Danelectro Wasabi Rock-a-Bye

The Danelectro Wasabi Rock-a-Bye is a delay/overdrive stompbox from the Wasabi series, a line of pedals that JHS Pedals has described as Danelectro's "lost" pedal line. It puts two effects in one box: a delay whose time control sits on a large slider with its own footswitch, and a two-knob overdrive. Writing in a buying guide, Dirk Wacker called it "A fantastic sounding stompbox for this sound is the Danelectro 'Wasabi Rock-a-bye' delay/overdrive."¹

What it does

The pedal's two sections can be used together or separately. The delay side is unusual for a compact pedal: the delay time is set on a big slider rather than a knob, and that slider has its own footswitch, so the delay time can be changed or engaged from the floor.²

The overdrive side is a simple two-knob design. On his JHS Pedals video covering the Wasabi series, Josh Scott said it is "which is going to most likely be from the food series, one of those two-knob like the pastrami", placing its lineage with Danelectro's food-named pedals such as the Pastrami overdrive.²

A third feature sets the Rock-a-Bye apart from its Wasabi siblings: a high cut switch. Scott demonstrated it switched on and said, "Um high cut on and off. I'm going to have that on. That's a feature that's only on this pedal."²

Running two amps

The Rock-a-Bye also offers an echo-out-only routing. Scott explained: "it also has the really cool feature that you can go echo out only, so you could do two amps and have this like really in". In practice, that means the delayed signal can be sent to a second amp while the dry signal stays with the first, a spread that players using two amps can dial in from the pedal itself.²

Click to load

Where it sits in the Danelectro range

The overdrive side of the Rock-A-Bye most likely draws from Danelectro's Food series, the two-knob pedals such as the pastrami, according to Josh of JHS Pedals, who looked inside the pedal². The delay sits on a big slider with its own footswitch, and the high cut on/off switch is a feature he says is only on this pedal². For a broader look at what this kind of circuit does, see Overdrive Pedals.

Videos

Click to load

Click to load

Click to load