Danelectro N70 Nifty Seventy

A fairly unique feature list for a practice amp: closed back, 3 band EQ, big tranny for its class, some sort of built in limiter, I think; stays pretty clean all the way up.

I mainly use it as a guitar practice amp. Pretty ideal for archtop jazz. Fat warm midrangy sound without distortion. Handles the low end superbly for a practice amp. Not a ton of headroom, but it is all clean; you really have to turn the mid up as well as the volume to get it loud enough, but since the mid fattens the sound, I do that anyway.

The highs on the stock speaker are significantly rolled off, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I have two of them, and replaced the speaker on one with a 10" Weber Chicago; a heavy, efficient, warm sounding speaker with lots more high end complexity. Did not even bother to replace or modify the baffle; it just dropped right in with new screw holes.

This amp, stock, would be terrific for acoustic guitar, really tames unpleasant high end sounds typical of acoustic pickups.

One of mine developed a bit of cabinet rattle I could never get rid of (and I tried everything), but it goes away if I lay it on its side. Other than that, both have behaved flawlessly.

I keep buying practice amps, and then getting rid of them because I like the danos better. These have included a 50s Gibson GA20, a boutique champ, a little Evans with an 8 inch speaker, and the small ultrasound. I know, it sounds crazy, but I have to go with my ears. The closed back and the three band EQ are a magic combination.

The rating is based on the price; I got each for $50, one on a MF blowout, and one from craigslist. And I had the speaker lying around (4 ohm, BTW), so it is hard to imagine more value in a practice amp. I was just sitting around playing today, a high end archtop through a vintage deamond model 1000 pickup, though a fender reverb tank, into the dano, and getting a gorgeous sound. All from an amp costing less than a pedal.

1999
Features you now already...
mine may have had a 4 ohm speaker and I've read everyone else say an 8 ohm is in theirs. and I've read that only means a difference of 3 dec.

I dug the way this amp sounded at low levels, too loud and it would make farty noises. But at half mast with all the tone knobs up and after taking the back off it sounded nice and clean. Using a Yamaha pbass cheapie lightweight with dimarzio PUs and a fatter capacitor to make the tone knob give a wider range of tone without messing with the amp's knobs, nifty sounded nice and juicy in my small apartment bedroom dwelling situ. But the best sound I got from this amp was a tele custom with stock PUs through a Fulltone OCD pedal, it sounded beautiful no matter what I did to the sound (very much feedback inbetween strums, you know the kind; pissed off & screams of death sounding distortion) and cranking it produced added crunchiness as opposed to the bass' farty noises when turned up too high without distortion, but now that I think of it the bass sounded cool with distortion turned up, but that pedal is juicy and can make an actual fart sound like heaven.
So I'd have to say if your looking for really fat heavy strong low end bass this isn't it, unless you mic it and play the recording on big ass speakers, so it's a bass amp? but it does sound tastey slurpy good with a guitar. I wish I hadn't of zapped mine but I'm a dumbass and like to make circuit bent noises and record them; one day I tried to run a cable from the headphone out into my mixer then into the computer (M-Audio) which proved to be a really stupid thing to do, especially since I thought it sounded really evil and groovy so I started recording it and moving my bass around making the tweaking noise frequency death space sounds change trying to find ways to make it expressive and playing along with it. It would sound all distorted and yummy then sputter back into the split open your skull several times frequency goodness then I started playing with the tone and volume on the bass, the first time I came down on the volume and back up poor nifty flatlined on me. So don't do that, I tried CPR but she spit bile in my mouth and just stayed dead. If you want to hear what that sounds like, wait until I put the sounds she made into a horror movie or a love song. But before I killed her I also got some brilliant sounds from circuit bending an old distortion pedal (Digitech PDS 1550) with the sound of feedback from my bass leaned up against nifty, molesting the circuit board with my fingers, absolutely wonderful spacey noises, almost as if it had some verb of it's own, I also have a Peavey Microbass and doing the same thing produces a much different sound on all accounts especially the circuit bending, the microbass is like wooden shaking sound with wind through cracks inbetween the wood, or what a bulldog would sound like if it were a bass amp. anyway I wish I hadn't killed ol' nifty but god allmighty has taught me to look on the bright side of things so I am able to see it's really an opportunity to put new guts in from a homeless old tube amp and make an all new frankenifty.

I can't tell you as I sacrificed mine to ease Satan's grip upon my very soul. But I can say I tried the same thing going out from the headphone jack of my Peavey for a half an hour before I tried the nifty and the Peavey lives on, and now it powers the nifty's carcass.

Those big jerks! Why I tell ya, you go to there site and those big jerks why they just don't even give ya any way to contact them, those big jerks. Friggin jerks, buncha gol dang jerks over there! I'll swallow your soul and pour your blood for my kitten gol dang Danelectro ya big jerk, unless you start supporting your products. Y'all have a website, information could be there but it's not. Big Jerks!

