The Danelectro Billionaire Pride Of Texas is an overdrive pedal, made in China, from Danelectro's Billionaire series1. It is aimed at adding push and fatness to a guitar's signal: the maker's description, read out on That Pedal Show, ties it to "the bluesy tone of one of the greatest players to ever walk the earth" and says it "fattens up the signal without a loss of clarity or voice", adding push and fatness to a single coil or humbucker, with plenty of boost for crunch, rhythm or solos2.
The price Guitar.com gives is £89 in the UK, quoted in pounds sterling as published.
Controls
The pedal keeps to a simple four-knob layout with a bypass footswitch1.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Volume | Sets the pedal's output level1 |
| Gain | Sets the amount of drive1 |
| Treble | Cuts or boosts the top end1 |
| Bass | Cuts or boosts the low end1 |
| Footswitch | Bypass on and off1 |
One detail That Pedal Show picked up on: the pedal ships with suggested settings written for that specific pedal rather than one shared manual for the whole range. As Dan put it on the show, "it's actually suggested settings for that pedal, which is great"2.
What reviewers heard
Guitar.com's reviewer Michael Watts was positive about the pedal's character in his March 2018 review:
"Pleasingly mid-heavy and grunty, the Pride of Texas adds real bite and focus to the sound, tightening up the bottom end"
That places it on the thicker, mid-forward side of the overdrive family rather than the transparent end. If you want to hear how it sits against other approaches, the site's Overdrive Pedals page covers the type as a whole, and Danelectro's own range runs from the Cool Cat Drive and Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive to the Billionaire-series Cash Cow Overdrive and the Daddy O DO-1 Overdrive1.
Hearing it demoed
That Pedal Show plugged the Pride Of Texas in during its October 2018 Pick'N'Mix episode, combining it with the JHS Unicorn V2, the Keeley Retro Super Germanium Phat Mod and Thorpy FX The Fat General. Dan and Mick worked from the maker's description of the pedal, quoting its promise of added push and fatness without a loss of clarity or voice, and noted the pedal-specific suggested settings card2.
Videos
ProGuitarShopDemos
R.J. Ronquillo
Phillip McKnight
Sources (2)
- Danelectro Billionaire Pedals, Guitar.com, 2018-03-21
- Keeley RS Phat Mod, JHS Unicorn V2, Dano Pride Of Texas, Thorpy Fat General, That Pedal Show, 2018-10-16
