SeriesDanelectro Cool Cat

The Transparent Overdrive is a great boost and overdrive. I don't know the technology behind it but it works great. It's very straightforward to use. It has a great look, some people might not like it, but I like how it's different from the usual square box. UTILIZATION The pedal is straightforward, all the dials work well. The treble/bass control can be hard to deal with as you easily can turn both at the same time so it takes some practice. The gain control starts to add gain from about 9:00 and goes from a little edge to enough crunch for some classic rock. The volume control can give this pedal a serious punch, it has a lot of output so it works great as a boost. The on/off switch feels different than most pedals but underneath it is a standard switch that should last a long time. SOUND QUALITY I got this pedal as a beta as I was doing tests for Danelectro. It was a homerun for sure and I love the tone. I have yet to find a situation where it does not work stellar. I use it as a booster most of the time and you can use it to clear-up a darker sounding amp or to tighten up an amp with a loose low end. It delivers in every situation. As the name says, you can really dial this in to be extremely transparent to your base tone. The tone controls work really well. With them set at 12:00 you get a bit of TS-style mid-boost but with the use of low and high, you can even out the sound of the pedal. When I use it as a boost, I run the treble a bit higher so it cuts through the mix nicely. Works like a charm. OVERALL OPINION Killer pedal, I use it a lot. I know that it was discovered to be a copy of a well-known pedal which is a big no-no and Danelectro changed the Transparent Overdrive. Still, this won't stop me from enjoying it.

The Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe is a simple tremolo pedal that is suitable with any electronic instrument but designed for electric guitar. The pedal has a standard make up consisting of 1/4" connections for your input and output and will run on either a nine volt power supply or battery. The pedal isn't rack mountable... UTILIZATION You don't need to have much experience in order to use the Danelectro . It's really simple that everyone should be able to catch on pretty quickly. Like most tremolo effect pedals out there, it's got parameters for depth and speed, but this one also has a hard/soft parameter for further adjusting the tone. It's easy enough to use that a manual shouldn't be needed. SOUND QUALITY The tone of the Danelectro is actually quite good. You wouldn't know it considering the price, but it's a pretty realistic sounding pedal that can get a good amount of differing tones in one place. It's definitely best for getting that vintage, old tube amp sort of tremolo, especially if you're using it with a real tube amp. I don't own this pedal since I have a '76 Fender Twin Reverb that has this effect built in, and while I wouldn't say that the Cool Cat Vibe is as good as the tremolo on this amp, it's still good in it's on right. OVERALL OPINION The Danelectro is definitely the cheapest way to get a good sounding tremolo pedal. I'm not a huge fan of most of these cheap Danelectro pedals in general, but this one I do like a great deal. It's definitely comparable to something like the Boss TR-2 tremolo which will cost almost double the price. Unless you're going to go crazy and get a really in depth tremolo, it's definitely worth it to save a few bucks with the Danelectro Tune Melt...

The Danelectro Cool Cat Tremelo is a trem pedal with a great sound and easy to use features. Danelectro made this pedal with a metal housing, metal input and output jacks and true bypass. These are built a lot stronger than the old line of Dano pedals, not that I’ve ever had any reliability issues with those pedals either. The Cool Cat Trem runs off of 9 volt battery power or a power adapter. Dano gave these pedals a facelift and it really makes them blend in with an upscale pedalboard as opposed to the old line that looked like toys (but sounded great) Mono input and mono output on this pedal and a Depth knob, Rate knob, and a knob to go from “Hard” to “Soft” tremolo. It would have been nice to have a tap tempo feature or a LED that blinks to the rate of the tremolo, and maybe some other waveform settings, but for the price of the pedal those are ridiculous requests. I’ll stick with the pedal being basic and inexpensive, while sounding great. UTILIZATION The knobs are located on the end of the pedal, which make it kind of hard to change on the fly during a gig setting, but not impossible. All the other pedals in this Cool Cat line have the knobs in the same place which doesn’t bother me. I kind of wish the knobs were located on the top of this pedal so I could tweak them easier during shows, but it’s not a deal breaker by any means. Squeezing the input and output jack, power jack, and three knobs in one space makes it kind of awkwardly packaged, but I’m sure this was to save on production and I’d rather see this than a spike in the price or the quality of components used. The pedal functions well in front of an amp, but I use mine in the effects loop for a more pronounced sound. SOUND QUALITY The sounds coming out of this little pedal are great. You can get all the classic trem sounds between the hard and soft settings. Put it on “Soft” and you have that tube amp with built in tremolo type of wave going on, very smooth sounding. It’s great for clean sounds to add a little energy. With the pedal on “Hard” you get a very choppy, helicopter- type stuttering sound. It can be very dramatic if set for a heavy depth and medium rate with distortion. The pedal does not change your bypassed tone when disengaged because it is true bypassed and there is neither a large boost nor a loss of volume when turned on. Nothing is lost by having this in your signal chain and only a great sounding trem is gained. OVERALL OPINION Overall this is a super tremolo pedal at any cost, but at this price it is just unbelievable. If basic tremolo sounds are all you need this is the pedal to get. It is sturdy and reliable and sounds great with every amp and guitar I’ve used with it. The only reason I’d spring for a more expensive trem pedal would be if I found the need to use tap tempo or if I needed more waveform options. This is an inexpensive, great sounding, basic trem.

