Danelectro Rocky Road Review
Danelectro Rocky Road Rotating Speaker Simulator
The Danelectro Rocky Road DJ-20 could be a really cool little effect pedal…with a few tiny tweaks.
First off, it’s basically a subtle flanger. I’ve used a flanger in the past to simulate a Leslie sound, with pretty good results. And this is apparently what Dano has done with this pedal, adding features that simulate the ramp-up and run-down of the rotation speed.
Danelectro Rocky Road Features:
Speed and drive control,
ramp speed switch,
ramp foot switch,
bypass foot switch,
9V power jack,
in/out jacks
The GOOD
The sound effect itself is pretty good. It really does give a decent impression of a Leslie speaker, especially at the fast speed.
The ‘ramp’ setting switch. This is to give you a slow or fast ramp-up/run-down to and from the slow to fast speed.
The ‘ramp’ footswitch. Nice touch; simulates the ramp-up/run-down of a real rotating speaker’s drive motor.
Speed control, lets you set the ‘rotation’ speed rate.
The BAD
On the DJ-20 unit I tested, there is a definite volume boost when the unit is kicked in, despite the ‘drive’ knob being set at minimum. And as with almost all flanger devices, there’s a distinct boost in the high frequencies as well.
‘Drive’ control…not so good. The range of this control goes from a mild volume boost at its minimum setting to a huge amount of boost and clipping at the highest setting. Perhaps this control should be re-purposed into simply an output level control (and with no clipping/distortion) to offset or reduce that volume boost I mentioned above, or to accentuate it, if you wish. If you want distortion along with the Leslie effect, I think it would be better to add that via a separate pedal for better control of it.
‘Ramp’ switch…I don’t really find much of a difference between the two positions. Good concept, but not all that well executed. I’d like to see a larger difference between the ramp-up speed settings.
Danelectro DJ-20 Overall Impressions
I haven’t opened up this unit to really check out the way it’s built. But if it’s not built with surface-mount components and if all the individual components on the circuit board are discrete and easily changed out, this could be a really good candidate for a ‘modder’ to play with.
Perhaps the ramp setting is accomplished simply by switching between two resistors or caps in the circuit to control the ramp-up/run-down rate. If that’s the case, I could see someone tweaking this thing out a bit to yield much better and more musically useful results. And maybe the ‘drive’ control could be tamed to some degree, so as to actually create a range of settings from a small drop in output compared to input, up to a positive boost level that’s much less than the degree of boost it currently produces. Oh, and it should lose the clipping that seems to come with the ‘drive’ control on the DJ-20.
Danelectro Rocky Road Summary
In general, the Danelectro DJ-20 pedal is a very nice idea, with a good concept of the controls needed for such a unit to simulate the way a Leslie speaker works and sounds. And at certain settings, it does indeed give a good impression of a Leslie speaker. But it seems lacking in the execution of those controls and the way they affect the operation of the unit. Again, if this thing is physically/electronically ‘tweakable’, it could be turned into something very effective and musical.
As it comes out of the box, the DJ-20 just falls a bit short of being quite as useful as the number of knobs & switches, and their labeling, would suggest. I feel that Danelectro put a good deal of thought into the design concept, but much less into the actual execution of the design concept. Still, it can be reasonably useful as-is. I like it with the ‘drive’ setting at minimum, the ramp switch set at ‘fast’, and the ‘speed’ knob set about 40 to 60%; basically near the middle. At those settings, it’s something I could see sitting on my pedal board for occasional use. But even if it were a perfect unit, the Danelectro Rocky Road isn't really an effect that I’d want to use overmuch.
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