My "champion" dirt pedal

So, I've tried many a gain pedal, Boss, Marshall, homemade, Digitech, but so far, the ONLY one that did the job as I wanted it to was... The Danelectro Daddy-O.

It is cheap, heavy, and looks funny (it's a pedal built to look like something made in the 50's but there was no such thing as a guitar pedal back then :laughing: ), and I confess: first time I saw it in a store I thought it was cr@p.

But then I tried it. Wonderful to say the least. It was th only pedal that allowed me to really scoop the bloody mids that ruin my tone, either wit a les paul or a strat.

I played this little guy through a 15 watt amp, back when I was a bedroom player, and through some huge Marshall stacks. I take it to the studio too, just fine.

http://i61.tinypic.com/11kkoex.jpg

I can get most any level of distortion I want, from a nice texas clean crunch to a metal distortion.

That's interesting. I had one when they came out, gave it away. Never had the clarity and definition I wanted. More buzz than grind, if that makes sense. I had to run my volume too high to get it to cut through the mix. I went back to my RAT with a new appreciation for it.

That said, if it works for you, use it!

Yeah, to each his own...

You see, I've tried MANY a dirt pedal.

Bought Marshall's Jackhammer and Bluesbreaker, both awfully muddy and full of mids. The ads and reviews on the Jackhammer always said you could get rid of the mids almost instantly... Well, I tried HARD and couldn't get a good tone out of it. Mids always there. Sold them without the slightest regret.

I bought a custom shop boutique pedal that is the latest sensation over here, the Fire Ultimate Distortion, every Brazilian guitarist is saying it's the eight wonder but... I am using it as a volume booster. haha.

I think the only pedal I really haven't tried yet is the RAT.

But the Daddy-O really stands its ground all right. Very good for classic rock.

Well me, I'm a distortion pedal lunatic! I've likely gone through at least 75 of 'em in the past five plus decades (note: there were none when I started playing, thus my addiction to them!) However, of all those that I've tried out, the only one that stuck was the almighty RAT. Now the humble Joyo Ultimate Drive is a keeper as well. That is one SMOKIN' pedal! My baby sis in England was in need of some real badass distortion so I sent her my Joyo UD. She loves it. Now I'm gonna have to get me another one I think. :laughing:

But I can see where you weren't too thrilled with the Marshall pedals. None I've ever tried impressed me any. Like you said, lots of mid mud.

But I think if you ever get your hands on a RAT you're gonna have one of those "moments" that cause you to leave a stain.:ha

You mean our friend from ETSG? A lovely lady who owns a brown faded SG?

Yup, she's my adopted little sister. I adopted her in the old Lakota way like I did Alex. He's my little brother ya know. So if they get messed with, then I go find the bad guy and shoot his car full of arrows while riding in circles around him!http://www.keepandshare.com/userpics...?ts=1368296488

And like our sis Anita, I also have a brown faded SG! Seems to run in the family, huh? :dude:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h1...7-12154736.jpg

Well, I haven't been adopted the lakota way myself, but that doesn't stop me from saying I'm a brother to y'all!

Hoka hey, Ranger!

P.S. An invitation to her wouldn't harm this place, would it?

I think that's a fantastic idea, brother! I'm trying to get Adrian across, but I think you already know what's happening there... :hmm:

Uh... Actually I don't. How about a PM?

I'll have to send it to your ETSG account... For some reason I can't send you one here

OK Sèrg, I hereby officially adopt you as my little brother and now have a quiver of arrows reserved in case you need some guy's car shot full of arrows! And of course that also means that if you need special guitar or amp equipment and I happen to have it, then it's yours! I'm a very traditional Lakota that way ya know. Our way is that if I have two of something and my brother has none, then by the end of the day we both have one. :smile:

And I agree that Anita would enjoy it here with the polite and genuine folks at this site. I feel truly blessed to be here. It's a nice place to be.:applaudit

Now you got me, Wade. I feel really honored, man!

For those who don't know that, I've known Old Ranger for only a couple of years, from another message board, but he's one of the best friends I have.

Great man and a very fine musician who is always eager to help (and he does help). He was one of the very few people I thanked for the help and support after I finally got into a real band.

If you allow me to say, I think this forum is lucky to have such nice folks, I already feel at home here, and Ranger will only make it even better.

Ok, enough of silk and rainbows, let's play them guitars! Yeehaw!

Hoka hey, brother!

Welcome to the family brother!

Thanks, brother!

Oh, and don't forget to invite Anita

Oh boy. Now I just hope that the nice folks here that have been with this forum for ages don't think this is a "non-hostile" take over!:wow

Ya'll will have to forgive us. We're came from another site that was rapidly becoming, well for a lack of better words, semi-infantile. And that's being polite. Site owner treated all with little respect and was getting pretty heavy with his "control" so to speak. I quit that site. This old man doesn't care to be treated like he's a 12 year old. I enjoy being in the company of folks that are sincere and extend courteous behavior and worthwhile insight. Ya'll got tons of that!

And Sèrg, you opened a can of worms now. If I hear ya got issues with some gear, I'll get an address and send ya stuff to resolve it. Dat's how this old codger rolls!:biglaugh:

Invite to Anita sent... Watch this space! :dude

Alex, I have a beat-up old faded brown as well - with a sticker of Jerry's hand behind the bridge. I don't have a pic of it, though... Love that guitar. And the ceramic pickups bring a crispy top end that lends a Jerry-like clarity to the guitar.

I don't normally like stickers on guitars, but a "Jerrys Hand" or Deadhead sticker would be the only ones that I would consider putting on any of my guitars! Jeez I'd love to see your faded one day!
And I love the 490s in mind too. They are clear, articulate and loud and raucous when needed.

