Danelectro Hodad Baritone

Made in Indonesia? 1999? Features; Already been mentioned by others, 3 lipsticks, cheap vol/tone pot, switches blah, blah,blah. They work fine. Don't beat the stuff with a hammer and it'll work for a long time. Otherwise, its a fine looking guitar, with an aluminum nut, adjustable bridge (nice feature but yes they do bow in the middle (just raise the saddles to compensate and don't use crazy heavy strings).

Remember this is a BARITONE guitar with a 27.5" scale. not a 30" scale six string bass. So don't expect it to be a bass. Its a guitar that you can tune 4 maybe 5 semitones down from std. guitar E-E. And it sounds like a cool low-tuned guitar. Thats what it does and it does it very well.

Use a good amp. By good I mean simple tube stuff. I've got a Tweed Fender 5D3 deluxe clone and this guitar sounds like God through it. It just phenomenal. And with the right strings its a breeze to play.

The lipstick pickups sound very good but try to make sure you are plugged into an AC outlet that does not have any light dimmers on the same circuit becuase the single coils DO pick up a lot of hum. If you have one, use an AC isolation transformer and plug your amp ino that. It helps a ton with keeping the 60 cycle hum and buzz out of your sound.

The biggest thing that contributes to this thing playing nicely is proper string selection for the range you've tuned to.

Ernie Ball Baritone strings (13-72) are great for for tuning B-B, you can bend a semi-tone on the higer strings but not more and not with great ease. But OH GOD the power and sustain... Just wonderful. This set is way too floppy for an A-A tuning.

Elixer Baritone (12-68) are an excellent choice for B-B tuning and they bend easy too. This is probably the closest 'guitar feel' set. Nice twang but a hair less ballsy than the Ernie's. Better for leads.

If you need to play A-A try the Labella Baritone BGE-M Mediums (15-80) but be prepared to tweek your truss rod a hair. And you may have a hard time being able to get the low A saddle adjusted far back enough to intonate perfectly. But if you really need to be tuned this low, give it a shot. Again, super ballsy and powerfull but don't try to bend notes, well, you can try but your calluses will start to develop calluses. But really amazing tone.

All of these setups I've been able to use with no buzzing or floppyness. Set-up IS everything.


By the way, neck feels great. Not too fat, not quite as thin as a tele but close, just right.

I stongly suggest swapping out the stock jack for a switchcraft jack. Thats the only thing that could screw you on stage as the originals are quite cheap and can be intermittent if you bump you guitar cable the wrong way. Otherwise, if you tighten everything up (knob and switch nuts) every 6 months if you play it every day, you'll be good to go

Have not had to call them but have seen parts online and reasonably priced.

Playing 20 years. Own too much stuff. This IS one of my favorites, and YES I WOULD find another if this one took a walk. Its an absolute blast!

A lot of features for a danelectro. Adjustable bridge. Three pickups and selector switch. The rest is pretty normal dano stuff.

Not as deep and robust as my vintage bass VI but what do you expect for under $300. Still I like it. You can get a lot of tones but only one suites me and I'm not sure what pickups are one, but it's the deepest sounding setting. It's strung dadario for jerry jones baritone strings right now. That improved the sound some.

I had to set it up as soon as I got it home.

Like i said these are supposed to be tuned E to E but danelectro cheaped out and changed them to A to A so they could use lighter and cheaper strings. I have an older pre-hodad set of danelectro reissue baritone strings and they are all wound and the gauge is like 20-84.

The problem with tuning these A to A is the string tension is to high for the pot metal bridge so it bows. I bent it back straight and strung it with the heavier E to E strings. The string tension is lower now and the bridge has remained straight for the time being.

Add cheap electronics to the mix and you've got an axe that isn't gig worthy IMHO.

Not the best or worst baritone out there I guess. I like the fender subsonic and Bass VI much more but they costs more and are harder to find.

If you just want a baritone for the occassional novelty get one but if your looking for a real guitar seek out the custom shop sub-sonic (A toA) or an original Bass VI (E to E) both of which make this one sound pretty stupid. I have all three. This was the one i got first. It got me serious about playing baritone so it had it's use, but I don't play it anymore since I've got two real baritone guitars.

