From jandrewsX–(at)–as.upenn.edu Fri Sep 5 12:59:30 CDT 1997
Article: 156930 of rec.music.makers.guitar
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From: jandrew–(at)–ail2.sas.upenn.edu (James Andrews)
Newsgroups: rec.music.makers.guitar
Subject: Review: Daddy-O
Date: 5 Sep 1997 17:29:00 GMT
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Don’t know if anyone’s done a review of one of these before, but I got
mine yesterday so after playing with it all night, I figured I would post
a little ol’ review of what I’ve noticed about it so far. [note after
writing: OK, this ended up being Steve-esque in length. Its just a
distortion box, after all, that I happen to like the sound of.)
Test equipment:
Cheapo strat knockoff that I love. Ibanez RG570 which I dont like as
much, but it has real hot humbuckers so its a good contrast. 67
Vibro-champ, 72 Super Reverb (blackfaced). Also, the week before at the
store: Vibrolux Reverb Reissue, 52 Tele reissue, 72 Tele Custom reissue,
Gretsch 6120 (in orange, yes, with bigsby), and Epiphone Casino.
Price paid: $52 plus shipping from Musicians Friend (I know, I know, but I
got the urge to pick it up on Friday night, and they were the only place
open. And they did match that price from Rock and Rhythm without a
problem. And I dont have a car and cant just swing out to the music store
that easily. And oh, fuck it. I dont have to justify anything.)
Appearance:
Yellow. Retro. Reminds me of the color of those gigantic Dodge Monaco
convertibles in about 1966, that light yellow. You know the ones, with
the cool trapezoid taillights and the 383 or 440 available… sigh. Cool
shape, with fins of sorts. Kind of shaped like one of those bathroom
scales with the big dials. 5 knobs (described below) on top. Metal housing.
Controls:
Distortion, Volume, Treble, Mid, Bass. Because the pedal looks the way it
does, the knobs are kind of small and close together and therefore hard to
turn. Really my only complaint. And since they just have a little notch
to show the position of the pot, they could be kind of hard to see in
certain situations. Of course, I tend to find a certain sound on a pedal
I like, and then leave it there, so it doesnt matter too much to me. That
might be a problem with this one, though, as youll see.
Other funny things:
In the manual, they have setting diagrams, and two of them are “cool jazz”
and “country twang.” Umm. Why would you use a distortion pedal for music
that, in almost every case, DEMANDS a clean sound? Just thought that was
funny, and should be mentioned. Also, they mention that you should use a
“300 mA maximum AC adaptor,” which is a bit misleading–you should use a
9V, 300 mA minimum … yadda yadda.
Sound:
This is what it all comes down to, huh? I played it at Sam Ash, and
decided I just didnt feel like dropping another $60 right now, and then a
week later, I was still thinking about how good it sounded so I went
ahead and ordered it. Instant gratificationist, thy name is Jas.
To start off with, I like the more distorted sounds of this pedal more
than the less. It does color your sound some, so its probably not the
greatest for clean boost. Makes it thicker, more mid-rangey. Kind of
like my Marshall “The Guvnor” does when you crank down
the distortion and turn up the vol.
I love EQ on distortion pedals, and I need that mid-range control. Ive
always felt that mid-range was the key in varying your distortion colors.
This is a pretty good one. The controls seem to be very interactive, i.e.
turning up that midrange will actually decrease the treb/bass a little.
This could be a good or bad thing, depending on how you like it. I think
its just fine.
This pedal is one of the most harmonically-oriented pedals Ive ever
played. It definitely becomes moreso as the distortion is increased. You
get pick harmonics almost without trying.
The Daddy-O definitely makes an effort to avoid the buzzy, odd-harmonic
sound of many distortion boxes. It succeeds for the most part, providing
a deep, throaty distortion that almost sags a little bit, as if youre
actually pushing a tube amp real hard. I cant really describe this
certain sound that I love, with the distortion all the way up, the volume
backed off a certain amount, with a really decent amount of midrange
dialed in and the treb and bass just about flat or a little higher. I
cant describe it, but lets just say its exactly the distortion sound that
Ive been looking for. Very dry, yet smooth. Whatever. I cant write like
Guitar Player, folks, and I dont think you can really describe sounds with
plain ol adjectives.
If you turn the mid-range all the way down and the bass & treble and
distortion all the way up, it really does a killer metal sound. The
bottom end stays focused, and theres plenty of it. In fact, I found
myself turning up the treble past where I usually do in a couple
instances, even with the Teles bridge pickups.
The fuzz wears off pretty well if you back off on the volume of your
guitar, and its also pretty sensitive to picking attack. Of course, in
the higher-gain modes, theres always a little crap on top of the note.
To wrap up, its extremely versatile for a distortion pedal. You can get a
decent boost from it if you like the way it colors your sound. You can
play metal. You can get a good Cream-style crunchy thing going on. Its
cool looking, cool sounding, and cheap as all hell. I dig it.
If you’ve read this far, you must be $52 worth of interested, so go out
and pick one up. The folks at Danelectro (whoever’s got the name now) did
a nice job.
Jas.
———————-
James Andrews
Philadelphia, PA
Remove the XX
