Just the Facts
The Danelectro company was founded by Nat Daniels in the fifties and made lots of low end guitars and amps. Most were marketed by Sears under the Silvertone name. However many were sold in music stores as Danelectros. For the most part, the guitars were cheap and were quite popular, especially with beginners. Tons of guitar players learned on a Silvertone guitar made by Danelectro.
Most Danelectro guitars featured a hollow wood frame, masonite body and silver lipstick tube pickups. The earliest instruments actually used tubes that had been manufactured by cosmetic companies as containers for lipstick.
The Danelectro company went out of business in the sixties but then in the nineties the name was purchased by a new company that began manufacturing authentic copies of some of the original guitars. These guitars were imports and I believe they were made in Korea. One of the first of the Reissues was the U2 model.
The Danelectro U2 features 2 lipstick single coil pickups, concentric volume and tone controls, selector switch, rosewood fingerboard, and aluminum nut. It is very similar in appearance and construction to the original.
The guitar is very light, and has a bright, snappy tone. It sounds good in a variety of applications.
Shortly after I got this guitar I was in the pit orchestra of the musical, Grease. The show was mounted with the band on stage inside a giant juke box. I used this guitar because of its appearance and also because of the sound. It sounded really great on the retro style music.
Where and When
I got this guitar for Christmas in 1998.
Why it’s Cool
It is very light and sounds quite good, especially through a clean or mildly distorted amp. It also looks really neat. It rocks--it rolls and especially it twangs, sounding quite a bit like a lighter tele.
On the Other Hand
The strap buttons are plastic and tend to come out at inopportune times. The bridge is basically a piece of wood, and is not very adjustable. The tuners are pretty cheap.