I'll probably buy another when one comes my way. Funny thing is aparently some chick who used to play with natalie merchant used to own this particular nifty and I killed it. It had a good life and then I killed it dead. Die bitch! Die! No seriously, I would love to have another one of these and I will. It really makes having to be quite with your bass as enjoyable as possible and guitars love it.

Features have already been covered. Minimal, but enough to get by for what it does.

One of the best features for gigging is that it is compact, simple and light (<10 pounds!). I've carried mine to a gig under my arm on a bicycle. Also fits in my RadioFlyer for my heavier gigs.

While it ain't much of a bass amp (too quiet for passive systems), it really sounds great for acoustics w/ active systems; better than some middle end acoustic amps. Amazingly so!

Good enough to play out, provided the band isn;t too loud (even then one can always mic it, though that's a lost art!)

I've even used it for recording with a band, though it probably isn't quite good enough for solo acoustic recording/live, depending on how picky one is.

Pedal friendly. One can get a bit a grit with a distortion pedal; again good enough for a live situation.

I've used it for bass, which it works for with a DI box, although not good enough due to the small speaker. Not really a good amp for e-guitar either, but it is one of the true sleepers for fine live acoustic tone. Based on that narrow application, it gets a solid 8. And I'd give a lot of 40 pound acoustic amps that cost $400 a lower rating than 8!

I've toyed with the idea of playing 4 of these at time (which would still be much cheaper than mid-level acoustic amps) via an 3 A-B switches in series. It would probably sound awesome. I'll repost if I get around to it.

Had it almost ten years, lotsa gigs, lotsa abuse. never a problem.

The most incarnation of dano is gone. They made their money and have disappeared. forget about any help. besides its a circuit mess in a cheap amp.

It's a surprisingly good sounding gigging acoustic amp that's incredibly light, cheap, & thus far trustworthy. That says a ton right there. Based on all of those factors, this baby gets a 9.

Been playing 20 years now & still hitting the circuit; have other 10x more expensive amps, but I come back to this one for gigs, because it's cheap, light, and sounds quite good.

the features of this amp have been stated, so there's no need to repeat them

i consider this "bass" amp to be one of the best sounding amplifiers i've played thru during my long career as a musician, but i never use it for bass...it has far too little power, and not enough low-end push to be an effective bass amp...that said, i'll tell you what i DO use it for:

lead work, just use a distortion pedal...not super loud, but amazing tone, and nice grunt, courtesy of the closed cabinet

acoustic guitar, the tone controls make it possible to dial in a great sound, even with a modest pickup


mandolin, again, the tone controls are just wonderful


i've used it on stage many times miked, and have always had great results, and raised eyebrows at the size and tone

don't drop it...the control pots are soldered into the main ckt baord in such a way as to make them very fragile, and you will not be able to get replacement parts...take my word...there is no repair available for them, so think of it as a toss away amp if it breaks

danelectro bailed completely on this line, and will not support them...you're on your own

it's a great little amp, and i'd buy another one in a heartbeat...terrible bass amp, but excellent for many other things

Of course this amp has few features built in but recently i decided to link it to a fender bassman 25 and it produced a awesomey fuzzy/ cruchy sound that is very unique and powerfull

I use this amp with an old peavey bass and and use it to record on tape i love the way it sounds with walking bass lines, but when i play something fast it seems lose definition.

i've played three solo gigs with this amp and every time at least one waitress has told me to turn it up so i guess this amp is capable of small quiet reseraunts but not much beyond that. this amp for me has never had a single problem since i bought it used at pawn shop and it's never been serviced.

Watchya talkin bout?

i've been playing for 4 years and i own a fender bassman 25 watter, a peavey grind five string bass, a mystery peavy 4 string, and my nifty 70. If this amp were stolen I might try find another but i'm not sure if thats possible. i love the look of this amp and the great sound it makes with a guitar.

