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Danelectro Inuendo Baritone

Summary
Similar Products Danelectro Dead-On '67 Baritone Electric Guitar @ Musician's Friend
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Manufacturer URL http://www.danelectro.com/
Features 8.4 (9 responses)
Sound 8.2 (9 responses)
Action, Fit, & Finish 8.3 (9 responses)
Reliability/Durability 7.4 (8 responses)
Customer Support 3.0 (4 responses)
Overall Rating 9.0 (7 responses)
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Page: 1 (Show 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 reviews per page) Showing 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $180
Submitted 11/29/2003 at 08:50am by Anonymous

Features : 8
See previous reviews

Sound : 8
It has pretty decent pickups for a cheap foreign made guitar.
Has a nice twang to it. The distortion is way to loud. I noticed that if the batteries went dead the the distortion volume reduced to a reasonable level and the chorus delay time increases so you get a warbly delay similar to a Memory Man except much noisier. So I wired the tone control pot to one of the battery wires. The usable range of this knob is probably about 1/3 so a smaller value pot might help. Also you can use the effects with another guitar if you plug into the dry input and run the wet output to your amp.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 8
I didn't find any flaws with the setup.

Reliability/Durability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : No Opinion


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $180
Submitted 08/03/2002 at 02:17pm by Ric

Features : 9
See other reviews below

Sound : 9
I like many kinds of very different music and I also like quirky instruments. This baritone sounds very special and unique. It is not noisy at all (given that it uses single coils). I play through an Electar Tube 10, and it sounds beautiful, although the 8" speaker
has definetly a lot of trouble handling low register chords.
A bass amp could be a good option, I think.
The sounds ar fenderish, the pickups are better than those in my mexican strat. I agree with other reviewrs that the open positoion chorsd ring beautifully and with much depth (even through a small practice amp like the Tube 10).
It takes a bit to get used to the longer scale and the thicker gauge of strings but it's totally worth it.
I play with my fingers and I can get a whole array of tones; the dynamics of the sound are captured very well by the pickups.
Positions 2-4 have always been my favorite in strats and the same is true for the baritone.
The effects are all usable; the distorsion requires some patience and playing with the volume, tone and effect knob for a while, becuse the variety of sounds available is inmense.
The tremolo arm is pretty good (I guess the quality of the nut helps the baritone to stay in tune after bending or using the trem). It's not meant for dive bombin, anyway. Mostly for colouring: just a gentle touch!

I bought my baritone from Musician's Friend, on slae for $180.-
The tone control works "sometimes"... When it does work, it responds well, but there seems to be a loose connection somewhoere. I won't bother sending it back because I can fix this, but if you buy from them (MF) beware...

Action, Fit, & Finish : 8
The instrument was set up to my satisfaction. It intonates perfectly, stays in tune well under reasonable bending and whammy action,
the neck is straight and there are no buzzing frets (unless you slap the bottom strings really hard which I like to do, but that's OK)
The quality of the electronics seems bad. The wood is probably plywood but the finish is really nice (I have the red sunburst).

Reliability/Durability : 7
Time will tell how long will this last. If anything, it seems that the effect buttons are going to be the ones to break first; they look really weak.
Like mentioned above, the tone pot doesn't always work. It should be fixable withou much effort.

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
I've been playing for 15 years with a break of 5. I'm not a professional. I have a Kramer Nightrider and a Mexican Strat.
I like the single coil sound a lot, I like strange instruments, and I lke cheap guitars that have no history and that are not a status symbol. The Innuendo baritone seems to cover all theree very well.
I can play a pretty good impersonation of Robert Quine
that sounds pretty original, in fact. This guitar has a lot of sonic texture to be explored and it's definetly worth the money.


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $199
Submitted 03/08/2002 at 02:16pm by Anonymous

Features : 7
Except for being a baritone, basicly a simple, cheap solid body guitar. The only exception would be the built-in effects which are awful but Danelectro has even included a separate jack so you can bypass this nonesense.

