Danelectro 1956 U2 Reissue

Features have already been gone over 83 times but I wanted to add my two cents worth in here as I frequent this fun site quite often. I, admittedly, am a Dano freak. I missed getting one of these U2 treasures when they were in full (re)production and longed for one of for several years. I happened across a great music store that carries used gear called Village Music in Edmonds Wa. Mike, the owner, is a great guy and has the largest collection of black faced Fender amps I've ever seen in one place not to mention a huge supply of guitars too. Apparently, one of his regulars, a Dano freak had to thin out his herd of Dano's on orders from the boss. His loss was my gain. Thank you!.

This catagory is what Dano's are all about. That Lo-Fi, reedy tele tone that is so prevalent in old sci-fi and western movies. Any commercial done with a guitar for early TV was probably done with a Dano of some kind. Team this guitar up with a splash of reverb and most importantly Tremolo,(mine is a guyatone mini and works perfectly), and you are rewarded with the coolest tones imaginable. The lipstick pickups are excellent for this application and I will not change them as much as I like to customize my guitars. The only thing I will change is the bridge. It works ok as it is but I like to intonate my axes as well as reap even a bit more twang that the wood bridge is dampening. The only hit is the switch is noisy when flipping it from one pickup to the next. I drop of three way oil down the shoot of the switch will help that.

My guitar was made in 1998. It's Malt Shop Creme and brown. The previous owner took excellent care of this guitar and had set it up gnatz. The top and back are perfectly book matched pieces of Masonite painted beige. The neck feels super...ideal for me.

No worries, mate! And I'll thank you to not mention my strap buttons...are they solid?....what kind of a question is that??.

I do repairs myself so I'm going to rate it 10. Hey,..I'm incredibly kind and helpful...ask anyone!.

As much as I like and drool over expensive guitars, I have no need for them. I play for my own amusement and therapy now. I used to have some really good gear from boutique tube amps to high end mass produced guitars when I was playing for dough. Now I enjoy producing sounds and tones of yesteryear. The Danelectro's are superb, inexpensive guitars that fill the bill from anything from country, to surf, to good ole rock&roll.

My lefty U-2 reissue ,bought in 2000,for $199 with gig bag. This axe plays better than the one I learned on in 1964! It is what it is,mystery masonite and other unique stuff make a dan a dan.

sounds like the real thing. when I need to hear it I plug it in.

set up was good.pick up fine. OH! that bookmatched top [ha ha] now after 2 years the toggle switch needs help

Itis a great giging guitar. the whole guitar seems like it won't last another 5 minutes but this remarkable little box keeps on &on.Iwould gig without a back up,sure, unless I was playing at the hollywood bowl or lincoln center.

I have no knowledge of korean language

playing 40 yrs,I definitely would replace it,I need to hear that sound once in a while.I have a 1969 lefty strat , 1961 gretch duo-jet firebird lefty, a silver delux and a silver bassman I use with a variety of bottoms, a bunch of less impressive axes too.I would encourage anyone to buy a U-2,it is a real instrument ,with a happy voice,cool vibe,fun to play . as long as you accept it for what it is ,you will be pleased.

I bought this guitar a few years ago , -roughly 1999. The neck is maple? w/ rosewood fretboard., and body is masonite (also known as hardboard) -If you are unfamiliar with masonite, try to remember when you went to the neighbors garage and they had the pegboard with tools hanging off of it. -The pegboard is masonite. -Pretty chincy material.
2vol, 2tone controls, maybe the coolest part of the design is that they are stacked on top of one another, -like pancakes.
2 lipstick pickups, not bad.
graphite nut.
And a dinky bridge w/ rosewood and metal.

Danelectros have a unique sound, -it pops. -Suprisingly nice pickups
Not much buzz at all. Works fairly well distorted, but not ultra heavy. -HERES THE PROBLEM... If you like sustain, this isn't for you. But as i have said, these guitars have a sound of thier own.

