Re-examining the Danelectro Wasabi Overdrive

[Mossy Moss]

I've had this thing on my desk for a couple of years as a paper weight. I bought it on a whim, and thought it was okay, but way too big and not very versatile.

 

Well, just for giggles I plugged it in on my pedal board and gave it another shot. It's pretty good! It still doesn't offer a lot of GOOD sounds. The five position tone switch is mostly useless, except the AM radio sound is fun. The rest are too mid scoopy and artificial. So I keep that switch off. The tone knob isn't very effective - you have to crank it up to get a clear tone. But what really makes this thing awesome is the blend control.

 

With 100% effect you get a typical Tube Screamer type sound, nothing special. But at 50% mix, all of the typical stomp box grit goes away. You can tell it's overdriven, but there's no roughness. It reminds me of my old Fender Super Reverb when it was just loud enough to get kind of saturated. Overdriven but not. It sounds cool! The boost is nice too.

 

I wonder if this is basically a Sparkle Drive with some extra features.

 

They should make a simpler version of this and squeeze it into one of those Cool Cat true bypass pedals. I think this is one Danelectro's best overdrives. Too bad it's so huge.

 

Maybe I should just buy a Sparkle Drive.

[big_cat]

The two drives in the cool cat line are already pretty fantastic.

[Tnetennba]

You've got sweet style!

[jcksn1234]

i feel the same way about my wasabi delay. it is alright and has a lot of delay time, but it is so big and weighs a ton.

[Reaganomics!]

I have a Wasabi OD that I got for 20 bucks. I thought it sounded pretty good on its own with the settings you described, and the boost was pretty useful. However, I felt like it didn't stack with other dirt pedals or amp distortion very well. That coupled with the unreasonable size got it replaced by a TS7. I wish the TS7 had the blend and could get as transparent as the Dano but it's a better tubescreamer sound.