Guitar
In my last post I discussed coming across a new-in-boxed-set of millennium-era Dano diner-series pedals. The real standouts in the collection are the Chicken Salad Vibrato, which is really a light sensor-driven Uni-Vibe clone, the Pepperoni Phaser (which sounds suspiciously like a Phase 90) and the unbelievably sick French Toast Octave Distortion, which is a ferocious octave-up fuzz designed by the guy who designed the legendary Foxx Tone Machine, and is based on that iconic fuzz.
The French Toast comes in the same cute plastic housing as the rest of the Diner Series pedals; these are actually sturdier housings than one would think - it's usually the plastic mini-pots and the footswitches that are the first to break on these things. I'm assuming the French Toast uses the same buffered bypass scheme as the rest of the Dano minis, which gives it the advantage of being buffer-proof - many Fuzz Face-style fuzzes sound gawd-awful placed after a buffer, but the French Toast is unaffected. Put too many of these cheap buffers in your signal chain and you may notice significant tone-suckage, but as I don't use a whole lot of pedals and don't run epic cable lengths, I haven't encountered any problems.
The French Toast offers level, distortion and eq pots (left to right), as well as a toggle switch to turn the octave-up function on and off. The volume knob offers a healthy amount of boost, reaching unity gain at low distortion settings at about one o'clock, and at about ten o'clock at higher fuzz settings. The pots are tiny, twiddley and difficult to read with their tiny detent markers almost invisible against the chrome coating. They're also plastic and in danger of being sheared off with minimal provocation, but hey, this pedal sold for about forty bucks new... I was fortunate enough to receive this whole gang of pedals with the little proprietary protective plastic collars that go a long way toward defending the most fragile components of these boxes. Unfortunately, the collars also make it even more difficult to tweak knobs. Oh well...
The distortion knob renders your signal pretty gritty even at it's lowest settings and gets seriously hairy as you advance it past noon, with bright, crushed-glass filigree at the edge of the notes. At it's highest levels the French Toast delivers a huge, harmonically-saturated, mid-scooped silicon fuzz sound that brings to mind a Big Muff. It's definitely not in the Fuzz Face camp at all; while you can clean up the fuzz from your volume knob a bit at the distortion knob's lower end, it never really gets all that clean.
The EQ knob sweeps from full on mud to a keening 'Spirit in the Sky'-type frizzle-fry, with tons of useable tones in between. I really like this EQ; the pedal is pretty scooped in the mids overall, but this nicely voiced treble cut control allows you to access a happening range of textures.
Engaging the Octave toggle unleashes a beautifully spitty octave up which (as in most octave fuzzes) is most pronounced when playing up around the twelfth fret, but the octave is still pretty strong elsewhere on the neck, certainly more consistent than a Octavia-style circuit. It's easy to conjure up some groovy 'Band of Gypsies' style Hendrixisms at lower fuzz settings, but riffing on lower strings elicits some unique metallic textures, and chords generate some great ring-mod-like skronk. This thing is fun...
The French Toast, like it's progenitor the Tone Machine, generates it's fuzz and octave effect with clipping diodes. This topography is not unlike the fuzz generating bits of a Big Muff, generating big, bottom-heavy, almost metallic fuzz. Indeed, with the octave disengaged the French Toast reminds me a bit of my long lost Ibanez SoundTank 60's Fuzz, which was in turn lifted from the Maxon Distortion and Sustain, which was (naturally) lifted from the Muff. This type of fuzztone excels at full-out saturation, but isn't capable of the volume-knob control and sensitivity of Fuzz Face/Tone Bender type circuits with discreet transistors, (although not all discreet transistor designs are not created equal in this regard, germanium being generally more responsive than silicon based designs).
I tend to find the mids a little over-scooped on the French Toast when operating in octave-off mode (a complaint I have with many Muffy fuzzes), but engaging the octave mitigates this, albeit with the result of off-kilter, ring-modded artifacts leaping out of the fuzzscape. That said, the range of textures available is quite astounding for such a cheap little box - from gritty rock'n'roll rhythm tones at the bottom of the fuzz dial, to full out gonzo saturation at the top, a well voiced tone knob and the option of a very present and consistent octave-up effect, the French Toast is certainly worth the twenty-one dollars I paid for it. I have a feeling that this pedal will become one of my secret weapons for doing studio work; I certainly have no doubt that it will pay for itself in short order.
