Danelectro DC-3

These are masonite tops and bottoms sandwiched on a plywood frame. Completely hollow inside- I have seen one that has been cut in half. Neck is your typical maple with rosewood board. The DC-3 has 3 single coil lipstick p/u s and uses a blow switch for p/u setting changes.

These are a good and unique sounding guitar- they are fairly quiet for single coils and sort of have a bright, Keith Partridge sort of sound (and i dont mean that in a bad way).

This is the weak point of the guitar- For one thing, the TRUSS ROD is at the bottom of the neck and you have to take off the neck to adjust it!! I have seen other reviews where people think there is no truss rod- there is one, its just hard to get to. I am afraid to screw the neck screws in and out much on this masonite. Another thing, the bridge is merely screwed into the 3/8 inch masonite top. I know a man who is a Danelectro endorsee and the bridge completely pulled out of the guitar and ripped the masonite top off the guitar! However, when you first get them they seem pretty solid, and seem put together ok and the fit and finish is pretty good- however you should check out many as quality does vary from dano to dano. If you get a good one these guitars play as good as anything out there- thats the truth. Its just that you have to look around to find the right one.

If these guitar had a truss rod adjustment at the neck and if they had some type of support under the bridge they would be much more durable and usable. Danelectro has addressed some of the problems with their early reissues such as poor tuners and non-adjustable bridges on these 2nd wave of issues but they need to go one step further and address the truss rod and bridge support problems. The strap buttons are weak and i am not sure as to the rigidity of the blow switch, although mine works ok. You need a backup with these guitars.

They are very good and do not try to mince words- they readily admit there is no support under the bridge and say they prefer the truss rod where it is. However, i bet they get a lot of guitars back from where the bridges pull out. In fact, Guitar Center told me they do! But they do stand behind their product very nicely.

For what it is, it is OK, but there again it would only add maybe 5 bucks to each guitars price to put a support under the bridge and no cost to put the truss rod at the neck. These guitars are no longer going to sell based on "nostalgia", everyone who wants one for that reason has already bought one by now. They need to address what players want. I have played for 25 yrs and have had every type of guitar that you can imagine. I currently have a Les Paul, Les Paul Smartwood, and a Fender American Tele. With only a 1 yer warranty, i am afraid that in year two the bridge will pull off mine.

I've been EyeBaLLinG this guitar since it came out and was basically looking for a good deal. A few days ago I noticed that Musicians Friend had three colors on sale for $299 but Black Metalflake was priced at $149!!! (The most I could see spending on plywood and cardboard) UPS brought it just as I was making dinner so I opened the box, pulled it out and grated cheese with the frets.(Ouch!) After dinner I put on some leather work gloves so I wouldn't cut myself playing it. Sounds really nice...very jangly. You can play the soundtrack to Desparado on it and nail the tone. I'm playing through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe so the clean tones really sparkle. (By the way, MF sent me a free Danelectro Pastrami distortion pedal with this guitar...yawn) The guitar has all the tones you miss if you own a Paul or Jazz Box or Strat. Tons of those neat little sounds you hear on so many records.

This guitar is a real bargin. It can be fairly full sounding if you run all the pickups at the same time or very thin like a weak Tele if you want. I like the middle pickup setting best so far. It can do a decent impression of a Strat in other positions.

I just tuned it up and started jamming. The action was at the height that I like, which might be high for some. The pickups needed to be dropped as they were almost touching the strings. One problem that I experienced was a faulty "Blow" switch. (Whoever named that one was on the ball) As I previously stated the frets were a little on the sharp side so they'll have to be dressed. The guitar is actually put together fairly well, the paint is fantastic. I keep thinking $149 is all I paid...

After I upgrade the strap buttons and the Blow switch it should be good to gig with as a 2nd guitar. Here is a hint for the metal nut: Put some Vaseline on the string grooves to eliminate the annoying squeaks when bending and tuning strings.

Haven't dealt with them yet. Doubt I'll have to.

