Review : ThorpyFX The Dane

I first encountered the idea of The Dane watching Anderton’s TV.   The product was created by Adrian Thorp for Peter Honere aka Danish Pete.  The Dane is similar in concept to a number of dual purpose pedals having both a boost and an overdrive section.The big challenge for me is to find a combo unit that delivers a clean boost, that doesn’t immediately push the amp into an overdriven sound.  In my mind a proper boost just gives volume, but without introducing harmonic distortions or otherwise colouring the tone.  The higher the output from your pickups, the harder this appears to be to achieve.  Even dedicated boost pedals seem to struggle with this.  Funny enough my old Radial Booster did a really good job but had no controls, so you just got one level of boost and that was not enough control for me.  So I went looking for alternatives, tried a bunch, bought a few, but nothing really did it for me until…The Dane.As I live in Canada, and The Dane is what is called a boutique pedal, I was very pleased to discover a Canadian company that specializes in boutique pedals.  It is called Electric Mojo Guitars and my contact there is a very nice fellow by name of Charles Cote.  They have a store on Amazon and also sell via their own online store.  I have to say that the experience of dealing with these folks has been stellar.  I've had follow-on conversations with Charles on other topics and he is always extremely responsive.The Dane is marketed as a mild overdrive with boost.  The boost is very clean, but you will have to work with the settings to keep it clean with your amp.  It does a lovely job into my Vox AC30 or the PRS Dallas.  Into a Marshall Custom Super Lead or Silver Jubilee, it is less effective at staying clean, because those amps like to leap to overdriven tones pretty quickly.  The Koch Multitone, handles the boost quite well.  My practice Blackstar HT-5 is in the middle between the Vox and the Silver Jubilee.  i like a boost that opens up the tone, not one that compresses it.  The Dane does a terrific job at this.  It’s now occupying a permanent slot in my Vox pedal board.The overdrive is, in my opinion, lovely.  There’s a really nice voice to it, with some great harmonic overtones.  On an amp with good headroom, it opens up things really nicely.  I am not a fan of distortion or fuzz personally, and The Dane gives a great tone, when engaged into a naturally clean amp.  Using The Dane into an amp that happily overdrives even on the normal channel is a nice exercise in sustain creation.  By manipulating the controls, you get beautiful tone, that doesn’t get squished and doesn’t get that edge that hurts your teeth.  In my opinion, it’s better into a naturally clean amp.  I wish I had a HiWatt to try it in as I suspect it would be great.  The Dane is all solid state, but produces a sound that I would say is similar to using the Radial Tonebone unit into the clean channel of a Mesa Boogie.  You get all the overdrive sound, without compromising individual note tone.Backing off the guitar volume control cleans things up very nicely.  While some units allow you to put the Boost either in front of or after the Overdrive, The Dane fixes the order as Boost -> Overdrive.  I have other pedals that allow flipping such as the Keeley D&M which I also own and will review on its own, but for my specific use cases The Dane does precisely what I want the way I would like it done.I like the Vox best with single coils or low output humbuckers.  I recently acquired a Fender Custom Shop ’67 Telecaster Relic and its pickups sound like nothing else.  It’s brighter and janglier than my other Telecasters and when paired with the Vox it’s just a treat.  Having The Dane in the chain in front of the amp, I can push the Vox a little bit with the boost but still play at liveable volume with the overdrive engaged.  I like the idea of the mild overdrive as it adds sustain and a bit of grit, especially with the neck pickup and doesn’t get muddy or bassy.You can buy ThorpyFX products online from their store and they do ship to Canada.  I found mine via a dealer in Quebec who has a presence on the Amazon.ca marketplace.  Delivery was fast, price was good, and Amazon eliminates a lot of hassles when things don’t work out.I do have one complaint.  I find that I have had to memorize which knob is which, because the engraved labels on the stainless steel facing are nearly impossible for me to read even in decent light.  This may be just me and my aging eyes, but if I were playing on a dark stage, (I’m not) this could be a hassle.Highly recommended!