Danelectro Hodad

Near as I can figure, it is early 2000's. 21 frets. Body is masonite and plywood and hollow. White tape binds the edges. Three way switch, two volume and two tone knobs for two humbucker passive lipstick pickups that can be split and tapped by pulling up on the two tone knobs, which are labeled accordingly. Neck looks like satin maple on back with rosewood fretboard on top. Body is gold sparkle embedded in shiny black plastic coating over the masonite. Moderately wild shape roughly in super strat style with two horns. Chrome plated bigsby whammy bar bridge. String wrap around to bridge is a little tough to do in the dark, or when a string needs to be replaced in a hurry and requires a small pair of needle nose pliers. Non locking tuners that hold well. Medium neck with low to medium frets. It came with a non
Danelectro thinly padded gig bag. For its pleasing appearance, light weight, resonance, loaded with all types of features it is a winner=10.

After experimenting for a while, figured out the Hodad has many, many tonal possibilities. However, it is best suited for clean to very mild distortion. On the clean, it is a natural for surf music, some rock and some blues. These types of music go well with a somewhat jangly, bright, clean sound, a Hodad strength. On the distortion, it is a natural for some rock and some blues, which seems to stand out in the mix because of its rich, full, jangly, twangy sound. For surf, and rhythm guitar, I find the best setting is both pickups on, the treble volume and tone knobs rolled back a bit, leave the neck pickup all the way up and roll the tone back a little on that one as well. When playing the blues and classic rock for a solo, turn up the treble pickup all the way and when done turn it back down. The whammy bar is not intended for divebombs. As other reviewers have already said, it is effective if used gently. My hodad does not go out of tune when the whammy bar is used. Dislikes? A better padded gig bag or better yet a hard shell case. Likes? Refreshingly jangly, clean, bright with no mud, but this guitar is not a toy.

Set up well, but I am not original owner. Had new .10 strings when bought. Only flaw I saw is a small bubble in the tape edge near the neck. Stuck a pin in the bubble, which deflated and it is now adhered. Even pickup volume, although it is lower in output than my other guitars. To compensate,I just turn up the amp volume. Overall, this is a very well Korean built guitar that is the best over two other Danelectro's I once owned. I had a U2 when they first came out in 98. No longer own it as the bridge was not adjustable. Next, I had a U3. No longer own it as the silver sparkle color was too strong for my taste. Electronics and mechanical parts are all well made. Good nut. I can't find anything to get uptight about.

It's been to two gigs and getting ready for its third and fourth. I enjoy it because it offsets my other guitar(s) which are more traditional humbucker types and, accordingly, a different type of sound and tone. Two guitars to a gig is a standard rule. Replacing a string in this guitar during a show would be somewhat of a pushup if it was your only instrument. Solid strap buttons. Neat black body finish is subdued until a light hits it and then you can vaguely see the lightly distributed gold sparkles. Wow. However, this is not a solid body guitar and should be treated with that in mind.

Bought used-no warranty, no need to deal with the company.

I have been guitar playing since 1963. I have owned a lot of different guitars, amps and pedals. Most of it has been sold or traded. Now, I have the Hodad, a Robin Artisan, Gibson Les Paul Special reissue and Fender 52 reissue Telecaster with a humbucker in the neck. I have a Carvin 300SX amp, which is another great piece of equipment(further tone shaping, built in effects, loud and lightweight). I would buy it again. I really like the tones. No dislikes. Favorite feature is the jangly, twangy tones, which would suit country/western, surf, ome rock and some blues. Bought in a pawn shop. I kept my eyes open for another Danelectro as the prior two also had a the same type of tones, albeit they had aforemenetioned weaknesses. This guitar is good value for its cost. Modern construction methods with good quality control. The hollow body, coupled with the lipstick pickups make an unmistakable sound that you near on old records.

2 lipstick humbuckers, coil tap and phase switch. Standard danelectro body material. You can get a lot of sounds out of this guitar.

Danelectros seem to be hit or miss for people. they either love them or hate them. I love the sound of this guitar i play ska, punk and surf. This guitar is an amazing surf guitar and with the coil tap and phase switch you can get tons of sounds.

