00:00my first pedal board was four pieces of
00:02wood some carpet and a few screws that
00:05my dad helped me put together danelectro
00:07covered half of that board and many more
00:10of their pedals would find their way
00:12into my guitar digs over the next 20
00:14years this brand has been a big part of
00:18my guitar journey just like it has for
00:20many of you but who is Dan Elektra my
00:24name is Steve Ridinger the company's
00:25Yvette's corporation and we do the snark
00:28tuner and we do dent electro electronics
00:31and the guitars at age 14 Steve created
00:34his first fuzz box and sold 3,000 units
00:37at age 19 he created the mighty Fox tone
00:41machine and brought the Fox line of
00:43pedals to the market he went on to
00:45export guitars internationally he
00:48introduced one of the world's first
00:49electronic guitar tuners he brought
00:52ariane petals to the world launched a
00:55line of amplifiers he even helped make
00:57the fax machine famous in the united
01:00states but in 1997 he resurrected a
01:04long-lost brand tell us about the
01:07origins of Danelectro I have I have some
01:11of the old stuff made in New Jersey
01:13no damper to reverb dean daniels was
01:16brilliant he was a genius I'm not a
01:18musician necessarily but he really had
01:21an ear and knew what he was doing he
01:23started out making amps he was making
01:24announcer Epiphone under their brand
01:26when he first started as an amp guy
01:27really knew circuits and he invented an
01:30early tremolo circuit that is still very
01:31good he got a contract with Sears where
01:33he's making all the apps for Sears and
01:35then Sears won an electric guitar so he
01:37began to manufacture like a guitar as
01:39long about 56 or some around there maybe
01:43a little earlier and he made every
01:45electric turn out that Sears sold for a
01:48long stretch of time there as fast as
01:51you could make an electric guitar you
01:52could sell it and so he was
01:54manufacturing huge numbers he apparently
01:57got tired of the business and so 68 that
02:01Daniel sells Danelectro to MCA Universal
02:05and why they bought it have no idea but
02:07Sears was the main customer and the
02:10following year Sears said we're not
02:12buying anything from you anymore we're
02:13gonna buy it from other people and MCA
02:15says we're gonna lose money now so they
02:17just closed the factory down a year
02:19after buying it right six a million
02:21dollars yeah I'm just in it that was a
02:23lot of money in those days so so there
02:25was all these parts necks and bodies
02:28floating around and so I won't mention
02:30his name but the guy that we bought the
02:32trademark from began to get so those
02:34extra bodies put together so he began to
02:35do this on a small scale then when I
02:37read the recycler in 94 95 which was a
02:41newspaper in LA where people would trade
02:43gear kind of like eBay or reverb now but
02:46those days it's a print newspaper and
02:48you know I'm looking to stand out I'm
02:51looking at all these finished brands
02:53right they go danelectro that's the one
02:55and that's one we ended up buying and
02:57bring it back okay we got ahold of this
02:58guy cuz he had as early as 1980 began to
03:02use the trademark again so we bought
03:03three mark from him in 95 early 95 once
03:07again planning to make just the pedals
03:09in which we launched to Jan 97 at ma'am
03:14but every dealer said where's the
03:16guitars so then we didn't plan on it but
03:19we end up making the guitar so year
03:20later burlesque guitars it was crazy we
03:22sold 10,000 the NAMM show a hundred
03:24thousand guitars out here as fast as we
03:25could add factories it was nuts that's
03:28but he'd been off the market 40 years
03:30and the market was in a big retro phase
03:32right then it was just there was
03:33fistfights with some of the stores that
03:35this is the last guitar who gets to buy
03:37it was just it was crazy it was really
03:39great it's interesting because I only
03:41had heard the danelectro named me once
03:43as a kid and somebody a store said
03:45danelectro and it's just I think being
03:48some went off in my brain it's like I
03:50don't know why but then years later
03:51we're gonna buy in the Branson so I'm 16
03:5417 years old yeah I walk into my local
03:57Muscle Shoals Alabama musing there it is
03:59counselor puddle this is here I try it
04:02and my girlfriend buys me this and she
04:06wife now it was now okay we broke up and
04:08gone and ripped up Pearl Jam tickets in
