Danelectro DD-1 Fab Tone Effects Pedal

I've had one of these for about 5 years now, and I'm still not quite certain if I like it or not. This pedal is not versatile at all, but it is capable of producing a few good sounds. By the looks of this you would think this was a nice, sweet overdrive or a 60's fuzz, but it's not that at all. The best way I can describe it's tone is somewhere between Nirvana, Metallica(with the right guitar with the right humbuckers), early Ted Nugent, with a bit of a Satisfaction type fuzz somewhere. Very odd little pedal, but unique and has its uses. However, it's extremely tough to get a good sound out of it. You've really got to have the patience to sit and fiddle with this thing for hours.And occasionally everything COMPLETELY changes, and you've got to spend another several hours to find that sound again. Also, there is no way to set the distortion level. It's all out gain all the time. Not good if you're wanting a subtle overdrive or just a bit of dirt. And it will affect your clean tone. Robs it of some volume and makes it kinda flat sounding. One other thing to keep in mind is that this thing is picky about which amps it will sound good with, and in my experience those are all tube amps. If you've got a solid state amp, look elsewhere. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY!!! Also, the plastic jacks on this thing positively SUCK. Eventually they will screw up, and you've got to spend a couple of minutes positioning this thing JUST RIGHT to get it work without annoying buzzes. But you can get these things for practically nothing elsewhere if you look, so if you like what this thing does, you can easily buy a couple to have a backup.

I bought this pedal back in 1999. Recently I dusted it off and started using it again. I absolutely love it. Gives me a crisp, distorted metal tone. There are fancier, newer pedals out there, but this one has more than met my needs.

I got this pedal as a Christmas gift some 6 years ago, and it was used then. I give it 5/5 for durability, still looks good and works properly. It isn't the most versatile pedal out there, but for the sticker price it works. I will say that I liked the tone it gave when I had a solid state amp. Now that I upgraded to an all tube amp, it doesn't sound the same. But, it does still sound good. It has a way hotter sound through the tubes, all in all I love it, and even after my new Boss MT-2 arrives and gets plugged in, I will find room for the Fab Tone, it still works, why get rid of it. It will just give me that old fashioned Metallica sound from Kill'em All.Be sure to get the plug in adapter to save the 9 volters.

I bought this pedal over 12 years ago (back when these were really cheap from GC) and still love it. The tone is great for metal....in fact, it's hard to make it sound like anything other than metal. The mids are very attenuated and you can really crank up the bass, treble, and fab (distortion) knobs to get some screaming Metallica tones. Overall, it's a fun pedal, but it's not something I use all the time.

I bought this pedal about 3 years ago at a music shop that was going out of business. Im glad I did because it is a great pedal. You cannot change the sounds too much with it but for the most part it has a great tone. It has held up well and still looks like it did the day I bought it.

I've been using this pedal for the last 6 or 7 years and havent needed anythign else for distortion. The name "fab tome" is kind of misleading in that its more of a modern sounding distortion, but man, this thing will put out some serious noise, i love it!

I bought one of these and Daddy-O when they first came out in the mid-90's. The look was novel, but didn't care much for the bulkiness. 1" smaller would have been better, but it was making a statement. Looked like a cadillac. I was giddy when I bought the two cadillacs, especially the bombastic Fab Tone. Shortly later, into the closet.Couldn't find a use for it. Had my Distortion+(instead of Proco Rat), My Soul Bender, instead of Tone Bender, now have a Brit Bender. And several others.The Fab Tone is unique. Its a juicer. You want a normal distortion sound, turn the treb and bass to 9 o'clock or less and the gain down a little. But thats not what this pedal does. Essentially, you turn up the bass and treb to 12 o'clock or more and the gain to max and it acts a mid-scoop but clearly on the input side unlike other pedals. I knew the theory of this thing and dusted it off the other day. Did what I said, bass/treb at 12 straight up, gain maxed, and level the same as when the pedal is off. I was giddy again and my wife was laughing, because I sounded like Randy Rhodes but a tad more hardcore.I'm an old geezer, and I ADDED this to my BOARD. People are going to laugh when they see this grey-haired geezer playing the metal.From experience this is not like other metal pedals, although its probably a poor man's Maxon SM-9. Don't know, Don't care. Its just really fun!

Keep in mind, this is not the sort of pedal you want to use all the time. It is not your standby to produce your general distorted guitar sounds. This thing is absolutely insane, over the top, fuzzy, velcro-like distortion. It has a very specific sound and should be used carefully. All in all, it is one of my favorites. the band Mogwai swears by this pedal. Listen to the song Rano Pano for a good example of how it sounds.