This is the easiest playing guitar i have ever played. Little bit of buzz down on low notes, but i sorta dig it. Real low action.
Another MAJOR problem with this guitar is the cutaway, -very akward. So if you like high notation, forget it.
Controls are as smooth as can be.

The bridge pickup on mine has begun to rattle, and there really is no real way to tighten it up... -Not good.
Finish... Ok i guess, like a formica table or something. If you get this guitar you prolly arent tooo concerned.
Strap buttons are cheap plastic.
I would not use it with out a back up guitar.

Ive played for 10 years. The problems are listed above. Danelectro would be wise to make a solid body with a nice cutaway and use the same pickups.

These details have been described in previous reviews so I won't do it again.

I play this through a 10 watt Marshall and a 100 watt Yamaha. It is so quiet. No unwanted sounds whatsoever. Widee range of tones from bright to chunky. lots of variety between 3 way switch and tone knob.

the original setup was very good. I played with the pickup and action and found the original settings very good. I just lowered the action a touch. Not that I know what I am doing but I like it that way.

The guitar is just so easy to play and has a cool style, even if it isnt select wood with a hand rubbed finish.

This guitar has been dragged all over the place by my son and me. So far it seems bullet proof and resistant to scratches. I cannot believe how it stays in tune. When you consider how much plastic seems to be on it, this guitar is very tough. I keep forgetting its just a "cheapo" piece of equipment which not break me if it were damaged or lost. I just never have to worry about it.

No idea.

Bought this originally 2 years ago to get back into playing. My son always wanted his guitar back and he was'nt prepared to share. We have added to the collection since then , but I cannot believe what a great deal this guitar was. Everyone looks at Gibson, Fender , Ibanez , whatever. But for the money NOTHING touches Danolectro. I just laugh every time I think of it. I would definately get another one if it got stolen. I may get one in another colour or model just cuz I like them.

I got this guitar in '98. Features are pretty standard, but I like the stacked pots. I'm taking points off for where the truss rod is adjusted, when you are changing string guages and have to keep taking the neck off to adjust the neck- what a pain in the a$$. Plywood frame sandwiched between masonite boards... what?

This guitar has always sounded cool to me, but was missing something. I just put some heavier guage strings on it- D'Addario Chrome 11's. Wow what a difference, I've been studying Jazz as of late and this is the most perfect Jazz tone without spending money that I don't have (having a family and all) on some hollow body. This thing has an awesome acoustic tone, great for playing on the couch. Who knew plywood and masonite could sound so good. It makes me wonder sometimes if guitar makers have brainwashed us into being wood connoisseurs. The pickups are an even lower output than my standard Strat, that's pretty pathetic. The heavier guage strings seemed to help alleiviate this problem though. All in all this is a great sounding guitar, especially for the price.

Playability was the first thing that attracted me to this guitar. When I got it, it was perfectly setup. The overall finish seems well enough for a guitar in this price range, but the strip of whatever keeps coming off near the neck.

Strap buttons suck.

I've been playing for about 8 years now. I also own a Standard Strat, Taylor 310, '50's gibson acoustic which i got at a garage sale for $10 :D , a Squire P-bass, Behringer BX600, and a Korg AX1500G. Besides where the truss rod is adjusted, the only thing I don't like is that the pickups aren't really adjustable.

Made in Korea, 21 frets, Hardboard top and bottom with plywood frame (body), hard maple (neck) rosewood fingerboard. Two lipstick retro-style single coil pick ups, adjustable bridge (its a combination of metal and wood!)

Two volume knobs and two tone knobs that individually affect each pickup. This is a very nice feature because you can mix and balance each pick up creating pretty cool and unique sounds.