Sound : 8
If you haven't played a baritone before the sound is really rich expecially with chords that have wide intervalls. Closely spaced clusters sound muddy but that's the nature of the baritone. Better pickups would certainly help.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 8
I thought it was set up just fine. The rosewood on these Asian guitars appears to be a better, smoother grade than what you see on a lot of American guitars. Finish is fine. Tuners are surprisingly decent and the bridge is fine, too.

Reliability/Durability : 7
The only weaknesses I can see are the 5-way selector and the effects buttons which are supremely cheap. But you can bypass the effects and just replace the selector switch and you're set.

Customer Support : 1
Well, they have a reputation, don't they? Before buying this guitar I emailed, asking why it was cheaper than the other model which has less features. The answer: no answer.

Overall Rating : 8
I've been playing since the mid-60s and yeah, I own expensive guitars but for bang for the buck I think the baritone is cool. Now if they would only make a $250 sitar.....


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $200
Submitted 02/28/2002 at 07:12am by Twang51
Email: Nashcat51 at earthlink<dot>net

Features : 8
I bought this guitar through Musicians Friend. I wanted the "old-style" Baritone with the lipstick pick-ups and I received the Inunedo instead. At first I was real unhappy. I wanted the vintage look and instead I got a guitar with switches, 3 pu's, just generally stuff I didn't want on this guitar.

I almost sent it back, however, I played it and the more I did the more I like it.

Sound : 8
Not bad for a $200 guitar. I have my own studio and I have used it on several recordings over the past couple of months and I've been happy with the way it sounded. If nothing else a Baritone guitar is just fun to play.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 9
The action was good, no problems with the finish. I didn't have to do any adjustments, just tuned it up and played it. The tonation was set correctly, which really surprised me.

Reliability/Durability : 7
I played professionally for 25 years, I'm pretty much over doing that so I probably won't use this guitar in a live situation, however, it does seem to stay in tune pretty well and the overal tonal balance is good.

If I were in a situation where I needed to use is in a live venue, I would not hesitate to do so.

Customer Support : 1
I think Danelectro has a problem here. There was no manual or warranty card. I emailed Danelectro to see if I could get this information and they did not email me back. I feel that is seriously bad customer support.

Musicians Friend was very good, although they should have told me the guitar I wanted was not availavle, even though it was in their catalog.

Overall Rating : 9
I have been playing a long time. I own a ton of other gear, both electric and acoustic. I have several Martin, Gibson and Taylor guitars. For electric guitars I prefer Strats and Teles.

I would buy another one if I lost this one. It serves the purpose I want. I wish I could have received the model I originally ordered but it's my understanding it is no longer manufactured.

The built effects are of no use to me, although they really don't sound that bad for just messing around.

The tremelo is way too stiff for my taste, but again, I didn't buy a Baritone guitar looking for a tremelo feature.

It's a lot of fun to play, the price is great. I think Danelectro has some very good guitars at surprisingly low prices. Hopefully they can improve customer support.


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $230
Submitted 02/23/2002 at 03:57pm by Daniel

Features : 8
24 fret baritone, made by dano in korea, built in effects, plywood body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, gotoh style tuners. pretty impressive for this price.

Sound : 5
uugh, as soon as i plugged it in i didnt like it. understandable, cause im more of a humbucker fan than a single coil fan. took out the crappy little single coil and put in a seymour duncan lil 59. sounds much better, but the plywood still drags it down. im usin it with my crappy crate amp and my marshall guv'nor effects pedal. sounds good enough, but its really not that great.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 5
as soon as i got this thing out of the box, *buzz*. i hate where they put the place to adjust the truss rod. have to take off the whole neck to get to it. after a bunch of guess and checks, i got the neck reasonably straight. action is still a mile high though, cant lower it or it'll buzz more. (aint just a warped neck either, thats the way these guitars are). finish is pretty cool, the pickgaurd lifts up from the body a bit. found out when i changed the bridge pickup that they used double sided tape to keep the pickgaurd flat on the body. Tape! ha. and yeah, the wood sucks. its plywood. the tremolo stays in tune real well though. the effects sound pretty cool. distortion doesnt really sound like distortion though. ya turn on distortion and play with the distortion control it almost sounds like a wah pedal.

