You're Silly If You Don't Consider It

StevieK

I think all of you looking for a great lead or mild drive tone should seriously consider a Danelectro CTO-1 instead of your Tubescreamer/SD-1 type pedals. Why? Well first because they're about to be discontinued and replaced with the CTO-2, which will use a different circuit, and because I honestly believe these things are going to become as legendary as the original TS808s are one day.

And what makes them so great you ask? Well Steve, the owner of Danelectro put up a post on thegearpage.net that admitted to borrowing components for the CTO 1s circuit from the Paul Cochrane Tim/Timmy pedals and that once the CTO1 is discontinued the CTO2 will use a different circuit from Paul Cochrane's (if you don't know these are the final say in transparent overdrives, they're all handmade one at a time by paul who has no website and can only be contacted by phone; you have to wait 8 months to get yours cause he has soo many orders).

The Paul Cochrane pedals go for $160 new and you have to get on the bottom of the waiting list, they sell for over $200 on ebay because of the extremely high demand and limited supply. The Cool Cat CTO1 sells brand new for $39 and goes on ebay for way less. So if you need a low gain transparent boost put this on your list, maybe even buy two just in case they do become legendary in a few years. 😉

Please keep in mind these are not high gain pedals, they are for pushing a tube amp thats on the verge of saturation into overdriving, this is what the true purpose of a TS808 tubescreamer is, but it has many shortcomings: mid spike, sucks bass and highend, sucks tone when not engaged, doesn't have a lot of gain or output on tap, and is really really expensive for what it is because of the hype surrounding it. Pedals like the Fulldrive, OCD, Blues Pro, Alberta, Barber LTD, HotCake are all trying to fix these problems in the original circuits. I've owned/own all the above and the Paul Cochrane Tim is still the most transparent. Now, since according to the owner of Danelectro he stole Paul's circuit, you can get the same circuit for much less then half the price.

Check it out mother####ers!

tragictravisty

what steve said. also, the cool cat drive is an ocd supposedly (i havent seen the schem, so i cant personally verify this)

by the way, the timmy is a very very simple circuit, its not like he stole some brilliant copyrighted idea. i dont think the timmy has one thing entirely original about it, its just an excellent utilization of snippets from other circuits

Blandest

I was pondering Danelecto pedals. The only thing i dislike is that they sdont seem very durable. The Coolcat is the bigger of their pedals, correct? I think the SitarSwami and those psych pedals are metal, is the Coolcat metal as well?

jacksonjackass

I find some of the behringer pedals quite cool. The super fuzz 😎 and they now do a floor based version of the V-amp 😎😎😎

Behringer FTW!

Mustang-Pete

I hear really fantastic things about the Cool Cat pedals. They have a full metal case and true bypass (apparantly)

I like the sound of this one:

Blandest

I must be thinking of the older ones. I thought they were this odd "off pink" type colour

ModNuB

I've been thinking about bringing this pedal up for about a month!!!

I can say after playing the CTO & owning an original ts808 & ts9 that the CTO is a better pedal. There is not one area in which the CTO is not better imho.

It has all the push you'd get from the ts + that little bit more for when you need it. I have been doing some "field tests" in prep for a new low watt tube amp & came across this pedal & was completely blown away! It was freakin' increadable!!! I can't say enough about it really.

The only negative thing I can even think about saying is that the knobs seemed a little akward but I didn't really care, I would have to be a major anal dillweed to not buy/want the pedal cause of this. The knobs are easy to use & totally functional just seemed like it may be a bit awkward on a dark stage but I'm not sure.

Again a major +1 for the pedal.

ModNuB

Has anyone tried this & the "drive" pedal they are making? I'm reading great reviews of it too but haven't played one.

What's the dif in tone, overdrive & over all gain?

StevieK

I believe it's a Tubescreamer clone, and supposedly the Fuzz is emulating a frantone peach fuzz.

But the CTO is the one causing all the controversy because someone at the gear page traced the CTO circuit and a timmy circuit and found they were nearly identical. Then Dano's owner Steve has put up a few posts, first saying he is investigating the issue, and then a second one saying he is going to change the circuit design in order for it not to conflict with PaulC.