04:10my face it's real than earlier look you
04:12got the Danika I think this is
04:14responsible for me being fascinated with
04:16pedals and ending real thing about a
04:17company Wow but this
04:19kind of comes out of nowhere here you
04:22bring down electro back right and you
04:25release these pedals the first three
04:27were the fab town distortion and the
04:30daddy-o overdrive and then the chorus
04:33then we had this design for what we
04:36thought was a pretty good echo pedal but
04:37we weren't sure so we wanted to get some
04:39validation and we called up this guy
04:41named Matt Brock who was a writer for
04:43Guitar World magazine and we said we'd
04:46like you to hear it and he said sure and
04:48he gave us an address up in the hills
04:49above LA and we're winding around these
04:52roads in the mountains there and we
04:54finally come to this huge mansion I'm
04:56thinking Guitar World writer you know
04:59this is pretty good anyway so he buzzes
05:01and he says drive to the back to the
05:03guest house and back so we go in there
05:04and were playing the pedal form he's
05:06playing the pedal and in walks van Halen
05:09in his pajamas wearing a joker hat and
05:11Ben Halen is digging it and I've never
05:15seen fingers so big in my I mean I don't
05:17have this guy plays guitar at all but
05:18anyway he's playing that at this point
05:21it's just a circuit board was two jacks
05:23mounted on it and he goes I got to have
05:26this and we go sure we're gonna get you
05:28something since we're in production he
05:29goes no I want this and he kind of kind
05:32of hold and kind of title to it D proto
05:34yea and I'm thinking you know we kind of
05:36need that back you know but I don't want
05:38to be disrespectful he finally gave back
05:42to us but he'd liked it that's it's
05:45fascinating so you have this original
05:47line here and something that's super
05:51characteristic of really anything you've
05:54ever done with down electro it has a
05:56look tell me about that aspect of your
06:00Dano products so now the colors the I
06:03mean I have the shift daddy's like no
06:05car you got some really wild stuff some
06:08crazy said yeah is a little too crazy
06:10yeah well you were wise to keep it
06:12within some boundaries I tend to do go
06:13past the boundaries and get in trouble
06:15so I think you're the wiser of the two
06:17of us but no I think the the the mission
06:19here was to kind of borrow for some old
06:22car cosmetics and my designer was once
06:24again this Cadillac guy and he loved the
06:27old stuff and so we had the little fins
06:29on the end kind of looked like a heat
06:32look there and then he had that little
06:34kind of heart shape raised area coming
06:37down and we did the D with the the
06:39little kind of car you think you know so
06:42it was it's just kind of car and retro
06:44there's other brands that have tried to
06:45be retro but but Dan Electra Amelia's
06:48retro I'm started 47 it has this great
06:50history with all these musicians so we
06:52were trying to stay true to that feel so
06:55tell us about this mini line just how
06:58was it successful what do you think
07:00about how did it come to be yeah so the
07:02original what we're calling the big
07:03puddles now those were diecast metal
07:06case they're huge they're really too big
07:08for pedal board anymore but those were
07:11price point 79 to $100 right and then we
07:15thought what could we do to get the
07:16price really much lower now keep in mind
07:19we were the first to go to China on
07:21pedals so we had a cost advantage over
07:23people in Taiwan or Japan or the US or
07:26wherever so so then we thought okay what
07:29do we got to do to go lower so we had to
07:30go to a plastic case to get the price
07:33down and so these new ones started out
07:35at 29 and they went a little higher but
07:38the original line was 29 to 49 retail
07:41points and so we started out with 10
07:44different you know effects and then
07:46it'll eventually morph to 30 something
07:48out of something like that
07:49it was price point driven it was here's
07:51the thing but yeah the first year we
07:53sold about 170,000 or some crazy thing
07:55and we were telling dealers I had to buy
07:57a hundred if they want it was just it
07:58was nuts it was just nuts
08:00but as a big that's absurd yeah we're
08:06never happy yeah I can't imagine that
08:08guy we like wanna buy any like a 500
08:14click that's crazy I was able to try so
08:19many effects because of these yeah my
08:21personal opinion yeah I think these are