The action is a tad bit high for me and it looks like i cant lower it much more without taking it to a tech. Other than that it is great, i have the black with gold sparkle and white faux leather sides. It does look a little cheesy but i really like it, when the light shines on it it looks gold.

I would gig it with out a backup, it seems a tiny bit fragile but that could just be because it is lite. I don't think it can take as much abuse as a solid guitar but if you are careful i wouldn't worry.

haven't dealt with them

I like it, great sound great guitar for not much money. If you like danelectros pick one up, if you don't like danelectros leave it alone.

The finish I got was the Blue Sparkle. It may seem cheesey, but once you take it out of the gigbag, everyone looks! And it looks great on stage. The body style is kind of a strat, but actually long and warped almost like a fender jaguar, and with a double cutaway. This is a guitar from, I believe the early 90s. There are four lipstick pickups; two at the bridge and two at the neck, which are, I suppose, to mimick humbuckers.

I play sort of indie/rock/alternative and it suits our bands style in that it really sounds unique! It really has that Danelectro twang. It is the twangiest of my three Danelectros (I have a U2 and a DanoPro). It comes with two volue knobs, two tone knobs, and phase in.out and coil tap. When you use the coil tap, it swiches to single coil to get a really bright twang. If you use the phase in and out, you basically get a heavier sound. When you use both out of phase and single coil, something really strange happens: you get everything but mid. It's a strange sound, but fun to play around with.

I thought this was a solid guitar when I bought it, but now I believe it is hollow, just because it really rings when you knock on it.

The guitar I have also has a bigsby which I get a kick out of using. It will go out of tune if you use the bigsby a lot! As for restringing, you have to bend the strings under and pull through the bigsby, so it's beter to bend the string before you try to string it!

I use my Fender Blues Deluxe(tweed) amp wth it. Every once in a while, I'll use a tremolo pedal which sounds great with that surfy-twang.

When I got the guitar in the mail off of ebay, I found that the action was too high, and it buzzed a lot. I find that all my danelectros buzz eventually, even after having the neck adjusted. Anyway, when I got it set up, it felt pretty good. Not the lowest action, but comfortable for me. I've had it for half a year now, and no buzzes yet.

I always use this guitar live! If you want to hear it in action just search my band on youtube. Type: "binky bianca 007". It seems pretty durable, and it's actually pretty heavy duty.

This guitar is a great guitar to have simply because of its unique sound and look! Plus, it's pretty damn cheap. You can't get a better guitar for the price. This has served as my main guitar over the past 6 months, but I am ready to move to a higher scale guitar. Still, I don't think I will ever sell this Dano, although I can't say the same for my Dano Pro! I love it!

The finish was, frankly, the only thing that gave me a moment's hesitation about buying this guitar. Mine's in green, and the glitter seemed a bit too cheesy for my taste. Other than that, the warped-strat body style is loveable, and I can reach up far enough into the fretboard to do whatever I want there. The pickups are fine, too- But if you don't like the Danelectro twang, this is not the guitar for you. Still, the switch is in the wrong place. Unlike my Telecaster, this one can change after an especially vivid downstroke. Oh, and the strings are near impossible to change. It's dricing me crazy because of the stupid tailpeice. But the vibrato works great- this is one in-tune guitar.

My style is a kind of pre-grunge, post punk alternative, and this guitar suits me fine. It steperates me from the rest of the crowd, and I can have my own disticnt sound with it. I'm using it with a marshall tranistor amp because I'm low on funds, and it still sounds fine. Again, if you don't like the Danelectro twang, this is not the guitar for you. However, I love it. But there isn't a whole lot of varaiety, unless oyu have plently of pedals, which I do not. The Wah sounds awesome on it, however.

I got it secondhand, but the finish was fine, only there was a bit of rust on the inside I hadn't noticed! Still, it's fine. But the Action was great when I got it, too. It's just about perfect. There's no buzzing whatsoever. However, the last two frets on the high E string sound the same. I was trying to sort this out, and I'm in the process of changing these god-forsaken strings, so I'm not sure if it'll be better soon.