Epiphone and Gretsch also have budget baritones that look nicer than these but I haven't played them.

the features have been covered pretty well by other reviewers or you can look 'em up on the danny site...so other than to state it's a 2002 model, not much to add....

okay, look...here's the deal...i tried my good friend's Veillette baritone before buying the hodad, and soundwise, the hodad is at least as good and possibly superior...it's a serious tone monster with a huge range of settings...while there's no comparing the hodad and veillette from a structural standpoint, i would defy anyone to tell me the difference on a blind listening test...this sucker does everything you want a bari to do...

the factory setup on my unit seems just fine...however, my local repair guy informed me that in the event that the neck ever DOES warp, you can pretty much kiss this sucker goodbye because it doesn't really allow for much adjustment...then again, the neck doesn't appear to be in a big hurry to go anywhere special at the moment...

one nice feature...you can get up to the 20 or 21st fret of this guitar easily and it plays cleanly...so if you're inclined to forget that you're playing a bari, and you drift up the neck and start playing your favorite Clapton licks, there's enough room at the top of the fretboard to provide a reasonable facsimile of a lead guitar...

the black metalflake finish is a hands-down chick magnet...say whatcha want, but as plastic toys go, this is definitely one of the cooler looking ones around...hell, if you own a black camaro, it's worth buying a hodad as a hood ornament even if you don't play!!

seems to be made of the same extruded plastic polymers as those souvenir cups from Wendy's or Mickey D's, and as such, should survive the kinda beating that your average 4-year old gives his Tonka toys...aside from the fact that i wouldn't recommend leaving it leaning against a hot water tank for very long, it appears fairly indestructible and non bio-degradable...the hardware ain't nuthin' fancy, but it's servicable...it stays in tune during the gig and that's all any honest man can ask for...and nobody short of james mcmurtry really needs to ever consider a BACKUP for a baritone...

haven't called the good folks at danny, and considering the price of the Hodad, probably be cheaper to replace than reface anyway

i'm a big fan of james mcmutry and steve earle (and if you're on this page, i assume YOU are, too, Sparky!)...got enough other guitars and keys to keep me busy, so i was looking for a bari that i could haul out occasionally to get THAT sound without having to wait for my lotto numbers to come in...and for the price and quality of the danny hodad, let's face it, no home should be without one...can't beat danelectro when it comes to bang for the buck...hook this baby up to a danny tuna melt and yer ready to rock and roll...

3 lipstick pickups - 7 different pickup settings, Average to poor tuners, average to poor tone knob, average to poor bridge, a neck that seems to want to warp and cause fret noise, but a body paint job of dark black and gold flake that seems to make you forget anything about this guitar that sucks...It is extreemly light and fun to play.

The sound of this guitar is terrific (Disclaimer: if it is what you are looking for.) There are 7 different settings for the select-o-matic. I personally think that most of them suck. For most of the settings the bass is way to boomy and not tight. There is very little ballance compared to a good pickup and for some reason the Neck and the Middle pickup dont sound good distorted. If you turn on all three pickups with the switch, it sounds really bad, practically unusable. However, the bridge pickup, and combination of the bridge and the middle pickups sound terrific. Twangy and full respectively. They make an incredible tone when run through a good tube distortion. This guitar has the potential to make a two piece band sound full. If you want to be The White Stripes Ver 2, you should seriously consider this guitar. Power Chords sound so much better on this guitar than any other guitar i have played.

The action isnt really good, as the guitar is hard to play and the strings buzz. While i have never tried, im not sure that you can really adjust the neck to correct its imperfections. Its made like a cheap guitar, but feels solid enough to use. This guitar is very very light, and i love that about it. I feel free to be violent with the instrument, and it allows me to create some great sounds.

I think the guitar is built well, but you could definately break it if you wanted too. I could depend on it...

NA

This guitar was the "different" guitar i was looking for. Tuned to a B, but the same format as standard guitar tuning, it gives an ass kicking power chord sound. Its hard to play as the strings are heavy the action is high, and the neck is as long as a standard bass neck, but it is extremely fun to play with great sounding results. I recommend this guitar highly to anyone looking for that different kind of grungy sound. I highly recommend this guitar if you once were a 5 string bass player looking for a new instrument. I have never seen anyone use these to their potential. If it were stolen, i dont think i would get it again. Its fun, and almost a novelty for me, but by no means a great musical instrument. It requires you to think when transposing what you would normally play on a regular guitar. Most importantly, it is a different instrument than a guitar, and it has a different feel than a guitar (although the sound is not that different) Because the neck is longer, if you get used to the feel on this guitar, going back to a regular guitar isnt intuitive. While this review may sound negative, if you are actually interested in a barritone, the guitar is worth looking at. Its the cheapest way to get to the coveted distortion sound that I love.

The details of the features have been covered best in the other reviews. I purchased mine early 2002, and have come to find out that it is one of the last Korean made (they are no made in China).

I have to say that this guitar sounds amazing! This is the definitive sound - period. I use it with my writing partner who is a female pop/pop country artist (Think, Sheryl Crow, Faith Hill, Jewel). I have run it through several amps, amp farm and tube DIs. The selector switch provides a multitude of sounds. As with any single coil pick up I have to fight with positioning to reduce RF hum/buzz. I have to say I like everything about this guitar's sound - I have even used it on a heavy metal track and it rocked.

