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Danelectro's latest retro resurrection is reminiscent of a diminutive Jaguar shape

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• Review

Danelectro is very much the vintage-cool, cheap-chic darling of the electric world. Whether a Fender or Gibson die-hard, the truth is there's barely a guitar player in the world who wouldn't want to own one of the company's Coke-bottle headstocked, retro-futuristic temptresses. The question is: which one? Danelectro's latest retro resurrection, the 'Dead On '67', might be just the ticket.

The '67's body shape and surf-esque appointments are mostly faithful to those of the original Danelectro Dane D series and the virtually identical Coral Hornet, which was made by Danelectro but was part of the first Coral-branded solidbody Slimline series. Both guitars, according to Doug Tulloch in Neptune Bound, were introduced by Dano's owners MCA in – you guessed it – 1967 and lasted for a couple of years.

Appearance

Unlike the usual slab-style semi-solid ply and Masonite (hardboard) construction, here we have an evocative and curvaceous basswood body, reminiscent of a diminutive Jaguar shape but with a more shapely waist.

The sculptured edge-shaping makes it appear thinner than it really is, which is approximately 44.5mm at its thickest point – pretty much the same as a Strat. But weighing in at a light 2.5kg, it balances wonderfully on a strap and its sturdy build feels more than gig-worthy.

Our model arrived in Dano's vibrant orange finish and, despite looking a little bit 'salmon pink', the colour will surely add to its surf-rock appeal.

Build

The neck is maple and bolt-on with a comfortable slim 'C' profile, a rather flat 356mm (14-inch) radius and shares a PRS-like 635mm (25-inch) scale length. It feels somewhere between Gibson-slinky and Fender-familiar, making for a playing action that belies its budget appeal.

The 21 medium frets are well finished, polished and seated in the pleasantly grained rosewood 'board with pearloid fret-markers and an aluminium top nut. The headstock has a squashed Strat look with adjustable truss rod, 'Totally Shielded' truss rod cover and vintage-style, six-in-a-line button head tuners.

Swooping around the treble side of the body is a faux-aluminium control plate, which houses the three-way pickup selector switch and four old-school audio-style knobs. These resemble the original Dane D/ Hornet knobs and control volume and tone for front and back pickups. It's a different layout to the original Dane D/ Hornet of three rotary controls and several slide switches.

Vibrato

The '67's vibrato is mounted to this plate and has a straightforward construction. Its flat-plate, satin aluminium bridge has machined notches to take the string ball ends and is connected to the body via two Phillips-head screws that also adjust bridge height.

There's also a machine screw located at the back of the bridge that's connected to a single spring via a wing nut in the back cavity of the body. This holds the bridge plate stable and balanced. A screw on the underside of the bridge holds the rosewood saddle in place and allows overall adjustments for intonation.

The stiff spring and up-angled vibrato arm has a smooth action and returns to pitch brilliantly – it's no Floyd Rose, but it really works for low-key warbles.

Like all Danelectro models, the Dead On '67 has two distinct looking single-coil lipstick tube pickups that, as with some original models, are housed in two separate lipstick cases. These are mounted onto a mother-of-shower curtain pickguard, which has a plastic see-through cover on top of it.