Never play leapfrog with a unicorn

single channel amp'/no gain-master volume features like a guitar amp'....just basic input level...and 3 band e.q., low.mid'.high.,
very simple,the closed back design is a big plus...in my opinion,the eight inch speaker is capable of more bottom end than i originally anticipated,
i have not even tried this amp' with a bass yet, although i am a bass player and a guitar player,i bought it for using with my guitars actually,why?...i play period jazz from the 30's to 50's...and play only hollow body f-hole style, two humbucker, electric jazz guitars...i do a solo act of vintage jazz vocal standards...although i have a few nice small to medium size class A and class A/B all tube amps..from the 15-35-60 watt..10-12/inch speaker/multi-speaker range...lately i've been experimenting with various small solid state amps', recently...looking for something small, lighter, and a lil' more convenient than my all tube amps'....i tried a danelctro nifty fifty...liked the overall basic tone,but couldn't get enough low-end for that joe pass type of clean very deep thick tone,and didn't like the crossover frequency of the high mids' in that 50' amp' either...and since i do not play with distortion,the nifty 50' wasn't workin' out for me...so, i thought i'd try the nifty 70'....even though it was essentially designed to be a bass amp'...i believe,
my theory was the larger cabinet,closed back design and lower frequency point 3 band e.q. would help me achieve the deeper thicker vintage jazz clean tones i was after,and BINGO!!!!!!....i just did my first gig in a decent size pub setting this evening, since i close field off axis mic' this amp' with a small diaphragm mic' on a desktop mic' stand and run it through the mains, this amp' has plenty enough power for my purposes, without micing, this amp' does not have enough UMPH! to fill a room...one of the weird aspects to this amp' that i do not like is, it seems to practically have no real notible volume on the level knob up to about the 10 or 11 o' clock level knob setting,at first i thought it was deffective, it seemed to have nothing going on until the level knob was turned to about the 12 to 1 o' clock setting, or 6 (from 0-10)...

tonight i played an epiphone joe pass emporer II through the nifty 70'...miced as i mentioned above, i would not suggest using condenser mics' large or small diaphragm mics' for loud high SPL or distortion players, but at these very low volume settings it's a neat studio type trick for obtaining a full round, very clean sound,as i mentioned play vintage jazz, and i'd dare say i'm getting a real "polytone" type of tone out of this amp'....great for this jazz style, and at the 12 to 1 o' clock setting, this amp' was practically totally noise-free,not even a running hiss, or 60 cycle hum, yes, crank it up to 9-10 and it will reveal all of that for you,as will most all amps'...with the bass at about 7-8 the mids' at about 7-8 and highs set at about 12 o' clock...and the treble on both humbucker pick-ups slightly rolled off....the tone i was getting through the mic' in the mains was incredibley authentic to a 40's -50's tube amp' tone, i used this amp' in conjunction with a danelectro pedal board, essentially using the "corned beef" reverb...with a HF cut for a full warm 50's type reverb...this pedal and that amp' seem to me made for each other...on various tunes using the "tuna melt" tremolo and dano's lil slap back echo pedal too....giving it a slight rock-a-billy tone....the results were amazing, the amp' jived well with these pedals, but it seems the amp's input has a low threshold to any serious volume boosting inputs or pedals so you have to go easy or it will develop a slight,slight pre-amp distortion on the low-end...the one key element i used tonight with this amp' and pedal set-up was an L.R. Baggs GIG PRO battery powered pre-amp...at very low volume, with just a slight treble boost...it was just what the doctor ordered, a lil' more of a "beel-tone" high end without getting tinny or brassy...although i was very capable of getting good tones without the GIGPRO also...so for what this amp' was used for, i was pretty pleased and amazed and so were several audience members/musicians...not to mention, if you are doing a 30's to 50's jazz gig, how absolutely appropriete and "cool" the retro 40's-50's design of this amp' is....perfect for this visual setting,as i dress like the 1940's when i perform....so the "look" was the icing on the cake....i also love how light this amp' is too...

well i just got it a lil' more than a week ago, i've had no problems, and i liked it soooooo much, i bought another slightly used one, so....i've got a back-up,but i doubt i'll need it anytime soon, as i said, my gig is a low volume thing, so i'm not putting much stress on the amp'...i really wanted one for the gig, and one for my studio...i've no problems...so far

don't have a clue...i'm pretty sure danelectro doesn't make these anymore, and at these prices, compared to my all tube amps'....this amp' is practically...the "disposable razor of amps"...heh,heh,...

a debatable 9....heh,heh,...since i'm using it as a guitar amp', which my not be it's originally intended purpose, but...it works for me...i've been playing bass for 29 years, guitar seriously for 15 years,
as far as other amps' i recently had nine different amps',but have sold off many more recently,so now i've got a crate vc-2110R 1X10 class A all tube 20 watts,a crate vc-2112R 1X12 class A all tube 20 watts, a fender blues jr., 1X12 class A/B 30 watts, a peavy "delta blues" 2X10 class A/B 35 watts,a peavy ultra 2X12 3 channel all tube class A/B 60 watts,and 2 danelectro nifty 70's...i have 3 other hollow body jazz electrics, an EPI' 335, a 3" deep JT-142 (by jay turser), and a JT-134 semi-hollow (smaller body)...
if this amp' were stolen...i have another one, if BOTH were stolen, i'd defintely would buy another one, it sounds great, it's very light and saves my back, and takes up very little room in the trunk of my car...and looks soooooo cool too....

