Danelectro Hodad 6 String Reviews 3

I started playing blues and rock in the 1970's. I have owned many guitars including a 1961 Les Paul Custom (single cutaway) with a total tone monster sound. Thing weighed about 12 pounds. I currently have a largish collection of guitars. Anyone want to buy a 1960's 2 pickup Teisco or 4 pickup Conrad (japanese) guitar? write tnicboston at juno.com

This Hodad was a 2006 Christmas present - retailed for $175, about 1/2 of original retail price, from Cambridge Music in Cambridge, MA, USA. I chose this over a Squier (cheap sound), or a Danelectro effects guitar (harmonics not as good). I looked at a few others, but even with old strings this one looked and sounded best for the pricerange. I liked it more than a mexican strat reissue at about $550.

Love the blue metalflake sparkle. Nice, light guitar, surprisingly gutsy and versatile sound. Nice maple neck w/ light colored rosewood fingerboard. Nice lipstick pickups, very cool looking good sounding guitar for the money. Recommeneded.

The three way switch is noisy. wish it had the Danelectro bigsby style tailpiece, with it had push/pull pots to split the pickups. Vol and tone controls a bit unusual compared to a Les Paul or Strat, 2 vols and 2 tone, but both pickups are always on (if vol > 0) despite position of 3 way switch.

Maple neck w/ light colored rosewood fingerboard, Gotoh tuners, made in Korea, masonite/composite (not solid wood) body. Medium metalflake blue front & back. Access to vol/tone pots thru metal plate on reverse of guitar. Bolt on neck w/ 4 screws, no metal plate for neck (unlike a strat), tailpiece is fully adjustable for height & intonation, strings thread thru tailpiece, not thru body like a strat. 4 lipstick pickups set as two 2's, one pair near bridge, one pair near neck.

If you want a cool, eye-grabbing guitar with a nice sound, this one is great. It almost looks like a lefty guitar because of how the body and headstock are designed. Surprisingly good for the money. Please note I choose 3 for overall scale. To me, a 5 is a classic Fender or Gibson tone monster. For the money (even full retail), this is a very nice guitar.

Mark Diaz, Boston, MA \"bostonrocker51\" rated this unit 3 on 2006-12-25.

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