Danelectro DC-3

Considering this baby's low price, it's got plenty of features. Reasonable Gotoh (I believe) tuners, adjustable bridge, blow switch, 6 way pickup selector, volume and tone knobs, 3 lipstick pickups, seal pickguard, rosewood fretboard, hard maple neck, formica and plywood body.
I wish it had straplocks!

I use this as a backup to my Fender American Standard Telecaster, but this has sort of taken over. It has a very grungy, mean tone with distortioN (these pickups squeal in a good way) and a fat, bassy clean tone.
I recommend using it with light chorus and delay for a good clean tone, and straight into distortion for a biting clean sound.
I play a hybrid of Blink-182 (that's what trendy people say) melodies with some pretty mean heavy breaks. This baby chugs it all out. The guitar sounds pretty low-fi, but in a dirty, analog, 60's kinda way.
I run it into a Fender solid-state amp or a Roland Jazz Chorus. I plug it into a DOD Death Metal for really heavy breaks, and an EH Big Muff for overdrive/fuzz bits. I run it into many effects (auto-wah, chorus, flanger, phaser, delay, reverb, ring modulater, blue box, guitar synth, etc.) It is very versatile, but not very good for hi-tech recording sessions.
My personal preference is running this guitar with the tone and volume knobs cranked, the selector knob on 6, run into an EH Big Muff with all the knobs cranked, into an amp with the bass at 5, mids cut, and treble cranked, with reverb on 4. It sounds very punk.

The guitar is very buzzy. I need it to be set-up better. The histortical binding tape is nicely taped on (not like some of them). There seem to be two types of Dano neck, and I don't know if it's on purpose or not. My neck (the good kind) is really fat and chunky, like a Tele. However, some have really weak, thin, Ibanez Wizard style guitars.
This guitar needs a fat neck because the body is so light you need to have something substantial to hold on to. All the knobs and the blow switch are very nicely done, and routed well...
The action blows.
The finish is sparkly turquoise, just a beautiful guitar. Sheer beauty.

I fell down walking into my bedroom with this on, and it bounced off the wall and actually chipped the corner of the wall. The guitar does not have a scratch,
I wish it was possible to replace the strap buttons with strap locks, but that's just paranoid me. These work fine.

They never answer the phone, or return calls when you leave a message, or answer e-mails. Kinda like my girl-friend... I was really disappointed.

Very nice, practical, affordable guitar.

I love this guitar but since my last submission I have found the strap knobs really suck. Will probably use wood dowels to fill holes and replace them with straplocks. Overall guitar is one cool instrument.Probably get another.

Perfect. Odd "half-yin/yang" pickguard. I have the turquoise sparkly finish. It's beautiful. Gotoh tuners, which are A) better than the DC2 and U2 models, and B) better than the Grover tuners I bought for $60 that don't stay in tune for more than 3 minutes and lock up like crazy. Self-lubricating my ass.
But anyway, as I was saying... It's got 3 pickups, a 6-way selector switch that switches between single pickups and 2-pickup combinations (IE, 1=neck & mid, 2=neck, ect.), a blow-switch which activates all 3 pickups (which I still haven't used-it sounds too muddy for my tastes), and a stacked tone/volume knob (volume on bottom/black, tone on top/white.).
Body is a double cutaway, hence the name.
Pickups are Danelectro lipstick.
I picked up the whole shebang from the Danelectro Pro Shop (since no one in this area carries their guitars) for $350 with a hardshell case. Not bloody bad.

I play in a gothpunk band (think Misfits and Fear get drunk together at a raging kegger with Rozz Williams' Christian Death and Alien Sex Fiend), and having gone through an Ibanez EX (problamatic throughout its history, I destroyed it on stage), a Les Paul, and two or three 60's era Harmonies, this has to be the absolute best guitar I've ever used. I can get any sound I want out of it (very bright on all settings, something ya just can't get out of a humbucker), and the select-o-matic dial still works after putting it through a plastic lawn ornament ghost. More on that later.
Some people won't like the fact that it doesn't have independent volume/tone knobs for each pickup, but since I leave everything at 10, it works beatifully for me.
The only thing I use the blow switch for is A) a cool rythym click that is noticable when distortion is on, and B) that beeping noise found on "Die Die My Darling" by the Misfits (going from 1 pickup to all three).
I use a Valvestate 100 Marshall with the reverb cranked up to 10, and a no-name (literally; I bought it at an auction for a local music store for $10, it has no labels whatsoever on it, other than input/output levels and time delay) digital delay rackmount; it is beautiful.

Guitar came packaged EXTREMELY WELL (4 layers of packaging protecting the hardshell case), and the guitar itself was in perfect condition, and tuned. Perfectly. I didn't have to replace the strings until after the first show I did with it (3 weeks after purchase). The action was perfect, but the pickups were a little low for my tastes. A quick adjustment, though, on the screws on the underside of the guitar, and I was in business.
I didn't buy a DC-2 or a U2 because of the non-adjustable bridge... I'm glad Danelectro threw one on this one.

