Danelectro D-1 Fab Distortion

The Danelectro D-1 FAB Distortion is a distortion pedal from Danelectro's FAB series, the company's ultra-budget line built in plastic enclosures¹. It is one of several FAB pedals that covered the main effect types, alongside the FAB Metal distortion and the FAB Echo delay²¹. What made the line notable was the price: the FAB Distortion listed for $18.95, a figure JHS Pedals described as "bonkers"¹.

What it does

As its name says, the D-1 FAB Distortion is a distortion pedal: it pushes the guitar signal into clipping to produce a saturated, sustaining tone. It sits in the same broad family as Danelectro's other distortion offerings, from the DD-1 Fab Tone of the original Dano series to the later D-3 Fab Metal, which was aimed specifically at metal tones with Gain, Tone and Level controls².

The FAB series itself was a range of cheap plastic pedals covering the basics. JHS Pedals, in a history of Danelectro's budget lines, notes the family by its enclosure colors: the 600mS Delay is gold and the Echo is red¹. The FAB Distortion is the red plastic box often described as the overdrive-flavored member of the set³.

The circuit and the clone claims

The D-1's circuit has attracted more discussion than its price might suggest. It has been described as a clone of the Nobels ODR-1, the respected Japanese overdrive pedal, though that claim does not hold up under scrutiny. On the Guitar FX Layouts circuit blog, where the pedal was traced for DIY builders, a commenter noted that it is not an ODR-1 and uses only one IC³⁴.

JHS Pedals dug further and came up against a different story. According to the pedal's own marketing copy, the design was based on a pedal by a tiny Japanese effects maker from the late seventies, and a boutique maker later reissued that original box at $300 plus. JHS could not identify the source pedal:

The claim about the boutique reissue at $300 plus comes from the same copy¹. So the honest answer on the circuit is that its origin is unverified: the ODR-1 clone story is disputed, and the Japanese-ancestor story has never been confirmed.

What reviewers said

The clearest published verdict comes from JHS Pedals, who despite not solving the circuit mystery gave the pedal a straightforward endorsement:

That is worth setting against the wider record on Danelectro's budget distortions. The earlier Fab Tone, a different pedal from the original Dano series, drew far harsher comments from Audiofanzine users, one of whom called it "a piece of junk" and complained that the distortion overpowered everything even with the knob all the way down⁵. The FAB Distortion, by contrast, has no such published verdict against it, and its strongest review is positive.

Where it sits in Danelectro's line

Danelectro has a long history of distortion pedals at both ends of the price scale. The FAB Distortion represents the floor: under twenty dollars, plastic, and simple. Above it sit pedals like the Cool Cat Distortion, the mini-series pedals such as the T-Bone Distortion, and modern metal-box releases like the Roebuck and the Nichols 66. For a player weighing options, the FAB series is the entry point, and the FAB Distortion is its distortion.

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