I am giving this a low rating in this category because my guitar arrived in the worst possible shape. I spend a two weeks readjusting the neck (not to do it all in one day). It was so bad that it could not have been due to the shipping from two states away. I almost sent in back however am glad I didn't. I typically would never buy a Guitar mail order, however here in LA, no one, and I mean no one had it in stock to check out. It blows my mind how instruments that are readily available in music stores in Nashville are so rare in LA.

This is a weird question for a Dano review. They are made cheaply and that is the sound we are looking for. I know my Les Paul could with stand a hell of a lot more abuse that the Dano but I knew this getting into it. It is a little frustrating that a couple of screws keep coming loose but overall it is pretty solid for a Dano.

What customer support. They blow! They contact I could make was with the people in that make the pedals who referred me to some company with an incredulous a-hole manning the phones!

I have been play guitar, as my second instrument, for 20+ years. I own an extensive home protools studio. If the guitar were stolen I would immediately replace it with another one. This is the sound. Everything else, even if it technically sounds better, is not quite that ole Dano sound. I love it. I wish it were more solid/less cheap.

Typical Dano Features on construction, The 7 way switching is great, very smooth tuners, stays in tune very well

I bought this guitar on a whim, because I already had a Dano that I love to death. This Hodad Baritone opened up a whole new tonal world for me. I play classic rock in a working band. This Baritone really impressed me.
The sound is fantastic, I can go from Mud to Twangy in a heartbeat. It has some slight hum that single coils do. My Fenders slightly hum. I know that and have no problem with this at all.
My only minor dislike is it's a tad neck heavy. Not enough to downrate it either

This setup was better than any Fender I got off the rack. Neck has never needed adjusted. No flaws at all. Very impressed everything was tight and functional. This Baritone was gig ready off the rack. I did even out one saddle and that was it. Very impressed with Danelectro

As far as live work, I gig with it, I also use a Dano Hearsay for guitar work and also have a Dano DC 12 String, so I take at least 3 guitars to a gig
The baritone is a specialty axe so it's not a primary guitar so it's not really a backup either, but when I switch guitars and need a Bartione, it's there for me, and never let me down.
I've had it a year and am happier with it now than when I first got it..
Hardware is great...No problems at all

I also have a Dano Runor Bass, I emailed them for a warranty card. They got back to me the same day, and the rep from Dano was really helpful and that really impressed me. I've never needed a repair or anything on my Danos. which includes 4 Dano guitars 2 amps and cases and gigbags

I've been playing for 28 years and I am really happy and impressed with Danelectro. I bought one guitar for a backup and wound up bying 3 more Danos plus their amps too.
The neck on this baritone is one of the best i've played, sting balance is great, if lost would replace it in a heartbeat. I would pay $499 for one. The Hodad Baritone is a solid well thought out design that really offers a great alternative to a conventional 6 string electric guitar

DANELECTRO SENT ME THE WRONG REPLACEMENT NECK AND AREN'T WILLING TO SEND ME THE RIGHT NECK. CUSTOMER SUPPORT SUCKS. JUST HOPE NOTHING GOES WRONG W/ YOUR DANO, CAUSE YOU'LL BE SCREWED. I CANT FIND ANOTHER HODAD BARITONE, SO IM SCREWED.

extremely nice dano. The adjustable bridge, metal strap pegs, and gotoh tuners are an added bonus. thats the main reason why i bought the hodad baritone instead of the standard baritone.

The lipstick pickups are sweet. I mostly play grunge/metal/punk music, and let me tell you, when you engage all three of these pickups at once and pile on the overdrive, the tone you get is just awsome. The only way i can really explain it is its like an engine starting up, very unique, very impressive. I'm glad that I didnt go out and spend the extra 300 or so bucks on the ESP baritone, cause i like this one much better.

the action is nice. this guitar just screams for playing staind-type riffs. i had to lower the pickups when I first got it, because the strings were hitting them, but otherwise great set up. The only problem is that i got a lemon. The neck had warped when it went through shipping (i ordered it through elderly instruments), and there is this unberable buzzing on the strings near the 12th fret. The finish is awsome, i got a rare model with a silver metalflake finish, i fell in love with this guitar from the first minute that i played it.

This guitar seems pretty durable. except like all guitars DON'T SHIP IT WITH THE STRINGS TIGHTENED! alright, that was my vent. I would gig with it without a backup once i get elderly to send me a new neck (thank god for the warranty).

Haven't dealt with dano, only elderly.