I was casting about for an appropriate musical setting for the demo of this pedal, and in the end this horrifying thing was the result - this is what I get for doing demos in the wee hours of the morning with a full-moon in the offing... Unfortunately, due to the wee hours session, I had to record this direct to my crappy digital recorder's amp simulator, so it's pretty lacking in life on the sonic front. This recording also points out the inadequacies of my 'run everything in the recording through the pedal' method of doing these demos. Much like when I tried this with a Muff, it was almost impossible to differentiate the various guitar and bass tracks regardless of where the controls were set, and that big ol' mid scoop really leaves some holes in the mix. This pedal would make for a cool layer of texture in a track, but I don't think I would use it as a stage fuzz (unless I had a few to step on) or as the central tone in a tune. Surprisingly, the French Toast performed admirably as a bass fuzz, but it's hard to tell in this FT heavy mix featuring a darkish guitar (Univox Effector Less Paul) in open C. Lotsa' low notes competing here.
- Pedal Time! 1967 Vox Tone Bender
guitarz.blogspot.com Another great vintage fuzz pedal (yes, I'm quite into pedals lately, and mostly in fuzz boxes), the Vox Tone Bender. Even more than in the field of early electric guitars, the dawn of effect pedal is both full of myths...
- Huge Lot Of Hand Wired Custom Guitar Pedals In Oshkosh Wi Area - At Good $
This seller has been building some nice pedals and he is offering them for a pretty good price. Note that he doesn't do any screening on the pedals so the knobs are not marked and there are no logos - still he's got some cool DIY pedals...
- Baldwin Burns Split Jazz Circa 1965
This is the newest addition to my stable of guitars and I am very excited. A Burns Split Jazz labeled Baldwin from sometime around 1965. This guitar has a thick neck similar to a 1950's Strat but with a zero fret and the pickups sound better than...
- My ,uh, Funky Fuzz Factory Clone.
Fuzz Factory clone: note the radically cross-threaded DC jack...oh, dear. I've been fearing writing this article, because having this built for me turned into a bit of a nightmare; the builder, who will remain nameless in this piece, took...
- Big Muff Pi With Tone Wicker- A Review
First off, I'd like to thank my good friend Big Joe Burke for lending me this sick little puppy. The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is considered to be one of the classic fuzz tones, and countless players have embraced the thick wooly...
Guitar
The Danelectro French Toast Octave Fuzz - Sick Things Come in Small Packages.
 |
| Danelectro French Toast Octave Distortion - Muffy fuzz with a strong and consistent octave up. |
In my last post I discussed coming across a new-in-boxed-set of millennium-era Dano diner-series pedals. The real standouts in the collection are the Chicken Salad Vibrato, which is really a light sensor-driven Uni-Vibe clone, the Pepperoni Phaser (which sounds suspiciously like a Phase 90) and the unbelievably sick French Toast Octave Distortion, which is a ferocious octave-up fuzz designed by the guy who designed the legendary Foxx Tone Machine, and is based on that iconic fuzz.
The French Toast comes in the same cute plastic housing as the rest of the Diner Series pedals; these are actually sturdier housings than one would think - it's usually the plastic mini-pots and the footswitches that are the first to break on these things. I'm assuming the French Toast uses the same buffered bypass scheme as the rest of the Dano minis, which gives it the advantage of being buffer-proof - many Fuzz Face-style fuzzes sound gawd-awful placed after a buffer, but the French Toast is unaffected. Put too many of these cheap buffers in your signal chain and you may notice significant tone-suckage, but as I don't use a whole lot of pedals and don't run epic cable lengths, I haven't encountered any problems.
The French Toast offers level, distortion and eq pots (left to right), as well as a toggle switch to turn the octave-up function on and off. The volume knob offers a healthy amount of boost, reaching unity gain at low distortion settings at about one o'clock, and at about ten o'clock at higher fuzz settings. The pots are tiny, twiddley and difficult to read with their tiny detent markers almost invisible against the chrome coating. They're also plastic and in danger of being sheared off with minimal provocation, but hey, this pedal sold for about forty bucks new... I was fortunate enough to receive this whole gang of pedals with the little proprietary protective plastic collars that go a long way toward defending the most fragile components of these boxes. Unfortunately, the collars also make it even more difficult to tweak knobs. Oh well...
The distortion knob renders your signal pretty gritty even at it's lowest settings and gets seriously hairy as you advance it past noon, with bright, crushed-glass filigree at the edge of the notes. At it's highest levels the French Toast delivers a huge, harmonically-saturated, mid-scooped silicon fuzz sound that brings to mind a Big Muff. It's definitely not in the Fuzz Face camp at all; while you can clean up the fuzz from your volume knob a bit at the distortion knob's lower end, it never really gets all that clean.
