30 Pedals in 30 Days 2015: Donner Pedals

 

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Don’t forget to check out the vids at the bottom and enter to win the Randall Amplifier Give-Away, yo!

Check out seven pedals in one video for 30 Pedals in 30 Days 2015? Sounds like a challenge to us. And, TheToneKing.com never shies away from a challenge. Today, my friends, prepared to be blown out of your seat by the sevenfold power of Donner Pedals—including the Blues Drive Overdrive, Morpher Distortion, Giant Metal, Stylish Fuzz, a nice looper pedal, Jet Convolution Flanger, Tutti Love Chorus, and the Yellow Fall Delay. And, because we ain’t afraid of nuthin’, we’re going to top the whole thing off by checking out the DP-1 Effect Pedal Power Supply.

Donner pedals remind us of old-school BOSS pedals. You know. The days when the freaking “flanger” was a freaking flanger and didn’t promise cook you eggs George Foreman style while giving you sloppy roadhead. While some manufacturers are trying to overload their pedals with features that nobody gives a flying crap about, Donner is giving players what they’re looking for.

Guess what? You pay for those extraneous features of some of those other brands too. By cutting back on the stuff that nobody really asked for, Donner is able to concentrate on providing affordable,  indestructible pedals with killer sound. Every pedal comes with true bypass, full metal construction, and lots of features that enhance the sound you’re looking for instead of getting in the way. Also, because of the full metal construction, these mini pedals won’t be dancing around your pedalboard while you’re in the middle of that killer guitar solo. With these being so affordable, players can build a respectable pedalboard without breaking the bank. Hell, the power supply is only $45 bucks. Now that’s a freaking bargain.

Did I mention that these things sound great too?

Here are the highlights:

IMG_7230Blues Drive Overdrive

“Hot” and “Warm” two tone mode. Hot punches you in the face while Warm cuddles with you afterwards. Great for classic gooey blues tones or the sharp edge of contemporary dues like Joe Bonamassa.

 

IMG_7231Morpher Distortion

Hell with buying a full stack. Just get this little monster and throw it in front of a tube amp and you’re there. Well rounded mids fatten your tone without sounding brittle. The clip inside the pedal is JRC4558D which kills in any of the pedals three modes—Natural, Tight, and Classic.

IMG_7232Giant Metal

This pedal takes “balls to the wall” and adds more balls and a bigger wall. Hi boost will likely destroy everything in its path. Unlink many metal pedals, though, this one is more dynamic. Two high gains and three boos levels—Off, Lo, and Hi—provide an abundance of killer metal tones.

 

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Stylish Fuzz

From violin sweetness to womp and growl, it’s as versatile as it is stylish. Three easy knobs deliver classic fuzz tone at a reasonable price.

 

IMG_7234Jet Convolution Flanger

Soar through the clouds with a classic analog flanger tone. Manual filter mode with no automatic frequency sweep. About as clean as it gets.

 

IMG_7235Tutti Love Chorus

Three knobs. Not 70. Traditional chorus tone. Everything sounds clean and natural and reacts well to different pickup configurations.

 

IMG_7236Yellow Fall Delay

Pure analog circuit surrounded by an aluminum allow chassis. Durable construction with plump, smooth, and clear delay.

 

IMG_7238DP-1 Effect Pedal Power Supply

 A big freaking deal. Affordable with a metric shit ton of power options.

 

Checking out seven pedals gave The Tone King a chance to teach us all an important lesson—Where you put your pedal matters! Some effects like giving it to your amp from the front. Others from behind. How do you know if your effect likes it missionary or doggystyle? That’s why we’re here to give you the lowdown.

If you pay careful attention to the vid, The Tone King set up the front end with the Blues Drive Overdrive, Morpher Distortion, Giant Metal, Stylish Fuzz. That’s because these pedals can drive your preamp tubes, leading to better saturation and a better harmonic response.

In the FX loop, King dropped in the Delay, Chorus, and Flanger. Some of these effects can push your preamp tubes in funky directions, leading to an inconsistent sound. Also, the signal that comes from your FX loop is a low impedance signal, which means it can travel farther without much degradation in the signal. This makes your Delay, Chorus, and Flanger sound cleaner and crisper.

If you don’t know already, there’s also a term that you should memorize and say to yourself like a Buddhist mantra every time you’re building a rig. “Order of Effects.” Meaning, “Get your shit in order, dude!” Want to get some of that Zakk Wylde action, put your delay in front of your chorus. Looking to tap into your inner Van Halen? Then, go delay then flanger.

Donner gives players what they’re looking for without requiring a doctorate degree in “what the hell does this thing do?” For some, bells and whistles are pedals that are so far removed from the original concept of a chorus or a flanger that it’s barely recognizable. And there’s nothing wrong with that. For Donner Pedals, bells and whistles building durable, great sounding pedals that are versatile enough to cover a wide range of tones, but at the end of the day still does what it’s supposed to do. We here at TheToneKing.com were able to build a quality sounding pedal board for less than half the price with Donner’s Blues Drive Overdrive, Morpher Distortion, Giant Metal, Stylish Fuzz, Jet Convolution Flanger, Tutti Love Chorus, and the Yellow Fall Delay. And to us, that’s a killer deal.

 

 

 

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Filed Under: FeaturedNewsEvents3P3D-2015

About the Author: Marc published his first novel Becoming in 2010. It’s a kick-ass book with monsters and dreams and stuff, and you should buy it. Since then, he’s written thousands of articles for TheToneKing.com, many of which have been picked up for circulation by manufacturers and other news outlets. His next book, Drugs and Pancakes, should be available early 2014 if his alcoholic editor can find time to work on it in-between destroying his liver and screaming about punctuation. He graduated from Roosevelt University with honors, which means that he’s not as dumb as he looks. He’s been playing guitar for over 25 years, which is almost twice as long as most of his students have been alive.

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