I've been playing for about a year and 7 months. I also have a gibson les paul studio lite and a dearmond starfire hollowbody. this guitar adds a lot of low end growl to my collection. if it were stolen, i would probably cry because I had a hell of a hard time finding this one, but then i would get over it and go out searching for another. This guitar is LIGHT. the neck is heavier than the guitar body. This baby screams with sustain and harmonics are effortless to play. suprising considering the bolt-on neck and bridge style. I compaired this guitar to the Innuendo baritone and the standard baritone, and believe me, this one is lightyears ahead ot the other two. This thing would be great for surf of blues music too, of course. but if you're into punk or metal and ya want a baritone on a budget, this guitar is the way to go.

I'll give this a high feature rating in comparison with other Danos. Its sort of their top-of-the-line series. Real metal strap buttons (!) and adjustable bridge, quality Gotoh tuners, the whole shebang. Its like they kept the aspects of the original Danos that made them cool and replaced what made them irritating and difficult to deal with. Also...about the switching system, some reviewers have complained, but I find it extremely useful! I love the "select-o-matic" system they put in their guitars, I have a Hodad 12-string with the switching system as well. Basically it means you have a rotary switch that selects each pickup by itself and all two pickup combinations in series, and you have a switch that overrides the rotary and throws all three pickups in series. I find the fact that its in series very useful. The single pickup sounds give you a thinner lighter sound, and then you can use the 3-pickup switch to thicken and boost the sound. That gives you two easily accessed sounds, with a built in boost. if the difference in output is too much, set the rotary to a two pickup in series position. Then you will only add one pickup with the 3 pickup switch, still for a slight boost, but not much. I find it very useful actually, and since lipstick pickups tend to be rather thin sounding, the series positions are pretty cool sounding to my ears. Anyway, after enjoying the stock Baritone sounds for a week or so, I replaced the strings with Fender Bass VI strings. I tune it to low E, an octave above the bass E and an octave below the guitar E. I use it as a bass guitar. Seeing as the gauge starts at 96, it has a lot of low end punch...dont underestimate the six-string bass...

also, by far the greatest feature of the guitar is its price. 149 bucks from Musicians friend. Thats just insane! find another guitar for that price that can even compare in quality OR coolness and I will be very very surprised.

When tuned as a baritone, it had the coolest twangy sound to it. it was perfect for twangy rockabilly leads...a bit muddy for chords, but workable. It didnt sound good with tube overdrive for some reason, but when I switched on a ToneBender clone fuzz pedal, it was AWESOME. if a bit unusable. But anyway, its now tuned as a six string bass. I've gigged with it before...very cool sound. you have to EQ your amp carefully, but when its set right, you can have all the punch and rumble of a normal bass, but still have miles of upper range to play around with to give your guitarist fits (and it will, believe me!). I imagine it would sound FABULOUS with a biamped rig, say a deep-sounding bass amp for the lows and a tube guitar amp to handle the highs. I havent got around to that yet, but maybe someday. Its really cool for fast warbly runs up and down the fretboard...if your into fast-fretting progrock, this might be a cool side instrument. It'll never replace my Ric, but its a very fun instrument to play. it hums, of course, and the series combinations dont cancel hum or anything, but its not too bad.

The nut is aluminum...go figure! hasnt given me trouble though, and thankfully the larger Bass VI strings fit right in without trouble. In fact, i didnt set it up or anything, so it plays rather well for a guitar having undergone such a major change without being readjusted. The neck feels nice (almost unfinished-feeling)...perhaps a bit neck heavy since its hollow, but not as bad a balance problem as my SG bass (that one lives to dive for the floor). The finish is sooooo cool...they said it was black metalflake, but for some reason it doesnt look like that at all, looks a lot more like silver metalflake. Very very gaudy looking bright silver sparkle. But so cool I think. It probably blinded the audience at the outdoor gig we did.

For a Dano, I would rate this as very high. Quality workmanship for Danelectro at least. I mean, how durable does a 150 buck guitar have to be? its made from masonite and plywood for crying out loud. its a secondary instrument anyway...I wouldnt need a backup for it, because this one would be the backup for my main bass.

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Love this guitar. Fills a niche for wacky upper bass noodlings. And it looks so cool too, with its Mosrite shape and blinding silver metalflake paint job. I love its price too. A whole lot of coolness packed into a guitar for a price thats less than a lot of my effects pedals. You cant beat that.

Has adjustable bridge
gotoh tuners
and a metal nut

Cool twangy low tones. I swear I had it sounding like a low tuned Telecaster!

Typical Dano. . .

So far so good. Danos have a good reputation for taking a licking and keeping on ticking.

This is a fun and great sounding instrument!