Danelectro's retro strat copy
Written: Sep 20 '04 (Updated Jan 01 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: great tone, low price, a collectible in the future?
Cons: cheesy styling, unusable distortion
The Bottom Line: a good choice as a retro guitar purchase without having to fork over a load of cash
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| cheetah1's Full Review: Danelectro Innuendo Electric Guitar with Effects (... |
This is a review of the Danelectro strat copy called an "innuendo". These are made in Korea unlike the original Danelectro's which I think were made in the U.S.A. This line of guitars was reintroduced by Danelectro a few years ago but production on these guitars has halted for quite some time now.
A lot of people speculate that these Korean Danelectros may become collectibles at some time in the future but that remains to be seen. There is another Danelectro model called the "Hearsay" which has a distortion effect built in and has the same styling as the innuendo but lacks the innuendo's chorus, tremelo, and slapback echo functions. I have seen new innuendos still being sold on ebay as of this writing selling for quite a bit more than the original internet price.
The first time I saw one of these Danelectro guitars was in a Guitar center store. They must have received a recent shipment of them because the whole store was full of these unusual looking guitars. My first impression was that they looked retro and the construction was strange with that vinyl strip encircling the edges of the guitars body. As I entered the store I was interested in looking for an inexpensive strat copy to purchase. I looked at some of the usual Fender squiers for sale but then spied a Danelectro innuendo which really caught my eye. The salesman said to me "Jimmy Page used to play one of these". I knew Jimmy Page had owned a Danelectro but I was not sure of what model, and it was not the innuendo. I did not play the guitar at the time but kept the guitar in mind as I left the store.
The innuendo body style is based on the Mosrite ventures guitar which were being sold back in the 60's. This guitar does not have the vinyl strip along the edges of the guitar like the other Danelectros have.
Some Japanese makers have made copies of the Mosrite ventures model that have commanded steep prices and a guitar company called Wilson is also offering lower priced Korean import guitars with that Mosrire ventures body styling. The innuendo has the more traditional 3 pickup combination of Fender stratocasters which is different from the original Moserite ventures model.
The guitar itself is made of plywood but I'm not sure what kind. The guitar is a bit heavy at 8 1/2 pounds. The first thing you notice when you pick it up is the weight.
The guitar has a very cheesy 60's look to it with all these silver glitter sparkles all over the blue sunburst body. I would be embarrased to play the innuendo on stage because of it's cheesy, retro looks.
The guitar has a plastic pearloid pick guard that has the traditional stratocaster shape. The neck has 21 frets and the frets themselves are medium sized, very versatile for any style of playing. The guitar has the traditional Danelectro coke bottle head stock and the neck itself is made of maple.
The fingerboard is rosewood with white dot inlays as position markers. The rosewood on the innuendo looks to be of average quality. Some of the cheaper rosewood used in fretboards on inexpensive import guitars has a very dry appearance and has stain that rubs off after a short time. The rosewood on the innuendo is a bit better than the typical economy wood used on budget guitars. The neck itself is one of the best features of the guitar. There is no fret buzz and the overall fret work is comparable to that on more expensive guitars.
The innuendo's tremelo assembly seems pretty useless. Not really good for surf music or anything else for that matter. It's just to cheap and inexpensive in construction and function to be of any value to a skilled player.
The pickups are the usual 3 single coil style found on traditional stratocasters. They have the same placement and 5 way switch functions as a standard strat. I would describe the pickups as aggressive sounding and loud.
The guitar does have a quality tone even with it's plywood body and the guitars tone is good enough to record with. The guitar sounds really good for distortion or clean playing. The guitar does have it's own distinct tone and it sounds good for rhythm or lead playing.
The guitar has 4 different effects built into the guitar. The innuendo's distortion effect has a real mid 60's sound to it, not really a distortion but more of a fuzz box effect that was used in the mid to late 60's. The distortion is adjustable in tone. The chorus is very usable also but is not adjustable. The tremelo feature is adjustable and sounds very nice. The guitar also has a slapback echo function. It sounds like a shower room effect that was popular on older records, it is not adjustable. The tremelo and chorus are the best effects to use for a contemporary sound and I also like the slapback reverb effect. Most users of the innuendo find the distortion the least usable of the 4 built in functions of the guitar.
I have had no problems with the innuendos's tuners. Tuners are a popular item to gripe about on imports but the tuners on my guitar are satisfactory.
The overall build quality of the guitar is excellent. I can't find any cosmetic flaws on the guitar and it seems everything fits together as it should.
Overall I'm very impressed with the innuendos sound and tone. It's very versatile with it's 3 single coil pick up combination. It seems to cover everything musically from Jimi Hendrix to dire straits . The guitars playability is also excellent with that great neck. I'd say the innuendo is a winner.
The innuendo won an editors pick award from guitarplayer magazine which had a big influence on my decision to purchase it. It's hard to say why Danelectro stopped making this line up of nice retro guitars, maybe the profit margin was not there in the guitar. If you have an interest in the innuendo electric guitar I would recommend Ebay as a purchase source.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cheetah1
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Member: Bruce
Location: Morongo Valley,California
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
China's products may be taking over the world but their environment is paying the price
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