Danelectro 1959 Reissue Series

Made in: China
Body style: Double-cutaway
Body material: Masonite/poplar
Neck: Bolt-on poplar
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Nut: Plastic
Truss rod: Non-adjustable, aluminum
Tuners: Open back, 3 in-line, white plastic keys
Pickups: Alnico lipstick
Controls: Dual/concentric tone and volume
Bridge/tailpiece: Notched metal base with a rosewood saddle
Pickguard: White "Seal"
Headstock: Bottle-shaped
Other: Original-style textured side edge tape

UTILIZATION

This guitar is very comfortable to play. It feels great standing or sitting. One issue I have run into is that it's very hard to change the volume or tone separately as they are attached to each other. This isn't a huge deal while trying to find the perfect tone but if you need to change just one of them live it can get sticky. Also, when both pickups are selected, the volume is noticeably louder than the bridge or neck pickup alone. Using a volume pedal could fix these problems but I generally don't mess with the guitar's settings during a song, so these weren't huge issues to me.

SOUNDS

I bought this guitar because its known for its jangly tone but was surprised to find that it can create a wide variety of tones. It can go from a smooth strat rhythm to a twangy tele lead (which can sound really cool with a slide). I still like it the best with both pickups on for that rich jangly sound. I generally play it clean or slightly broken up through a tube amp but I've tried it with some pretty heavy distortion and it sounded alright. I'm a huge fan of 60's rock/psychedelic/pop and this guitar can nail those tones. If you play it through an amp with slightly broken up distortion, you can get some mean blues tones out of this guitar as well.

OVERALL OPINION

I really like this guitar. When I record, I often end up using this instead of my other much more expensive guitars (Rickenbacker 360,'76 Strat, Les Paul, etc). It's a steal at $350 (you can still find them new online). I would definitely buy this guitar again and I might so I can have an electric 12 string in my collection.