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Danelectro Longhorn Electric Guitar

 

Review of the Danelectro Longhorn by The Man in the Jar

Features of the Danelectro Longhorn

Tuners - Unbranded sealed mini-tuners with small knobs. Nice and positive operation.

Headstock - The traditional "Coke bottle" headstock has been updated with a bit of an Elvis-style quiff. The Danelectro logo, as ever, is loud and proud. 

Nut - The distinctive Danelectro metal nut is held in place by a single screw. The metal nut is an essential element in the Danelectro sound. 

Neck - This is the standard bolt-on neck that graced the Pro reissues a while back. Good playable profile with a just a hint of chunkiness.

Fretboard - The smooth-grained rosewood fretboard has traditional dot markers.

Frets - Very well polished medium frets are set quite low to give a fast and comfortable playing feel.

Action - Very low from the box. I'm very impressed with this Korean factory set-up. 

Body - Traditional Danelectro masonite construction with those extraordinary cutaways creating two huge horns. You're either going to love this or hate it.   Me?   I love it!

Bridge - This is the updated Danelectro bridge that allows for individual string height and intonation adjustment. However the screw for intonation adjustment is obscured by the string it adjusts. This means you'll have to slacken the string enough to move it to one side, adjust the saddle position and then retune to check the adjustment.

Pickups - Three lovely-looking vintage-style lipstick tube pickups set at a teasingly sexy angle. The height of the pickups is adjustable via screws on the back of the body.  

Controls - One Volume, one Tone and a five-way selector.

Pickguard - Small, elliptical, one-ply, transparent.

Strap-buttons - One on the bottom of the body, one on the front of the heel block behind the neck.

Output Jack - On the lower edge set in a chrome mounting plate.

Finish - Everything on this guitar is finished well.

 

Sound of the Danelectro Longhorn

I have a Danelectro U2 that I use for slide and the bright, luminous vintage tones of the lipsticks really dirty up well for that purpose. On the Longhorn we've got three of those little lipstick babies and the five-way switch gives the same versatility of combinations that you find on a Stratocaster.
The range of tones is quite surprising, going all the way from the brashness of the bridge alone, to an attractive woody timbre at the neck. The combinations of pickups found at position 2 and position 4 are particularly lush.

 

Overall Impressions of the Danelectro Longhorn 

This little guitar has bags of character and a hatful of tones on offer. The playing experience is unique. Because the bridge sits so close to the bottom of the body, the whole guitar is a lot shorter than you'll be used to. This brings the first three frets a lot closer to you than is ordinarily the case. All this makes for a really comfortable playing position whether sitting or standing.

There are two types of guitarist in the world; those that don't get the point of Danelectros and those that proudly own and play one. Which kind are you gonna' be? 

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