I rate this guitar pretty high overall. You can't go wrong for the price. I own an American 62 reissue Strat, a Mex-Tele and a Hardbody Gretsch and this guitar is about on the level of the Mexican Tele. If you know a little about tweeking guitars you should have no problem making one of these into a killer little axe.

Nothing spectacular, nothing terrible. The noteworthy thing is that it's got 3 lipstick pickups, a 6-position selector switch, and Dano's "blow" switch.

I play a wide variety of styles, and use this Dano as my backup for my Washburn D12 (yes, I know the D12's an acoustic/electric. It's my main guitar). When I break out the Dano, it's usually for the bright, jangly twang you can get using the bridge pickup. I do use it quite often for my more bluesy moments. The tone's nothing spectacular, but I disagree with people who say it's terrible. Yeah, it's not perfect, but you didn't spend $1400 on this guitar, did you? If you're a pro... well, you'd be spending more than $300 on a guitar anyway, wouldn't you? Semi-pros (like me) will love this guitar, because it's got damn fine sound for the money.

I've had no reason to change the factory set-up. It fits me just perfectly. I always play with very light strings, and Dano seems to set their guitars up specifically for that.

I'm not comfortable with the plastic pegs, but they've not given me any trouble. I got set up with some funky quick-releases that work on this guitar, so I don't have to mess with the pegs too much.

Hey, that "tape" isn't structural. It's decorative. You can rip it off and your guitar won't fall apart. Purely for looks.

The finish is fantastic. Doesn't seem like it'll chip, and it looks really, really funky. I bought the silver-glitter one, 'cause I just couldn't resist. Serious pick-guard that you just cannot hurt. This guitar is definitely a looker.

This guitar will (and has) withstood live playing. I even used it as my main guitar at one show, and didn't bring a backup. Okay, so I don't OWN a backup, but I wasn't freaked out, and the Dano came through for me.

It feels light, so I'd hesitate to call it "sturdy," but I don't baby it, either. The neck, head and tuners are super-reliable. I'm currently having troubles with the pickups, but that might be my fault.

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I've been playing on and off for about 5 years now. If my Dano were stolen, I might buy another. I'm about to take the Stratocaster plunge now (I'm too poor to take that step lightly), but I really like the Dano's tone... If money were no object, and I already owned a Strat, I'd definitely buy another Dano.

Seriously, this guitar is solid. No glaring flaws, good (not excellent... good) tone, great features, and amazingly funky-looking. Great value, and I love its looks.

Probably made in 2000; according to the sticker, in Korea. 21 frets. Masonite and plywood body, 6 position selectomatic, blow switch (all 3 pickups on), 3 lipstick tube pickups, black metalflake finish, gotoh tuners, decent bridge, nice neck, blah, blah, blah.

This guitar fits my music style okay enough (bluesrockfunk), use it with a '65 RI Fender Deluxe Reverb. Usual noise associated with SC pickups. Fairly bright and "jangly". This guitar probably has only 2 or 3 really good sounds, the rest are mediocre. That's the honest truth. I bought it to have as a decent, cheap, guitar that I wouldn't have to worry too much about if it got stolen or if I carried it around in a gig bag instead of a hard case. It's a good guitar, not great, not terrible, but good. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a decent 2nd or 3rd guitar that doesn't want to spend too much money. People need to understand that a) it uses lipstick tube design pickups - you're not going to get a fat humbucker tone, even with all three pickups on. It's also going to buzz a little - that's what single coil pickups do. It will make SIMILAR tones to a strat or a tele, but only because the pickup configurations can be selected like a tele or a strat. It's not going to sound better or like a strat or a tele. Having said that, you can get a decent enough range of tones to gig with and for the money, it ain't bad.