Reliability/Durability : 3
i wouldnt trust this thing live. moreover, i wouldn't play this thing live. the sound aint that great. its heavier than shit. im gonna see bout converting this thing to a 6 string bass.

Customer Support : 1
danelectro sucks. i bought a hodad baritone, the neck warped, they sent me another neck, only it was the wrong type of neck, and they refused to send me the right one. sent the hodad back and got this one instead. the hodad was soooo much nicer.

Overall Rating : 6
I've been playin for about 2 years, i own quite a few guitars, including a gibson les paul and an Ibanez AX. this one just doesnt live up to my expectations. if it was stolen or lost i probably wouldnt care too much. right now im building my own baritone. probably the best thing to do if you want a quality baritone.


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $199.00
Submitted 02/19/2002 at 06:56am by charles vrtacek
Email: charlesvrtacek<at>hotmail dot com

Features : 9
FYI, in case you didn't see it up front, this guitar should have cost about $40 more than it did, but they were out of stock on the sale priced Dano baritone and substituted this one - lucky me!. This is a brand new Dano baritone, Inuendo model. It's a solid body, sunburst finish that's basically a copy of the Mosrite Ventures style body with a high gloss sunburst finish. It has 3 single coil pickups and a 5 way selector switch as well as a master volume knob and master tone knob. Also has built in chorus, fuzz, slapback echo and tremelo. There are four push button knobs to turn the effects on or off. Two additional knobs are assigned to the fuzz and tremelo respectively. One changes the tone of the fuzz from raspy to very muffled and the other changes the speed of the tremelo. The settings for the chorus and slapback echo are fixed. There are 2 1/4 inch input jacks, one to use if you want to use the effects, the other bypasses the effects. The effects run on a 9 volt battery that is replaceable via a removable plate on the back of the guitar. Using the bypass jack keeps the battery turned off. Decent tuners, metal bridge with individual adjustable saddles (similar to Strat type, as opposed to the dookie little wooden bridges on other Danos). Comes with a 5 spring Strat style whammy bar and almost a two full octave neck. Rosewood fingerboard. Only possible drawback is the long scale neck which is about the same scale as most bass guitars, so if you are short and can't imagine playing bar chords on a bass, you may have trouble playing open chords on this thing. The neck is narrow and the action fully adjustable and easy to set up. Uses special strings.

Sound : 10
Here's where this thing shines. The sound? No comparrison, sounds like nothing else. When friends told me to try a baritone guitar, I thought "Why? It's just a regular guitar tuned a little lower." It's impossible to put into words how it sounds and feels to play this thing. Playing a run from the low to high strings takes you from the upper register of a bass guitar to the low to mid register of a regular guitar. Open chords are huge and warm and pulsing (esp. with a touch of chorus - gorgeous, lush). If you put some distortion on it and lean on the bottom strings you get a sound that's a cross between a guitar and a freight train rumbling through the room. Like a 12 string, this sounds like nothing else. There isn't much to compare this particular baritone to because hardly anyone makes baritone guitars. Dano invented them in the 1950s, stopped making them, reintroduced them and i think the only competition is from Jerry Jones and one or two other specialty companies that are MUCH more costly than the Danos (and not necessarily worth it). Judged on its own merits, this guitar sounds really good: the pickups are balanced and as quiet as single coil pickups can be, they're strong and clear and the sound is quite variable - that is, you can really get a lot of good, useable sounds out of this thing, from warm to trebly and everything in between. The effects are - well, unique: you love 'em or hate 'em. The fuzz is a real classic 60s crappy fuzzy fuzz, which can be effective at times for sure. The chorus and slapback are good for what they are: limited but effective and decent sounding and the same for the tremelo. Put it this way, if you're the kind of person who really uses effects a lot, you won't like these, you'll want your own high priced stomp boxes. But if you're the kind of person who only uses chorus here and there or tremelo on only 2 songs a night, these are fine and will save you some bucks and set up hassle.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 9
Finish is super! As good as anything I've seen on more expensive guitars, clean, nicely done, no drips, etc. Nice looking axe. I'm very impressed with how well the Koreans do on these finishes - this is a $200 guitar and it looks like it would cost more if you didn't know it was a Dano. As mentioned, the longish scale might be a bit clumsy for players with short arms - not impossible, just noticeably longer than your strat or tele or les paul for sure. This guitar was quite playable right from the box, though i quickly adjusted the action to my liking and that only took a few minutes. Also i removed the back plate and took a few springs off the whammy bar mechanism, also a quick procedure. The whammy bar is no Floyd Rose but is comparable to a Fender, not quite as good, but not crap - stays in tune unless you go nuts with it. My only complaint is that a bout half the frets had small sharp edges sticking out. The frets are well set in the neck and the intonation is fine, and we're not talking about razor sharp edges that make it unplayable, but it would have been nice if they were more rounded off. I ended up doing it myself. But heck it cost 200 bucks!