I can't believe there's like a 90-line review of this little amp.
I bought this on Ebay as a little practice amp and couldn't be more pleased.
Forget multiple channels, this only has one input! But it was only $70 used on ebay. It does have a headphone jack. It has an 8-inch speaker and I think 15 watts. It can fill a room but would not keep up with drums, unless it was all kind of quiet. I would use this for recording in a heartbeat. Smooth!
It is sweet looking and I intend to keep it that way as it will seldom leave the house except to go to someone else's living room.
One drawback is the cord is detachable and doesn't have a place to "go" as the back is sealed.

I've been playing me new Danelectro DC bass through this and it produces the lovliest tone. My guitarist friend ripped me for getting this because i said my Ampeg Rocket was too big to lug around for what amounts to semi-acoustic rehearsals. One look at the box and one listen to the sound and he was like WOW. And he is a big Fender tube amp snob.

I've only had this a short time. It's too small for gigs unless it's an acoustic setting. But i would rely on it in that case.

bought it used but have had some contact with the company, who were friendly enough. I might be wrong but right now Dano is not making this or their classic repo guitars and basses. So get em while you can.

After a hiatus of longer than I'd like to say, I've resumed playing and bought some gear. I'm very happy with it all, a Dano DC bass, an Ampeg Rocket and the Nifty 70. Also threw in an Epiphone Les Paul Jr. guitar, new for only $99.
I would def. buy this again if i lost it, especially at $70. You coulnt get a better (or cuter) practice amp. I wish it had at least a second input, but at this price ...
If gear was this cheap when back when, i would have never quit playing.

I'll skip all the other stuff; it'as already said. Very few features, but that's fine. I'm glad they didn't try to put cheesy distortions or any of their analog effects built in. I get great effects with my Boss VF-1, and as a practice guitar amp -- that's right, regular six-string guitar amp -- it works great...under the following conditions...re-eq'd my factory presets with some reference headphones coming out of this amp...added Danelectro's $30 7-band eq stomp pedal called the Fish and Chips (which is an absolutely wonderful pedal for the value)...and finally, a set of Rio Grande (single coil pickups that fit humbucker holes, with also excess bass range for playing blues and slide). As a practice bass amp, I'd give it a 7 on features. It's a no frills amp for cheap, and now they're gone! For my money on the Musician's Friend close out special, it's been a phenomenal value. I told my friends and they bought a couple for $49 also. They play them as guitar amps, and for vocals, with a little cheap impedence transformer, they are very warm and soulful, even out of a little cheap microphone because they are so bassy, they kind of get in PA box range...makes for good warm, sweet and low vocals, very unlike the goofy, shrill mosquito in a tin can of so many other practice amps, because it's bass-rich baby!

See above for pickup style. I consider myself a tone freak; lots of styles so far as guitar sounds, but as a songwriter, I do a folk/rock renaissance alternative a la Amie Mann, Cold Play, Travis Band, Jethro Tull, Red Hot Chili Peppers, or Simon and Garfunkel on LSD. As a practice bass amp, not being much of a bass player, I'll withhold my rating -- although I own a bass and mess around with it, I think my opinion would be trying to lead out of an area of weakness, so I won't. Not noisy at all. Amp makes about one kind of sound, but if you add a mfx box, it makes about a somewhat infinite type of sound, very balanced once eq'd, because, as a small amp, its trebly, but being a bass amp, it's not! So, it's a great little guitar amp. As a very poor man's, solid state, one-speaker Fender Bassman-- admittledly a butchered substitute -- it is great, under the circumstances mentioned above. I usually hate the weak bass and shrill treble of small guitar amps, but this overcomes that problem for me, because my Boss VF-1 1/2 rack mount (same basic brain as Boss Gt6) multi-fx signal processor has great multi-band eqs that allow me to add treble and roll back the bass of the patches, very convincingly. Since the Rio Grande pickups are big bottom wound for extra bass anyway, this amp was ideal. In fact, I love my tone, especially after adding the Dan Electro Fish and Chips eq to even further compensate. It would ideal if I could just add one more treble pot to add onto the top end, but alas...imperfect world, but it's not far from being great. The amp, also, being solid state, does pretty well for processing complex algorithms from mega-intense 24 bit math processing in my digital zap-rich Boss VF-1. I did toast one of my Dan Electro Nifty 70s (I own two) just from clipping the level, apparently, which I'll mention under reliability later. But it's probably good for me that it's solid state because I'm not sure that some tube amps can process all the stuff coming out of my box, -- without cooking regularly -- like cello, viola, bass that sounds like people talking, whistle percussion, guitar notes synthesized to sound like drums, moaning, crying stuff, and a host of classic rock saturation coming from overdriving amp models in varying degrees. I've spent mega hours re-doing factory presets, but it's been well worth it...basically I've got about 50 incredibly useful guitar sounds now, but I had to learn to simplify and get rid of all my other guitars except for one electric and one acoustic, because I was having to re-eq patches for each guitar. I've also just reducing my five amps to one practice amp, (Dano) and one gig amp (Fender 85 Deluxe). But, I'm looking for a "glassy" small amp with a speaker out to not only practice with, but also to hook up to a 4x4 and do live gigs, maybe also miking through a P.A., depending on how big the output is. I would use the Dano Nifty 70 for that, but it just lacks a little top end and a little mid-range sparkle...but not a whole lot, once compensated as mentioned above, otherwise, I would probably drill a hole in it, mount an ext. speaker out jack in it, and buy a set of 4x4 Behringer Jensens, and maybe solve all problems. But, as it is the Dano just lacks a little mid/treble. In fact, on many of my patches, I've not even near maxed out the treble, because being a small practice amp, it's trebly by nature, but balanced as a guitar amp, because it's bassy. I'm still searching for one good, versatile practice amp that will let me saturate and run that signal into some air-moving speakers. This simplicity allows me to get my widely varying patches balanced and saved, and keep my volume/drive ratio at one optimized level, so I don't have to tweak endlessly with each change to the system. There are global functions on the VF-1 that you let you change levels for all patches at once, after you get them all tweaked the way you want. If you own a multi-fx box, I suggest that y

