To start off this section, im writing down my thoughts on this pedal.
Regardless of what the manufacturers claim, all overdrive effects/pedals color your original tone. Whether subtle or overt, it adds or subtracts certain frequencies from the original sound, and ultimately alters it.
The Transparent overdrive ENHANCES the tone, in my opinion, and it does it so well, its scary.
being a tube amp snob (ha ha), ive always wanted to coax guitar tones straight from just the tube amp and the guitar. The less effects between, the better. Or i should say the less non-tube effects the better (Ive always like the sound of tube reverb). I do admit adding color time and again, to spice things up.
Ive tried several distortion, overdrive, and fuzz pedals before, and ive always been able to tell the difference between straight-tube tone, and that with a pedal. Theyre not bad per se, and it all depends on what youre looking for, and/or how you use them.
It so happens ive been looking for an overdrive pedal that straight up amplifies the original sound, with very little to no sound coloring. Ive owned a TS-9 for years (the cheap ibanez soundtank version), and ive found that even when the gain is rolled back, the pedal accentuates part of the higher mids a bit much. Even when i modded it to the original tubescreamer component values, it still made the sound different. A friend of mine owned an old DOD preamp pedal, and THAT did the job, although the increase in volume or gain wasnt much from unity. I needed something that truly amplifies the original sound a whole lot more.
i tried the ART tube mice preamp, but it was a bit cumbersome, and the sound just provided too much feedback in the lowest levels. I may have been able to work with it, but im a firm believer in the most minimal tweaking.
Danelectro came out with the Coolcat series, and i decided to jump on one. I tried out the Danelectro Drive first, due to its price ($24!), and its allmetal construction and true bypass switch were attractive features. but it sounded too hot for me. If anything its a mild distortion pedal.
my test is to roll back the gain to zero, dime out the tone, and slowly bring up the volume, while turning it off and on when playing to find the unity level.
i ended up buying the Transparent Overdrive, which was considerably a lot more change ($39). I was glad i grabbed one.
Going back to my original statement, effects color your tone. The transparent overdrive not only does that, but it does it so in a phenomenal fashion. Doing my simple test, it easily amplifies the guitar sound with amazing clarity. I can describe the sound as having a certain "brilliance", almost a sparkling tone once the pedal is switched on. I think of it as playing the graphic EQ on a stereo, giving you the ability to shape the original FLAT sound with a much better output. The highs are clearer, the lows are tighter. The output much stronger. This is truly a special pedal for the purpose im looking for.
Essentially i wanted to be able to push a tube amp more without the degradation or alteration of the original sound, giving way to the tubes' own sound, instead of the pedal doing all the distortion.
The Danelectro Transparent Overdrive lives up to its name superbly.
That being said, the pedal has been compared and scrutinized by pedal afficionados as being a boutique pedal copy, that of Robert Keeley's. There HAS been some mixed reactions to this. One camp is outraged at what is perceived to be a "stolen" idea, another rejoices in bringing a product down to the masses to very affordable prices. The third camp (of which i belong to) is just happy a product does well.
ANd apparently this has come to the attention of Danelectro themselves (whether by a lawsuit, or the avoidance of one). They have already advertised a SECOND version of the Transparent Overdrive (CTO-2). Whether they will phase out CTO-1, im not sure, but i would suggest getting one now, in any case they decide to stop making them.
the CTO-2:
http://www.danelectro.com/effects_10.html
I will most likely buy this pedal too, to try it out.
i dont understand why theres an UNDER THE HOOD switch - why not just have it easily accessible like say, on the front or top? i smell a mod coming, and its not even out yet!
I ended up buying a second CTO-1, for use with my bass guitar. I found the nastiest coolest sounding fuzz that still holds down a strong low-end in the form of combining the CTO-1 with another coolcat, the CM-1 metal distortion pedal. It CTO-1 adds a crazy fizzy top end to the CM-1, much to my liking. Im sure theres a fuzz pedal out there that can equate this sound, but if i already have it here, i dont see any reason to go out and keep looking.
If i was to strip my pedals down to bare minimum (yeah, right!), the CTO-1 included in the short list.
