The Danelectro Grilled Cheese Distortion is a distortion pedal from Danelectro's food-named line of compact pedals. As the name suggests, it sits alongside other food-themed Danelectro drives such as the Danelectro DJ-13 French Toast Octave Distortion Mini and the Danelectro DJ-16 Bacon & Eggs Mini Amp/Distortion. A smaller version, the Danelectro DJ-10C Grilled Cheese Distortion Mini, carries the same name in the mini format.
What it does
The Grilled Cheese is, at its core, a straightforward distortion with one twist. Writing in a history of Danelectro's food pedals, JHS Pedals described it as "basically a distortion with a resonance knob," meaning the pedal adds a control that shapes the low-end emphasis of the distorted tone rather than the gain and level controls alone1. For a player, a resonance control works on the character of the distortion's bass response, letting the pedal sit differently in a mix than a fixed-voice drive.
The pedal also carries a mark of press recognition, at least on the writer's own example. JHS Pedals' writer noted that his unit "still has the original sticker that says Guitar Player Editor's Pick Award," a detail from his personal collection that points to coverage in Guitar Player at some point in the pedal's life1. His overall verdict was more mixed: "it's not a greatly useful pedal, but it is a food pedal"1.
How reviewers see it
JHS Pedals' assessment is candid about where the pedal sits in Danelectro's catalog. In their words1:
"it's not a greatly useful pedal, but it is a food pedal"
That verdict frames the Grilled Cheese as a curiosity of the food pedal line rather than a working player's staple, an honest take for anyone weighing it against Danelectro's larger drives like the Danelectro Fab Tone or the Danelectro Roebuck. For more on the wider category, see Distortion Pedals1.
Videos
Banana for Scale
Joe Sampson
Cryptic Mask Guitar
Sources (1)
- PEDALS VS FOOD, JHS Pedals
