Danelectro DW-1 Dan-O-Wah

Okay, nothing very complicated. I thought the button arrangements are akward tho.

I use several Dano pedals (coolcat, tuner, danecho), so I am not a danelectro basher. I was really disappointed with this pedal. The Wah functions are useable(although why you need six of them is beyond me). The octave function, however, didn't seem to work at all. The distortion was HORRIBLE (WAY TOO much gain/volume). In fact it was so bad, I figured it must be defective, so I sent it back, and they sent me a brand new one. Everything sounded exactly the same. So, in the end, the only useable part of the pedal is the 6 wah functions. But, that's overkill. I dug my Crybaby back out of the closet, and retired the dano-wah, it is going to ebay (although I feel a little guilty about pawning this off on anybody, even though it is basically brand new).

Danelectro generally makes pretty solid stuff (although I have returned a couple of pedals).

TEN plus. Everytime I've had a problem/returned anything to them, they've sent me a new replacement, it doesn't get any better than that!

Blues/Classic (60s/70s)rock. I was pretty much unimpressed with the wah functions, and hated the distortion and WEAK octave function. I wanted to like it, but I don't. If it was stolen, I wouldn't care, and certainly wouldn't buy another one.

Brilliant pedal took me about 2 minutes to set up only problem was the diagram on the back eing the wrong way round. Manual you don't really need.

Out of the 6 different wahs I only use 2, the 1st on each side these give me a full tone on oen side and a cool more trebly wah on the other sounds great. The octave switches seem to do very little. Te distortion on its own is terribel for normal use and lowers the volume but it can be put to interesting use in certain situation. The distortion and wah works well in songs like Ash - Lose Control and can give you the noise at the end of the best song ever written, Feeder - Just A Day..just make sure you use the wah 1 on the right hand side. I can get several Feeder sounds works well for Turn (I made a very cool wah version using this pedal), Just A Day bridge, Nurofen, High, Cement etc. Works well with pretty much anything I play actually. Only real problem is that the louder the amp goes the less you seem to be able to hear the disortion not sure if thats jsut my amp though, probably is.

Actually yes. I orignally thought I wouldn't be able to, but it is actually quite sturdy. I would use without backup.

Havent dealt with

Works brilliantly with all my rock, punk, funk and metal needs. I love everythin abotu this pedal. I tried this and a crybaby in the shop and the dano-wah absolutely beat the cry-baby's ass. Seriously this pedal gets a lot of bad press, this in turn means that people who buy it try to see flaws in it however I've stopeed trying, there aren;t any for my needs. I've had people who heard me play it sed thats cool i want one, then read reviews and sed 'Oh thats shit, it's not even as good as the crybaby.' It might not be for soem people's needs I suppose but I personalyl find the cry-baby incredibly boring and crappy...Try this before you dismiss it. This definately helps me a lot.

Just plug in and play. I was impressed with the lack of extra wires and stuff that you usually get with the novelty-style items. However, the diagram underneath the pedal has the input/output jacks round the wrong way. But that wasnt too bad and easy enough to work out and fix.

I'm using a squier strat and a crate vintage valve amp. It gives off a bit too much static without the octave distortion on. But that isnt too much of a problem. Also, there is a massive increase in volume when you put wah on with distortion. But when all said and done (and the battery is charged) it gives great wah.

A lot of people have said the dan-o-wah isn't as sturdy as a cry-baby but i cant agree with that. The dan-o-wah is sturdy enough and i dont know how people could break them, unless they were actually smashing their guitars on stage and it got in the way...
i wouldnt back it up live...

n/a

ive got to go i have no time to do this one!

I think that this was fairly easy to use...

I have two opinions on this pedal. I give the distortion a 10. It has a great crunch for your metal rythm. But for the wah...tisk,tisk...The sound with the wah was the worst I ever heard. It sounded fine when I got it, but now all I hear is static and an annoying radio. I did buy the zero hum but it didn't take care of the problem. Trust me, try a cry baby, they are built like a tank and they sound great.

Oh by the way... The octive switch doesn't even work. All it does is give you a high pitched, twangy sound. Just awlful

ARE YOU KIDDING!!!!!!??????

I have never dealt with a worse company. I emailed them like last month and I still haven't got a reply yet.

The only thing I bought this pedal for is cause of the distortion and nothing else. This wah wah pedal should have been a distortion pedal instead. What a P.O.S!!!

First, let me begin by pointing out that I am NOT one of Danelectro's universal detractors. Dano may not produce the most robust, stage-worthy equipment in the world, but they do make some fun effects that are reasonably priced. The Dan-O-Wah, unfortunately, has some serious flaws. While it seems like a flexible unit, the multitude of push-buttons (four on each side and two on the top) and lights make this unit anything but simple. No, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out but you won't be making selections on the fly either. More is not always better as the Dan-O-Wah proves. Besides, what's up with the cheesy styling???

If you could live with the multitude of buttons, lights, and the cheese factor, here's where it all falls apart for the Dan-O-Wah. I owned this unit for less than four hours and that was too long. I ran the unit straight into a Marshall valvestate VS65R using a Fender Hot Rodded American Series Fat Strat Texas Special. The two octavers are weak enough not to even merit comment. Of the six wah effects, four are tinny and poorly balanced and two are muddy. Overall, the sound is extremely disappointing ... harsh would be a kind description. The built in distortion effect is completely unusable with a GREAT deal of noise and far, far, far too much gain. I returned the unit for a simple Vox wah pedal and the difference is night and day. Do yourself a favor and pass on this one.

As I stated above, I didn't own this unit long but I can't believe an all-plastic unit with its multitude of buttons would hold up well to regular use. Has a definite "toy" feel.

No experience with Danelectro's support.

