Danelectro DJ-13 French Toast Octave Distortion Mini Effects Pedal

Ah, the Dano French Toast. One of the worst kept secrets in the pedal world. Despite this pedal's reputation, you still get plenty of people in the reviews section for this pedal who seem to not have been clued in on the secret, and have no idea what they actually have in their possession, nor any idea how to use it to good effect.For those of you who don't know, I will summarize the legend for you:Sometime between the late 60s and late 70s, the olde Titans of pedal building birthed what would come to be known as the undisputed Gods of Fuzzdom. You have your original EHX Big Muffs, your Univox Superfuzz, your Shin-Ei Fuzz Wah, your Fender Blender, etc etc. Right next to these highly coveted "Holy Grail" fuzzboxes sits the fOXX Tone Machine. The meanest, most robust, and most velour covered fuzz pedal that has ever breached the abyss of cosmic fuzziness. Seriously, the original Tone Machine had like velour or something covering it. Pretty groovy, yes?Fast forward. Dude who designed the fOXX circuit now works for Danelectro, or owns Danelectro, or something, and ends up putting a faithful recreation of the fOXX Tone circuit in an extremely ugly, flimsy, plastic Danelectro enclosure, names it after diner food, and sells it for like 30 bucks.Yeah, if you had a faithful clone of a Superfuzz that is both easily available and sells for 30 bucks, people would be crappin they britches.So that is what you have here. A French Tone Machine. Some people will swear anything from it being indistinguishable from the original, better than the original, to not quite the level of the original but an extremely decent approximation and an amazing deal at it's price.If you love or appreciate fuzz to any degree, there is no excuse to not own this. The FTM/FT is one the the gnarliest octave fuzzes every created. With most octave fuzz, you need to turn down the tone knob on the guitar and play above the 12th fret to get maximum octaveness. That trick works here, too, but the octave on this is so robust that it is right up in your face no matter where you are playing on the fretboard.The biggest surprise for me was the fact that the fuzz tone, with the octave turned off, is actually very good in it's own right. Kinda muffy. Very usable.So, the volume knob does what a volume knob does. The EQ knob does what an EQ knob does. One side is very bassy, kind muffled when turned all the way in that direction, the other side is very trebly and quite shrill when turned all the way over there. In between those two extremes lays a multitude of really nice fuzz tones.The distortion knob will take the fuzz tone from extremely ornery to full on "rabid dogs gnawing on your face, and also somebody dropped an atom bomb somewhere in the background." If you want subtle, go spend a couple thousand bucks on a Klon. If you want to decimate your neighborhood with a beautiful vintage fuzz apocalypse, spend 30 bucks on this baby.Lots of people will buy this expecting a 30 dollar "distortion" pedal, have no idea how to use it, and write a review saying something like "sounds like a fluctuating mush of noise." This is probably because, since you don't understand what it is that you have here, you are probably trying to play chords and stuff on it. This is an extreme fuzz pedal, not some Tube Screamer knock off. Chords will not work. In fact, this wild pedal is probably too much PURE FUZZ POWER for your lame normie music. Stick with a Boss Metal Zone if you are incapable of handling the PURE FUZZ POWER, you filthy normies.If you are brave enough to handle the fuzz power, maybe rehouse it in a better looking enclosure. Cuz this thing looks mad stupid, yo.

This is a fun little pedal, but it does NOT work well with multiple notes. It gets real muddy. I kind of knew that going in, but was surprised by just how muddy it got... Otherwise a fun little piece of kit to play around with. The case is plastic, not metal, so it might not be as durable as other pedals on the road. I don't use the battery to power it, so no view on the battery life.

This is based on the Foxx Tone Machine, which is a thick and gnarly fuzz, similar to a Big Muff, but with an Octave up option also similar to the Octavia. It's a very inspiring pedal, because it offers several different distinct tones that are not your regular fuzz/gain tones. As for quality, well... you probably won't be traveling with it in a road rig, but it's perfectly fine for home/studio use. For best octave goodness, use a single coil or P-90 neck pickup above the 12th fret, but really - it all sounds good! Have fun experimenting!

I bought this for myself in December and man it rocks! It has an amazing electrical tone that I was using for solo-ing on certain 60/70's rock tracks. I recommend using it to solo over playing chords as it does sound a bit too muddy for chords (But that's just my taste). It currently sits next to my Dan-Echo on the shelf where I keep my other pedals.I like to keep my pedal set-up simple. Only 5 pedals, which makes it extremely hard for pedals to remain on my board. spot one is for my wah OR compressor, into my JHS Series 3 reverb, into my Fulltone OCD (formerly French toast lived here and before that it was my DS-1), into my delay (formerly had Dan-Echo here) rocking the Caline Ghost Rain rn, however I will most likely go back to the Danecho, into my looper. It is rotational and situation based. Currently with my jam group, we are playing R&B and Blues-Rock and so this Fuzz is not currently on my board... But it is a beautiful addition to my collection AND it also has amazing functionality.

This is a very cool little pedal. I use it on bass for the fuzz. It seems to keep the low end fairly intact and captures a nice 60s fuzz tone. Granted going past 9 o'clock on the distortion makes things too crazy to be usable. The octave switch is the feature I was really interested in, but again I found it to make things too crazy to be useful on bass. YMMV.It's plastic, but not cheap dollar store plastic. While I wouldn't put it in a sock to use it as a zombie defense weapon, I think it would survive light to moderate kicking around. If you're that worried about breaking it and it's an absolute "must have" for your tone, it's cheap enough that you can buy another one or two for a backup.The only gripe I really have about it is that it doesn't have a light to tell you if it's on or not.I'm keeping the it, although I don't see myself using this pedal much, it has some groovy tones in it and I can see where I might have some fun with it recording in the studio.

This pedal is the best bang for dollar/crunch ratio on the market. Durable case. Nice Aesthetics. Two distortion modes: crunchy fuzz and extra crunchy... It's thicckk. The sound is superb. The sound is a lot like "the black keys sound" and it's a great price... The finer points are: No light to signal whether powered on or off. OK. I can *hear that. Who needs a light to know whether something is on. Because it comes with a battery. Big point here: use the battery, because--if you plug a power source in--even the right voltage--there will be a hum. So use that battery, or have a hum. Those small knobs that are tight to get to? Well that seemingly useless bevel-thing is protecting the knobs for a long life of feet stomping on it. You can't stomp those knobs too easy! Lastly, don't forget to unplug the right-side cable to power off the box and save that battery.