I fried a board, probably from a patch that clipped, unavoidably. But Dano sent a whole chassis, with amplifier, all pots, everything, no questions asked -- after their sending pots to me, which I installed -- failed. They don't work on the Nifty 70s because they are discontinued, which is cheap rip off in my opinion. The fact that they discontinued doesn't mean they shouldn't accept factory warranty items, unless the whole company went belly up, which it didn't, but it may, if some of their blind managers don't start looking at the market from somewhere other than the desk of a board meeting. People don't want crummy guitars or pedals when they can get good ones for cheap, too. Dano does make a few great pedals for cheap, though, for which they are to be commended. In the way of guitars, though, Dano: sell us some beautiful, cheap guitars, like the other Korea stuff: some Korean factories don't put misplaced frets and particle board bodies on their guitars anymore! Anyway, at least Dano sent me a chassis, which was not hard to replace...just mounted the amp/transformer and bolted it in. Anyway, the amp may have fried from unavoidable clipping coming from a guitar patch that makes notes sound like drums...so, partly operator error, but my levels were down as far as possible, and still weren't low enough, apparently. The cause of frying is basically unknown, but no sound would come from it until the chassis was changed...I assume it was something in the circuit board itself. Apparently, Dano had similar problems with this amp, judging from inferences and comments when I called the factory. My other Nifty 70 has never had a problem and it's got mega hours in the past two years.

Rock Klauser was great. The rest of them with whom I dealt were almost the stereotyp of the non-service oriented, but maybe it's because I was talking to them right after they had discontinued their guitar line, and nobody's real happy when the ship is sinking, or at least one end of it. They're human, too. I wish Dano would release a quality Korean guitar line, like Raven. Your line up was okay, Dano, about five years ago, but great stuff started filling the stores and you didn't listen! Will you listen now? I know it's hard to run a business, but you've got market share and a name, and I know you sell a lot in Europe/Eastern Europe. So, don't let your pretty good name die! Just put some great values out there, again, which is your forte. God bless Rock Klauser, though, and any others at Dano who conscientiously work, often thanklessly, in a problematic environment. I hope Dano is doing better since a year or two ago, and I hope they reissue another dynamic product line. You've got some great systems in place...now fill 'em with some value-laden products, a la Behringer! Go spy out how Behringer does it....lots of companies will soon have to because they're going to lose mega market share to Behringer, who is listening to the market and designing things accordingly, and cheaply, for the big majority...the poverty-affected musician consumer.

25 years playing...as said above, I reduced and simplified because I have dozens of guitars and amps hiding in my VF-1. I just took about 10 guitars and five amps to Houston to consign them at a friend's shop. I gig regularly in public. Every now and then I get to go to the studio. I love the tone and the vintage two-tone cab. Don't like the easily torn naugahyde. Hate nothing about it. Wish I had an amp cover, but I put it in a canvas suitcase and zip it up, which works fine to protect the naugahyde. Wish it had a speaker out jack. Can't buy it again, but I would buy another one for $50 if it were needed. I've loved mine. Doesn't get a lot of volume but it's fine for me,especially when driven through the preamps on my VF-1, which can probably add 30 decibels, easily, and then it sounds really cool, driven and saturated! The Dano is useful to me, but I'm not rating it as a bass amp. For me, it's been great and blows away a 37 watt tweed practice amp made by Fender, so far as tone goes. Plus, since it doesn't have to push low octave air, it seems to get more volume as a guitar amp.

The product details are found in other reviews, so I won't repeat them. In short, a 15-watt single channel solid state closed-back bass amp with volume knob, three tone level controls, and headphone jack in an attractive and fun retro-style package.