Reliability/Durability : 8
So far so good, i've had it three months and haven't "road tested" it, but it seems solid and everything's working just fine. Nothing seems so cheesy that i'm worried and it appears to be a guitar that will hold up for years and years.

Customer Support : No Opinion
No comment, haven't needed it.

Overall Rating : 10
This is a great guitar. I can see using it for lots of things in different settings. If you want the classic 'tic tac' bass of a country recording circa 1961, you MUST own this. Does a great variation on surf guitar. Highly adaptable for quiet folky stuff or loud stuff. Can't see that it would be much use for blues and minimal use for jazzy stuff though if you're imaginative, why not?!? I would replace this guitar if it were lost or stolen. I love it, i'm glad i bought it, i wish i hadn't waited so long - could have used this on some recent sessions. Sounds great through an amp or direct or a POD. GET ONE!


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $199
Submitted 01/16/2002 at 01:54pm by Anonymous

Features : 8
2002, with volume, tone, chorus, fuzz, vibrato, echo.
pleasantly surprised by sturdiness of neck, good fret job.
heavy body, but not uncomfortable.
3 strat style pickups.
plenty to play with.
fuzz is goofy, chorus not great,
very cool vibrato and echo.
effects are a tad cheesey, but i will definitely use them.
i like cheese.

Sound : 9
i play many styles -- country, rock, r & b.
playing through new fender hot rod.
guitar will be fun to screw with for all types of music.
tremendous range, but this guitar is great for low growl,
twang, very quiet if no effects used.
not intended to compete with prs or high-end electrics,
this is just a tremendously fun, low-price fun-stick.
great value for the money.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 9
set up fine.
no flaws.
for $200, this is great.
again, don't expect it to play like a prs,
but it's vastly superior to most $200 guitars.

Reliability/Durability : 8
seems relatively solid.
always bring a back-up!

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
playing 35 years.
own 2 prs, old strat, bunker, gibson 345, a few custom made guitars.
i will always want a baritone guitar around now that i've had this much fun playing one.


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $220
Submitted 06/17/2001 at 10:06pm by Tiff
Email: chikarilli at yahoo<dot>com

Features : 10
The features this thing has are incredible for the price. It's got three pickups and a five-way switch, volume knob, tone knob... Four built-in sound effects- distortion, chorus, echo, and tremolo at the touch of a button. The tremolo and distortion have controls too. And as if that wasn't enough fun, there's a whammy bar too. It's got 24 frets of joy. My bari is blueburst colored and it is beautiful. It's got a pearloid pick guard which perfectly compliments the coloring. I'm not sure what kind of wood the body's made out of, but it weighs a ton, so I'm thinkin' it's some cheap stuff, probably plywood.

