Danelectro Fab Tone is the best dirt pedal ever made

[Sonaboy]

my guitarist has three. he uses it mainly for his noise band board.
it's a high gain distortion with a two band EQ and shitty switch.
i mean, cut the reliability headache some and just get a Boss HM-3.

[zeravla]

I have two. Added true bypass because the buffers are some of the absolute worst out there and keeping it in a loop was taking up too much space.
My buddy and I bought them for our band at a guitar center in the late 90s and pissed off one sound guy after another for years with them.
They're also great for throwing at an off-rhythm drummer once you run out of 9v batteries.

[rfurtkamp]

i mean, cut the reliability headache some and just get a Boss HM-3.

I have both (gigged with a Fab Tone as my primary dirtbox for half a decade).

HM-3 is radically different in the flavor of the high-gain. I love it when it's called for, but the similarities between the two really end after "both are sledgehammers that have no subtle option".

[TheStevenLasombras]

Based on this thread, I went and picked up a Fab Tone yesterday (third shop I tried had one, $29 used). Was not disappointed. Great in the DBA Total Sonic Annihilation noise loop too.

[BetterOffShred]

Dope man
I'm serious about those mods. Makes it way more usable.. or you can just embrace it for what it is and emanate pure devastation..

[Jwar]

I've got to get another Fab Tone. I want an old school one though in a metal enclosure like I had in the 90's.

[tremolo3]

Well, no.

And just like Jwar, my very first pedal too

[rfurtkamp]

I got one when they came out, it bumped the HM-2 off my board as it just did...more.

[BitchPudding]

[laughs in stacked gain pedals]

[Inconuucl]

Discuss.

If you'd like.

I'm right regardless of the discussion.

Go see MONO or Mogwai live. They will kill you. They will play something soft and pretty and trance-inducing. Then they will hit that Fab Tone and *murder you*.

If I had to have only one dirt pedal, it would be the Fab Tone.

If I could only have one pedal *altogether*, it would probably be the Fab Tone (if the amp had any kind of built-in reverb).

If you don't have a Fab Tone, what are you even doing with your guitar? Just go buy a harp or lute or something.

What are you gonna do, buy a BOSS distortion pedal? Don't be ridiculous. Get a Fab Tone.

And I'll have none of that crybaby stuff about how "but the knobs aren't linear!" and "the distortion control is useless above 9 o'clock, it's just noise!" or how "not only are the tone knobs not linear, but whatever the hell they are doing doesn't even correspond!"

Just put the tone knobs at max and the volume at somewhere between 9 and 12 o'clock, depending on how much you value the health of the biosphere. (I haven't tried anything above 12, because when I got that high, I started seeing a bright light, and I saw my great grandfather, but his face was missing—it was kinda creepy.)

CERN should get rid of the LHC and just study the Fab Tone instead.

The Danelectro Fab Tone is the best dirt pedal ever made.

You just don't get it do you? You can't ask someone to build you this. This is a mans masterpiece.
If you had been paying attention you would have noticed an emerging new kind of pedal.
Through the duck tape, booby traps and chaos you would have glimpsed the true nature behind Danelectro's original design.
This is the very pedal that caused them to give up building after completing only a few units.
Years ago, I remember hearing a customer sent his Fab Tone back for repair and after 3 months of waiting received an unusual email.
I am not lying when I tell you this. It was revealed that Danelectro, who had never kept a Fab Tone for themself, had over the
years forgotten the design and fell in love with the customers pedal, attempting to run off with it.

This is not the mark of a regular builder. You see, I've encountered few pedals like this.
Each pedal is a meticulous labor of love. It's eccentric genius cannot be held to the same standard as a regular boutique.
It is the pinnacle of unobtainium. A boutique boutique where the builder has poured his very soul into what he is creating to
the point it transcends itself and becomes art. This is the shit legends are made of.

You do not understand what's happening. To simply have someone else build you one is an insult to this mans art.
If you don't appreciate it enough build your own interpretation then you do not understand what is it, you cannot comprehend what you
are playing and you don't deserve it.

[Jero]

PLL'd

[goroth]

M. Night Shyamalan plot twist: Fab tone is a PLL.

[zeravla]

NSFW: show

Discuss.

If you'd like.

I'm right regardless of the discussion.

Go see MONO or Mogwai live. They will kill you. They will play something soft and pretty and trance-inducing. Then they will hit that Fab Tone and *murder you*.

If I had to have only one dirt pedal, it would be the Fab Tone.

If I could only have one pedal *altogether*, it would probably be the Fab Tone (if the amp had any kind of built-in reverb).

If you don't have a Fab Tone, what are you even doing with your guitar? Just go buy a harp or lute or something.

What are you gonna do, buy a BOSS distortion pedal? Don't be ridiculous. Get a Fab Tone.

And I'll have none of that crybaby stuff about how "but the knobs aren't linear!" and "the distortion control is useless above 9 o'clock, it's just noise!" or how "not only are the tone knobs not linear, but whatever the hell they are doing doesn't even correspond!"

Just put the tone knobs at max and the volume at somewhere between 9 and 12 o'clock, depending on how much you value the health of the biosphere. (I haven't tried anything above 12, because when I got that high, I started seeing a bright light, and I saw my great grandfather, but his face was missing—it was kinda creepy.)

CERN should get rid of the LHC and just study the Fab Tone instead.

The Danelectro Fab Tone is the best dirt pedal ever made.

You just don't get it do you? You can't ask someone to build you this. This is a mans masterpiece.
If you had been paying attention you would have noticed an emerging new kind of pedal.
Through the duck tape, booby traps and chaos you would have glimpsed the true nature behind Danelectro's original design.
This is the very pedal that caused them to give up building after completing only a few units.
Years ago, I remember hearing a customer sent his Fab Tone back for repair and after 3 months of waiting received an unusual email.
I am not lying when I tell you this. It was revealed that Danelectro, who had never kept a Fab Tone for themself, had over the
years forgotten the design and fell in love with the customers pedal, attempting to run off with it.

This is not the mark of a regular builder. You see, I've encountered few pedals like this.
Each pedal is a meticulous labor of love. It's eccentric genius cannot be held to the same standard as a regular boutique.
It is the pinnacle of unobtainium. A boutique boutique where the builder has poured his very soul into what he is creating to
the point it transcends itself and becomes art. This is the shit legends are made of.

You do not understand what's happening. To simply have someone else build you one is an insult to this mans art.
If you don't appreciate it enough build your own interpretation then you do not understand what is it, you cannot comprehend what you
are playing and you don't deserve it.

This but unironically

[frigid midget]

I've got one. Makes my HM-2 sound really...civilised

BUT....The meh buffer, unreliable switch, tiny controls that aren't easy to tweek on the fly, flimsy plastic inputs, the bulky enclosure that takes up too much board space, the noise...
Mine doesn't get a lot of use anymore these days. A clone that adresses all those issues might be cool, especially if it came with somekind of low gain switch so it becomes more versatile and doesn't sound like angry bees in a jar at the lowest gain setting

[VREEEEVROOOOOW]

Why would you tweak on the fly? Put them to max. Agreed about the flimsiness but they're so cheap so meh. I wouldn't mind a smaller, true-bypass, better in/out-put, version though. But a low gain switch is just antithetical to the Fab Tone -- essentially blasphemy. Might as well just get an acoustic guitar at that point.

If you don't use yours, give it to me! I'm sure I could more Fab Tone...