Danelectro Nifty-Fifty

I bought this amp brand new and got it yesterday (1/10/02). I really like the looks and size of this amp. The features are basic for a practice amp. It takes some adjusting to make it sound decent, but it can sound ok (WHEN IT WORKS! - Read below).

At first it sounded really bad. In my opinion, an amp shouldn't sound "really bad" at any setting. Of course you need to adjust everything to how you like yourself to sound. But I cringed at the first sound this thing made (not talking about volume either). But yeah, after adjustment it almost sounded "good". I had serious problems with mine though, and maybe those problems had some effect on the sound quality when it was actually working. The rating is based on how it sounded while it was functioning. If I should rate the loud buzz (see reliability section), I'd say "0".

The description for a "1" rating is "think it worked once". Well, I had just gotten mine set to where it sounded okay and WHOA - it let out a huge buzz/hum that was so loud it scared the crap out of me. I hit the power switch ASAP and prayed I hadn't fried my Epi LP Custom. I checked all my connections, plugged it into a different power outlet, used a different top-dollar cable (no effects in between) - and still the same. I can play just fine for 4 - 6 minutes and it does it again. It must have a wiring problem that is only an issue after it heats up. I'm sending it back today.

Haven't dealt with Dano directly. I was told by someone in the business that there have been problems with some of these amps (nifty 50, dirty 30, and nifty 70). But for the price ($60), I thought I'd give it a shot. Bad idea. But Musician's Friend seems to be good at taking stuff back without much hassle - If I have trouble, I'll update this.

I've only been playing for just under a year (teaching myself - so it's kinda slow). But any dope could tell ya that an amp should last for more than 5 minutes! I have always liked the look of this amp and bought it as a secondary to my Crate GFX15 (which I think sounds a lot better - of course mine was screwed up). To get the look of this amp in a better quality, the only thing I could find was a Fender Blues Junior with the blonde cover (and that still don't look as "nifty" in my opinion - sorry for that). But I'm not good enough yet to invest that much money in this.

Great practice amp, good amp for low-volume endeavors. 15 watts, one eight inch speaker. No reverb.

I've used it for jazz and country, and people have remarked on the great tone coming out of that little box. Remember though, we're talking low-volume, semi-acoustic stuff.

In general, single-coils probably sound better through this than humbuckers. I've also played a classical through it and it sounded great.

Good bottom end. Basically the Nifty-Fifty is Dano's Daddy-O overdrive/tube simulator pedal hooked up to a speaker. It has way more tone than your typical solid-state 15 watt amp.

It certainly doesn't have the headroom you get from a nice old Fender though.

Headphone jack fell into the back. I don't really care.

Also, leather covering looks cool, but tears oh so easily.

For $100, this thing rocks. A practice amp with tone. And sounds good for low volume jazz and semi-acoustic stuff. Definitely not for metal. And no, definitely not a threat to replace your Fender Twin. Nevertheless, a lot of value for the money.

I wish they made a bigger one!

My Nifty Fifty was made in China in 1998. The Dano factory is probably next door to a sneaker sweat shop too. Anyway, the Nifty Fifty is a cute tan & brown covered solid state practice amp that has 1 input; Dirty/Sweet; Level; Bass; Middle and Treble controls followed by an on/off switch and has a head phone jack. It's 15 solid state watts will not make you forget that vintage Fender Champ......... unless you have ears of stone.

OK now.... if you play this, you'll forget that Dumble you've been lusting after. Uh......wait a minute. The Nifty Fifty sounds as if a bumble bee was flying around inside your baggy pants near your crotch.
It screams but not in a pleasant way. Very solid state sounding...clean or overdriven. But hey, it's a cheap practice amp.
After hearing this amp, that crappy 5150 will sound like God.

As dependable as a cockaroach after a nuclear explosion.
It only stays at home.
I think I tourtured my last lead singer with this at a song writing session.

Dano is very dependable. They replaced my dead Danecho pedal without question and I received the new one in a week.
Some of the big companies should take note....customer service is important especially to musicians.

It's a practice amp. I actually bought it for my wife who is perpetually learning how to play guitar.
In my opinion, the only solid state amp that can be used as a practice or gigging amp is a Gallien Krueger 250ML. The Nifty Fifty is a far cry from the 250ML.

Standard one channel amp package. Reverb would have helped. Headphone jack is nice.

I tried a '60 Strat with .012 strings and Bill Lawrance stacked Humbuckers and the thing smoked. Turn all the knobs to 10 and there's enough creamy, SRV blues tone to fill a room. The knobs do more than you'd think, so twisting bass, mid or treble really does something, but flat out is best. I also tried a PRS with .010s and the bottom dropped out. Couldn't really get a Satch/Vai shredder tone.

Either way it covers it's bases and does an impressive job for such a small, light amp. Beautiful for practice and parties but I wouldn't gig with it.

It's more about looks. The previous owner had to get service by just kicking over a 12" tall amp. The board separated from the knobs, but Dano stood behind him and fixed it.
You see alot of old Dano stuff so I have high hopes for reliability. But it's not built for the road like a Roland or something.

??????

Love the look, dig the tone, easy to carry, wouldn't care if I lost it. I traded a Roland DAC-15X, that I paid $40, for mine.

I love this vintage amp with its dirty-sweet knob. The other knowbs are standard: level, bass, middle, trebble. Its also very light weight
so its easy to carry around.

Amp is nice because you can turn up the distortion for punk and rock, and down for playing blues or jazz. You dont need an extra distroter if youve got this amp. Also for loud for its size. Twice as loud as my 15 watt bass amp.

Only owned it for a month so no problems yet. But looks stable enough and probably wont break for a while.

