# Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive V2



## Key_of_Off (Mar 24, 2009)

So I got a flyer from L&M telling me that they're having a big June sale, and one of the items that caught my eye was the Danelectro DCTO-2 transparent overdrive. I've heard good things about the V1, but I'm unfamiliar with this one.

I like the low price point and I've been jonesing for a transparent overdrive, so I'm leaning towards going for it.

Anybody have experience with this particular model? Impressions? I play a Telecaster through a Deluxe Reverb, if that helps any.


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## Rugburn (Jan 14, 2009)

I have the Cool Cat TOD v1. I love this pedal, but can't speak for the v2. What I can tell you is that the creator of the "Timmy" pedal looked at the v1 TOD and claims it's a carbon copy of his "Timmy" circuit. This led to Danelectro changing the circuit from the original v1's. I have a few nice boutique pedals that weren't cheap, and I was long considering getting a "Timmy", but the 6-7 month waiting period seems crazy to me. Lastly, there are internal trim pots that may allow you to return the v2 to aproximately the same tone of the V1, but I don't know for sure.

Cheers, Shawn.


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

check this out....

[video=youtube;xe3WadF77Ig]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe3WadF77Ig[/video]


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

this compares it to the timmy...

[video=youtube;Ma6HjVb3doM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma6HjVb3doM&feature=channel[/video]


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

The V1 clearly sounds better to me, I wonder if he was duplicating all the settings completely


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

I just bought one, one sale at L&M, so far I'm impressed ABing it with my TS-5 (which I never used much anyway) the controls are very awkward to adjust, but hopefully I'll find the sweet spot and leave it. It doesn't have the bass rolloff of the Tube Screamer, which I never liked, and it has bass and treble controls, although you don't want to try adjusting them on the fly. Even the manual says it's tricky. I'm impressed with the low volume sound at home, will see at the gig on Friday.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

keefsdad said:


> I just bought one, one sale at L&M, so far I'm impressed ABing it with my TS-5 (which I never used much anyway) the controls are very awkward to adjust, but hopefully I'll find the sweet spot and leave it. It doesn't have the bass rolloff of the Tube Screamer, which I never liked, and it has bass and treble controls, although you don't want to try adjusting them on the fly. Even the manual says it's tricky. I'm impressed with the low volume sound at home, will see at the gig on Friday.


...yep, $40! i snagged one last night. pretty impressive. i have rehearsals this week and a show saturday, so i'll report back next week.


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

david henman said:


> ...yep, $40! i snagged one last night. pretty impressive. i have rehearsals this week and a show saturday, so i'll report back next week.


Cool, David. I'm going to ckeck mine out at the Black Swan jam tonight. And I love that it's named after my dear departed cat, who everyone always said was cool (even if he hated them)


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...i used mine for the first time in rehearsal last night. i was constantly tempted to use it INSTEAD of my clean tone!

very, very impressive! 



keefsdad said:


> Cool, David. I'm going to ckeck mine out at the Black Swan jam tonight. And I love that it's named after my dear departed cat, who everyone always said was cool (even if he hated them)


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

david henman said:


> ...i used mine for the first time in rehearsal last night. i was constantly tempted to use it INSTEAD of my clean tone!
> 
> very, very impressive!


Yeah, I tried mine at the Black Swan last night, very cool, although for me I'm going to try it with a little bit of hair on the amp, as opposed to totally clean.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...we should compare settings.



keefsdad said:


> Yeah, I tried mine at the Black Swan last night, very cool, although for me I'm going to try it with a little bit of hair on the amp, as opposed to totally clean.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

GuitarsCanada said:


> The V1 clearly sounds better to me, I wonder if he was duplicating all the settings completely


Am I the only one who finds GMD's demos basically useless? He has WAY more gain on the V1 pedal and is adjusting knobs on the V2 when it is OFF!!!

I own a Timmy and a V1 Dano. In fact, I was the first guy on TGP to note that the pedals sounded unbelivably similar (this was before the circuit was traced and the copying was confirmed). The Dano has just a tad more mids (not much) and can be eq'd elsewhere to sound idential. I actually prefer the Dano's jack and power locations (top loaded), but the controls are just horribly difficutl to adjust; that said, it is basically a set and forget pedal.