I've played live with it, and so has one of best friends. He's a punk rocker, and he favors this as well as his Epiphone Dot. The strings haven't broken yet, and they haven't gone out of tune too much. I'm only chaning them because they're old. Everything is solid about this guitar. I'm a very violent person, and this has survived my house for two years now.

Haven't had any dealings - No problems!

Beautiful guitar, stylish, retro, and wesome for whatever you want. Hardcore punks stay away, but softer folk- this is well woth the $400 you would pay for it! I wish it had a humbucker, though, right in the middle of those two single-coils. Ah, well, it's still perfection. Honsetly, if this wasn;t a danelectro and didn't have the twang, it would be my only guitar.

pretty good....

Sounds great, if I could keep the feedback to a minimum.... I can't get within 10 feet of my amp....

could be better but decent for the price of the axe.

I've never had a problem, it's just like it was the day I bought it...

nice retro style mine is a hard tail no bigsby likeit like that lip stick pick ups coil taps tons of tones possable

let me say i have many guitars ofmany different brands gibson lp custom gibson es 135 fender strat 1979 fender 90s thinline telecaster and the hodad this thing rocks many different tones killer leads when pused thru a good tube amp lipsticks are a lil weak but just turn it up and your good love this guitar

neck is so comfortablr its stupid fast action cool retro style and light can play it all nite

paid 199 dollors so i aint afraied to bring it to a gig built very well love the neck love it hear me love it

for the money this guitar cant be beat try one you will agree i would get another in a min.

Typical Hodad with Bigsby trem and black/gold sparkle finish. Not exactly shure what year it was made? Maybe someone knows if the serial number has anything to do with the year? Cool configuration. I wish that the pickup selector switch was located on the top horn like a les paul AND that the switch itself was a little more less hard slaping. The lipsticks amplify the click noise when changing the switch. Otherwise, I love the in/out phase and split coil taps!

I have a 1954 Gibson GA40 amp with a custom fit 1956 Jensen P15P alnico and a simple slapback analog delay pedal. This guitar just simply came alive with this setup. I don't know what everyone is complaining about? The pickup ouput is just fine. I noticed that the bridge is quiet if the coil tap is lifted. Tap it down and the bridge comes alive! Overall sound is full and rich.

Changing strings is not an easy task if yours has a bigsby. A string winder is a must have!
Overall hardware is top quality for an inexpensive guitar. Intonation can be in the ballpark and still sound good. Some guitarists are BiOtches and want everything to be just so so...give me a break! Brian Setzer once said, "Its close enough for rock n' roll".

I haven't played it in a gig yet, but I intend to! I have every confidence that this guitar would turn a few (guitarists) heads!

n/a

I've been playing for 25 years. I own very expensive fine guitars and I really like this guitar. Its fun and full of life. Great guitar for the money!

This guitar is loaded with features they are listed in detail below.

It however would be nice if you didn't have to take the neck off to adjust the truss rod! The volume output of the lipsticks is quite pathetic.

The 4 lipstick pick-ups. This is such a subjective area, this is actually the only reason im posting is to clear this up:

They dont work like humbuckers, there is a substantial amount of hum. Definetly not high-gain pickups, they are quiet so expect to either use a booster pedal/driver or to just crank the amp. Sounds great for surf, old school blues, rockabilly etc. as soon as you need a harsher tone use a guitar with humbuckers. Simple.

So im giving this guitar a rating of 10 for sound, it's a cheap guitar that sounds perfect for the tones any of my other guitars cant do.

These finishes are not very durable. You need to be extra careful as they chip very easily.

I too often find myself on here reading reviews of guitars I own or have rented for gigs and see bad reviews or unhappy buyers. This guitar is great, it has the right look for the sound it omits. It doesn't do anything but those rockabilly, surf, jangly/trebly tones.

For the money if this is the tone you want this is the perfect guitar. It's look fits the bill and the bill isn't that much.

See the other reviews. Phase In/Out is my favorite feature on this guitar. Thin neck. A little too thin for my liking. I like baseball bat necks and this one can give me hand cramps if I play for over an hour.