I play bass in a punk band, but we only have one guitar player so we needed another one for recording. Its one of the best amps for playing punk that ive heard. A lot better than my guitarist's fender amp. This amp works best with humbucker pickups also.

Your basic practice amp 1 input gain,vol,bass,middle,treble,on/off.
Delicate case covering, looks 100% retro but take it easy with the
covering. Also headphone jack. I got it new for $49.95 from a store
getting out of the music business (not their main product).

using this with a Strat copy, I like it a ton better than the
Dirty thirty with its small speaker. This has very good tone
on clean mode. I seldome use my bridge pickup it would sound
so muddy, not with this, those extra tone knobs really help.
This thing is plenty loud also! Mine is nice and quiet any
noise is generated in my cheap guitar. I like the distortion.
you have to play with the tone knobs but there are a lot of
tones in this little box.

Ok, mine had some loose screws holding the speaker and guts in.
15 seconds work cured any buzzing on low notes. Cabinet is put
together with a lot of hot melt glue, but looks industrial
strength for sure. no problems.

Not needed yet, others say they will flat out replace it with a
new one if you have a problem, you can't get any better than that!

This is a keeper, not too big, loud enough, looks good.
For me this is all I need right now. I have used a lot of
small tube amps that sounded good but had to go to max volume
to get that tube distortion, I like dialing that in at a lower
volume. Now this will not sound like a small tube amp spilling
its guts on '10' but will do the job for me. I would get this
for someone starting out also. I started with an EARLY solid
state, PLASTIC amp of few watts that turned me off from playing
for many years.I wish this was around then!

"Bought" brand new for $0.00 - and it's worth every penny (or lack thereof). Features? Come on, don't be as lazy as I am - scroll down to other posts.

Played my G&L ASAT though this amp, and in clean mode, it sounded pretty damn good, except for that constant hissssssssss sound the amp makes, with or without a guitar plugged in. But hey, for the price... what can you expect?!

The dirty settings took some tweaking time, which surprised me. I actually read the manual, and saw that many of the suggested overdriven tones had the treble almost to zero. I found out why. B/c otherwise it sounds like $#!+. But with the treble rolled off, you can actually use some of that overdrive to get a classic tube like break-up. Kinda a "farting tube" sound... if you squint, you'd think you're playing an old 50s tube amp, in need of some mods.

Reliability? Hmm... I guess it's ok, except the knobs look like leftovers from a push-button vending machine. I wouldn't abuse this thing though, b/c I mean, how well could the pcb be made?

Customer support? You'd be surprised at some of the customer support you get with a cheap item, and how bad it can be with an expensive one. I guess it doesn't cost the company much to send you a new guitar pick when you claim your's is defective, while a twisted neck on a Gibson is "customer error". :o)

Btw - no experience with customer support, for Danelectro, or Gibson. (or pickboy for that matter, though one of their checkerboards picks I was using actually split in half, down the middle - essentially creating 2 ultra thin picks, and a pick shaped piece of see through silver paper. I should complain.)

The amp was part of MARS free package deal, so it was a free-bee. I'm enjoying it though, and would like to see how it would sound in a live band situation, mic'd up through a pa system. Could be a cool little amp - light, easy to travel with, don't have to worry about the occasional drink spilling on it (unlike your Mesa Quad-Recto).

I like the looks of the amp - very 50's, and the covering material is pretty cool too. It's tiny, and there might be better amps out there for under $100 - but it's also a cool buy, neat toy, and hey - you could do a lot worse for $80.

As you've read already, this this amp has 5 knobs - Distortion, Volume, Bass, Mid, High. Lose the distortion. Otherwise great.

I use this amp with a DeArmond X155 Archtop. Yah, I play jazz. For $99 this is a great jazz amp. Just never turn up the distortion. In fact, a couple drops of superglue will make the knob unturnable - highly recommended.

Amp works great - never had a problem with it. A fine gig amp for jazz.

Never dealt with them.

No Reverb, but a great little amp for the price. As a jazz player, you don't need much more than this even for gigs. No, it doesn't sound like a Polytone Mini-Brute, it sounds like a Danelectro Nifty Fifty which is fine with me. If you want it to sound like another amp, buy something else. It's light too (my guitar weighs twice as much). If you play jazz, and want a decent clean tone for under a hundred bucks, this is the ticket.

Bought this new in 2/01. Basic Practice amp, 15w. Only one channel. Nice distortion, although it increases the volume. For a practice amp, it's features are a 10; overall though, I give it a 7.

I'm playing a Les Paul standard and can produce lots of different sounds. With a Zoom 505 I can duplicate a lot of sounds. Clean sounds very nice. Distortion is great up to 1/2 setting. It does increase the volume too.

Really can't comment as I've only had it a month.

Again, I've only owned it a month.

It simply isn't possible to get a better amp for less than $100!

I use this a practice amp in my living room. Amazingly, the little guy us almost too loud. It also looks quite nice with its "retro" vibe. It has a volume knob, and a "Dirty-Sweet" knob, which progressively adds volume and distortion. One could get many sounds from this amp if one tried.

It sounds good with my Strat and Carvin DC-127. Somewhat noisy with single-coils.

This is my second Nifty-Fifty. The first one had a bad input jack that crackled and cut-out the sound, before eventually falling completely inside the amp, rendering it useless. This happened over about a year. The new one is fine so far. The amps are made in China.

I wrote to the company describing my problem, and I got a call from a customer service rep, who told me that I could mail the amp back for a replacement. I did so, and two weeks later, I got a brand new amplifier. I think it is great that Danelectro (actually, the Evets Corp.) stands behind a $99 product like they do.

This is a nice practice amp, it looks cool, and the company is great to deal with.