Image: Marshall Stax at English Wikipedia, Public domain — via Wikimedia Commons
Danelectro Dano Pro
| Category | Strings (electric guitar) |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | USA |
| Classification | guitar |
| Wikipedia | en.wikipedia.org |
| Wikidata | Q5215875 |
Overview
The Danelectro Dano Pro is a semi-hollow electric guitar in the tradition of Danelectro’s classic 1960s designs. Its construction pairs a lightweight wooden frame with a Masonite top and back, a lipstick-tube single-coil pickup layout, and a short-scale bolt-on neck. A modern reissue of the long-running Danelectro design approach, the Dano Pro retains the budget-friendly construction that made earlier Danelectros famous while adding contemporary playability.
Origin & History
Nathan Daniel founded Danelectro in the 1940s, and by the 1950s his instruments were sold through Sears and other mass retailers under the Silvertone and Danelectro brands. The Masonite-over-frame construction was inexpensive to produce and gave the instruments an unusual, slightly hollow voice that set them apart from contemporary solid-body guitars. After the original company folded, the Danelectro name has been revived several times; the Dano Pro belongs to the reissue lineage that began in the 1990s and continued into the 2000s.
How It’s Played
The Dano Pro plays like a light, short-scale electric. The Masonite body is notably light in weight, and the short scale shortens left-hand reaches. Lipstick-tube pickups — originally made from surplus lipstick cases in the 1950s — produce a bright, chiming voice that sits between a single-coil and a P-90 in character. The pickups’ clean, bell-like quality, combined with the body’s natural hollow resonance, gives the instrument a distinctive voice that players use for indie rock, country, blues, and atmospheric lead work.
Cultural Significance
Danelectro guitars have long been associated with a lo-fi, budget-instrument aesthetic that paradoxically has yielded some highly distinctive sounds in recorded music, from early rockabilly through to contemporary indie and alt-country. The Dano Pro carries that tradition forward for modern players.
Related Instruments
- – Danelectro’s famous long-horn design
- – Danelectro-made Silvertone amp-in-case guitar
- – mainstream contemporary of the era
- Gretsch 6128 – chambered American electric of the 1950s
- Rickenbacker 330 – semi-hollow electric of the same era
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Dano Pro a hollow body?
Semi-hollow — wooden frame with Masonite top and back.
Why lipstick pickups?
Early Danelectro used surplus lipstick-tube cases as pickup housings; the reissues preserve the look and tonal character.
Image: Danelectro Dano Pro (reissued in 2007), photo by Marshall Stax at English Wikipedia, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).