Here's a pic from when I had the Steelie sticker on there. That sticker kept peeling up at the edges so I put the other one on instead...

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s...s/IMG_1789.jpg

FWIW this guitar is great for Marley stuff too. Pretty much any jam band/reggae/pothead music, this is yer guitar. :D

Looks awesome. Pretty hard to find Deadhead stuff in Australia but I found one on eBay for $4.99. As a rule, I generally don't do stickers on guitars, but anything Grateful Dead or The Doors is an exception...

Heard y'all talkin' about me, my ears were burnin'.

Welcome, Sis!

Welcome, Heket!!!! Good to see that you joined us! And I didn't know you had a Precision Bass, otherwise I'd have invited you ages ago!

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Originally Posted by Old Ranger

Oh boy. Now I just hope that the nice folks here that have been with this forum for ages don't think this is a "non-hostile" take over!:wow

Ya'll will have to forgive us. We're came from another site that was rapidly becoming, well for a lack of better words, semi-infantile. And that's being polite. Site owner treated all with little respect and was getting pretty heavy with his "control" so to speak. I quit that site. This old man doesn't care to be treated like he's a 12 year old. I enjoy being in the company of folks that are sincere and extend courteous behavior and worthwhile insight. Ya'll got tons of that!

And Sèrg, you opened a can of worms now. If I hear ya got issues with some gear, I'll get an address and send ya stuff to resolve it. Dat's how this old codger rolls!:biglaugh:

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Thanks so much, old friend! I sure will need some help, but won't be bothering you for gear: the thing you can do for me is help me set my RAT right when I buy it! :Banjo:

Well then brace yourself. I'm an old RAT-a-holic!
I was without one for almost a year and thought I was going through withdrawals from all the kickin' and scratchin' I was doing without one!:laughing: When you get you a RAT you're gonna wonder why you didn't get it sooner. Got my first when they first came out ages ago when they were still made by just a few guys in a garage and wish that I still had that first one. But still, they're great dirtboxes!

My champion dirt pedal is the aforementioned Joyo Ultimate drive. It fattens up the tone without making it woolly or muddy. It might not take you all the way to the metal kingdom - I never found one which did, to my taste - it will most certainly give you some serious grunt!

I gotta say, since I got my little Marshall DSL5 I haven't used a distortion pedal. I just select the high gain channel. If set too high, the distortion can get fizzy with that amp, but if you find the sweet spot, it's nice.

But, I do use a Tubescreamer to add a bit of grit to the clean-ish (Classic Gain) channel. It works nicely with my Strat.

Having said all that, when I do use an actual distortion pedal, I use a Boss DS-1 with the Monte Allums Tri-Gain mod. I also have an EH Metal Muff, but I don't use it often.

Hey Old Bro, guess what? I tested all my dirt pedals with my bass to see if anything works well with the low-end beast, and only one did - guess which one? It even sounded better than the overdrive channel on my amp. That little Joyo is a wonder to behold, that's for sure.

Well sis, I'm tickled to death that it's doing the yeomen service for ya! That's too cool.... Now I gotta get me another one! :laughing:

Hey! "I had the Daddy-O pedal long ago when it 1st came out and well, it was just ok for me. Then got rid of it, just used my old tube screamer w/ tube gain which was fine UNTIL, "Fulltone came out w/ their "Plimsoul" pedal in 2014, a combo ODrive/Dist pedal! I read about it and how unreal it was, listened to it on YouTube and immed. bought one! Best equip purchase I've made in 40 yrs and I've been a Pro Guit's for as long so. I read it was the closest pedal EVER designed that would replicate the oh so rare, and $50,000 if you can even find, "The Dumble tube amp!!" SRV, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford and Joe Bonamassa use/used em and the reason their so hard to find is guitarists love them and their tone so much they'll just never let em go! Pedal valuable as hell for SRV, Clapton Gary Moore, Bonamassa blues where you can go from Fender Twin tone to a hot rodded Soldano or Marshall 100Watt head fully cranked amd believe me, this "Plimsoul" sounds like the real deal so check one out; especially if your happy w/ the Daddy-O! A lotta pro's/studio musicians use $299 to $499 pedals but this 1 is only $162 or $172 w/ the AC adaper, dropped at your front door which is dirt cheap if your a serious player! "I couldn't play w/out mine now! Or go to fulltone.com Just tryin to help!

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Originally Posted by Sergio

So, I've tried many a gain pedal, Boss, Marshall, homemade, Digitech, but so far, the ONLY one that did the job as I wanted it to was... The Danelectro Daddy-O.

It is cheap, heavy, and looks funny (it's a pedal built to look like something made in the 50's but there was no such thing as a guitar pedal back then :laughing: ), and I confess: first time I saw it in a store I thought it was cr@p.

But then I tried it. Wonderful to say the least. It was th only pedal that allowed me to really scoop the bloody mids that ruin my tone, either wit a les paul or a strat.

I played this little guy through a 15 watt amp, back when I was a bedroom player, and through some huge Marshall stacks. I take it to the studio too, just fine.

http://i61.tinypic.com/11kkoex.jpg

I can get most any level of distortion I want, from a nice texas clean crunch to a metal distortion.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by johnnyguit

I read it was the closest pedal EVER designed that would replicate the oh so rare, and $50,000 if you can even find, "The Dumble tube amp!!"

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uh...

1. which dumble?
2. well, that's extremely unlikely, more realistically would be something like an Ethos which is literally a clone of an overdrive special preamp
3. have you ever played a dumble? I have not played a dumble. all I have played are clones of dumbles; though some of the makers have seen inside dumbles. still, none of those sound like the plimsoul

I aint saying that it's a bad pedal (quite the contrary, I think it's a really good one), I'm just saying that your claim is a bit dubious.