The Danelectro CO-1 Drive is a gain pedal rumored to be a clone of the Fulltone Obecessive Compulsive Drive (OCD) Unlike the “Food” series of pedals from Danelectro this pedal has a metal housing, metal input and output jacks and is true bypass. These are great upgrades without putting the price through the roof. The CO-1 runs off of 9 volt battery power or a power adapter. Also these pedals have a new look and the design is much more professional looking. Mono input and mono output, a knob to adjust the gain, volume and a tone knob to tweak with. Simple overdrive layout, used on hundreds of pedals. UTILIZATION Much like my review for the Transparent Overdrive (TOD) from the same Danelectro line, this pedal goes great in front of a clean amp, or an already overdriven amp as a boost. The jacks are located on the top of the pedal as opposed to the sides like most pedals, which makes it a tight squeeze getting the power plug in when using a One Spot with right angle plugs. Having all this at the top of the pedal is no big deal to me because I find it’s more of a set it and forget it pedal. SOUND QUALITY The first version of this pedal is no longer available due to the fact that it was supposedly a close clone of an OCD by Fulltone. It may be a very similar circuit, but I feel the Dano is lacking. I owned both the OCD and the CO-1, and while many people were selling off their OCD’s in favor of the CO-1, I didn’t hear what they were hearing. Hands down I think the OCD beats it out, and it should, it costs more than double what the CO-1 does. This pedal has some good light distortion sounds to it, but I would much rather use the TOD for clean to light overdrive sounds. The TOD is so transparent (hence the name I guess) and the OC-1 puts a flavor on your tone. Now I’m not saying it’s a horrible change, but it makes a difference in your tone other than just adding gain. I wish Dano would have put the dual EQ knob on here like they did with the TOD as well. You can get some rocking tones out of it with the gain maxed, but it sounds at home at medium gain levels. I feel it’s a little less organic sounding and dynamic than the OCD and out of the three of these I’d put the CO-1 in third place after the OCD and TOD OVERALL OPINION Dano did a good job with this pedal, but they knocked the ball out of the park with the Transparent overdrive. If a person was looking for a pedal with more gain on tap than the TOD and didn’t want to spring for a real OCD then this would be a good place to settle. I don’t feel it lives up to the hype of being as natural sounding as the OCD, but it’s a good little drive pedal at a great price. The CO-1 is leaps and bounds ahead of several Boss distortions like the DS-1 and BD-2 in my book and true bypass to boot, which helps preserve your true tone unlike some pedals in the price range with poor buffered bypasses. A good basic drive overall and a great value.

Fuzz pedal with a big range in gain and plenty of output. 3 basic controls that shouldn't cause any problems. I assume it's an analog pedal. The look of the range might not be for everybody but I like how it is different from the norm. UTILIZATION Getting the most out of a fuzz pedal, you need to find the sweet spot for what you want and like with all fuzz-pedals, the gain and volume control have a big impact. With the gain low, you can get a sort of fuzzy od tone that works well to get more sustain and fattnes if you run it into a gain channel. With the gain flat out, there's huge gobs of sustain and distortion going on. Unlike other fuzz-pedals, the Coolcat fuzz works well with different amps and situations. It’s not a vintage correct fuzz, which is different for everybody, but just an allround, good sounding fuzz. With the gain dimed you can get that gated fuzz kinda sound, I have never been able to use it but it’s there if you want it. SOUND QUALITY I'm not a big fuzz user but I like it sometimes and the CoolCat fuzz is great fun to play with. I prefer running a fuzz into a dirty clean OR having the gain low on the fuzz pedal and run it into an od-tone to smooth things out and to get a big fat lead tone. Using it into an od-tone, you can get a wide range of tones from your volume control and that's no different with the CoolCat Fuzz. You could do an entire gig with this if you know how to work the guitar controls (everybody should know that!). Most of the time, I run it into an od pedal and then into a clean amp, this works best for me. OVERALL OPINION Big tone for big fun. Quirky looks that I like a lot and amazing tone for the money.