Danelectro

Type	Private
Industry	Musical instruments
Genre	Producer
Founded	1947
Founder(s)	Nathan Daniel
Headquarters	original: Red Bank New Jersey, United States of America / later: Neptune, New Jersey modern: Camarillo California, United States of America
Owner(s)	Evets Corporation
Website	danelectro.com

Danelectro is an American manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, amplifiers and effects units.

  History

Danelectro was founded by Nathan Daniel in 1947; throughout the late 1940s, the company produced amplifiers for Sears, Roebuck and Company and Montgomery Ward. In 1954, Danelectro started producing the Danelectro lines of solidbody electric guitars and amplifiers. The company was also contracted to make guitars and amplifiers that were branded not with the Danelectro name, but with the names of various store brands, such as Silvertone and Airline. Later hollow-bodied guitars (constructed out of Masonite and plywood to save costs and increase production speed), distinguished by Silvertone's maroon vinyl covering, Danelectro's light tweed covering, the concentric stacked tone/volume knobs used on the two-pickup models of both series, and the "lipstick-tube" pickups—invented by placing the entire mechanism into spare lipstick tubes—aimed to produce no-frills guitars of reasonably good tone at low cost. In 1956, Danelectro introduced the six-string Baritone guitar, which would be adopted by other companies such as Fender with the Fender VI. The baritone guitar never proved especially popular but found an enduring niche in Nashville as the instrument of choice for "Tic-tac" bass lines. In 1966, Danelectro was sold to MCA. A year later, the Coral line, known for its hollow-bodies and electric sitars, was introduced. In 1969, the Danelectro plant was closed, due to MCA's attempt to market Danelectros to small guitar shops rather than large department stores.

In the late 1990s, the Evets Corporation started selling primarily copies of old Silvertone and Danelectro guitars, as well as newly designed effects pedals and small amplifiers. After initially selling well, guitar sales slowed to the point where Danelectro stopped selling guitars after 2001, opting to concentrate on effects pedals. In 2006, the new owners of Evets decided on a new marketing model for the guitars, selling a limited number of guitars each year.^[1]

  Amplifiers

• Danelectro Amp-in-case, 1962-1969
• Danelectro Commando
• Danelectro Master-Slave
• Danelectro Honeytone (current)
• Danelectro Honeytone e-Studio (current)

  Guitars

  1954-1969

  1962 Silvertone amp-in-case and guitar

• Danelectro C
• Danelectro U1
• Danelectro U2
• Danelectro Shorthorn, Which includes the following model range:
  • Standard models (Single Pickup: 3011,3012; Dual Pickups: 3021,3022,5025)
  • Deluxe models (Dual Pickups: 6026,6027,6028; Treble Pickups: 6036, 6037, 6038)
  • Vibrato models (Single Pickup: 4011; Dual Pickups: 4021;)
• Danelectro Amp-in-case
• Dano Pro
• Danelectro Baritone
• Guitarlin
• Stan & Dan
• Innuendo Baritone
• Longhorn Baritone
• Vinnie Bell Bellzouki (12-string electric guitar with body based on the bouzouki)^[2]

  1998-2001

  59-DC guitar, played by musicians including Jimmy Page

• 56-U1
• 56-U2
• 56-U2 Lefty
• 56-U3
• 59-DC
• 59-DC Pro
  • 59-DC Pro 12-string
• 6 string bass
• Baritone
• Convertible (acoustic/electric)
• Convertible Pro
• Danoblaster (with built in effects)^[3]
  • Hearsay (distortion)
  • Innuendo (distortion, tremolo, chorus, echo)
  • Rumor Bass (chorus)
• DC-3
• DC-12 (twelve string)
• DC Bass
• Doubleneck
  • 6-string/12-string
  • 6-string/baritone
• Guitarlin
• Hodad
  • Hodad
  • Hodad 12-string
  • Hodad Baritone
  • Hodad Bass
• Longhorn
  • 58-Longhorn
  • Longhorn Baritone
  • Longhorn Bass
  • Longhorn Pro
• Mod
  • Mod 6 (6-string)
  • Mod 7 (7-string)

  2006-current

  2007 Danelectro Pro reissue

• '56 Pro 2006
• Longhorn Guitar and Bass 2006
• Dano Pro 2007, 2012
• '59 Dano 2007
• Dano '63 Guitar, Baritone and Bass 2008
• "Dead On '67" Guitar and Baritone 2009
• "Dead On '58" Longhorn Bass 2009
• DC-12 2009
• '59-DC 2009
• '56 Single Cutaway Guitar and Bass 2010
• Wild Thing Guitar, Baritone and Bass 2011
• '59 Modified, '59 Left-handed, and '59 12-string 2012
• Hodad Guitar and Bass 2012

  Effects pedals

  Three Danelectro effects pedals. Left to right: Fab Tone distortion, Cool Cat chorus and Daddy O. overdrive.

