Danelectro Hodad

Alright the guy before me wrote all the crap u dont need to know.. let me tell u one thing.. it's nice really nice.. yah the 4 humbucker's is great and the bigsby style tremolo is well just amazing for solo's.. this guitar carry's MANY more feature's than any of my previously owned guitars

Great sounding, im lead guitar and vocal's in my band Silent Mind we play rock, blue's, darkwave and some pretty heavy metal/rock I use ALOT of alternate tuning's like DADADE CGCGCE and my favourite the sitar tuning CCCGCF I left this guitar in standard though for those that I play with powerful solo's etc. and I found the sound to be great.. I have a sovtek big muff distortion pedal which just make's the sustain with this guitar sing beautifully.. I was very surprised at the sound in concert although I have it an 8 because the pickups have a little bit too much feedback

Well I spent the extra $500 and just got new pick up's for this guitar and it sound's great my only majour problem was the neck for category.. the neck.. well.. it just doesnt feel right.. I think they should have taken more time to make the fret's a bit more closer have it snug like a les paul.. instead it felt kind of feeble trying to play chords.. the finish on the other hand is well BEAUTIFUL I originally ordered the guitar in deep blue pearl but the girl at the place I ordered it from messed up and said violet pearl.. but I like this finish MUCH better.. now yes it is purple and I thought when she said it wasnt blue it was purple it would look a little well 'faggish' but it's beautiful.. it has a very goth look in this colour also the tone and volume control's arnt that great.. just leave them all full tilt.. mess around with the pull up tone knobs.. but they dont do anything to amazing except make ur guitar sound light, jangly and clean even if u have a distortion on the channel

VERY durable.. I played it at a live gig just on this past saturday night.. sounded BEAUTIFUL.. except I just got new humbuckers which is eliminating that nasty ass feedback I really like the finish on it alot.. im not worried about using the guitar as a coaster..

GREEEEEAAAAAT I asked about buying a new neck.. unfortumately they dont offer a neck for this guitar in other sizes.. but the guy gave me some tip's on buying a used neck part that's comfortable and putting it on the hodad

Ok well I LOVE this guitar.. great for playing solo's I wouldnt want it to be reffered to as a "surfer" guitar.. because well this is a ROCK guitar.. it's great except for that DAMN neck I feel like snapping it off.. the tremolo bar is great when u give it a good pull during solo's and can do some pretty powerful sustain
now here's my arsenal of guitars.. Gibson Les Paul Cherry Sunburtst tuned DADADE Fender American Standard B-Bender Telecaster candy apple red tuned CGCGCE Paul Reed Smith Custom in a wine red colour tuned DGDGGD I have previously owned many but I have Hodad in standard because I simply love it for the solo's I dont like this more than my paul reed smith but a hell of alot more than any other guitar i've owned.. I just hate this damn neck.. and the pick ups were pretty nasty at first.. but I just got some replacement's which sound perfect.. oh and I forgot to mention that whole in and out of phase is kind of cool because it make's ur guitar sound very light and clean even if u have a distortion on.. other than that they do shit all
I suggest buying this guitar if u want a good rock guitar.. it has a nice feel except for the freaking neck which I really dont like
oh yah im playing through an ooold Marshall Stack which used to be my fathers.. and the price was great except I had to pay canadian.. so like for americans the guitar costs around 3-4 in total it costed me around 660-700
CHECK OUT MY BAND'S WEBPAGE go.to/silent-mind/ it's down now I dont know why.. should be up soon check it out were good.. DAMN good.. lol

Year of manufacture: 1999 Location of manufacturer: Korea Body: Hardboard top and bottom with plywood frame. Neck: Hard maple with rosewood fingerboard. Scale: 25" Frets: 21 Body Width: 42mm Headstock Width: 15.5mm Nut Width: 40mm Action: 1.6mm high 'E'; 1.8mm low 'E' Pickups: 4 Original style brass tube w/chrome plating. Original formula 50's style Alnico magnet. Pull-on tone knobs for out-of-phase and coil-tap on each pickup set. Vibrato: Bigsby-stlyle, Danelectro Tremolo Tuning machines: Gotoh tuners Finish: Black with "gold pearl" (Actually it looks dark brown from a distance but when bright light hits it it has a cool metal flake gold irridesence.) Standard accessories: (none included)

One comment: It is either pretty noisy or not at all, depending upon coil-tap and/or out-of-phase selection.

NOTE: I purchased this guitar only a few days ago. This, then, is an initial report for all those Danelctro players like myself who might cruise by the database reviews in hopes of hearing a field report on this model. I have played it for many hours over this past week.:
I was interested to play this guitar for several reasons. First, while I respect the way the modern reissues resemble (sort of) the original Danelectros, this model represents something of a departure from the current Danelecto offering. It is actually a completely new design and (obviously) not a reissue. Turns out, though, that the body and headstock shape are almost perfect replicas (in sillouette anyhow) of the famous Moserite Ventures guitars. To this end, it is being marketed as a surf guitar and, I must state, it seems to suit that job adequately. Of course, the real reason that I was so interested is that it had four pickups arranged in a humbucking fashion and included coil taps and out-of-phase selectors for each pair. I felt that this design feature (which I believe has always limited the Danelectro guitar somewhat, perhaps not in a bad way, though) would expand the possible range of tones. I also believed that the pickup setup combined with the amazing semi-hollowbody sound so familiar to the Danelectro would yield (finally!) something different than the so-common, almost cliched Fender and Gibson tones. (For those not familiar with the sound of the Danelectro it seems to be uniquely derived from the combination of the syrupy-sweet, vintage tone of the "lipstick" pickup with the really quite resonant, hollowbody sound of the chintzy plywood and masonite body.)
Well, enough of that. What do I think? I like it.
It has tones like no other guitar on earth. I am, quite frankly, amazed by the variations in sounds you can get. They all have the distinctive, vintage, twangy Danelectro character but with vastly increased versatility. (I dare say, you might even be able sound convincing attempting punk, grunge, or heavy metal with this guitar! Though I would not recommend that to anyone, regardless of the instrument in question.)
My recommendation: Buy one. It is not expensive. It is also pretty well made. And even if you find that only use the thing for a few particular musical tasks, great! At least you didn't shell out $1000 to find out. My rating says it all "Fantastic Value".
PS- Did I mention the near-perfect copy of the Bigsby-style vibrato? Try to find one of those on a new guitar you can get for $370.00 out the door.