This guitar comes with some pretty thin strings. I go for .10's or even 11's. It also comes set up with the action pretty low. If you're able to handle it, raise the action and stick on some heavier strings. Raising the action slightly will especially improve the tone of this guitar. Trust me. The neck is really the best part of the guitar, but you do need to raise the action a little to get this thing to play and sound decent. The finish is fabulous. Mine's a black sparkle finish (glitter) and that's really what caught my eye in the first place. I'd read that Dano was making pretty decent guitars for the money these days, so when I went looking for one, I shopped by looks first - hey I know guitars very well, but in this case, I knew that you get what you pay for and that for the $220 I paid for this thing, I wasn't going to get a guitar that look, felt and played like my strat or my Les Paul. As far as all the comments about the cheap tape binding, Dano's are all about kitsch. It's MEANT to be a little cheap looking, I mean hey, look at the "sparkle" finish. Do you really think that any manufacturer that has the balls to use actual glitter on a guitar finish, could care less if a few people felt that the tape made it look cheap? And if the tape on your particular guitar was coming off in the store, why did you buy it if it bothers you so much? The strap pegs are a little cheesy, but they're probably plastic instead of metal because the pegs on the original Danelectros were plastic. The knobs and pots are cheap looking and feeling because, well, this is a cheap, mass production guitar. Wake the f#ck up. If you bought one of these, you didn't buy an Historic Collection Les Paul or a Custom Shop Fender Strat. Or even an Am. Std. Fender or a MIJ Fender. You really do get what you pay for and in this case, you do get a decent guitar for the money.

Unless you're a complete idiot, everything on this guitar should hold up fine for a long, long time, except maybe the strap buttons.

Who the hell actually deals directly with the manufacturer anymore? If I had a problem with anything I bought recently, I'd take it to the retailer first and then chances are they'd have to return it to the manufacturer and the retailer would have to give me another one from they're stock.

I've been playing for 21 years. I currently own quite a bit of gear (too much to list) that I've accumulated over the years, most of it quality stuff. I can honestly say with confidence that I know a lot about guitars - I'm not bragging, it's just what I know. These DC3's and other Dano's in general are decent quality, inexpensive (that's relative of course), mass production guitars. Would I recommend one to a beginner, maybe; probably not - a cheap Yamaha or an Ibanez is probably going to satisfy a young beginner a little more, as they're more contemporary in design. But I would recommend this guitar to anyone who is looking for an inexpensive, backup guitar or someone who's just looking for something interesting and fun. The DC3 is a decent instrument. For a pro, it's definitely playable and versatile enough, but not as a main guitar.

Three pickups and a 6-way selector plus blow switch. I'm a binary purist so I put on a cutoff switch so I can turn them all off. When the guitar is set with all pickups off, it has much less tone.

Hey... I wrote a review previously. A few things to add... as many people have said, the strap buttons are the only major flaw on this guitar... plastic (which is fine), they fall out with my abusive playing style (which is not fine). I glued them both in and everything's irie. Additionally, it won't accept the Musician's Friend-special blowout discount plastic quick-release type straps, but I tied mine on which I think looks cool anyway.

Also, the D-string saddle had a little burr on it that I noticed after a few months but I filed it off and it's great now.

Some people have said it's taped together... not true. The "tape" is a cosmetic vinyl lining & the body stays together without it.

Danelectro is very responsive if you use the web site. I asked about putting a whammy on it and got a response back really quickly... to those of you who might consider it... DON'T. The DC-3 is hollow behind the bridge and would probably cave in if you put one on.

I've got a brand spanking new version, made in Korea. I assume it was made in 1999 or 2000. It has the 6-way "Selectomatic" switch and "blow" switch, with the combo tone/volume control. It has the three lipstick pickups, and a beautiful black metalflake finish with white pickguard. The neck is well constructed, 21 frets, maple with rosewood fretboard. It's a double cutaway, has a bridge equipped with fully adjustable saddles, and has the Gotoh tuners. I also bought the gig bag for about $40, which is perfect for me. I'm presently an at-home-on-the-weekend rock star.

