Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus: More Humane Than Storing A Litter Of Singing Kittens In Your Freezer
Journey vicariously back in time as we take a look at the retro-chic Danelectro Cool Cat Chorus. Owen O'Malley slicks his hair back and rolls a pack of Marlboro's into his sleeve to demo this chorus pedal and its subtle to detuned range of chorus sounds.
Will it be enough to impress Sandy Olsson into going with him to the box social?
OWEN O'MALLEY: Welcome back to Gearwire.Com. This is Owen O'Malley. We're going to be taking a look at the Danelectro Cool Cat pedal. This is unlike the new Danelectro Cool Cat line that came out. This was part of the original Danelectro effects pedals that came out about 10 years ago. There were three of them: There was the Daddy-O which is an overdrive, the Fab Tone which is a distortion pedal, and the Cool Cat which is a stereo chorus pedal. A very simple control layout, there's speed, which basically controls the chorus speed, and chill, which basically controls the depth of the effect. It is a stereo effect. There is a left and right output although it does work in mono. It operates off of two 9-volt batteries. I think it's because there's separate oscillators or technical stuff. I'll find out for you, but that basically also means that if you want to run it off a wall-wart, you got to find an 18-volt wall wart. I'm wondering if you could see that, 18 volts right there, not the easiest powering to find in a wall-wart, but let's get this thing hooked up and hear how it sounds.
So we got our studio Stratocaster running through our Danelectro Cool Cat in stereo. We're running into a Fender Blues Junior and a Blackheart BH512 Little Giant. Let's just hear our clean tone first.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT BYPASSED]
Now let's turn this guy on.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED]
It's a nice wide stereo chorus effect. The speed knob here, let's see how that affects the sound. Right now, it's just a t 12 o'clock here so let's turn it down a bit.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB TURNED DOWN]
You can still hear a slight modulation. Let's turn it all the way up.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB CRANKED UP]
We got a little detuning going on, and let's bring it back to center, and chill is at center right now.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB CENTER, CHILL KNOB CENTER]
Let's bring it back to off.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB CENTER, CHILL KNOB OFF]
There's nothing going on. Let's bring it all the way up.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB CENTER, CHILL KNOB CRANKED UP]
A lot of detuning when chill is all the way up. It almost -- It really just increases the depth of the effect which is offers a lot more detuning than maybe some chorus effects do.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB CENTER, CHILL KNOB CRANKED UP]
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB CRANKED UP, CHILL KNOB CRANKED UP]
That's with both knobs up all the way.
[OWEN O'MALLEY PLAYING GUITAR WITH THE DANELECTRO COOL CAT ENGAGED, SPEED KNOB CRANKED UP, CHILL KNOB CRANKED UP]
So there you go. That was the Danelectro Cool Cat, the original Cool Cat chorus pedal. You've been watching Gearwire.Com. I'm Owen O'Malley. See you again soon.
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