The tone controls make it pretty versatile as long as you give no thought to using it as anything other than a bedroom practice amp. First, it doesn't play very loud (especially when you use a guitar with single-coil pickups), so you don't have to worry much about the police showing up during your practice. Second, the soft covering will quickly get dirty and torn if used in the real world. Mine, which never leaves the house, still looks great though after more than a year of use.

This amp was purchased on line for $50 from Musician's Friend in 2001. It was something of an impulse buy given the low price, and I had previously looked one over in a guitar store so I knew it sounded okay.

It's a pretty good practice amp for both bass and guitar in that it's very portable, lightweight, and attractive. It's really nice having the headphone jack, which you end up using more than you'd expect. The one feature I'd add would be reverb, but then you wouldn't get the amp for $50.

You'd be surprised at how good this sounds in solo practice, especially with a bass. It carries some good tones and resonates nicely in the room. It's loud enough with a bass to really enjoy it, while you have to max it out with guitars (although they sound pretty good, too). I also noticed it made a big difference to use a decent guitar cord, more so than with most amps I've tried.

If you use a guitar with humbuckers like a Les Paul, you'll get good tone and a bit more volume than a guitar with single coil pickups. Basses don't seem to make that much difference; they all sound pretty good, but you don't get that much volume. Either way, it's best as a solo practice amp--don't try to compete with other amps if you have the Nifty Seventy.

This amp is really pretty clean; not much noise, and it seems less likely to have feedback than most I've been around. Don't worry about distortion; you can't get it loud enough to distort. You can kind of get it to feed back, but you'll never be confused with Hendrix.

No telling; with normal practice use, it hasn't needed any attention in over a year. You'd never consider using it for a gig, so don't let that enter your thoughts.

You mostly need to be concerned that the good-looking covering material will get messed up. You know what I mean if you've seen some of these for sale as second-hand; they usually look pretty bad by then.

No need to deal with Danelectro to this point. I've heard other people say they can be hard to get a hold of, though.

This was mostly an impulse buy so I doubt I'd buy it again if it were lost...although for $50, I might, given its portability and fun-factor. I like its sound and looks, but you can only do so much with a 15-watt bass amp.

Still, the next step up is buying a Behringer or something for $250 if you want to move toward having a really usable bass amp, so this one is pretty good for the practice room. It would also be a good companion if you want to carry a bass and guitar with you but don't want to take up much room, but be careful with the cosmetics.

I kind of like Danelectro products; they're cheap and fun. I have one of their guitars and it's fun to play, cool looking, and distinctive. The same is true for this little amp; it would be nice if Dano made some more serious larger amps for guitar and bass players.

Volume and three of the most responsive tone controls I have EVER used. Also there is a built in limiter as befits a small bass amp, and works to give a nice compressed CLEAN tone to guitar (which, like many others in these reviews, is what I use it for). DON'T bother trying to get distortion out of the amp by itself-- it just gets crappified. If you've got a fuzzbox or whatever kind of stomp box.... well, twist and shout, I guess. Not me. If it had nice reverb like my little Crate, it would score a 10.

As others noticed, with guitar this amps speaks JAZZ. Laid back, punchy, Jim Hall tones even out of your Strat. In fact it's too muddy with humbuckers for me, but I hate humbuckers anyway. It's a quiet amp, I bet just SUPER-tasty for recording the jazz style I'm talking about. It's not a loud amp, way quieter than my little Crate or Marshall 12-15 watt guitar practice amps. Not surprising-- it uses the same (good quality) amp chip as the Crate, but an 8 ohm speaker means it's putting out only 8-10 watts, and likely running cooler, too. Power transformer is twice the size of the Crate's-- normal for a bass amp. I suppose it seems weird to compare a bass amp to guitar amps but I can't see ANY sense in a 10-15 watt bass amp (solid state) anyway. I'd use headphones from a stomp-box for personal practice and find AT LEAST a 30 watt practice amp for the band.

There's nothing much to the innards. I don't drop my amps so that might help, but I don't expect anything to go wrong. The quality is OK where it counts, very much like other small amps (I know what to look for, as I build this stuff and do repairs myself) and besides it's a cheap practice amp, I don't expect it to last forever.

I've been playing over 30 years. once upon a time, Rock. Now, rarely Rock-- just fooling around-- I play jazz, and blues. Love that SRV tone but I get that out of a Blues Junior, forget this amp for that stuff. Ya gotta know your own and your equipment's limitations. Just don't dwell on them-- use it for what it IS good for. YEAH, I love the looks, I really really like the looks but cheapo Dano stuff, the "leatherette" covering is tissue-paper sturdy.It tears if you LOOK at it wrong. And not easily replaced.It's a throw-away amp. Well, so what, it's a throw-away world with pretty much throw-away music. Anyway, it was so cheap and I like it so much-- I bought a second one and keep in its box as a spare. If both of them were stolen I wouldn't get my knickers in a twist over it. It's just an amp. There are lots of amps.