Sound : 9
Aaaaaaaah, I am home. I was taking a gamble when I bought this thing. I bought it on Ebay, so I couldn't test it out first. I had never played a baritone guitar and I'd barely played electric either, so I was heading into unfamiliar territory. But there's a happy ending- I love the guitar's sound. It's right in there between a bass and a standard guitar. It gives you that nice rumbley in your tumbley that you get with a bass, and you can throw a capo on the fifth fret to come back to standard guitar land. I think it sounds kinda dark and mysterious. I get a Pink Floyd feeling from it. The sound effects are fun. The bad thing about the sound effects is the distorion- it's weird sounding and too loud... I'll probably use the overdrive on my amp more than the distortion on this guitar. It's got the distorion control, but basically it just takes it from weird to weirder. The tremolo is awesome, especially since you can control the speed. The echo isn't that echoey. The chorus is good. When you combine tremolo, echo, and chorus, you're in for hours of fun because they sound excellent together.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 9
Since I haven't played a bass or a baritone (before this one), I'm not sure how the action on this compares to other guitars. I know it's definately harder to play than a standard electric guitar, but that's a give-in considering the baritone has thicker strings. It plays about like an acoustic with medium strings and decent action... I say that because I have an acoustic with medium strings and decent action. It took me a minute to get used to the length of the fretboard. It's about a head longer than a standard guitar, but once you get used to it, it's no biggie. If you play bass then you're already used to it. The big uh oh's in this category have to do with the setup. The knobs are lined up right in my normal strumming path, so I had to adjust my strumming a little, but no biggie. I was shocked as to how well this thing stays in tune though- Whammy bar... no problem. Capo... no problem. Throw it in a gig bag and take it across the state... no problem.

Reliability/Durability : 10
I haven't had this guitar for that long, so it hasn't been through much, but I'm pretty sure this hog can take a beating. I've looked at it pretty carefully, and it looks like it is put together pretty well. It weighs about a ton and it just feels like it's saying "Don't f*** with me."

Customer Support : No Opinion
It's got a one year warranty. But I haven't had to get any customer support yet, so I really can't comment.

Overall Rating : 10
I've been playing guitar for just over a year. I was strictly acoustic for a while, and now I'm venturing into the land of electric. I have an electro-acoustic Epiphone, and I've owned and played other guitars too. I'm no guitar expert, but I do know that for $220, I got one hell of a deal with this guitar. Even if it didn't have all the toys on it, it would still be a good quality guitar. I've been looking at it trying to figure out where they cut corners to make it so cheap, but it's really not evident. I know that it had to have been cheap wood, but come on, is that all? It this guitar were stolen or lost, first I would cry for a week, then I would buy another one cuz it's just too fun.


Product: Danelectro Inuendo Baritone
Price Paid: US $200
Submitted 03/13/2001 at 10:58am by Kevin
Email: kpj0<at>go dot com

Features : 9
This is the baritone version of the new Danoblaster Innuendo. It has a 24 fret rosewood fretboard on a composite maple neck, graphite nut, premium Gotoh style tuners, vintage-Fender style fulcrum vibrato with four springs, three single coil Strat-type pickups, 5-way selector switch, master volume, master tone, built-in effects: distortion (w/tone control), fixed chorus, tremolo (w/speed control), and fixed echo, two output jacks: one for effects (which turns on the 9-volt battery, which is housed in its own compartment on the back) and one for bypass. Mine has a two color sunburst going from orange to a fiesta red. The body is plywood and resembles a Mosrite. The scale length is 30" and it is tuned a fith below a standard guitar (B-E-A-D-F#-B low-to-hi).

