Okay, I know that when I bought my POD, I figured my days of pedal purchasing were over. However, I did leave myself a wee loophole: I could still buy any pedal whose effect was not to be found within the POD's rather extensive array.

So, how could I still justify buying something like the French Toast pedal? Sure, it's cute and it's cheap, but still, isn't it just another fuzz box?

Well, not exactly.

Dano calls it an "Octave Distortion" pedal. In addition to your standard fuzz box controls (Level, Dist, and EQ), there's a little switch (and boy, do I mean little). Flip the switch and engage an octave up effect. Unlike the BOSS Octave and others of that ilk, the French Toast gives you a note above the one you're playing. This effect can be quite interesting, to say the least.

Jimi Hendrix used an octave up effect rather often, most noticeably in the closing licks of "Purple Haze". Until I tried out the Toast, I had always assumed that those freaky-sounding notes had been created by speeding up the tape. Not so!

Speaking of musical history, the French Toast is actually based on the same circuitry as was used in the Foxx Tone Machine, a pedal which saw life in the early 70's.

Back to the present day. What do I think of the French Toast?

In a word: AMAZING!

I first tried it out with my Strat and the POD. The trick was to dial in relatively clean tones on the amp simulations and let the Toast do all the dirty work. The pedal really dazzled with the Black Panel setting.

The octave up is a wicked effect. If you're looking for something that's unique, you have to check this out. The quality of the effect has to be heard to be believed. Much to my amazement, every note was tracked cleanly, even when I bent and shook the notes. That's incredible for a low cost pedal which comes in a plastic case!

As you might guess, it's really easy to micmic that high-pitched keening as heard on "Purple Haze". The higher up one goes on the fretboard, the more pronounced this effect becomes. however, I noticed that the lower notes really benefit from the this effect. I could play power fifths on the bottom two strings, and the octave up actually seemed to thicken up the sound. Very effective!

So the French Toast is a great one trick pony, right? That octave effect is a nice little trick to be pulled out for special occasions, right?

Not quite. Once I flipped the effect off, I realized that I was listening to one very impressive distortion box. I own a fair number of distortion pedals, and the French Toast is as good as any of them. If you're looking for a pedal that can crank out some thick creamy tone, look no further!

Now, realize that I was playing through the POD. While I really love my red bean, I know it's not quite the same as playing through a tube amp. As many of us already know, a lot of distortion pedals can't recreate their magic when they make the move over to tube. I have a 1965 Fender Princeton amp which is a Tone Marvel, and more than a few of my pedals simply sound lousy when they get hooked up.

So I decided to put the Toast up to the test.

And it passed with flying colors.

A few tips. I used my Strat, and discovered that the Toast sounds really creamy if I turned down my guitar's tone control. It's a good idea to watch the EQ control on the Toast as well. Crank it up too much and you'll scrape all the wax off your eardrums. Turn the Dist down (below the halfway point)to get the best octave up results.

The Toast continued to surprise me. Out of curiosity's sake, I turned the Dist all the way down. I then raised the Level to compensate for the sound reduction. Lo and behold, the Toast produced a sweet crunchy overdrive. The Strat's own character was enhanced, not obscured. In fact, I was able to crank up the Level and use it to overdrive the amp.

Obviously, I am very impressed by this pedal.

However, I have to be honest and say that the French toast has a few physical limitations which prevent it from being very useful in live situations. In fact, I don't think I'd even use it to jam with friends. First, the pedal does not have a LED to let you know when it's engaged. Second, the octave up switch is very tiny and placed between the Dist and EQ knobs. There is no way a guitarist can turn on the effect within a song. This is fine if you only want to use the Toast for the octave up effect, but then you lose the use of the that great distortion. I suppose one could buy two Toasts and set them side by side, but then you won't know which one is in use, or if they both are, right?

And then there is the entire question of the pedal's construction. It's plastic, for goodness sake! I've already heard too many stories about people having the knobs fall off their Dano mini-pedals. in fact ,the problem is so bad that my local music chain will not carry any more mini-pedals. That was a major reason why I bought the Toast, as it was the last one they had in stock.

I truly believe that Danelectro should re-issue this pedal as part of their "full size" line (which includes the Daddy-O, Fab Tone, and three new pedals). Give it a solid metal case, a second footswitch to engage the octave effect, and oh yes, some LEDs, and they'd have a real winner on their hands. The distortion alone would make this a pedal to be reckoned with.

Update: someone beat them to it! Read all about it here!