I think everyone has said enough about the features of this amp, so I'm not going to rehash. It has all the features you're gonna need from a practice/travel amp.

I got this amp when I first started out bass, playing with a used 1998 Squier Jazz bass. It sounded plenty decent enough.

Here's the big complaint. After I had this amp for about a year or so, it broke. I didn't know what happened to it at the time, and I still don't. All I knew was that it stoped working. So, I brought it in to my shop to get repaired. Low and behold, I got a call from my amp tech Craig who said "John, did you drop this thing or what?" It turns out that the Nifty 70 was originally constructed with all the pots going directly onto the circutboard, and somehow I had managed to break every one of them off (again, don't ask me how, I didn't even move the thing often, let alone drop it). So, in order to repair the damn thing, i was going to have to get a whole new circutboard for it, and it was about this time that I started getting better equipment, so I opten instead to simply buy a bigger and better amp (mid-70's Acoustic 370/301). Later on however, i found the need to have a small amp to tote around with me, something I could travel with, so I gave Craig a call and told him to fix the little guy. Now here's the kicker: I found out that, apparently, Danelectro realized that this was a flaw in the design, cause they stopped making them like that, and the part I needed was no longer available. We tried a couple of guys who thought they may be able to get one, but they couldn't. The damn thing was just irrepairable.

It had a warrenty, but it expired by the time it broke.

In the end, I bought a Fender Frontman 15B, but it just doesn't have a good low-end sound, so I'm thinking of putting the speaker from the Nifty 70 in it, since a speaker and cabinet is all it really is anymore.

It was a great amp for beginers, if only it didn't have a big ol' flaw in it's design.

nifty 70. one channel. 3 band eq.closed cabinet. 8" speaker.

this thing rocks for use with a 6 sting guitar. the closed cabinet gives nice tight bottom end. killer little sound with the sholz rockman 100. wish it was easier to get a larger combo with the same tone. this tone with 50 watts and a 12 with the closed cabinet would be the best!

Have used this in the bedroom for a year now. no problems.

bought it used

i own about 10 guitars at this time, fenders , hamers,a jazz box and a semi hollow body. this amp is a very cool piece.

Tonal controls are OK, only one input, headphone output

Sounds lovely provided you don't wind it up, I believe the speaker could be underpowered as my fretless MusicMan Stingray can rattle it quite badly

Ok but it puts a signal out on the Input neutral which can cause havoc if you split the input lead to the amp and feed it into a studio/desk. the bass sound will bleed into the other channels on the desk, this happened with a digital Kork recording studio

It's OK for the bedroom but not much else

I just wasted $79.00 on a new Danelectro Nifty Seventy bass amp. I got it on Musician's Friend as a throw-in with some Rogue bass strings... or the other way around? Anyways those strings sucked so I threw them in the woods. This amp is about as versatile as a damned toilet seat. I know it's supposed to be a practice amp, but it is QUIET. One channel, headphone jack, three knobs (low, mid, hi).

I play a cheap Yamaha bass through it (yeah so I am not a bass player, why don't you donkey-punch your grandma if you're so upset about it, jerk). Maybe this is why it sounds like muddy ca-ca. The sounds are alright, if you don't turn it up at all. I mean, I can hear the actual bass strings through the air even when this amp is on. The distortion is brutal. I guess if you are some asshole that likes to play Ted Nugent on the bass or something you should go out and buy a Nifty Seventy. Then you should put a bullet through your forehead.

It seems pretty solid, no complaints here. Would I gig with it? Is the Pope jewish? If you use this in a live setting, it's time for you to call the whole music thing quits, because you are obviously a total jerk.

Danelectro does have good customer support, even if their products are sub-standard mule turds.

I'm mainly a guitarist who wanted a practice bass amp to fool around with. Honestly this amp is good for the bedroom but that's about it. If I were an actual bassist and I bought this after reading Dano's print copy about "pure bass muscle" and "the king of small bass amps" I think I would eat seven pounds of pony loaf. If it were lost or stolen I'd probably take a nap or something. Considering it is alright for what I use it for, I give it a 6. If you are a serious bassist avoid it like a ribald latino.

Real simple. Level, low, middle, high, on/off. No bells and whistles. This is a bass amp that I play guitar through. I bought it as a small and really portable practice amp, because I didn't want to drop $400.00 on a Blues Junior or similar practice amp (I'm saving for a Deluxe Reverb Reissue -- see my review of it).

I play an American Tele and a Squier Strat through this amp. I usually play blues or blues/rock, but occasionally I branch out into other styles. This amp has me wanting to play jazz because it has a very "DI" JC120 sound (no, it's not that good, but it's that sound). I occasionally destroy the nice clean sound by running through a DOD Supra Distortion pedal, which I plan to upgrade soon. The amp sounds amazing considering what I paid for it. For what I use it for, it gets an 8. Since I have to compare it to the Vox AC15 and Fender DRRI I've demo'd this week, it gets a 5.