Sound : 8
This is the most versatile guitar I've ever owned. It is a happy medium between bass and guitar (I attempt to play both). It has a very smooth clean sound and drives my Hot Rod Deluxe very well. It does a very good job with all the basic Strat-type settings, but will not fool anyone into thinking it is a Strat copy, which it most certainly is not. The neck setting is snappy and works well with single note bass string work and the bridge setting is a little thinner and very twangy. The middle pickup is great for chords and the in-between settings have a little of that quacking type sound that Clapton and Knopfler use, but not overly so. The baritone makes playing chords sound much fuller, and you can get some totally different tones by playing standard open chord shapes. Open E is B, open A is E, open G is D, open C is G, open D is A, and so on. It allows you to approach the guitar differently. Now, the effects. The distortion is very harsh and loud, be careful how you kick it in, it really spikes the gain. The tone control for the distortion allows you to go from very trebly to a more mid heavy fuzz. You can get a pseudo-wah effect by rolling the tone. It is a little over the top and takes a lot of experimenting to figure out how to use it. I would not replace my Big Muff with it, but it gives a good additional option. The chorus is fixed, but it is very rich and chimey, very nice for arpeggios. Again, I will keep my chorus pedal, but the on-board effect is very useful. The tremolo is next, it is a little thin, and you can go from slow to very choppy. It works very well when used in conjunction with the chorus effect. I was able to get a credible RV "Cold Shot" type sound using the two effects. The echo is last and is also fixed, but it provides a very rockabiliiy type slapback. Overall, the effects are very useful. There is no noticeable difference in the sound between the effected jack and the bypass jack. The sound is advertised as vintage, and I think that it has its own unique sound as opposed to trying to copy another guitar's. The baritone is very useful as a rhythm instrument, either for blues boogie lines, or for adding a thick heavy sound to hard rock.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
For a $200 guitar, you cannot complain. The frets are dressed very well, no rough edges or high spots, the neck is securely attached, although it is a little wider than the body heel block. The finish is smooth. It does not look like a $200 guitar at all. The action is perfect to my tastes, the 30" scale means that the strings are not floppy and it plays just like a regular guitar. The vibrato is a little stiff, at some point I may take out a spring and set it up so it floats a little. The guitar does hold tune well, even when yanking on the vibrato arm. The plastic cap on the vibrato arm did have a sharp piece of flash on it (ouch). That needs to be filed off.

Reliability/Durability : 9
The guitar seems very durable, I especially like the strap buttons with the oversized ends, no need for straplocks. This is my second Danelectro, the first was one of the masonite body ones. The Innuendo's plywood is not as solid as the masonite, but should withstand normal abuse.

Customer Support : 9
Danelectro has had good support historically, I did e-mail my opinion on the Innuendo to them, but they have yet to respond. In the past they usually respond immediately. I noticed that they do not even list the Innuendo Baritone on their website as of yet. Did they forget that they made it?

Overall Rating : No Opinion
I had never played a baritone before picking up the Innuendo, now I feel that I have found my true instrument! I have been playing bass for over ten years, and picked up guitar about four years ago because I was looking for a better way to express myself. The baritone to me is the best of both worlds. I can play almost anything a guitar can play (except extreme upper register) and add alot of low end bass style. I have owned quite a few instruments over the years including P-basses, Rickenbacker Basses, Yamaha 4 and 5 strings, Danelectro 6-string bass, Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, SG's, before finally settling on a Jazz Bass for my bass and an Epiphone Dot Deluxe for my guitar. The 6-string Dano Bass was close to being my ideal, it is tuned exaclty like a guitar, only down an octave, but I could never get chords to sound right, the low E and A strings were just a little too floppy. The baritone gives me what I am looking for. I am considering buying a second one and tuning it to A (A-D-G-C-E-F lo-to-hi) to give me some other options. A capo is the best accessory to have with a baritone. Put at the fifth fret and you have the equivalent of a 19-fret guitar; fourth fret and you're tuned down a half step (like Eddie, Jimi, Stevie et al); third fret D and so on. You can play all the Korn, A Perfect Circle, System of a Down stuff you want just by moving the capo, and you don't have to worry about floppy strings! If the baritone had 28-30 frets then you could play everything that a standard guitar can play. The baritone has really changed the way I look at a guitar and has really inspired me. Oh yeah, you can slap the low B and E strings like a bass! I have been really impressed with what Danelectro has brought out in the last few years and I am not embarrassed to be seen onstage with their gear. I am more amazed by how good the quality is that they offer for such a low price. Keep up the great work Dano!

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