The guitar is basic, almost primitive, but with a great charm and on its own right the features are very nice compared with other guitars of it's price or category (and thinkinking in what was available in '56 for a very cheap guitar)

I love this guitar for Blues. The tone you may obtain with this guitar and a Line 6 POD using models of Twin Reverbs or Black Faces is fantastic. The guitar delivers a nice tone, specially with the pick up selector in the middle. You may obtain also a very good sound for Jazz.
Although you may crank up the distortion, this axe is more blues, rock'n'roll, jazz, R&B oriented. For these styles, the U2 is an excellent instrument with a truly vintage sound.
Being single coils, picks up are reasonably noisy, but with the pick up selector in the middle, they act as humbuckers and you have a great rich noisless sound. Any processor has a noise gate, therefore you can use the single coils with no furter problem.
The neck pickup has a nice almost Strat sound, and the bridge pick upo delivers a bright sound. The best position (the one I always use) is in the middle, because you can obtain a rich full sound or a bright one using the volume and tone knobs. You have with this a great variety of sounds.
I would like better pick-ups. The overall design of the guitar delivers a very original sound. I really like it.

For a middle-low priced guitar the quality is very good. I didn't find any flaws, but the picku up selector is noisy (I think this guitar was for a couple of years in the music store). The action is pretty good, but I found that soloing in the 12 fret is the best position for sound and comfort. My guita color is Cool Copper, and is not the most beautiful color from all the availables from Danelectro, but the paint job is very nice.

The only think I dislike from this guitar is that I don't feel it solid. It's very light (due to the semi-hollow body), but there is some strange lack of consistence that makes you feel like you are playing a toy, not an electric guitar. Although I don't really know how reliable/durable this guitar really is, I actually don't care, since I use this guitar in the studio and not for live playing.

15 years playing guitar, lot of acoustic guitars, PRS custom 22, Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster, Ibanez JS1000 Joe Satriani Signature, Santana SE, Les Paul Custom.
I bought this guitar after a complete investigation. I found that you could have a truly vintage recreation at an affordable price. And I found that's true. The Danelectro was in '56 a very cheap and basic guitar, but a very nice one.
The sound of the guitar is very retro, and its primitiveness is very good if you want to give your music a root-oriented sound. It's perfect for me, because I love blues, R&B, jazz and rock'n'roll, but if you are looking a guitar for heavy metal or hard rock the Danelectro perhaps isn't your best choice (although Jimmy Page played a black baritone Danelectro ).
I'd like a more solid guitar (the construction feels somewhat poor) and better pickups.
The pricetag is very good. The bang-for-the-buck ratio is pretty good, also. If you want to add some color to your guitar collection, you need this Danno. If this would be your first guitar, be sure to use it for styles like Blues, Jazz or Rock'n'Roll and you'll obtain a great sounding axe. If you want to play Heavy Metal or Hard Rock, think twice before buying this guitar.
In overall, I consider it a good investment, great fun, a lot of new sounds at an affordable price.

It isn't that complexe. The brige is a real pain, it is made of wooa and is hard to ajustl. It's thee way pickups you fcan gett a lot of tomes frome, jangley , or twangy at the bridge to mellow jazz at the neck

It sounds great. For 200 dollers canadian this is the hippest guitar you can buy. It is a totally unique yet oldschool 50s tone. It has a real rockabilly feal to it.

Ahhhh I just cant get a good settup with it. It's always got horrible frett buzz, the only way to make it resonable is to set the action so High it's barly playable. If somone has some tricks for getting these things to work Please E-mail me because I am getting desprite. I love everything about this guitar exept I cant get it resonably playable. I think the finnish is realy hipp. It again has a cool 50s look

I hate to say it but it is very unreliable at the moment. If I broke a string at a gig it would take a half an hour to change it because of its weird bridge, and it would have this awfull fret buzz. Maby it's just me but I can't get it sett up to a degree of playability

Garbage so far. I e-mailed dano a month ago about my problems and I still haven't goten a reply. I ask anyone out there familier with danos please e- mail me if you know how to fix my ploblem. I would realy appreciate it.