Seems durable. Solid state, closed back cabinet, no funny noises when I turn the pots or flip the switches.

N/A

If I were being totally fair, I would rate this as a $70.00 bass amp that I bought to play guitar through. However, I have no clue what its value as a bass amp is. I can tell you that it sounds very nice for $70.00, and it works perfectly for what I want -- to keep me from lugging a ton of equipment to impromptu jams.

Real basic vol. and tone and headphones All you need for a clean tone

I bought this as a present to give to someone as a clean guitar amp with retro look- I liked it so much I bought one for myself. It has a much better clean tone than the Dirty 30 and is quite dynamic and responsive

Seems ok the Dirty 30 I tried was v.hissy this is much quieter.
The simulated leather covering is v. easily damaged.-Home use only!

No warranty claims

It's a cool little practice amp , surprisingly good on guitar though obviously a bit bassy. It looks good in the living room!

This is a solid state, 15-watt bass combo amp, with an 8-inch speaker.
It has low, middle, and high tone controls. The features are very sound for a practice amp. I just wish it had a line out for direct recording.

I play a standard Fender P-bass through this amp, and it had great sounds right out of the box. It's very quiet with straight bass, or through my compressor pedal. Occasionally there is some radio-type static, but I experience that on all of my amps, I think it is due to the location of my house. You can get a large variety of sounds out of it. The settings in the instruction manual are actually very useful.

I've only had it for a day, so I don't know yet, but most Danelectro equipment is reliable.

I haven't had to deal with them, but I've heard that they're great!

Overall, I think this amp is great for a practice amp. I used to have a Trace Elliot practice amp that cost almost twice as much, and in my opinion, the Danelectro is just as good, if not better. Good sound, and great vintage look!

This appears to be the latest addition to the Danny line. No wattage is given, but I'd be surprised if it pushes over 15. Basically a practice amp, but I already gigged with it (mic'd) and will record at home with it as well. It's butt-simple. One input, toggle on/off, level, low, mid, high. Headphone jack on the back. Nothing fancy. Retro Danny look with two tone leatherette covered cabinet and spiffy grill cloth. Here's my main complaint: the leatherette was scratched on the first gig, and the cream colored part is dirty as hell already. I suppose you could put that to a more antique look, but I wish it was tougher, like a Pignose hide. Another drawback: the power cord detaches from the amp, making it easy to lose. Overall, tho, the sound is very good.

Bass is one of my secondary instruments. I got this as an extra amp for small gigs and recording, and have run all kinds of things through it. I'm playing an old Kay bass with old flatwound strings, but I prefer that sound to the "modern" popping, trebly bass anyway. It handled a drum machine with a Boss Bass Syth box attached quite nicely. I play what might be called "avant garde" rock-based music, so most of my equipment goes through hell. I've only had this a little over a week, but so far the sound has been clean and smooth, except at high levels where the amp naturally distorts. This replaced a Crate X 15B which sputtered something awful when put throught he same paces. The little manual, as usual, gives about 20 suggested settings, but there's basically low, mid, and high with extremes. The distortion on the Danny is smoother, for a solid state amp. It will go dirty at loud levels (it's better to boost the tone knob of your choice and leave the level at 2 o'clock), but not leave a trail of splattered sound like the Crate did. The cabinet is completely sealed, and overall the unit is quiet compared to other amps in this price range. My Strat also sounds great through this, but there's no reverb or anything like that. As I said, it can handle effects pedals surprisingly well.

I already gigged with it (as a second), put guitar, synth, drum machine, vocals, and all kind of twisted effects as well as straight bass through it without any major problem. But I haven't had it very long. So far, so good. SEEMS well built, like all Danelectro stuff, but it's too early to rate it.

Uh... there's a phone number on the warranty card. Warranted 12 months. I trust Guitar Center will take care of any problems if one arises.

I've been playing guitar almost 30 years, but only owned four amps, from a '50's Supro to a '73 Vibrolux. I will try to play anything I can get my hands on, whether acoustic or electric. As mentioned, this amp handled a variety of instruments well. The sound is a *bit* boxy, but we're talking about a 15 watt amp with an 8" speaker. It will rattle windows, but if I was a serious bassist, I'd naturally go up to at least 100 watts. I love this thing for what it is. A practice amp. I need a bigger sound, I plug into my old Fender Vibrolux. Yeah, I'd buy another one. Compared to other amps in the price range, the Danny is sweet. But if you want heavy distortion or fancy effects, you gotta plug 'em in or get something more expensive. I've read great things about the Nify Fifty too, so maybe Danelectro is planning a bigger amp line, I dunno. I have three Danny pedals and they all seem tough as hell and sound fine.