Bench Test: Fingertip FX
Danelectro Innuendo
By Art Thompson
SNAPSHOT
The Danelectro Innuendo ($269) looks cool, plays well, and features built-in chorus, distortion, echo, and tremolo. The Innuendo gets an Editors' Pick Award.
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Stuffing multiple electronic effects into production guitars dates back to the 1970s-era MPC Electra axes, which featured interchangeable effects modules -- you might call them the original plug-ins. The short-lived Electras were victims of the stompbox fever that swept the '70s, but the idea still has merit. And what better company to give it another shot than Danelectro? After all, Danos are all about cheap thrills, and that's exactly what the new Danoblaster Series offers. The 6-string models include the multi-effect Innuendo ($269) and the distortion-only Hearsay ($199).
Apart from the flagship model's additional effects and slightly hipper hardware (a graphite nut and die-cast tuners), these Korean-made axes are essentially identical. Both feature bolt-on necks, trem bridges, dual output jacks, and cheesy sparkle finishes. We'll focus on the Innuendo for this review, but most of the construction and playability comments apply to the Hearsay as well.
Construction & Controls
While looking like a cross between a Mosrite and a Danelectro Hodad, the Innuendo is also the closest thing to a Strat that Dano has produced to date. However, the Strat similarities end with a control arrangement that includes master volume and tone knobs and a pair of effects controls -- one for tremolo speed and the other for distortion tone. The effects can be activated in any combination via four push buttons, and the active circuitry is housed on a pair of stacked PC boards slung beneath the effects controls. The included 9-volt battery resides in a small cavity on the back of the guitar, and its cover is secured with two machine screws that thread into metal inserts -- a nice touch that prevents the screws from stripping the wood.
The Innuendo's sparkleburst finish looks a bit like a backdrop from a Star Trek episode, but it's glassy and blip free. The maple neck fits tightly into the body, but because the tail of the neck is wider than the heel block, a substantial ridge exists between the body and the neck. These mating pieces should be the same width. The lightly polished jumbo frets are nicely rounded and evenly seated, and their smooth ends are easy on your hand. The sharp-edged nut is less accomodating. The wide, moderately thick neck and low action make for excellent playability, and the in-between Fender and Gibson scale length enhances bass response, while maintaining an easy bending feel with the stock .010-.046 gauge strings. Out test guitar's trem worked smoothly and, thanks partly to the graphite nut and sturdy tuners, caused no undue tuning problems. One niggle concerns the placement of the pickup selector, however, which is in the path of your strumming hand. Ouch!
FX Time
The Innuendo's onboard effects give this guitar an amazing range of sounds, and the dual outputs allow you to route the wet and dry signals into different amps for big tones -- it's like having a built-in splitter box. Plugged into a reissue Fender Bassman and a vintage Super Reverb, the Innuendo delivered everything from ballsy grind to realistic rotary-speaker sounds. The latter effect is created by running the fixed chorus and variable tremolo simultaneously, and using the trem speed control to simulate the sound of a Leslie speeding up and slowing down.
The distortion is fuzzier than a Tube Screamer's, and it jumps out with head-spinning volume and considerable noise. A powerful bandpass filter lets you go from tweezy to throaty with a twist of the wrist, making it easy to conjure explosive, early Jeff Beck lead sounds, raging feedback, and myriad psychedelic textures (including a swirly, SRV-style Vibratone impression when you add modulation effects).
Turning off the distortion allows you to better appreciate the Innuendo's Strat-flavored clean sounds, though the pickups' lack of complexity (not to mention the obvious deficiencies of a ply body) definitely hinder its performance in this regard. None of this matters, though, once you switch on, say, the excellent tremolo, the rockabilly-ready slap echo, or the lumpy-sounding chorus, and revel in the Innuendo's electronic personality. This is a "color" guitar in the purest sense, and its effects are so cool that you'll likely never find yourself playing it without having at least something turned on. You can rock out for around ten hours before draining the battery, and even if the effects go belly up in the middle of a set, you can soldier on via the Innuendo's passive bypass output.
Few guitars rate "must have" status, but the Innuendo is so fun that it's difficult to imagine why any electric player wouldn't want this bang-for-buck champ. The Innuendo won't replace a high-end guitar and a good pedalboard, but it sure packs a lot of power in one convenient package.
CONTACT INFO
Danelectro, dist. by Evets, Box 2769, Laguna Hills, CA 92654; (949) 498-9854; danelectro.com
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PHOTOS: PAUL HAGGARD
