nasty gigging (id presume so anyway it came with velcro on the bottom) my mate managed to break the battery cover though the first time he touched it but i dont think any pedal with that kind of design has one thats particuarly robust. never had a problem with the electrics

never delt with them in any serious way, was a right arse to find the number (its not on the site) but after looking at a review of the 56pro that was linked from their site i managed to find a distrabution number and they were very friendly and helpful

this is easily one of the best overdrives ive ever played on, really really good for punk, surf (dont try using it for lead though), rock and heavier kinda blues. absolute bargin if you find a second hand one. the distortion counterpart (fab tone) is also very nice although you cant change the level of distortion only the "fab" level which is like some sustain or dpeth or something, very nice for metal, heavy rock, grunge or anything under then sun that heavy and dirty

easy

this pedal sounds very very sweet. but just like any overdrive/distortion/fuzz stompbox, there are certain things that you should keep in mind as a general rule of thumb. for instance, i have an overdrive (this one, and i used to have a ts-9 dx turbo tube screamer which was sweet as well), a fuzz (sabine fuzzstortion) and a distortion (boss ds-1) pedal. you have to know first what you desire. as for this daddy-o overdrive, it is very dependent on the gear you have and the style that you play. if you are playing a classic rock style (i.e. tom petty and the heartbreakers, hendrix, the who style) this pedal is up that sort of alley (even though hendrix and townshend both used fuzz boxes, this pedal really covers a broad spectrum.) i'm using a very, very simple setup of either a 1968 Gibson SG Special (w/p-90's) or a 1972 Reissue Fender Telecaster Thinline (w/ '57 classic humbuckers). my amps are all old fender (or fender-style) tube amps, i.e. 1972 Fender Pro Reverb, 1974 Fender Dual Showman (one of the sweetest things i've ever heard) and a 1969 Alamo Paragan bass amp. Each of those amps and guitars are straight away sweet, simple sounding pieces of machinery. in that context this pedal sounds like a tube screamer but with the option of adding more bite (i.e. a proco rat). i've had a tube screamer and loved it, and this is right there with it. so, i said all that to say this, as with most danelectro pedals, if you're using them as they were intended and you have the right gear, this pedal will blow you away and has a pretty sweet price tag (i got it used by trading in an mxr dyna-comp). this is not for metal or punk, it is certainly for those who are wanted a classic overdrive with the option of more bite.

this provides some great tonal options if you want either a boost, an overdrive, or dirty rhythm. i'm pretty sure mike campbell from tom petty and the heartbreakers uses this and that's exactly what it's perfect for. you should definitely try it out with your gear before you make any decisions as it is very gear-dependent. with that said, if you know you want a sweet overdrive, then this is a good, inexpensive way to go. if you want a tube screamer, but would rather pocket an extra fifty dollars, then this is certainly a good call.

Easy to use!
You can dial it in very quick.

Good tone, works well for a solo pedal. Boost the Mid to 3/4, Bass at 1/2, Treble at 1/2, Volume on Full, Drive at 1/2 & you have yourself a nice pedal for solo's Live.
It is a bit noisy, but every distortion/overdrive ever made is noisy.

Sounds good & you can get the tone to cut through.
These are similar to the Marshall Governor pedals.

There isn't much that separates this pedal from any Boutique pedal I've ever owned. Don't waste your money on high $ priced crap.

The pots are plastic. Whatever, I paid $17 for this pedal.

I use it at rehearsal, I have another set-up for live shows.

?
No idea!

These are great pedals for the price, you'll find them on Ebay for about $25 w/shipping. It's nice to have EQ that works. Is it the best overdrive pedal on the planet, hell know. You can waste a bunch of money on a Tubescreamer, Blues Driver or Fulltone pedal, or you can pick up one of these for a solo/boost pedal, beat it to death & not worry about it. Anyone that says they have a Distortion/Overdrive pedal that isn't noisy has their head up their bum. It's the nature of what these pedals do, "Create Noise". The greatest overdrive pedal in ever made is the DOD 250 Preamp (even it is noisy). If this one bites the dust maybe I'll try one of the new Danelectro pedals, they go for about $20 new.
I hate to say it, but they sound good too!

The pedal has 5 controls, and it takes a little tweaking of the mid and high level controls at each gain setting to get the best possible od/distort sound, for example at low gain, you can set the treble quite high and it still sounds nice but when you crank up the gain it sounds like absolute shit with the treble high. On the whole it is ok not too difficult to get a good tone.

Well, like some others have mentioned earlier the bass, mid and treble controls need to be tweaked a lot at each gain setting to get a decent tone. With the gain on max, the treble needs to be near zero. I use this pedal with a standard MIM fender strat with single coil pups, the dano and maybe a couple of other pedals like a delay or a flanger (yucks, there are still some who use it :)!) through a laney lc15 tube amp (wonderful little amp, really)

It is pretty noisy when the gain goes high, this pedal is really a mix between a heavy overdrive and a super distortion, it's neither here nor there. I can't for the life of me get a clean smooth overdrive sound like the boss bd-2 or sd-1. It's best used with the gain below half way and the treble somewhere near 12 o'clock. Anything more and it sounds ugly and noisy, like ripping up metal sheets.