OK, when people say this guitar is light, they're right. But plywood and masonite hold up a lot better than they'd have you believe. Sure, it wouldn't survive a drop out of a second story window, but mine has survived the following:
1) I decapitated a plastic lawn ornament ghost with it 2) Thrown off a 6-foot stage about 16 feet 3) Cracked my bassist in the head 4) Put through a bass drum
I was worried about having to replace the tuners... nope. The guitar just needed to be tuned.

I originally contacted them off of their website, and they sent me to the Pro Shop, which isn't actually owned by Danelectro. They sent me to who I needed to get the guitar from.
That's about all the contact I've had with them... pretty good, though.

I've been playing for 9 years now... This guitar is now my main stage guitar, and I recorded with it, too... I'm extremely happy with it. I'd buy another (come on, for the price, who wouldn't?), but I'm thinking about getting a Hodad or maybe a Godin Radiator, simply to vary up my sound. Definitely worth what I paid for it, and probably $100 more.
If this was stolen, I'd replace it with another of its kind immediately. Such a beatiful instrument.

Turquoise metal-flake finish. Double cutaway with three lipstick pickups. Gotoh tuners with rosewood fingerboard.

Fantastic sound on this guitar. I play through a Line 6 AX2 212 and can get almost any tone out of this guitar that I'm looking for, from a Les Paul to a Strat or even a Paul Reed Smith-type tone. The single pickup settings are a bit noisy at times but quiet down nicely when mixed. The sound is naturally very bright from the lipstick pickups so it have a very twangy sound to it. The bridge position pickup alone is a little weak but sounds better with a little amp tweaking.

The setup was perfect and the finish was flawless. The vinyl wraparound is a little cheap but hey, what do you want for so little money?

I would definately use this guitar in a live situation, but not without a backup, just in case. It is a little fragile due to its light weight and cheaper production. My main problem with it is the strap buttons. They suck!!! Cheap plastic pegs that fall out VERY easily. I plan on replacing them soon.

Never dealt with them.

I have been playing for over 15 years and own a Hamer archtop, a Carvin DC135, and a Fender '68 Strat reissue and this guitar holds it own very well. If it were stolen I would cry for ten minutes and then run out to the store and buy another, maybe two! Heck, they're so cheap you could collect'em all! I absolutely love this guitar. I bought it without ever playing one and have never regretted it.

Silver glitter double cutaway body with three lipstick tube pickups. Basically two pieces of formica sandwiched together for the body. The same basic stuff your kitchen counter top is made out of. Tuners are decent (Gotoh). Way better than what comes on the cheaper models, but still not great. Have to tune this one more often than any of my other guitars, especially when I bend alot. Bridge is a Strat-style thing with adjustable saddles for each string. Very utilitarian--nothing fancy on these budget guitars.

Great at what they do, which is twang. If you don't like twang, don't want to twang, despise twang, stay far away from these guitars. If you dig surf, rockabilly, vintage country, Don Rich, Southern Culture on the Skids, the Cramps, anything along those lines, you'll dig these guitars. Single pickup selections can sound a little thin and weak, though the mid and neck pups are very usable. Sounds best when using more than one pickup at a time. My favorite is position "1" on the Switch-O-Matic, which is neck and bridge combined. Gives a very hollow twang similar to what you'd get with both pickups on a Tele or Gretsch. I really don't hear the Strat-like quack others talk about with these things. Oh, there's quack but a very unique kind of a thing that doesn't remind me much of a Strat--and that's a good thing in my book. Did I mention these twang?

Surprisingly good for such a cheap guitar, not to mention one made in South Korea (I'm guessing here, no "made in" label on my at all). Neck on mine is pretty chunky, which I like, though some I've played had very skinny necks. No buzzing, nice fretwork. The neck is really where you notice the quality. Definately up there with any of your basic US, factory made guitars getting cranked out these days.

Already mentioned the less-than-terrific tuners. Could see those going at some point. And the bridge seems a bit chinsy, but who knows. They're so stinkin' cheap if the thing falls apart I'll just buy a new one.

These are great little guitars. I'd been eyeing one of the black ones for the longest time, but when these Buck Owens-inspired glitter things came out I just couldn't resist.
I bought it thinking it'd be a cool little spare guitar for those times when I wanted something unique sounding, but I could really see this becoming my main guitar. These things are so good it really makes you begin to question the wisdom in dropping $2,000 on some pretty-boy, "hand-made" guitar. I mean, what is an electric guitar anyway but some very primitive, 1950's-era electronics stuck into a plank of wood?
These definately aren't for everybody, but if you're like me and play primarily twangy, rootsy, 50's-style music these things can't be beat.
Only these things lack is a wammy bar. I can only imagine how cool that would be.