On electric guitar, I play a lot of 60s and 70s British electric blues....Rolling Stones, the Who, the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, and a lot of good ol' Neil Young. The guitar works very well for the electric blues, but requires some coaxing to get a Neil-sound. I'm playing through a mid to late 70s MusicMan 210 tube amp (65 watts RMS) and sporadically use an old DOD FX55 distortion box, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah Wah, and the new Danelectro "BLT" Slap Echo and "Milkshake" Chorus pedals. I love the way this guitar sounds. The 6-way switch allows for some great combinations, and the position 6 lead pickup is a scorcher, especially when coupled with the Slap Echo pedal. Its a little more noisy than my '83 Telecaster, but not excessively noisy. Overall it has a very smooth, but very bright sound. For "rhythm guitar" settings it doesn't quite get into "Telecaster" territory, but the lead pickup is very distinctive and a real joy to crank on. The feedback with this setup is warm and controllable. No squealing, which is about all I can get the Telecaster to do. A minor complaint I have is the Tone control...it's has an electrical click-sound when "dialed down to the 1 or 2 range". It doesn't have a real smooth transition. This may be a repairable defect, but I'll probably blow it off. This guitar sings better with the treble opened up anyway. I've also noticed the guitar doesn't "come over the top" when accompanying a cranked up stereo. You have to bring on the volume a bit to keep up, but it's not a major annoyance.

The neck feels pretty darn good, and the relatively narrow width of the neck at the nut (I believe it's 40 mm) helps out quite a bit (I don't have Chuck Berry or Jimi Hendrix-sized hands). I lowered the action just a hair to facilitate faster leads. I'm getting a tiny bit of string buzz, but it's acceptable. The fretboard feels a little sticky, but I attribute that more to the lengthy stint I've been playing on the maple-necked/fretboarded Telecaster. The pickup settings are fine. The components of this guitar feel tight.

I usually sit down by the amp at home to play this, but it's pretty sturdy. The plastic neckstrap buttons would worry me a little in a live gig. Also, the head area of the neck looks a little "iffy", and may not take a lot of abuse. I would expect this to stand up pretty well at a live gig though. I'm impressed by the tuners. I change tunings quite a bit and have not encountered any difficulties in maintaining tuning or snapping strings. As a stand alone, I would say yes, but if I was really out there playing, like in the good ol' days, I would have another guitar on stand-by.

I haven't interacted with Danelectro yet. If I have difficulties, I'll probably go through the folks from whom I bought the guitar.

I've been playing for about 22 years. My other gear includes the '83 Telecaster, a National semi-hollowbody, an old Yamaha FG-335 acoustic, the precious remnants of my Hondo II Les Paul copy, and a Sears "Silvertone" bass. The amps I play through include the MusicMan 210, a Fender Harvard Reverb solid state amp, and an old Silvertone solid state bass amp. If this guitar were lost or stolen I would weep, then go right back and get another. I bought this guitar to pull me out of the doldrums, and to play on a guitar with a nice narrow neck. The main selling point was the quality versus price, plus I loved the way this baby sounded through that Fender Bassman at the music store! I'm thinking a lot about being able to support my family and put the kids through college so I set out to buy something under $500 (the Rickenbacker 330 will just have to wait). For less than $400, I purchased this guitar, the gig bag, extra sets of strings and 2 effects pedals. This was a great feeling, and my wife was really surprised. The only additional item I would request would be a whammy bar. I looked at the other Danelectros with whammies, but I preferred the sound and price of the DC-3. I would highly recommend this guitar for beginners, folks seeking the very distinctive sound of the lipstick pickups, or folks like me who want a fun guitar (and I mean giggling fun, seriously) but are very conservative on the spending side. This was a great purchase.

You can read the features in any of the other reviews. The blow switch is what I really like, and the Selectomatic is just an added bonus. Being the two most aqdvertised parts of the guitar, they do what they do well. It is a very versatile guitar. A seven because the tone on top of volume dial confuses me sometimes.

Most people would tell me the guitar doesn't fit my style at all. That style being "People Yelling While Someone Manhandles A Rediculously Overdistorted Guitar", it doesn't look like it can handle that kind of thing but it has. I bought it because it was shiny, not because I had any overwhelming concerns about sound. It sounds great, and the selectomatic, when distortion is off, comes in handy when I get down and actually play a few notes. Other reviews say this guitar is twangy. If it's not blown (in selectomatic mode), it can get very twangy. Why a 7? Because the twangy-ness and overally treble-ness of the guitar makes it slightly more challenging to get a good deep tone out of it.