It's a half way decent distort but I'll have to give it a 5 because much of the range is unuseable unless you want screeching noise.

It seems pretty solid, the metal casing is fat and heavy, but I guess they spent all their money on the casing and forgot about everything else. I opened up the pedal to put in a battery and happened to look at the PCB. It intrigued me, so I opened up the whole pedal. The soldering on the PCB seems pretty amateur. There are solder streaks and marks all over the PCB, I've never seen anything as shoddy in a Boss pedal.

The sockets, potentiometers, controls, etc are all cheap plastic and god knows when they will decide to die on me in the middle of an important gig. I'd be much happier if they'd just spent that extra couple of bucks in getting metal connectors and pots. I'd gladly pay $10 more for that, though I'm sure it won't cost that much when these are mass produced.

Hmmm... I don't know. I really wouldn't gig without a backup. It hasn't died on me yet, but it really doesn't inspire confidence like my solid metal boss pedals.

Not used them yet.

I play jazz rock, and a little heavy rock, but this pedal doesn't cut it for the kind of music I play. For jazz rock, the pedal is just too noisy, it doesn't give me the smooth and clean overdrive tones like other real overdrive pedals, and for heavy rock, it is just too harsh at high gain settings. I think I made a mistake in buying this. I guess the only kinds of music it is good for are stuff like ZZ-top,kiss, etc. If this were stolen, I'd be a very happy man. In fact I'm probably going to replace this with two other pedals, a true overdrive and a distort or metal zone.

There are 5 controls so it takes a little bit of tweaking before you get the right tone to suit your guitar, amp and music style. The manual was practically useless, and the website is absolutely useless. It takes a bit of playing around to get familiar with it.

The sound quality is very good with the drive setting between min and 11 o'clock, and if I use a level booster or compressor before the daddy-o, I can get nice tones between min and 10 o'clock.

I have never been able to get a decent sounding distortion or overdrive tone with the gain set high. It sounds buzzy and harsh. It's not a fuzz, it's not an overdrive, it's not a metal unit, it's something like a distortion but with a bit more bite.

You *can* clean up and mellow down the tone a tad if you hook it up after a compressor and send it through a chorus, it doesn't sound so buzzy and harsh.

I am not sure why people have rated this pedal so highly. If I need a mild crunch or bluesy overdrive to rock distortion, the boss bd-2 and sd-1 beat this feller hands down, if I want shred metal or thrash the boss MT-2 is the king.

I've replaced the op-amp (a TL072) with a TLC272 and it sort of mellowed down and cleaned up the tone a tad, and I also replaced the clipping diodes with germaniums which make it sound a little better. Yet, the pedal is only useable with the distortion between min and 10 o'clock, anything higher and it's harsh and buzzy.

Not sure how reliable this is, compared to a boss. The pots are plastic, the input and output jacks are plastic. The body seems much more solid than a boss, but I'm more worried about the plastic components. It's never broken on me, but still, I'd be happier with a backup.

Never called them.

I got this second hand for 25 bux. I'd probably not buy one new, it's a nice pedal to play with for a while, but it lacks versatility. Yes you can drive the gain all the way to max but it is unplayable at those settings. The other pedals I've tried together with this are the boss SD-1, DS-1, BD-2 and the MT-2 metal zone. This is probably a decent first pedal for someone wanting an overdrive on the cheap.

It's plenty easy to get a good sound out of it once you stop thinking that it 'an overdrive' pedal. It isn't contrary to the name that Danelectro gave it. It's kind of in-between an OD and a distortion pedal.

Here's the chain it's run through. Fender USA Strat with prototype Lace Sensors -> Crybaby 535Q -> Daddy-O -> Phase 90 -> Marshall Supervibe -> Boss DD-5 delay -> Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10.
Leaving the overdrive setting low to try and impart a slightly overdriven tone to your amp won't happen. It just gives you a crappy buzzy tone. BUT... If you crank the OD knob up you get this cool slightly fuzzy distortion. Fiddling with the knobs I could get Steely Dan, Tom Petty (Breakdown, I Need to Know), Clapton (Crossroads), and others just changing the tone knobs on the pedal or changing pickup positions. I really think where Danelectro went wrong was giving this the wrong name. It gave everyone the wrong impression of what the pedal was supposed to do.

Built like a tank. Think Boss only cooler looking. Doesn't look like the 'same thing same place' kinda pedals they put out. If I gigged anymore I would gig without a backup.

Never dealt with the company.

I've been playing off and on for 30 years. Play mostly classic rock, jam band rock, and blues. I love this pedal. You will to if you can get past accepting the pedal for what it is and not what the name would imply.