Triple lipstick pu's, adjustable bridge saddles, upgraded tuners, 6-position rotary p.u. selector plus 'blow switch' (3 p.u.'s at once), concentric tone and volume knobs, metal nut, sparkle turquiose finish with satin finish neck, double cutaway (DC), hardshell tweed case. This guitar has just enough features to make a good practice axe, or, a decent gig axe. Got that sort-of-semi-hollow-body that Dano is famous for. Adjustable truss rod, although I believe you have to remove the neck to get to it....Oh well...I gave it an 8 since the main features needed are there, Hey, even a Strat can't get the p.u. combinations this one can without a mod job. No whammy bar.

Love the sounds available with this thing...you can get close to a Strat sound, but it has it's own take in a cool way, gets nasty surf sounds, blow switch gets into the humbucker hi output, rolled off highs sound. Since the p.u.'s weren't height adjustable, I fixed that by putting springs between the body and pickup, and presto, we have adjustable p.u.'s which upped the output. Some p.u. noise, but they are single coils. This guitar can talk a lot of languages, no matter what style you play, good job Dano! I run it through a Carvin Nomad amp, which has a Vox sound with the EL84's.

Assembly on guitar was good, however the vinyl (?) around the body is coming up in a couple spots, a little contact cement should get that fixed. String height is a fine for me, there is no way I can see to lower them, since the piece the saddles sit on seems to be flush to the body, so once the saddles are bottomed out, that's all folks. As I said before, I made the pu's adjustable for those looking for more output. Plays great though, lots of natural sustain, access to the high frets gets tight though, due to the way the neck joins the body. Controls work fine, Rotary switch takes a bit to memorize the pu sequence, but after a few run throughs it's great. Has the cool 50's formica finish, which is perfect. Neck width at nut just a touch narrow for me, but no problem to deal with. My '7' is based on the small problems I mention, still, the overall guitar is a winner, and you can't beat the value.

Probably won't survive a head-on with a Strat, but for the money, buy another!! Strap pegs definetly weak. Light weight but well balanced. I think it will last under use, but at this price, a backup is feasible. Case seemed a touch 'flimsy', but again, the price is right.

I got on Dano's web site which has a direct line to the company, and asked about what brand and guage strings were on from the factory, and got an answer within a day or two!! Looks like no replacement parts are availble for now, so that could be a minus.

After playing most of the main stream guitars for 30+ years, this guitar is one great sound and value. Yea, it's not made to last like Leo would have built it, but the tone and feel are there, and ain't that what we all look for? Would definetly replace if lost. Lots of value choices lately in the 'lower' price ranges.

Just boughta brand new DC3.I love it . 7 way switching way cool .I especially like position 2,4,and 5 the best.Has a adjustable bridge which is way better than the old ones.I bought mine for $300 black sparkle.Cant beat that. Played it at band practice the boys loved the sound. Defenitly has the early sixtys vibe.For the price ,playability,and sounds you can get out of it I give it a 12.

Used it with a super reverb and Marshall jcm sounded great .

Every note played fine not a single buzz anywhere. setup pretty much like my strats 10 to 46

Take care of it and dont be an asshole and it will last a while.? What do you want for $300.?

Have no idea . Have E mailed and they replied next day.

Can get a real cool 60s David Lynch sound if you know what I mean . Think twin peaks .Plays great ,neck feels great ,sounds great.For 300 bucks such a deal.

This is one of the brand-new double-cutaways, silver sparkle finish, with three pickups. Has a 5-way rotary switch for pickup options, plus a "blow" switch which activates all three at the same time, for leads. Also has better tuners than previous models, adjustable bridge saddles, and natural finish on the neck and headstock, as opposed to the color of the body. See descriptions of other Danos for body woods, etc.
I already own two of the Dano DC models, one black and one peach, and LOVE them. So when I heard they were coming out with a triple pickup model that could do Strat sounds, I was totally excited. This review is from a model at a guitar store. Haven't purchased yet.

First of all, it definitely cops the Strat "quack" or "out of phase" sound in positions 2 and 4. I love the Dano clean sound, and combined with the Strat in-between tone, was pretty impressed. And the "blow" switch is great: just enough increase in volume for leads, clean or dirty. And the switch is amazing. It's quite solid, not even close to being flimsy. It actually makes a "thunk!" sound when thrown. That's not gonna break anytime soon!

Perfect, perfect, perfect. I love these guitars. The price/value ration is so high. No flaws that I could see.

I've been banging on my Danos for quite a few months now, and no problems. Practices twice a month, gigs once a month. I think they'll hold up fine with proper care. For the price, I'll give them a 10.

I've e-mailed them with general questions, and have gotten response.

The thing that's holding me back is that on this guitar, if you don't want the Strat quack, you have to use single pickups by themselves. On my Danos, I never have one pickup on by itself, or the signal is too weak. I adjust the volume knobs to mix the bridge and neck pickups. So on this new model, if you go to one of the single pickups, it seems like the sound weakened a bit. So I'm thinking it over! But it's still a great guitar...