Danelectro's cute and colorful lineup of 10 new stompers is not to be taken lightly. Despite their diminutive size and questionable plastic construction, there are more than a few Guitar Geek endorsed boxes in the budget concious bunch including the Tuna Melt Tremolo, the BLT Slap Echo, the Grilled Cheese Distortion, the T-Bone Distortion, and the Pepperoni Phaser. With prices ranging from anywhere between $29 and $49, you really can't miss on these Minis.

Surf And Turf Compressor - Here's a nice lo-budget compressor with plenty of character. This little guy is quite capable of dialing in everything from the somewhat subtle to the slammed in a very musical way. With a bit of two knob twiddling the Danelectro seemed to suit everything the Geek staff could throw at it style-wise. Single notes, arpeggios, chicken picking, and leads all poked through with a tad more punch with the Surf and Turf in the signal chain. If your compression tastes run in the very light range I'd steer clear of the Danelectro and opt for Boss or Ibanez units with separate attack and threshold controls. But, if you're after some serious squashing the Surf & Turf holds its' own with all of the higher priced stompers.

Pastrami Overdrive - This is absolutely one of the grittiest, nastiest overdrives we've ever given a whirl here at the Guitar Geek. If you're looking to capture the transistorized high-end sizzle of the "gain channel" on that Solid State amp you've had hidden away in your closet since the eighties, the Pastrami Overdrive will bring a smile to your face. Naming this pedal an overdrive is a bit of a stretch as it doesn't have too much in common with rich creamy sound of a cranked tube amp at all. The tones are very reminiscent of the milder settings on an old Maestro Fuzz or the old Electro Harmonix Hot Cake Overdrive. This might be a nice flavor for a song or two but I doubt this unit will ever replace the Tube Screamer, Blues Driver, or Super Overdrive you've had on your pedal board for years.

T-Bone Distortion - A distortion pedal to cover a few of the bases! Turning up a tasty bit of overdrive, distortion, or fuzz is effortless here. Everything from a slight hint of grit to a nice thick crunch is well within the wide range of this cute little bugger and it doesn't stop there! Turn that gain knob full tilt and you'll even find a few fat fuzz-like tones in there. Some of the hybrid tones are highly reminiscent of the Boss Overdrive/Distortion unit from a few years back. If you need to run the gamut of sonic pleasure the T-Bone certainly delivers.

Grilled Cheese Distortion - Dialing in a paper thin 60's fuzz sound can be a tough job these days. Most units like the FuzzFace and Big Muff have that warm, rich fuzz thing covered but very few have that tin can tone some of us 60's fuzz freaks are continually searching for. Well, in steps the Grilled Cheese and ear drums begin to split! The Cheese takes a predetermined amount of fuzz and adds a cool filter/wah knob to it. Sounds range in flavor from shrill saturation to low vowel-like squawks. It's like playing through a notched filter or a cocked Wah-Wah pedal. Very cool! This is not a pedal for creating pristine tones but a pedal to make mere mortals wince in pain and fans of obscure garage music weep. This one wins the favor of the Guitar Geek Staff and then some.

Pepperoni Phaser - This is the only one knobber of the bunch but boy can that one little chrome knob can go a long way. Lighter setting are squishy and downright sexy while harsher settings get very sick and swirly. The Pepperonis isn't as smooth as its more expensive phase counterparts but that's what makes it so refreshing. The effect's rate sweep takes an slight nose dive during its' cycle making for fun and wobbly ride. It actually reminded some of us of a few of the "step phaser" settings on older rack mount FX units like the Roland GP-16 or the Zoom 9030. The entire Geek staff gravitated more towards the Pepperoni's harsher settings which yielded some amazing vibrato-like pitch bending coupled with stungun-like pulsings. I really doubt any smooth Funk or sensitive R n' B players will give up their Boss or Ibanez phases for the Pepperroni but I can definitely see it attracting an devoted audience bent on mangling, twisting, and otherwise sending their guitar sounds into outer space.

Hash Brown Flanger - Many people typically view the flanger as a one trick pony capable only of that swooshing trademark jet airplane sound. Well, it seems that the sound sculptors over at Danelectro have chosen some parameters very wisely here as this flanger is as versatile as they come. The traditional sweeping sounds are in there but the Hash Brown is also quite capable of sharp metallic rings, swirling underwater sounds, and even exciting death ray modulation. It's certainly not going to knock the heralded ADA or MXR Flangers from off their holy pedestals in terms of warmth but man does this little guy have some character!

Milkshake Chorus - I think Danelectro should go back to the drawing board on this one. The basic chorus sounds have an ultra-thin metallic ping to them which basically renders the Milkshake fairly useless for unless you are playing in a early 80s New Wave cover band. This Mini did provide some comical detuned warblings at more extreme settings that might provide some textured madness for short noise bits or a bizzare passages but beyond that, I'd look elsewhere for your lo-budget chorus needs.

Tuna Melt Tremolo - Here's the big winner of the bunch. From smooth Fender-like tremolo to choppier Vox like stutterings, the Tuna Melt delivers the goods for far less than the pricier competition. This is a great sounding box and one that will find it's way onto a lot of pedal boards I'm sure. My only complaint is that the only usable portion of the tremolo's speed is found within the last one/third of the knob's throw. The lower two/thirds of the range are so slow I doubt they will see too much action. Despite this slight annoyance I still wouldn't hesitate throwing down a few bills for this full-bodied box.

BLT Slap Echo - An impressive box that faithfully recreates that early sharp slap-back echo found in classic 50's rockabilly stuff, early 60's surf recordings, and even 70's spooky sci-fi flicks. The Slap Echo won't replace any tape-echo units out there but it certainly has enough of its own unique voice to make most gearheads happy. Aside from the distinct echos the BLT is capable of, we were able to adjust the mix knob to the point of taming the delays to the point creating some really great room reverb sounds. The entire Geek staff ended up spending some quality overtime coaxing spunky sounds out of this box. Highly recommended!

Corned Beef Reverb - A nice surf-esque reverb with some very pronounced high-end reflections. Unless your playing surf, rockabilly, or some twangy country music this unit might be a little too bright for you. It's not a bad sounding unit but after some serious knob twiddling we all agreed that the versatile BLT Slap Echo could handle most of the same reverb-esque chores as the Corned Beef Reverb and do it with a little more warmth and flexibilty.