Ease of use--It isn't as easy as a regular ol' TS9 or Boss DS1, but it's not complicated, either. The eq knobs are sensitive, but if you're not heavy-handed in your tweaking, it won't matter. Good manual (I played with their recommended settings just for fun and as a starting point, but ended up just relying on my ears in the end).

I play guitar/slide guitar/harp (harmonica to all you non-blues guys)/vocals in a Texas Roadhouse band called the SCREAMIN' ARMADILLOS. (Blues+Classic Rock+Outlaw Country=Texas Roadhouse). We play 75% original songs, but will occasionally attack an old favorite of ours. Someone described us as the Fabulous Thunderbirds and ZZ Top going on tour with Waylon Jennings.

Setup:
Harps: Various Lee Oskar and Hohners played through a vintage 1940's Astatic S200 microphone. (I run my harps through my effects.)
Guitars: 62RI Stratocaster, Vintage-styled Tele (converted into an Esquire), G&L F-100, Danelectro DC3.
Effects: 70's MXR Phase 90, Ibanez TS9, Crybaby Wah, Jim Dunlop Jimi Hendrix JH2S Classic Fuzz, Boss DS1, Daddy-O, DOD FX40B EQ, Rocktron Hush; all mounted on a Furman SPB8 pedalboard
Amps: 63RI Fender Vibroverb (Brownface w/2 10" speakers) and/or Line 6 Pod (plugged into the PA system).

I have a variety of overdrives and distortions because I play a large range of music within my band. I'm the fill-in-the-blanks guy who will put the finishing touches on the various songs, so I have to have versitility. I also like to mix-n-match effects for various textures within a song/performance.

The Daddy-O is great by itself or in use with other distortions/overdrives or modulation effects (Wah or Phase 90). I like the "more than an overdrive but not buzzy like a fuzz" grit and grind you can dial into this little box. It can be thick, thin, scooped or pumped on its tone--just start tweakin' 'til you're happy.
When I blend the Daddy-O with the Jimi Hendrix Classic Fuzz, there's a definite Billy Gibbons-like crank and squank, with some of those almost-out-of-control harmonics poppin' up here and there. (I see that as a good thing!)
There can be some SRV in there if you dial it right, but I don't do that--there are too many imitators of that great man; he needs to be left alone.

One thing I have noticed about this pedal is how it reacts very differently with various amps. My metal-head friend used it with his Les Paul/Mesa Boogie setup and it made some very good metal/rhythm tones. I played it through a friend's Hot Rod DeVille and I was not as impressed with the sound, and it sounded VERY different (not bad, just different) in use with another friend's 60-watt Marshall half-stack (I don't know which model), so try it out with your own rig before you judge too quickly.

It's not too noisy, but when if it starts getting hissy I just step on my Rocktron Hush.

I've gigged with this since my wife bought it (7 or 8 years ago?) for our wedding anniversary--never had a problem. I would use it without a backup, but with my rig, that's not a dangerous prospect.

It's built like a brick house. Be careful when you throw it at someone; just ask my first bass player's widow (just kidding).

I bought a second (used) one that was broken, but all that was needed to fix it was to replace the latching capacitor (if you push the on/off button, and it intermittently will or won't turn on, it's most likely that capacitor; this is a common problem with many kinds of pedals--not just the Danelectros. My Ibanez TS9(RI) and Soundtank TS and Phaser pedals all did the same thing). I sold the second one to a friend and he has used it constantly with no problem.

I called Danelectro about something entirely unrelated and they were very helpful; I would assume they would act the same way on all things.

See above for an explanation of my musical style.

I love this pedal.

If it were lost or stolen, I would get another one.

Fairly simple controls, considering the complex effect units available today. Five knobs. One switch.

I found it difficult to find a good, overdriven tube amp sound. The pedal seemd to color the guitars sound considerably, and I couldn't coax a subtle sound from it. It seemed more like a mild distortion than an overdrive.
I use a Strat into a Vox. Looking for a mild overdrive that could push my tone to the edge, I bought this, and it put me off all pedals for about four years (I just used my guitar's volume after that). Generic rock sounding pedal--no real character. (I have since discovered Tube Screamers, and a great, cheap alternative is DigiTech's Bad Monkey overdrive.) However, tone IS subjective, so test one.

The one good thing about these is that they are indestructible. You could destroy a Boss pedal by throwing this at it. Seriously folks, if you like this pedal--and it isn't terrible--I would recommend it for this strength.

I never dealt with Danelectro, but I bought this from Musician's Friend. When I realized that it wasn't going to cut the mustard, they took it back with no questions. I ordered a Snarling Dogs Very TOne Dog, which is like the Gibson Veri-tone circuit on ES-355s, with a boost thrown in. Not an overdrive per se, but yeilds brilliant tones nonetheless.

Not for me, but you might think it's the best (try it if you're interested). Been playing nine years. I own a workhorse strat that's been upgraded to death.