Ive played it for 2 years. It sounds real cool but I can't seem to get it to work decent for playing

The features are not this guitars strong suit. The parts are plastic,
the body is a laminate over plywood, the bridge has got some wood in it, and the tuners are seemingly very cheap. Having said all that, everything works great (at least, so far. Granted, I've only had the little bugger for about a week). The lipstick pickups have a really cool sound to them, all the knobs work fine, and the damn thing keeps pretty good tune. I had a pretty long practice session the other night and had a really good time with the new toy (granted, I'm strictly a rhythym player, to lead would probably be a different story).

As I said before, the pickups have kind of a cool sound (at least for the style of music I'm playing - kind of a hard jazz rock thing). I was surprised at how much low end the pickups had, and everything kept clear at louder volumes.

The guitar was set up pretty well. Don't expect to play much over the twelth fret, cause the guitar is'nt set up to. The finish is that cool laminate finish (can you say - retro?). The jack had to be tightened and the pickup selector seems pretty loose, but nothing that can't be done bya ny beginning guitarist.

As I said before, I'm kind of basing this entire review on playing it a week which included one 3 hour practice session. I was just so pleasantly surprised by how it held up that I thought I'd drop this word. It might not have many of these sessions in it, though.

No opinion

I've been playing now for about 25 years, and started out with the usual crap guitars until I got a new 79 strat which I played without a backup for about 15 years. Then (when I earned a little more scratch) I got a PRS, a Parker, and some more strats. This guitar I got because of the ridiculoulsy low price, and was pleasantly surprise when I plugged it in. Though not obviously a main axe, this guitar seems to be good guitar to have around to get a certain sound (a twangy, but full, rhythm sound) or just to have a little fun with.

Made in Korea, 2000, plywood frame with a masonite top and back, groovy Dano lipstick pickups, copperburst
I've gutted the electronics on mine and replaced them with 1 volume, 1 tone and a Gibson style pu selector switch, when both puckups are selected, they're now wired in parallel instead of the stock series wiring

I like the overall tone much better now that I've rewired the electronics, the bridge pu has more "sparkle" and the neck pu is much less muddy sounding...the rewiring was a DEFINITE inprovement IMHO
it has better sustain than the other Danos I've played, especially past the 12th fret and it never goes into uncontrolable feedback at a gig, if the pick try to squeal, all I have to do is mute the offending string, I am able to get controlled feedback which is really cool! she sings!

ok, now I feel it's time to dispell some "myths" I've read in other reviews here, the bridge IS adustable for the action, there is one screw on each side to allow for raising or lowering the 6th and the 1st strings, the large screw at the lower end of the bridge can be used to adjust the angle of the strings passing over the wooden saddle
the saddle IS intonatable as well, although not for each individual string, it is designed so it will move and can be pushed into the proper positioning for fairly accurate intonation

tuners are kinda cheesy, I removed the covers so the tuning shafts wouldn't scrape against holes cut in the sides of the covers and now they work much better, the guitar stay in tune quite well and the tuners work smoother after I lubricated them
looks like I may have to break out the Elmer's glue for the strap buttons though
I've gigged with this baby and have had no problems with it, no need for a backup in my opinion

N/A

it's simple, inexpensive, sounds and plays great....bottom line? it works!
ya gotta love the cool quasi vintage, sleazy vibe this baby ouzzes

Everyone else has already gone over this so i wont bore you

I love the sound that comes out of this guitar i was in a music shop and there was a sale in them so i thought id have a play and i was amazed at the sound i play ska/jazz type music abd this sound crazy for it

mine is a aqua burst it is a sweet color and a sweet guitar the only thing was the action was a bit high so i screwed the bridge in a bit lower and i was set

it feels really light so i wouldndt wantto drop it to many times but it seems ok although ill be replacing the strap pins soon

Ive been playing for about 6 years have a mex strat and a marshall vs100 half stack and behringer v-amp
i can dial up a vintage amp plug in my dano and get the sweetest sound its insane i luv this guitar