Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive Re-House

When the Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive V1 was released into the market. Many guitarist were so amazed at how this pedal sounded for a mere SGD$38. It was so good that people were calling it an exact clone/copy of Paul Cochrane’s Timmy pedal minus the waiting list and Fugly housing. The big turn off on this pedal would be how it looks. Many Cool Cat users hated how the knobs were placed on the pedal. It’s hard to access and tweak with the knobs placed so close together on the top side of the pedal. The green metal housing is a big turn off for many users too.

I decided to take this pedal apart and see what I could do with it. I love the tone of this pedal enough to want to try a re-house. The big problem here was to relocate the existing PCB mounted pots to the face of the housing and sadly, my un-steady hands messed up the pedal to the point that it made screeching noises when activated. It’s always good to attempt it before bringing it to the pros. It’s a good learning curve to attempt it even if there were risks involved. But in this case, the risk were not too costly so i guess it's ok.

So I took it to one of our local guitar techs to complete the job. Low and behold the Danelectro Cool Cat Transparent Overdrive Re-Housed with 4 knobs on its face, 9v dc on its side, battery compartment removed and housing painted.

BEFORE

AFTER

The Insides

Stripped!

Painted in Florecent Pink and Dried With My Wife's Nail Dryer Machine.

Just When You Thought Manicures Are Dumb.

Re-Assembled & Soldered

The Final Product!

The new housing now spots 4 knobs. Volume, Treble, Bass and Gain. The new pots used are 100k pots. I bet scott could not find 20k and 50k pots locally as these don't come by easily unless you have them shipped over. Changed the blue LED to a bright white LED, Changed the 3DPDT switch and new switchcraft inputs. Tone remains the same but just that the pots are more sensitive as the value for the new pots are higher and needs some getting used to in tweaking but it still beats the original placements of the PCB mounted pots. I have yet to get some waterslide decals to have fonts applied... On second thought, I might just leave it as it is. The lazy factor is kicking in after so much work.

Credits to Scott from Sound Alchemy for the re-house and also to my lovely wife for loaning her beloved Nail Dryer to me.

I'll name this pedal.....

THE HAIRY PUSSY !

Cat

Transparent Overdrive !