I also have a Dano V1 "Overdrive." It is an OCD clone (now changed). I A/B'd it extensively with my OCD (V4) and it sounds identical (but the Dano only has one "mode").

I haven't played the V2s of either pedal.

Now if Dano would just release a cool cat version of their "French Toast" pedal, I would be all over it.

TG


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

they sell the danelectro french toast here...

Long & McQuade - Products - Danelectro DJ-13 - French Toast Octave Distortion


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

jimihendrix said:


> they sell the danelectro french toast here...
> 
> Long & McQuade - Products - Danelectro DJ-13 - French Toast Octave Distortion


Thanks, but I a hoping they release a "Cool Cat" version (true bypass, metal jacks, etc) to replace the old "mini" series you link to above.

TG


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

#4 dsp switch on, gain knob full up, bass in the middle treble just slightly boosted, volume set just a bit higher than my clean sound, thru the clean channel on my hot rod deluxe, american strat with stock pups.
And you sir?


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

david henman said:


> ...we should compare settings.


#4 dsp switch on, gain knob full up, bass in the middle treble just slightly boosted, volume set just a bit higher than my clean sound, thru the clean channel on my hot rod deluxe, american strat with stock pups.
And you sir?


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

keefsdad said:


> #4 dsp switch on, gain knob full up, bass in the middle treble just slightly boosted, volume set just a bit higher than my clean sound, thru the clean channel on my hot rod deluxe, american strat with stock pups.
> And you sir?


...umm...where are the bass and treble controls? and what does the #4 dsp switch give you?


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

david henman said:


> ...umm...where are the bass and treble controls? and what does the #4 dsp switch give you?


I assume you mean bass and treble on the amp. Both around 3.5, mids about 8.
#4 DSP gives you more gain. If is use the pedal for riddem' I turn the guitar dpwn a bit.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

david henman said:


> ...umm...where are the bass and treble controls? and what does the #4 dsp switch give you?


 Check you tone knob carefully. It's actually two knobs with the outer one controlling bass and the inner one controlling treble! 

TG


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> Check you tone knob carefully. It's actually two knobs with the outer one controlling bass and the inner one controlling treble!
> 
> TG


Actually, it works in reverse on mine, I know thats what the manual says.


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

Any other comments on this pedal? I love it, but wish it had a bit more gain. It seems to sound better through the Traynor YCV40's at the Black Swan than it does through my HRDLX.


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

keefsdad said:


> Any other comments on this pedal? I love it, but wish it had a bit more gain. It seems to sound better through the Traynor YCV40's at the Black Swan than it does through my HRDLX.


...its a low gain pedal. i'm having a ball with mine. lots of high gain pedals out there.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

keefsdad said:


> Any other comments on this pedal? I love it, but wish it had a bit more gain. It seems to sound better through the Traynor YCV40's at the Black Swan than it does through my HRDLX.


This is a frequent source of misunderstanding. When you say you wish it had more gain, do you mean you wish it had more grind and distorted more, or you wish it had more output?

I'm not trying to be nitpicky here, but pedals can have gobs of "gain" but not clip at all, or have very modest gain (maybe even less than the Transparent Overdrive) and clip hard. They can also have gobs of gain, wads of clipping, but very little output.

To whit...

The venerable Tube Screamer has a maximum gain of 118x in its clipping stage. The MXR Distortion+, DOD250, and YGM308 have a maximum gain of 213x. They are known as distortion pedals, but have an annoyingly low-ish output, unless you dime the gain. The Lovepedal Eternity has a max gain of 511x, and the Hermida Zendrive is maxed out at 501x, yet both are often described as "low gain" pedals, even at the site where I got the information from.

Gain is gain. If it is applied to a device where the clipping threshold is set low enough, even modest gain will get you more grind. If you bump the clipping threshold up high enough (and that's what people often do with LEDs instead of regular diodes, or using more diodes, as the Timmy does), you can still throw lots of gain into the mix and not clip heavily.

If a person wanted more grind from a Transparent overdrive, the solution is easy: just swap one of the pairs of silicon diodes in the clipping section for germanium diodes.


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