I bought it new off Ebay in 2001. I was playing in punk band then and I fell for the Mosrite - Johhny Ramone shape. However, I never could get it to sound like Johnny. Put it away for a few years. Now I'm playing in a early surf-late 50's rock sounding band. Pulled the Hodad out recently and fell in love with it for the first time. I play it with the pickup selector in the middle position(all 4 pick-ups on), Out of phase, tone on bridge pick-up almost all the way down, and tone on neck pick-up all the way up. Both volumes on full. With this setting, you get a great spanky, percussive surf sound like a Fender Jaguar, for a third of the price. But it's a slightly more hollow sound and better resonance than a Jag. The Digsby trem is quite good for gentle tremolo. Not great for dive bombing or pulling up. Stays in tune quite nicely if you're kind to it. But changing strings is a pain.

Of course you need a good tube amp with reverb and tremelo. I play it thru a early 60's Gibson GA-17 Scout with a Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive in front. Perfect match. Bright, open, and the notes bloom quickly and have a resonant decay. The Hodad doesn't have a lot of sustain which is what you want for this sound. My sound is pretty close to the theme from "Ren and Stimpy".

To sum it up. Great for Surf and Retro Rock with reverb and a little overdrive. Good through a Fender type amp, not good through a Marshall type amp. Not good for heavy distortion.

I took it in to my guitar guy for a set-up as soon as I bought. Don't remember much about the original set-up. No problems otherwise.

Seems quite dependable. Never had any problems with it. Seems very sturdy for being so light. It may be cheaply built, but it's not fragile at all.

Nope.

Been playing 20 years. Own/Owned lots of gear. The Hodad is an awesome value for a Surf, Rockabilly, Link Wray guitar vibe. I'm less worried about it at rehearsals and gigs than I would be with a vintage archtop or Supro, although the price for the Hodads seem to be going up on Ebay. I don't really like the thin, fast neck but I can live with it. My buying motto is "If it costs over $500, let someone else enjoy it." The Hodad fits well with this motto and sounds like it costs 4 times as much.

Bought in 2005 brand new it's a 2002 0r 2003 model. I found it hanging on a wall in guitar shop in Hawaii among a whole crap load of Ukelele's. It was brand new and had been hanging on his wall a long time. I told him nobody in Hawaii would buy it since they only have two sounds on the islands ukelele and slack key which are ok for a while. Then their sound starts to be like the "it's a small world" ride in Disneyland. They should turn that into a shooting gallery cause you want to start shooting before the ride is over. I absolutely love this guitar beautiful black sparkle masonite top and back from a 1970's mobile home wall, and plywood frame trimed with expensive cream colored vinyl, four lipstick pups, Mosrite knock off body, bigsy style trem, single coil or humbuckers with coil tap and out of phase electronics very very cool and versatile. Golly Gee how many features do you want on a guitar? It's a 10+

For Davie Allen, Link Wray, Dick Dale and any other surfs up music this guitar is the best. It is a 10, screwing around with the coil tap and out of phase it can sound like Mark Knofflers strat. This guitar is perfect sound wise for msot anything except Jazz and who gives a @#*! about jazz? I really think it is a 9.5 but I'm going with a 10 to help off set the dork that said it was a 2.

The neck is real sweet. The "Bigsby" style tremelo is great after I went to the hardware store got a 1/2" stainless steel washer and put it between the shaft and spring clip It had about an 1/8" slop play from side to side. The studs on the "Bigsby style trem" that the string go on are great they are little bit longer than a real bisgsy. This is nice for when you put on new strings they stay on while you are winding. Other than that it appears to be put together quite nicely and you can take it apart very easily to fix anything.

I suppose so, what guitar wouldn't unless you a gorilla moron with you gear.

No idea. My guess is their policy is "you bought it it is yours and yours alone."

Playing for 40+ years mainly Rockabilly, surf, classic vintage rock (whatever that is). Other guitars 1976 Guild X500 with bigsby, 2003 Guild Starfire IV with bigsby,1973 D35 Martin, 1959 0017 Martin. Amps Musicman HD130 reverb head with two 12" vintage celestion cabs. Musicman HD130 reverb combo with 4 10" music man speakers. I'm giving this a 10 for what it does, this actually is the most versatile guitar for sound of my electrics.