Danelectro Transparent OD

[deeaa]

1st impressions: very good. Sounds like any TS's but has no annoyances and doesn't change the sound much at all.

I have only played it in front of my Tech-21 so far, but it does exactly what I wanted it to do. I never play totally clean, and this thing is REALLY good at taking your existing sound and kicking the hell outta it. Adds very little noise or anything, retains the clarity and string separation, but makes the sound sing and scream. That's exactly what I wanted.

From now on, when I record guitar on my TM-10, I'll surely kick this in rather than tweak a beefier solo sound on the amp, it's so good.

The only thing it does I don't like as is, it makes the lead sound a bit too warm and thick...sustains forever and has that kind of 'roundness' to it...at all knobs on 12 o clock and in front of my already crunchy TM, I get this instant Gary Moore Still Got The Blues - sound. Sustain forever and very very thick and warm but screaming. Thing is, I like it more raw and biting...but a little addition of treble on the pedal and all sorted out; again closer to Angus Young territory.

Will post more when I get to properly test it with the Ceriatone, but so far, this is probably the best lead booster/crunch maximiser/OD pedal I've ever used.

With no drive on the amp the sound is very 'blues' and round, but as said, I never play totally clean. Basically it sounds like any other Tubescreamer out there, but there's no noise, no annoying overtones or anything...it just BOOSTS whatever drive you have to umpteenth potency in drive power.

Thanks to whoever it was who recommended this baby when I asked for something which would do just this - it's much better than I expected, even!

[duhvoodooman]

I agree with your overall assessment of the Cool Cat Transparent OD--very quiet and definitely more neutral in tone than the usual TS-type overdrive. Danelectro has done an excellent job with these.

BTW, do you know if you have one of the original versions or the newer revision? Apparently, their first release was a direct clone of a boutique pedal known as the Timmy, and Danelectro took a lot of heat in the pedal community about being the big, bad low-cost mega-manufacturer stealing from the little boutique pedal guy. So they reportedly were making some changes to the circuitry. Just curious if you knew which version you have.


The only thing it does I don't like as is, it makes the lead sound a bit too warm and thick...sustains forever and has that kind of 'roundness' to it...at all knobs on 12 o clock and in front of my already crunchy TM, I get this instant Gary Moore Still Got The Blues - sound. Sustain forever and very very thick and warm but screaming. Thing is, I like it more raw and biting...
For a transparent sounding OD pedal that still has a a lot of treble bite & clarity, I've been very impressed with the Monte Allums "H2O Plus" mod of the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver. I did this mod for a solder-impaired friend a while back, and I was so impressed with how the modded pedal sounded that I bought myself a used BD-2 on eBay and did the same mod on it. I'd still describe the overall tone as transparent, but it's significantly brighter sounding than the Transparent OD and definitely less compressed.

[Blaze]

I enjoyed my T_O so much that i went back on E bay to bid on more Cool Cat
pedals ..

I ve won auctions on the CO-1 --$20.00(Ocd clone)
The Cool cat Vibe- $35.00 (Univibe clone)
the CD-1 Distortion(Crunch box clone )-$21.00 and the Tremolo- $30.00...

Winning all these auctions at the same Ebay store i got a substantial discount on shipping as he shipped them all together at once..

This package deal at Mf is pretty good too but they don t ship to french canadian like me..http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Danelectro-Cat-Pack?sku=501248

I think most of these Cool Cats are great values for the money..

[Spudman]

I first got the TOD and really liked it too. Then I got the CD1 and really like it too. Roberts demo video sold me on the CD1.

I've been using a Tube Screamer since the 70s and was always frustrated by the way it colored my sound but I never did anything about it. When I started using the TOD I was very happy to get the volume, drive and gain that I wanted without the tonal coloration. It works great for the way I use it. I'm not selling the Tube Screamer though because the TOD stacks very nicely with it or a Bad Monkey.

[deeaa]

Continued: today I played with the Ceriatone and the TOD.

First off I felt - maybe it isn't as good after all - but after I tweaked the settings some, it stays on the pedalboard.

The thing I didn't like about it at first is that when its gain is at 12 or more, it gets this quite bluesy character. I mean, it is too rumbly and even a bit mushy. Turning up the gain makes it even more so. It's not fizzy-mushy or just mushy, it's just that the drive is so rumbly in frequency, like a slow big engine as opposed to a smaller revvin' engine, if you get what I mean.

But I then realized that also on the Jackhammer (which I've used of late) I have the gain on maybe 1/5th or something...and yeah; turning down the gain to 1/4 or so cleared the brumbrum up quite nicely! And then the transparency of the pedal started to shine; it really shows off full-6-string chords magnificently.

I'm again one step closer to just using one single sound for everything. So far I've been pretty happy but still been switching between OD on/off or comp on/off in any combination, and always not quite there, always either too little or too much gain for various songs...the same sound but always seeking for the sweet spot for each song.

But now...with both TOD and comp on, it's very fluid and singing in leads and also quite tight and aggressive even on those 'metallica' style chops, but still clean/clarified enough for quieter/almost cleanish passages.

I'll see in the practices, but I do think right now I might be finally able to be happy with just one sound for all with not even those slight changes all the time.

Overall, it's quite a close call between the Jackhammer and the Transparend OD. Both sound like a great TS on right settings (BTW IMO the Jackhammer in OD mode is one really underappreciated OD pedal) but the TOD is better and more natural in overall OD sound, while the Jackhammer can easily deliver a very believable, tighter JCM800-style tight crunch as well.

So yeah, the TOD is excellent as a booster/ts to send the amp into a new dimension and will become my main OD now, but the Jackhammer is still very good to have around if I need some real tight JCM style Marshall bite sometime.

p.s. seriously, if you want a nice JCM800 style Marshall crunch/bite overdrive, check out the Marshall Jackhammer. Its 'distortion' mode is nothing remarkable to say the least..the whole pedal is a tad too gainy...but turn on OD mode and use quite low drive levels and it really does do that Marshall thing very well...and they're quite cheap.