Danelectro Fab Tone: thick, thick, thick...

8/10

This was one of my first pedals, so this review will be fun.

In fact, I think when I got this thing I still had my old Zoom effects processor. That was my very first pedal, but a lot of us started like that. Christmas, 1999, and I was jazzed beyond belief by this thing. Say what you will about multieffects processors, but they're somewhere between a sampler pack and a gateway drug.

Danelectro's Fab Tone is a powerful pedal, capable of creating apocalyptic levels of fuzz. In my pedal chain, it's the distortion I kick on when I want sudden crushing intensity. For reference, my other distortions are a Boss DS-1, a Digitech Bad Monkey, and a Boss MT-2. Fab Tone + Bad Monkey = bass-heavy thickness that may or may not have been responsible for two blown speakers this year alone. This is a pedal for people who want obscene amounts of power at their command.

The logical flipside, is that this is not a pedal for subtle players or players with small pedalboards (4 pedals or fewer). It's not a good standalone distortion, you're going to want to find yourself a good primary distortion (DS-1, Tube Screamer, you know the usual suspects) and use the Fab Tone for dynamics or tonal variety. This thing's amazing when you layer it on another distortion, its tonal transformative qualities must be experienced to be believed.

The controls are simple and accurate. Volume, two tone controls, and a "fab" knob controls the distortion effect. The tone controls cover a wide range, you can achieve anything from a super-thick, speaker-rattling low-end crush to a cutting, trebly, earsplitting shredder fuzz. With controls this good, you also end up with a pedal that can either dramatically drop or  raise your signal level. The Fab Tone is not only a pedal for tone nerds but for dynamics nerds as well.

For its apocalyptic nature, control setup, and indestructible casing (believe me, I've abused mine), I'm giving the Danelectro Fab Tone 8 PBRs out of 10. It's not a perfect score because, as good as this pedal is, it's not a standalone pedal. A perfect pedal, for me, is a box that could stand alone.

You'll hear about such a pedal when I talk about my Rocktron Short Timer, but we'll get to that.

c.hill

Rocktron Tsunami: fix it, please.

2/10

As amazing as my Rocktron Short Timer delay is, I had high hopes for the Tsunami chorus. I tested it out with an ash body Tele and a Fender tube... I want to say a Hot Rod, but you know the amp. Fender through Fender, clean tone, a sound I know very well. I wanted to be able to zero in on everything this pedal does.

If you've read its descriptions, it's implied that it's a chorus + delay. A short delay function exists for what Rocktron calls "ambience," and the prospect of a chorus with a built-in, selectable delay is almost too good to be true.

Ok, it is too good to be true.

It's an attractive pedal, so first impressions tend to be good. Rocktron makes slick and stylish oversized pedals. I mean, these things are designed with a boutique look that's going to make gearheads look twice. The Tsunami is an eye-catching electric purple with two buttons and three LEDs, a visually striking pedal that screams potential.

I plugged it in and hit the "effect on" button and nothing happened. The delay was turned all the way down and it turns out that the left button doesn't add delay to the chorus, it's a selector! So I maxxed the delay, setting both relevant knobs to 10 (what delay only has two controls?), and was greeted with a slapback so light I could barely hear it. I mean, a reverb tank set to 1 gives me more ambience than this! Allen and I experimented with the controls a little, but the only way we could actually tell this effect was active was if Allen turned the knobs while I was playing. The speed shift also shifts the pitch, resulting in a light tonal warbling, but it's nothing to write Mono about.

I expected more from the makers of the Short Timer and the Austin Gold.

The chorus effect isn't any better. It's as heavy-handed as the delay function is weak, but what do you expect from a chorus controlled by (get this) only two knobs? It sounds like the plastic choruses that were a dime a dozen in the '90s, when all the 16-year-olds got Strats and solid state Princetons and learned "Come as You Are."

See, the biggest design flaw of this pedal is its raison d'etre! They had a great idea, a pedal marrying delay and chorus, but Rocktron's poor execution ruins both effects. They crammed two pedals into one and both effects suffered. Each effect is controlled by completely separate controls and there is absolutely no blend option!

This thing reminds me of DOD's bad years. No wonder I can no longer find it on Rocktron's site, or Musician's Friend.

It pains me to burn a company that's been so good to me, but I'm giving the Rocktron Tsunami 2 PBRs (of a possible 10).

c.hill