Danelectro DSDSD-1 Shift Daddy

Ease of use: Poor. Whoever designed this has never played a guitar standing up before, let alone live. The on/off and direction buttons are in the front of the pedal, small, and hard to activate. The other option buttons are on the sides, which makes as much sense as the other ones on front.
I'm a patient man, but I threw this to the wolves after about 7.5 minutes. I couldn't get a useful sound out of it at all.
"Like taking the notes and throwing them off a cliff", indeed.

I plugged this direct into my amp, to see exactly what it sounded like. It wasn't much. At its most extreme settings, it kind of sounds like a cat is being strangled on your strings. At lesser settings, it's hard to tell that it's doing anything.

It seems relatively solid, although I wouldn't be surprised if the treadle (pedal) broke eventually. I wouldn't use it live because I might get beat up if anyone saw it.

never tried.

I brought this back the day after I bought it, only because the store was closed by the time I got home.

The on/off switch is in a wierd spot on the top. Could be easier to get to. You have to use the heel of your foot. Pretty straight foward to use. Manual is good.

This is a truly unique sounding effect unit. I think a lot of reviewers expected something more like the Digitech Wammy Pedal (I know I did), which it is nothing like. It's more like having a tremelo bar that you operate with your foot.
I also thought it sucked at first. However, after working with it for awhile (and since I paid $100 bucks, it was worth my while to investigate this thing further), I really began to appreciate how cool this effect is. Very expressive. You can go from the subtlest tremolos, to sounding like an extremely warped cassette tape. Just imagine the kind of tremolo bar-type stuff you could do (and when) if your picking hand didn't have to stop playing in order to reach down and grab the bar. Definately not for everyone though.
I use various Gibsons through a Marshall 800 half stack, or a Peavy Classic 30 1x12 combo. I use the unit with a variety of other effects pedals too.
I have it set for 100% effect, 0% original signal, and the echo is set to slapback. There is a few milliseconds delay when I hit the strings, but not enough to bother me as I primarily use it for leads.

seems sturdy. Good quality plastic. The plastic makes it a lot lighter than simillar metal units like the Vox Wha. As long as you're not unkind to it, I'm sure it will be reliable. I would not need a backup.

Never dealt with them

I had to write this review to counter balance some of the negative ones that I felt were unwarranted.
The Shift Daddy is completely unique in what it can do. And it's versatile enough that you can create your own style of using it.
I play Classic Rock and Blues Rock . I know the Shift Daddy is made more for the Rockabilly thing, but I find it suits my music very well. I wish they made a version without the echo though.

easy

No sound quality here sorry! This thing is a dog.I am only giving it a 4 because I have been able to use one of the delays (out of four) at a certain setting. Apart from that it is a horrible effect that should never have been made. The pitchbending is the most disgustingly 'plastic' sound ever...extremely innaccurate and just simply a 'no go-zone' for me. Apart from that one delay (which i used on a 8-track recording for a total of 2 minutes) I haven't been able to find anything that doesn't completely 'cheese-up' my sound.

My 'shift daddy' still works and it is my first (and last) Danelectro pedal so I can't fault them there but it is made entirely of plastic. It has these snap-back type switches resembling the buttons on a desk fan or something...actually I saw a toy car in a store that had the same type of 'buttons' and it said 'try me' and it 4 diferent annoying sirens...Well, that pretty much sums up this pedal for me. When did what a pedal looks like become more important than the sound of the pedal? and a note to Danelectro...Cars in the 1950's weren't made of plastic! I will use this without a back-up because pedals i don't use don't need back-ups!! I would never ever go on stage with this thing.

yeah right

I don't like to classify the music i play but some might say indie or alternative (I hate those words), but all i can really say is King Buzzard of the Melvins is my biggest influence.
I've been playing about 9 years and have had numerous effects racks and pedals of all different types from guitar synths to wahs, fuzz, loopers and just about everything in between. But now I have more of a minimalistic approach to guitar using less pedals in more ways instead of the reverse. I play a USA strat or a Maton mastersound MS524 (an Australian guitar- I highly recommend) into a vintage Marshall mini-stack with a combination of various pedals in between including my favorites being my hotcake distortion (from Crowther Audio in New Zealand!...Where's that?) vox wah, z-vex seek wah, boss dd-5 and my EH small stone. If I lost or someone stole my shift daddy I wouldn't notice. I can't be bothered plugging this thing in anymore I mean, What's in it for me? Nothing...it's not even worth wasting batteries on ... I need them for my z-vex pedals because i don't have a power plate yet

i buy equipment with the intentions of using it for live performances. i would have the hardest time using this in a show.
on/off switch is in the front of the pedal and is very small. i would not be able to turn it off or on with my foot with out stumbling.

side switches are easy to use but i would be able to change settings during a song.

another reason i could not use this pedal live is it gave a LOUD pop when i could turn the pedal off or on. with a small amp this sound was hard to hear but with my marshall superlead half stack, it was horrible.

some short echoes sounded good, but i have 3 well made delays that could do the job.

the actuall pitch shifting effect was hard to make a musical sound.

all plastic?
i would never want a plastic pedal. if it doesn't get beaten up in a show, it might in my pedal case

i sent it back to the mail order catloge in a few days and was shorted $30. that's not danelectro's fault i didn't recieve a full return, but they did make sonmething i considered a waste of time.

if you're looking for a plastic noise maker, with some delay may be you'ld like this, but i couldn't find use for it. even if i did like the sounds, i couldn't use it live or on tour due to it's cheap material, and popping sounds when switched on/off (if i could find the switch)

The pedal looks weird and the controls are weird.
Pedal is designed to resemble a 50's american car.

