Danelectro is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

s and accessories, founded in Red Bank, New Jersey in 1947. The company is known primarily for its

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the s ...

s that employed unique designs and manufacturing processes. The Danelectro company was sold to the "

Music Corporation of America MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...

" (MCA) in 1966, moving to a much larger plant in

Neptune City, New Jersey Neptune City is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,869,resonator guitar. Some of the products manufactured by Danelectro include

electric Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...

and

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...

guitars,

basses Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass ...

electric sitar An electric sitar is a type of electric guitar designed to mimic the sound of the sitar, a traditional musical instrument of India. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the tradition ...

amplifiers An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost th ...

, pickups, and effects units.

History

Danelectro was founded by Nathan "Nat" Daniel in 1947. Throughout the late 1940s, the company produced

for

Sears, Roebuck and Company Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began ...

and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curr ...

, branded Silvertone and

Airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

respectively. Later, Danelectro added hollow-bodied guitars, constructed of

Masonite Masonite is a type of hardboard, a kind of engineered wood, which is made of steam-cooked and pressure-molded wood fibers in a process patented by William H. Mason. It is also called Quartrboard, Isorel, hernit, karlit, torex, treetex, and ...

and poplar to save costs and increase production speed, intending to produce no-frills guitars of reasonably good tone at low cost. These instruments were branded either as Danelectro or for Sears as Silvertone, distinguished by the Silvertone

maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are vari ...

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

covering, and the Danelectro light-colored tweed covering. The guitars used

concentric In geometry, two or more objects are said to be concentric, coaxal, or coaxial when they share the same center or axis. Circles, regular polygons and regular polyhedra, and spheres may be concentric to one another (sharing the same center p ...

stacked tone/volume knobs on the two- pickup models of both series and "lipstick-tube" pickups, which contained the pickup components inside metal tubes. In 1956, Danelectro introduced the six-string

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

. Though the model never became popular, it found an enduring niche in Nashville and Los Angeles for "tic-tac" bass lines. In 1966, Danelectro was sold to the "

" (MCA). A year later, in 1967, they introduced the Coral line, known for its hollow-bodies and

s. *''Late 1960s Coral Sitar 3S19 Images'':
1 (... with Original Gig Bag)

2

3

4 (... with Original Hard Case)
/ref> In 1969, Danelectro closed down, burdened by MCA's attempt to market Danelectros to small guitar shops rather than large department stores. In the late 1990s, importer The Evets Corporation purchased the Danelectro brand name, marketing recreations of old Silvertone and Danelectro guitars, and newly designed effects pedals and small amplifiers made in China.

After initially selling well, guitar sales slowed and Danelectro stopped selling guitars after 2001 (2004 on official siteAlthough several sources seem to say that it was stopped after 2001, the guitar pages on the official site (Danelectro.com) seem to had disappeared between and as for the menu item on the top page, or between and as for the guitar page itself, according to the archives on archive.com.) to concentrate on effects pedals. In 2006 (2005 on official siteAlthough several sources seem to say that the decision was in 2006, the guitar pages on the official site (Danelectro.com) seem to have resurrected between and , according to the archives on archive.com.), new owners of Evets decided on a new marketing model for guitars, selling a limited number each year.; Previously published as: * *

Guitars

Danelectro C Danelectro Cs were put into production and retailed from 1954 to 1955, until being replaced by the Danelectro U model in 1956. Unlike most all the later Danelectro instruments, the C model was a

solid body thumb , Sound sample of solid-body electric guitar. A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect th ...

construction made of poplar and came in a peanut-like body shape. Danelectro U2 The Danelectro U2 is a dual-pickup hollow bodied guitar made of Masonite and shaped similar to a

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz guitarist, jazz, country guitarist, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid body ...

model guitar. It was the most enduringly popular of the U-series. A single-pickup version (the U1) and triple-pickup version (the U3), were manufactured and sold alongside the U2. They were originally made from the years 1956 to 1958. It was re-issued in the late 1990s, in 2006 in a slightly modified form as the '56 Pro, and again in 2010 as the '56 Single Cutaway. Danelectro Shorthorn The Danelectro Shorthorn line of guitars are a dual cutaway hollow bodied design, made of Masonite and poplar. The original models were introduced in 1959 Danelectro Dano Pro The Danelectro Dano Pro is an electric guitar made by Danelectro in 1963 and 1964, reissued in 2007 and again in 2012. The original was a 3/4 scale guitar with a single lipstick tube pickup. The reissue features two, rather than one pickup.

Effects pedals

Danelectro guitar effects - side of Gibson Guitar Robot V1

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. Currently, eight pedals share the same distinctive injection moulded plastic casing and blue LED light. Each has a mains power DC9 socket, or can be powered by a 9 volt battery. They market eight pedals lines: original effects, FAB effects, mini effects, vintage effects, Wasabi effects, Paisley effects, Cool Cat effects and other miscellaneous effects. All run on 9 volt batteries or power adapters. The original effects featured metal enclosures and FET switching. Cool Cat models were designed with metal enclosures and true-bypass switching. Danelectro began rolling out Cool Cat V2 pedals, featuring extra 'under the hood' features. Mini effects pedals are smaller, Also published as 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. In 2006, Danelectro sold a carrying case that holds up to five mini effects. When the player is ready to play, the top could be removed and the bottom acts as a pedals board. It was shortly been discontinued. Not long after, another carrying case was developed to fit five FAB or Cool Cat pedals, as well as serve in the pedal board function as well. Despite the advantages of the mini effects, FAB effects are more common. The Mini effects are less expensive, but the plastic construction makes them fragile.

Bibliography

* * * **

References

Danelectro catalogs & Danelectro.com dVintageDanelectro.com gVintage Guitar magazine

External links