The new guitar plays very well thanks to
its slim, fairly wide neck and well-dressed and
polished frets. The action on our test model is
nice and low, and there was no fret buzz. The
floating vibrato bridge provides a mild amount
of pitch bend (about a step up was the most
we could muster), and, like the original, it is
adjustable for height, tilt, and intonation
(accomplished by loosening a small screw under
the rosewood saddle and twisting the piece to
achieve the best compromise at the 12th fret).
The ’67’s boosted lipstick pickups have an
excellent balance of clarity and punch, and the
individual controls elicit a good deal of sonic
range from them. Tested through a Traynor
YGM-3 handwired combo with a Hardwire CM-
2 Tube Overdrive pedal for distortion, the ’67
served up everything from stinging clean to
massively overdriven tones. The neck pickup
has a round, clear vibe that works great for blues
or even jazz with a little rolloff from the Tone
control. With both pickups active, the sounds
are bright and jangly and can be easily shifted
toward darker or more trebly timbres by varying
the pickups’ volume settings. For straightup
burn, the bridge pickup complies with a fat,
presency attack that sounded killer with the
Tone knob pulled back slightly and feeding a
high-gain setting on the CM-2 pedal.
Though perhaps not quite as “dead on” as
some Dano aficionados might like, the ’67
brings back the unique look, sound, and feel
of this long-lost solidbody model from Danelectro’s
past. And considering that originals
go for upwards of $800 now, the Dead On ’67
is certainly priced right for the times.
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