08:23the most important line of effects from
08:26like the 90s interesting I think so so
08:29this I hold in my hand is the first
08:31univibe I was ever actually able to play
08:35and there's a lot of petals in this line
08:37the prices were affordable yeah
08:39and despite what some people tend to say
08:43they last a long time they don't really
08:45break I mean I have toured with the
08:48tremolo on my board I know friends that
08:49have had the trim so one of the strange
08:52things that happened is we had a great
08:53first year with these hundreds yeah
08:55thousand whatever was well the factory
08:57made a totally bonehead move of saying
09:00well you sold one in front of house
09:02we're gonna buy 10,000 sets of parts for
09:04all these ten that you just made
09:06oh boy and I said wait a minute I mean
09:08the second year cells aren't gonna be
09:09anywhere close so suddenly they've got a
09:11hundred thousand pedals that we have to
09:14figure out how to sell so we began to
09:16make kits of three or five and then
09:18selling them in packs different themes
09:21you know that would kind of these pedals
09:23fit together so somehow we got through
09:25them but it was not it was not easy yeah
09:29I have them in boxes blister packs I
09:31haven't open this stuff to me well the
09:33blister pack was his best buy suddenly
09:35said we're gonna be in the guitar
09:37accessory business so they insist them
09:39to blister pack so we made that
09:40packaging just for them the back talk
09:43there's still never been a pedal like
09:47that which is really bizarre
09:49there's tons of reverse delay but when I
09:51plug into a back talk along with I can't
09:53tell you how many artists I work with
09:56records that I know that thing is on the
09:59collectability of it's through the roof
10:01I saw one sell for like five hundred and
10:03fifty dollars you know why is there such
10:05a cult following to that pedal I have no
10:08idea but I bought a few lately and we've
10:11got some of the other brands of reverse
10:13delays and we listened and the back talk
10:15was just much more musical kind of
10:16violin like if you want to say that but
10:18it just has a more musical quality to it
10:21so there's something I don't know the
10:23reason but at the end of it is that it's
10:25pretty good so so we'd like to reassure
10:27it yeah you need to I was gonna
10:29Commission you please make it ring the
10:31bank back it'd be the backpack talk back
10:35talk V to bringing it back so brand new
10:40down electro-pop yes played these at man
10:43really really cool you've got that
10:45mystery story going on here yeah yeah
10:48tell us you're a good player too by the
10:49way thank you okay so the the break-up
10:52that's a pedal the Jimmy Page used to
10:55record the first step out of course it
10:56was ginormous and but it kind of
10:58disappeared from the scene so we brought
11:00that back the sixth position selector we
11:02toyed with the idea of making a
11:04continuously variable V R for that
11:06control but then we realized those six
11:09positions are kind of magic and the
11:11other thing is if you decide you like
11:13three you'll always get that tone at
11:16three whereas with a knob you might be
11:18off a little bit so we decided to stay
11:20with the selector so basically just hits
11:21the front of the amp the breakups
11:23happening in the amp so you're getting a
11:25very organic distortion and people are
11:28loving them yeah this one's for the 50
11:31year old pedal so we had to rough up the
11:33outside to make it look like he'd been
11:34on the road for 50 years so yeah how
11:37about the Eisenhower fuzz okay so that
11:39was a fuzz that has been out there from
11:41the 60s popular in the vintage market
11:44but had no EQ and so we amped up the
11:48game made everything sweeter the octave
11:49is more prominent now and the EQ school
11:52and that sculpt switch is cool who cuts
11:55the mids and boost the bass and get this
11:57crazy thing going on so yeah that's what
13:25thanks so much for watching this I hope
13:28you enjoyed it since filming this
13:29episode Steve and Danelectro have put
13:31out three new pedals it is the three six
13:34nine nine that's his Fox tone machine
13:37then we have the robot which is a
13:39classic Ibanez mt-10 MOSFET distortion
13:42replica and last but not least he put
13:45out the back talk again I'm so excited
13:47to get that on one of my new boards if
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14:25and have a wonderful day
