Danelectro Review: Innuendo

History:

Purchase: $120, plus lots of shipping and insurance, from an Internet supplier via Ebay.

What I Like About This Danelectro Innuendo: It's a cheap guitar. It's a very cheap guitar. And for a cheap guitar, it's remarkably sturdy, and the pickups have a lot of tone and energy, much like a Strat. It's set up like a Strat pickup-wise, and has plently of pickup combinations to keep you busy. The pickups are adjustable, and haven't given me any problems yet. It also has 4 on-board battery powered effects: distortion, tremelo, chorus, and reverb. The reverb sounds outstanding, and the adjustable tremelo effect is great when used right. My guess is that even with the laundry list of bad things below, it would beat out your standard Squier or other cheap brand guitar.

What I Do NOT Like About The Danelectro Innuendo: It's a cheap guitar. No matter how much I fiddle with the bridge, strings, and string height, there are a few spots on the guitar that just have fret buzz. The first 3 or so frets from the neck buzz like crazy most of the time, and the only way I can mask it up is by turning on overdrive and pumping the gain on my amp. There are a few other buzz spots, closer to the 12th fret. The distortion effect is LOUD. It increases the sonic output of my guitar about 10x. I have to turn down the volume almost all the way on the guitar, or on the amp, in order to be able to hear without hearing loss. I guarantee this is the loudest distortion you've ever heard, and it's 60's style distortion, so it's not as clean and homogenous as standard distortion on modern guitars. There is a distortion knob, where you can adjust the varying types of ear splitting sound. The chorus effect does nothing. I can't hear much of a difference at all, and would be better off left off the guitar completely. Also, if a bit of presure is applied downward on the fretboard, it will bend and mute/buzz the strings. It's extremely heavy, and made from some kind of a composite wood, and is very ugly to look at on the inside. It's got a heavy veneer layer covering it with a tacky metalburst effect, but it's pretty resistant to most torture. Unfortunately, it's heavy weight causes it to pull itself out of straps often, and has caused it to hit the ground hard a couple times. No damage save for a small nick in the coating. One more thing I don't like about the guitar: action. I had to set it to its highest possible setting to eliminate horrible fret buzz at moderate string height, so in some places the strings are a very long way off the fretboard. The neck is curved (and has no access to the truss rod), so it is even more pronounced below the 12th fret. It's a cheap guitar.

Danelectro Innuendo Quality Rating: It's a heavy hunk of wood. Hard to break. I can see the neck coming off easily, and the finish around the bolt-on neck is already starting to crack. It's bad quality, but the pickups are what save it from being a horrible guitar

Review Summary: Great pickups, great tone, and great sounds for a cheap guitar. However, making those sounds is a pain in the butt to do, with bad action, random fret buzz, and excess weight that hurts my shoulders from time to time. If you're looking for a first guitar, go to a real guitar store and pick an Innuendo up. Make sure that you get it intonated and have the action set at the store, and if it doessn't play well, then don't get it. If it does play well, then you have yourself one heck of a guitar!

Rating of this Danelectro product: 3

This Danelectro Innuendo Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Ryan

Review Date: 2001-08-02