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The fingerboard is bare rosewood, adorned with small, pearloid plastic inlays. Fretting is fast and smooth. The fingerboard radius is a flat-feeling 14 inches, which might seem surprising for a guitar that is a vintage reproduction, but it's a breeze to navigate -- indeed, our fingers were twangin' away along the medium-but-feel-like thin fret wires.

Whether busting out our best surf chords or performing some Sleepwalk-like bends and vibratos, the factory-fitted D'Addario XLs (10-46) strings positively sang out. By the way, how nice to have a guitar that arrives out of the box perfectly tuned and ready to go? That in itself is worth a big mention.

The narrow, back-angled headstock features the traditional, futuristic-back-then-and-still-looks that-way Danelectro logo. The aluminium nut (1.650 inches in width) is screwed into place. Tuning, which we had to do rarely, even after extended play, is accomplished via high-ratio sealed gears that have a matte nickel finish.

Hardware and electrics

The Dano's bridge is brass, and the strings run overtop six, individually adjustable saddles. The bridge is afixed via three visible screws at either side and at the bottom. It's all very diminuative, and we were able to bash away without ever once hitting any metal whatsoever.

The single-coil, lipstick-tube pickups differ from the vintage models; those pickups from the '60s were housed in actual surplus lipstick cases, sometimes in two separate pieces that were visible from the front, whereas the Dano '63 features a brilliant re-creation that has a wax potting to eliminate noise. They pass a standard 3-way switch, located just above the tone and volume knobs, that gives us neck, neck and bridge, and neck only.

The round plastic volume and tone control knobs are located near the bridge, and the side-mounted output jack is held securely with two screws. We removed the guitar's round backplate to reveal some very tide electronics, although it was interesting to see the wires bound together with a twist-tie - surely, that wasn't a characteristic of the original.

In use

Here's where the real fun starts. Played clean in the first position, the Dano has a bell-like jazzy tonality. Notes are full and warm, but there is no mushiness. The second position is a wonderful, hotter combination of the two pickups in series, as chords and notes ring out like chimes.

The third, bridge position is a more brittle sound, but still, the depth of tone remains. Kick up some amplifier dirt and the Dano puts the right amount of stink on the notes, but the grit is true - we're talking gnarly, and no amount of distortion or pickup selection varies the tonal brilliance. These are some hot lipsticks all right, and they are absolutely for volume. Turn 'em up and let 'em go.

Hear the Dano '63 in action:

Bridge pickup:

dano 63 bridge final.mp3

Middle setting:

dano 63 middle final.mp3

Neck pickup:

dano 63 neck final.mp3