The EQ knob sweeps from full on mud to a keening 'Spirit in the Sky'-type frizzle-fry, with tons of useable tones in between. I really like this EQ; the pedal is pretty scooped in the mids overall, but this nicely voiced treble cut control allows you to access a happening range of textures.
Engaging the Octave toggle unleashes a beautifully spitty octave up which (as in most octave fuzzes) is most pronounced when playing up around the twelfth fret, but the octave is still pretty strong elsewhere on the neck, certainly more consistent than a Octavia-style circuit. It's easy to conjure up some groovy 'Band of Gypsies' style Hendrixisms at lower fuzz settings, but riffing on lower strings elicits some unique metallic textures, and chords generate some great ring-mod-like skronk. This thing is fun...
The French Toast, like it's progenitor the Tone Machine, generates it's fuzz and octave effect with clipping diodes. This topography is not unlike the fuzz generating bits of a Big Muff, generating big, bottom-heavy, almost metallic fuzz. Indeed, with the octave disengaged the French Toast reminds me a bit of my long lost Ibanez SoundTank 60's Fuzz, which was in turn lifted from the Maxon Distortion and Sustain, which was (naturally) lifted from the Muff. This type of fuzztone excels at full-out saturation, but isn't capable of the volume-knob control and sensitivity of Fuzz Face/Tone Bender type circuits with discreet transistors, (although not all discreet transistor designs are not created equal in this regard, germanium being generally more responsive than silicon based designs).
I tend to find the mids a little over-scooped on the French Toast when operating in octave-off mode (a complaint I have with many Muffy fuzzes), but engaging the octave mitigates this, albeit with the result of off-kilter, ring-modded artifacts leaping out of the fuzzscape. That said, the range of textures available is quite astounding for such a cheap little box - from gritty rock'n'roll rhythm tones at the bottom of the fuzz dial, to full out gonzo saturation at the top, a well voiced tone knob and the option of a very present and consistent octave-up effect, the French Toast is certainly worth the twenty-one dollars I paid for it. I have a feeling that this pedal will become one of my secret weapons for doing studio work; I certainly have no doubt that it will pay for itself in short order.
I was casting about for an appropriate musical setting for the demo of this pedal, and in the end this horrifying thing was the result - this is what I get for doing demos in the wee hours of the morning with a full-moon in the offing... Unfortunately, due to the wee hours session, I had to record this direct to my crappy digital recorder's amp simulator, so it's pretty lacking in life on the sonic front. This recording also points out the inadequacies of my 'run everything in the recording through the pedal' method of doing these demos. Much like when I tried this with a Muff, it was almost impossible to differentiate the various guitar and bass tracks regardless of where the controls were set, and that big ol' mid scoop really leaves some holes in the mix. This pedal would make for a cool layer of texture in a track, but I don't think I would use it as a stage fuzz (unless I had a few to step on) or as the central tone in a tune. Surprisingly, the French Toast performed admirably as a bass fuzz, but it's hard to tell in this FT heavy mix featuring a darkish guitar (Univox Effector Less Paul) in open C. Lotsa' low notes competing here.
- Pedal Time! 1967 Vox Tone Bender
guitarz.blogspot.com Another great vintage fuzz pedal (yes, I'm quite into pedals lately, and mostly in fuzz boxes), the Vox Tone Bender. Even more than in the field of early electric guitars, the dawn of effect pedal is both full of myths...
- Huge Lot Of Hand Wired Custom Guitar Pedals In Oshkosh Wi Area - At Good $
This seller has been building some nice pedals and he is offering them for a pretty good price. Note that he doesn't do any screening on the pedals so the knobs are not marked and there are no logos - still he's got some cool DIY pedals...
- Baldwin Burns Split Jazz Circa 1965
This is the newest addition to my stable of guitars and I am very excited. A Burns Split Jazz labeled Baldwin from sometime around 1965. This guitar has a thick neck similar to a 1950's Strat but with a zero fret and the pickups sound better than...
- My ,uh, Funky Fuzz Factory Clone.
Fuzz Factory clone: note the radically cross-threaded DC jack...oh, dear. I've been fearing writing this article, because having this built for me turned into a bit of a nightmare; the builder, who will remain nameless in this piece, took...
- Big Muff Pi With Tone Wicker- A Review
First off, I'd like to thank my good friend Big Joe Burke for lending me this sick little puppy. The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is considered to be one of the classic fuzz tones, and countless players have embraced the thick wooly...