Action is okay. No buzz anywhere yet. The pickups look and sound good. The bridge and neck are just fine.

Flaws in the design? Yeah. Two VERY stupid things that shouldn't have been. 1 - It's taped together for chrissake. It can only get uglier if the tape peels off (which is only a matter of abuse, er, time) and 2 - the strap buttons are plastic and badly mounted. I make sure I always hold this with at least one hand, because I'm too cheap to put in new buttons or get a lock.

It's played live with me and done fine. I'm not very nice to my guitars and this one has done just peachy. The hardware lasting is a matter of abuse. I give the tape around the edge another month. The rest of the guitar will last for years (Except the strings. Duh.) The finish is nicely done (rather thick) and it has a nice pickguard so you can't chip it (unless you REALLY abuse your guitars). The strap buttons suck. I said that. I can depend on this guitar to do anything most other guitars can... and be pretty. And I'm not lying, it is pretty. Almost homosexually pretty though. Eight because the buttons suck and the tape was a leap of faith on Danelectro's part.

Nope.

Been playing since mid 90's. I have a Carvin 24" and a 14" Park amp, plus BOSS MetalZone (Cadillac of inexpensive distortion), two danelectro lunch meat pedals (phaser and flanger). My guitar's sound is often dulled because our band is entirely mixed through to the Carvin. We're too cheap for bigger or more speakers/amps, etc.
I wish I had asked for some free picks when I bought this guitar. If it were lost/stolen I'd bitchslap myself for leaving anything over $50 alone for that long, then, I'd buy another black shiny/sparkly guitar. Not necessarily Danelectro, but if I can't find one as nice in my price range, I wouldn't mind another DC-3. I love the blow switch, because I love to say 'blow' and it's nice to know that I can use any combination of pickups I want. I hate the strap buttons. I compared this with other guitars of its price range and it was the only sparkly one. It was also the only one I could find with three pickups. I wish it had some more weight to it, but I'm afraid I might hurt someone if I had a heavier guitar (it's a funny story actually...) Here's our band's web addy if you want to ask about the guitar or anything: http://bounce.to/mvdor. To conclude, this guitar gets an overall score of eight, because this guitar is just below being just below great. If it weren't for the cheap buttons and the ez-peel off tape, it would be spectacular. Others may criticize the cheapness or lightness of the guitar, but those are the kind of people who are used to spending four digit numbers on music equipment, and their opinions should be disregarded as the DC-10 is too far under their price range to get an unbiased review from.

It was made in Korea, probably last year. It has a laminated top, and whole body- probably plywood. Lots of options on the pickup configuration, but do any really sound good? The pickups are lipstick made in Korea. The neck is the best thing about this guitar. It has gotoh tuners, and a pretty tight feel, with good frets. But the truss rod can only be adjusted by taking off the neck. The finish isn't that great, but for the money, it's o.k. The cheasy tape that wraps the body to simulate a binding around the guitar comes off the body at the curves-very cheap. It's a double cutaway body, hence the name DC-3, with the 3 being 3 cheesey pickups. The bridge is nice and actually each string can be adjusted individually. The strap holding pegs are made out of plastic. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this thing. I liked the look of it, but it's a toy. I have a suspicion that the guys at Danelectro might have written all of those rave reviews about this one. It's a good guitar for beginners, maybe even an above average one at that stage in the game.

I think that this guitar sucks. It doesn't hold it's value because I tried to get rid of it, and I can't seem to get even $200 bucks for it. I don't want to spend too much time on this because this guitar isn't worth the time if you're a serious player. If you're into just looking cool, or if you're a beginner, this might very well be your ticket. If I had this for a beginner, I would have been pretty happy with it. But the pickups are so stale sounding, and the volume control and dynamics of the guitar are poor as hell. This guitar is hard to control. I'm not into control all the time, but I can't trust this thing for a good sound period. I bought it for a back-up to replace an American Tele that I had, and it doesn't come close. I put new pickups in the tele though. If you're a serious player, and you absolutely have to have a Dan-o for the name, then I suggest wait until they make a solid body guitar, and not a plywood toy made in Korea.

