The Guitar Junkie

I have been reading one too many raving reviews about the Danelectro Cool Cat pedals. The most raved about pedal in that line of affordable stompboxes is the Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive. I have been trying to get a hold of it for quite some time but somehow it always seems to be out of stock when i visit the guitar store. Is it really that good?

I managed to pick one up from the store once i got a tip off about new stocks that has just arrived. This is my take on the Danelectro cool cat transparent overdrive running through my VOX AD100VT and through a Fender American Standard Telecaster on Clean Boutique pre amp.

I was very impressed with the tone of this stompbox. The reviews were true. How could a $38 pedal sound so good?! Maybe it is because of it's cheap price tag that make consumers not pin point the flaws on this range of stompboxes. Besides, the flaws that i could say about this pedal is all in the cosmetics department.

Tone wise,  I ran a shoot out comparison with my main overdrive pedal which is the Digitech Hardwire CM2 Tube Overdrive which street values values around the $160 - $180 mark. The Trasparent overdrive could match the CM2 in tone. It's a very very close call. From clean boost to drive levels set to the max i have to painfully admit that the transparent overdrive won in the transparency department but in high gain mode, the CM2 edges out with a bit more bite and grit when set to modified mode on the CM2.

Personally, I think that the knobs on the back of the cool cat is kinda dumb. It makes tweaking a little more difficult comapred to the normal knobs on the top. The blue LED light is pretty in the dark comapred to the more common red LED's on BOSS pedals. I'm using a biyang noiseless adaptor on this as my power source and it's a fairly quiet unit. Not to mention It's also true bypass. Well, at least the sticker on the front of the pedal says so.

Construction wise, It's housed in a metal case with metal input & outut. 4 knobs on the back. Volume, Treble/Bass & Gain. It's a little hard to dial in on the bass knobs as the knob is shared with the treble knob. The knobs are very close to each other and accidental dials happen to their neighbours occasionally. It's built very sturdy and built like it could handle some hard stomps. The main footswitch is pretty tight. Needs some seasoning stomps but it's all good,

A nice touch from Danelectro! This pedal has some minor details in the package. The pedal comes with a cool Danelectro 9v battery. Very nice retro looking battery and also some stickers. 9 of them to be exact. Box candies....

My Conclusion:

Danelectro has made a very affordable pedal for guitarist who do not wish to splurge on exotic boutique pedals that cost 5-10 times more than a cool cat. It's one of those pedals you hate to love but can't help being part of your pedal board family. Some players who are into "boutique" pedals will be ashamed just to even own or mention this pedal and just keep this pedal as their dirty little secret hidden from thier peers. It's price and affordibility means almost anyone can own this. For just $38, this ugly greenish brown box can really produce some serious tones that can rival some famous tubescreamers in the market.

The Transparent Overdrive impressed me so much that i went out to pick up another Danelectro Cool Cat  pedal. The Danelectro Cool Cat Fuzz! Same small price but big on tone. I highly recommend it.

Rate: 8.5/10