1959 Danelectro Guitarlin

Nothing about Danelectro guitars should work. First, the bodies and neck joint were made from poplar that was stapled together. Not glued, stapled. The top and back were Masonite that was glued on and painted in vaguely wood-like colors. And the pickups were made of alnico magnets that were wrapped in tape and stuffed inside of chrome-plated lipstick tubes. Not generic metal cylinders, but actual lipstick tubes. But Nate Daniel, the mastermind behind Danelectro, knew what he was doing because even though these were some of the most cheaply made guitars ever assembled they sound and play like a million bucks. This particular instrument is a good example of Daniel’s mad genius. He dubbed it the Guitarlin and it was supposed to offer the player the musical range of a guitar and a mandolin. The neck had 31 frets and extra big cutaways to let the play access all of them. I’ve played a few of these over the years and every time I was impressed by how well they worked. Danelectro made a lot of guitars over the years but for quite a long time they weren’t worth very much and so many of them were badly treated. This example, which is at Olivia’s Vintage Guitars and is priced at $2495, looks like it was used but not abused, which is usually how I like to see old guitars. If they are too clean I always wonder if they just didn’t sound that good new which is why it never got played.

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