The guitar was set up decent, but I had to lower the action a tad. Then I put on 11's, and had to take the neck off and readjust the truss rod. What a pain in the neck. The guitar came with the binding "tape" already peeling off the body.

I don't know about live playing. I tried it at a soundcheck once and didn't have enough confidence to go any further with it. I don't think that I've played it since. It feeds back like a monster. The kind of feedback you don't want to deal with when you're trying to be professional. The hardware doesn't seem like it would last. If I kept the guitar, the pickups would have to be replaced. The volume pot would have to be replaced, and I would end up replacing the body with a real piece of wood. The paint job is the coolest thing about the guitar. It's like having a bimbo girlfriend that really looks like she's it, but no personality whatsoever. Reliablility, I don't know. I'm afraid of playing it live. Does anyone on tour play with these things? I don't think so. They are toys

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I've been playing for over 20 years, I have had a Les Paul, a couple of Strats, a Tele. I play through really good Fenders and Marshalls, and I've played out and recorded feverishly. I play alternative/rock. If this guitar were stolen, I couldn't trade it for a surfboard and I wouldn't feel bad about getting screwed on the sell, cause I'd take it up the butt if I tried to sell it. These things are everywhere. They'll probably sell them in 7-11's before long. If you're about 10 or up to 17, this might be a great guitar for you. If you're over 23 and you're looking for a vintage tone, or an audible voicing, then don't buy one. Save yourself the misery.

Volume and tone controls, As the "DC" and "3" indicate, it's a double cutaway with 3 Danelecto lipstick pickups. It's got a 6-position pickup selector and blow switch. Finish is a HEAVILY lacquered metal flake, which looks beautiful under any light.

Very bright, jangly sound, mostly due to the pickup configuration. A little sparse on the low end. I play it through a phaser and/or delay and/or reverb with strange EQ for that "Syd Barrett" sort of sound. Or I just plug it straight in to the amp...

Fretboard feels a little sticky, but maybe just because I've not yet ruined it with my finger grease. Bridge was way too low, strumming of any kind produced all kinds of buzzing and bouncing. I raised it a tad and it was fine.

Tuners are fantastic. Stays in tune very well even with crappy strings and abusive playing. The metal flake finish is rock-solid and looks pretty funky. I wouldn't gig without a backup; but then again, I wouldn't say that for anything except my acoustic.

I've played for 5 years. I play it through a '64 Rickenbacker tube-type designed for use with pedal steel. I also play a Les Paul copy, a Mosrite hollow body, and a Yamaha acoustic. The pickups are a bit noisy if you want to do all that metal-shred stuff (thank god my fingers are too slow for that). If it were stolen or lost, I'd replace it with the Hodad. I really like the bright sound of the pickups... but the strings are just too freaking close to the fretboard.

This is Edward Ricart, from before. I just wanted to say that this guitar should have recieved all tens when I reviewed it earlier. It turns out the guitar CAN take strap-locks, you put a dowel in there and put the screw in that, and then plug it into the guitar, I had it done by my guitar tech. Also, the guitar perfectly suits all music. I don't know what I was thinking when I gave the guitar an 8 for action fit finish, sorry. And I did get a response from customer service, if a little late :). I love this guitar, it's punk/ska finish, it's 60's knobs, and it's HEAVENLY tone. I was kind of wrong when I first reviewed it, because I got a Telecaster (Fender US) the same day, so it was overshadowed. Now, I don't put this beauty down. I worship it, and kiss it good night. I recommend the bridge pinkup (position 6) with a dirty amp (bass 5, mid 0, gain 10, treble 10) for a Blink 192 tone. I can't believe the greatness of this.
I' have to go now, I'm just ranting.