I've been around music most of my life but would classify myself as an intermediate player with respect to the guitar. My interests range from Blues and Jazz to Rock and Pop but I can't see anywhere the Dan-O-Wah would fit. If you're in the market for a Wah unit there seem to be several excellent ones out there in the $70 - $100 range ... the Dan-O-Wah is not one of them. If you're still curious I encourage you to sit down in your favorite music store and compare it side by side to some of the older standards (Vox, Dunlop). I think you'll be glad you did.

It takes a while in order to get used to it (where to plug in, which buttons do what, etc) but fortunately, there's the back "tail-lights" which turn on when the input jack has something in it (thus, if you get it backwards, you can instantly know if you're paying attention). The side buttons are easy to bash. Also, sometimes when turning off the wah, I've hit the "distortion" (fuzz, really) as well. It doesn't help anything that the diagram on the back is as shown from the top.

Chain: el Degas strat clone with humbucker bridge -> wah -> Yamaha distortion -> amp
With this setup, sometimes with lots of attack, I get a bit of distortion happening, but I'm not sure of the source.
The pedal itself has six wah sounds, two of which sound nearly identical. The fuzz is really fuzzy, but for some things its better to use that than my distortion. *Never* turn the wah on while using the distortion - at toe position the distortion gain is through the roof. (I wish there were a control for it) The octave is more an octave "shift" thing where it cuts out essentially all the bass, but only when fuzz is used.

It is made out of plastic, so that's a bit scary, but I would gig with it (I've used it at my church before, playing "Heart of the Matter" by Don Henley) but don't be overly rough with it.

Never had to deal with them.

A good wah (6 really) with some rudimentary fuzz/octave shift fuzz added in. Can sound as good as a crybaby or a morley. Good value - 6 for the price of 2. Mostly retro-ish wah sounds, but sounds good patched into my distortion. The distortion on the wah is wired dist-wah, so it has a different sound to it, but there needs to be a volume select as there is only one volume level for the fuzz, no matter what you have on your guitar (read: really really loud).

a no brainer, intuitive controls.

60's sounds are happening, but does not hold a candle to my Teese RMC-PW. The fuzz/octave thing sounds like diarrhea...just dreadful. Also this thing looks ridiculous as well.

I would not even think of taking this on stage...period. The plastic does not inspire confidence. I'm giving it to my nephew.

Dano is a good company, they promptly replaced a defective pedal for me in the past.

Dano, make a professional for adults.This gimmicky stuff does not flush with some people.

this thing is easy to use, after you figure out the diagram on the bottom of the box is backwords. but it really is easy to use

ok if you have any question why i give this a 1, play this wah (which goes for $79) go play a crybaby which is the same price and listen to the difference. horrible horrible sound.

yeah i love it when the whole thing is made out of plastic

seriously screw all the different wah's just get a good wah you like dont try to cover all your angles with buying this. it really is this bad

Using this pedal is quite easy, the only problem with setting it up is from time to time I get the input and output mixed up but thats no big deal. The little buttons on the side get a bit annoying and every time I go to use it I feel as if its going to break. Obviusly the cast iron cry baby dosen't ever feel this way but never the less if you just skim over the manual or look at the diagram on the bottom youll figure it out quite easily. Plus I just cant get over the look and features on it. All and all for a little over $80 its a good deal.

First off I'd like to say that I have only been playing guitar for about a year and a half. So I guess you could say i'm still a beginer. Therefore when I went to look for wah pedals I wasn't looking for studio quality sound, I was just looking for something to play around with with as many features as possible. I love the fuzz box sound but I wish you could control the level of distortion. The octaving is cool but a little bit weak. Like I said i'm just a begginer and right now im using my 15 watt peavey rage 158 with this. One thing I like to do is switch on the built in distortion on my amp then play with the clean wah wah sound. It gives me alot more control that way. It has a good hendrix sound and with the 70's controls you can realy make it sound like 70's porn music, which is kind of fun to play around with.

'

This is mostly for me just a fun pedal to play around with. The other day one of my friends came over and walked in on me in an afro wig and a high color plaid shirt with a leather jacket over one shoulder playing a porno kind of riff.(bow wow woka woka) so thats the kind of things I do with it. My favorite thing definetly about It is its styling I can honestly say I have never seen a pedal that had light up tail lights and looked like a car thats whats cool. I normaly stick to the clasic rock like skynard, AC/DC(It's fun to play Back In Black with wah) , Van Halen that kind of stuff but I play songs from just about every genre. I also own the Zoom 505 II which is prety good. If it got broke or stolen first I'd find the guy that did it and kick his ass then, yeah I'd buy a new one.I dont realy know how good or bad this pedal would be for the advanced player and I realy dont care. Right now in this stage of my guitar playing carreer its suits me pretty well!

Relatively easy. The "instructions" on the back of the pedal are backwards for the jacks. The switches on the side can be kicked and you may end up with the octaver "on" when you don't want it, and I don't.

There are two patches on there that I use on a regular basis. One of them is very much Voodoo Chile with some extra bass. The other one is a middy version of "Shaft"--very clicky but fatter than trebly. The other options may have their applications, but I don't use them. I don't use the distortion, either. It sucks. Too much fuzz, don't even think to turn on the wah with it. The octaver is pretty weak as well.

For the tones that I use, they have great sweep ranges. In mid sweep, they let me really vary my tone and while it's hard to lock in on one setting, I just rock the sucker.

The wah switches are a little sensitive, and the bank and fuzz switches can be turned on a little too easily. It is sturdy, though, and since I run a 9V adaptor, I don't worry about batteries.

Great pedal overall, except for the useless settings. I'd get another one if it were stolen but it won't ever replace a Crybaby.