Danelectro CT-1 Tremolo

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.

Features / Use:
my comments are valid for all models Cool Cat I detailed in the notice.

Good build quality, report quality / price ratio.
on the other hand, ergonomics is zero
the knob at the back of the pedal must be 4 feet to see what we do.
to adjust to and then not move.
it's a shame because some Cool Cat are really versatile.

UTILIZATION

see above

SOUND QUALITY

this is the Cool Cat I liked least
lot of noise, trying in a loop can be

both effects (soft / hard) are successful
Breath damage too

OVERALL OPINION

average but cheap

Metal housing.
Switch plastic, not very practical, but it does its job.
True Bypass.
3 knobs (placed above: not super convenient): depth (depth: depth of the effect), speed (speed effect), and hard / soft (2 positions: hard cut the signal completely, in this case only the speed knob is used to something soft and natural effect =)
Analog effect.

UTILIZATION

Besides the buttons not very well located (not annoying to use, but if you want to adjust the tremolo, it is always better not mess too ... have to touch anything, because we have to do it blind otherwise.)

SOUND QUALITY

Frankly, no complaints.
Perhaps a slight coloration once engaged.
It's done its job fairly wide palette of sounds, no noticeable loss of volume.
I personally use it in front of my amp because I found it better (I'll have to redo a test).

OVERALL OPINION

For the price (price of memory: I may plant), not much to complain about. It is sturdy and sounds. The switch is not ideal (not always easy to engage, depending on the shoes you wear, especially when not wearing!), And the knobs are invisible in normal use, so better not have to touch it.

I'm not really interested in investing in a more expensive pedal, unless specific need (tap tempo, etc.)..