But there are no knobs to turn, only ten buttons to press.

No noise, great slapback-echo, but the pitch sifter sucks IMHO.
Shift Daddy is not an Octaver nor a Whammy bar.
The effect is like doing a rockabilly-style bend with your Stratocaster's tremolo.

The pedal works a bit like a Crybaby.
You rock your foot and you get sounds.

When you push the treadle forwards, the pitch bends either down or up,
depending what you choose pressing a knob.
But the pitch will NOT stay down or up, like you would think the effect would do.
Machine shifts the pitch to the original very fast, and when you pump the pedal back and forth rapidly (like playing some parliament funkadelic - style licks) you get weird sounds.
yeah, they are weird, but i found no use to them.

The echo is analog, and real cute, but you can't tweak the length of the echo at all.
It is always a da-da - style rockabilly-echo.
You can adjust the amount of repeats with the buttons.


If you have a guitar with a tremolo bar (be it floyd rose, bigsby or fender original) you won't need this.

It works, but it's plastic.

They took it back when i sent it to them and paid me the money.

It looks great, it sounds bad.
I wanted a Whammy-style effect and I got a tremolobar I can use with my foot.
Oh yeah and a crappy and too fast echo/delay.
I play progressive shit.

The buttons are the pedal are easy to use. But I found getting anything resebling a musical sound out of this thing is something I still haven't mastered. At best the guitar sounded like one of those Chinese stringed instruments that slide up and down in pitch. Very odd pedal. Manual is sheet and does not really tell how to play it.

There is a very definite delay between plucking a string and getting a sound and it is more than a ew milliseconds. If you are playing alone, no problem, but with anyone else you would need to be able to play ahead of the beat. The sound is OK

It's plastic. Seems well made but I'm not sure it could handle rough wear.

Don't know.

I play blues and blues rock, so this is not the best match for my style. I thought I could do some interesting things with it, but haven't figured out how. I would definitely NOT replace it if lost or stolen. I strongly recommend anyone interested in this pedal to try it out at a music store before buying. Maybe it's just what you want.

This pedal is very easy to learn how to use, you could get a good sound out of it within an hour. The only thing I dislike is how you have to turn the pedal on. There is a button at the "hood of the car" which is fairly easy to push down, but it would be hard to push it and start using the pedal right away.

I use a J.B. Player Pro Series Strat> Dunlop Crybaby 105Q> Danelectro French Toast Octave Distortion>Danelectro Sitar simulator>Electro Harmonix Graphic Fuzz>SHIFT DADDY>Marshall AVT 150 combo.

It has a very good sound, see the first review, very accurate comments. The only thing I don't like is that there is a slight delay in the signal. Its only milliseconds, but there is a difference in timing from when you hit a string and when the noise comes out of your amp. However, this is useful for me, but some people may not like that.

This thing seems dependable. I would gig without a back up, and I would buy another one if this one was stolen/broken. For a plastic pedal it is very durable.

Danelectro has been very helpful. They answer your emails quickly. Their service is friendly and they care aobut what you have to say.

I play Grunge rock and end a lot of songs on feedback. This pedal gives me more options on ways to do that, and it is really cool on solos. I guess I wish that it didn't have the echo features. The echoes aren't bad, but I have delay pedals that do a better job. The echoes are fine on the pedal I just wish that you could turn them off when you need to. This pedal is fun to play with, it gives you usuable sounds, and it improves danelectro's reputation. good pedal.

It's a bit tricky to get the hang of, but after a few hours that shouldn't be a problem.......... It sounds really good, kind of like flanger except you have complete control over the texture of the notes. The level and echo controls are a bit silly..... They are controlled by 8 plastic buttons instead of knobs, but that might be useful if you want to try to operate them with your foot. The direction buttons are in a slightly inconvenient place, and are hard to press down. The manual is only on page long, but there is a diagram of all the buttons on the back of the pedal.

I play an Ibanez RG-7> Shift Daddy> Ibanez PH-7> Ibanez CF-7> Boss HM-2> Korg AG-1> into a medium sized Peavey amp. There isn't any noise. When you move the treadle back and forth slowly it sounds a bit like the music from "SpongeBob SquarePants." When you play it really fast but don't move the treadle very much it sounds like the intro to Korn's "Falling Away From Me." It sounds wicked with the CF-7 and distortion.

It looks really solid, and even though the treadle is made of plastic, I doubt it would break. The side buttons are plastic, but the top buttons are incredibly sturdy. I wouldn't need a backup, but even if I did I couldn't afford another one.

N/A

I play a cross between Korn and industrial, so I'm always looking for things to make my guitar sound weird. This is absolutely bizarre. If it were stolen I'd have to get another because there is nothing else like it. I wish I could hold the pitch bends, but thats not really what the pedal is supposed to do. An awesome pedal.