Today, Danelectro primarily produces effect pedals. There are eight main runs of pedals: original effects, FAB effects, mini effects, vintage effects, Wasabi effects, Paisley effects, Cool Cat effects and other miscellaneous effects. All run on 9V batteries or power adapters. The original effects featured metal enclosures and FET switching. Cool Cat models are the most recent pedals, designed with metal enclosures and true-bypass switching. Danelectro has begun rolling out Cool Cat V2 pedals, featuring extra 'under the hood' features. Mini effects pedals are smaller, compact pedals with effects resembling those of the original effects and the FAB effects. Vintage effects include the large, rectangular Spring King and Reel Echo effect pedals. The discontinued Paisley series featured paisley-patterned drive effects in original style enclosures. The Wasabi series features large, futuristic-looking metal enclosures. FAB effects are the cheapest of the bunch, and feature plastic enclosures somewhat larger than the Mini effects series.

Recently, a carrying case was developed to hold up to five mini effects in it. When the player is ready to play, the top may be removed and the bottom acts as a pedals board. Despite the many advantages of the mini effects, FAB effects are the ones primarily seen today. The Mini effects are often praised for their high quality tones, but the plastic construction makes them fragile.

  Original effects

• Daddy O. Overdrive (notably used by Mike Campbell)
• Cool Cat Chorus
• FAB Tone Distortion
• Dan-Echo Simulated Tape Echo
• Dan-O-Matic Tuner

  FAB effects

The FAB series of guitar effect pedals is a budget range of pedals made by the Danelectro company that are manufactured in China. The series was launched in 2005 with the release of the FAB Distortion, FAB Overdrive and the FAB Metal pedals.

There are currently eight pedals available all of which share the same distinctive injection moulded plastic casing and blue LED light. Each pedal has a mains power DC9 socket or can be powered using a 9v battery, access for which involves removing the rubber covered metal base plate.

• FAB Chorus
• FAB Delay
• FAB Distortion
• FAB Echo
• FAB Flanger
• FAB Fuzz
• FAB Metal
• FAB Overdrive

  Mini effects

• Pastrami Overdrive
• T-Bone Distortion
• BLT Slap Echo
• Corned Beef Reverb
• Tuna Melt Tremolo
• Hash Browns Flanger
• Pepperoni Phaser
• Milkshake Chorus
• Surf and Turf Compressor
• Grilled Cheese Distortion
• Pedal Tuner
• Chili Dog Octave
• Fish and Chips 7-Band EQ
• Chicken Salad Vibrato
• French Toast Octave Distortion
• PB&J Delay
• Rocky Road Spinning Speaker
• Black Coffee Metal Distortion
• French Fries Auto-Wah
• Black Licorice Beyond Metal

  Vintage effects

• Reel Echo
• Spring King

  Paisley effects (discontinued)

• Blue Paisley PureDrive
• Black Paisley Liquid Metal

  Wasabi effects

• Wasabi Overdrive
• Wasabi Distortion
• Wasabi Rock-A-Bye
• Wasabi Forward-Reverse Delay
• Wasabi Chorus-Trem

  Miscellaneous effects

• Shift Daddy
• Trip-L Wah
• Dan-O-Wah
• Free Speech Talk Box
• Psycho Flanger
• Sitar Swami
• Back Talk Reverse Delay

  Cool Cat effects

• Tremolo
• Vibe
• Metal
• Fuzz
• Fuzz V2
• Drive
• Drive V2
• Transparent Overdrive
• Transparent Overdrive V2
• Distortion
• Metal II
• Chorus

  See also

• List of Danelectro players

  References

  External links

• Danelectro Guitars - official website
• Tribute to Danelectro founder Nathan I. Daniel
• Neptune Bound - The Ultimate Danelectro Guitar Guide 2008