So I'm not sure if the other ones are as accurate clones as the CTO is, but they may be.

GaryM

I've followed all this for months on TGP and FSB. The three Cool Cat Pedals mentioned are rough copies of the Timmy, Fulltone OCD and Frantone Peach Fuzz. Specifically, they are poor sounding copies but the frugal guitarist should enjoy them. They are true bypass. I have modified them for customers with better coupling capacitors yielding significant sonic improvement.

This "Steve from Danelectro" is a phantom poster on the various forums. He hasn't answered any question or replies that I have seen. I don't think Danelectro is going to change their designs and they are selling like hotcakes. Can someone verify the design change?

The Dano copy of the OCD lacks CMOS clippers. The Dano copy of the Timmy lacks the clipping diode selection scheme. They all use inferior coupling capacitors and surface mount components. Schematics are available on FSB.

Robbmonster

mcconnachiea said: I find some of the behringer pedals quite cool. The super fuzz 😎 and they now do a floor based version of the V-amp 😎😎😎
Behringer FTW!

Have you used the Behringer Reverb? I was gonna buy one because reverb is the only effect I want, and Behringer was by far the cheapest 😀

ModNuB

You should look into the Danelectro FAB Echo. It's a slap back kind of delay with reverb built in. I mention it cause it's on my list for my new rig. I've been looking for a reverb pedal that wouldn't break the bank and also sound at least close to the real thing but couldn't find anything. Most digital reverb sound very fake to me so I usually don't bother with reverb pedals. When I played the fab echo tho I got what I was looking for.

It's NOT a reverb and it's NOT a digital delay. It's this weird hybrid pedal that I think gives a great sound all it's own. I'm going with it over a digital reverb because at least with this I wont feel like I have a bad version of something great, I'll have a cool version of something all it's own.

You can check it out here...

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Danelectro-Fab-Slap-Echo?sku=151844&src=3WWRWXGB&ZYXSEM=0

Robbmonster

Looks good.

It's in my favourites folder now. Might get one soon, now that the Oz dollar is strengthening 😀

ModNuB

If you check out youtube there are some good reviews of it so you can hear different sounds that it can do.

Fran

I've always liked Dano pedals since they hit the stores in the 90s but its the stupid shapes that puts me off. Especially the larger models, they are not pedalboard friendly.

The Dano French toast is also an hidden gem, supposedly the same circuit as a vintage Foxtone.

jacksonjackass

Robbmonster said: Looks good.
It's in my favourites folder now. Might get one soon, now that the Oz dollar is strengthening 😀

Damn, i better order something from Aus 😕

Stuff seems way cheaper there

StevieK

GaryM said: I've followed all this for months on TGP and FSB. The three Cool Cat Pedals mentioned are rough copies of the Timmy, Fulltone OCD and Frantone Peach Fuzz. Specifically, they are poor sounding copies but the frugal guitarist should enjoy them. They are true bypass. I have modified them for customers with better coupling capacitors yielding significant sonic improvement.
This "Steve from Danelectro" is a phantom poster on the various forums. He hasn't answered any question or replies that I have seen. I don't think Danelectro is going to change their designs and they are selling like hotcakes. Can someone verify the design change?
The Dano copy of the OCD lacks CMOS clippers. The Dano copy of the Timmy lacks the clipping diode selection scheme. They all use inferior coupling capacitors and surface mount components. Schematics are available on FSB.

I don't see why everyone over there is making such a big deal. We don't see mike at fulltone or fran getting all pissy about their circuits being copied. And we definitely don't see Ibanez freaking out about EVERYONE stealing the tubescreamer circuit, nor do we see Roger Mayer freaking out about people stealing his circuits, or EHX, or even Fender, Marshall, Vox, and Boss when other companies copy their circuits.

I think because this is the only pedal Paul produces that he's afraid he cant keep up, but he has the choice to innovate and make new pedals, which I would definitely buy, I already have a Tim, or prove that he had the original design in court. Otherwise he's just spitting into the wind complaining to everyone. Yeah I own a Tim, but I just bought three of the Dano pedals brand new and still spent less then I did on one Tim.