Danelectro Guitars Explained: Masonite Bodies, Lipstick Pickups, the Longhorn and the ’59

Danelectro made cheap guitars out of Masonite and sold many of them through department stores and mail-order catalogues, and that is the whole reason players still look for them. The bodies are thin and bright, the pickups sit in chrome tubes that look like lipstick cases, and the shapes range from a plain single cutaway to the double-horned Longhorn.

Quick Facts

Where Danelectro Came From

Nathan Daniel was an amplifier builder before he was a guitar maker. Premier Guitar’s 2009 “Dynamic Danelectro” column, by Zachary R. Fjestad, says he began assembling amps in New York in 1933 and joined Epiphone in 1934, where he worked on the Electar amp line. The column credits him with a string of amplifier firsts, including the first guitar amp with tremolo. It spells his surname “Daniels”; most other sources we read, including Premier Guitar’s 2013 vintage feature, write “Daniel.”

The column says he left Epiphone around 1946 or 1947 and started his own company. Premier Guitar’s 2013 piece places the founding in 1947 in New Jersey, and Mixdown magazine says Red Bank. The company built amplifiers for Montgomery Ward and Sears, which sold them under the Airline and Silvertone names, according to Mixdown. The column says this became known as “house branding”: many near-identical instruments carry different names depending on who sold them.

By 1954, Premier Guitar’s 2013 article says, Danelectro was offering low-priced beginner guitars, and Sears sold many of them as Silvertones. A dealer history at Chasing Guitars says Sears had asked Daniel for an affordable electric around that time and puts Sears at roughly 85 percent of sales. We treat the second figure as one dealer’s claim, not an established number.

How the Guitars Were Built

Everything about a Danelectro follows from keeping the price down. Premier Guitar’s 2013 article describes the standard construction this way: the front and back were Masonite, a pressed composite of steamed wood fibers, chosen to hold prices low. Necks were thin, bolt-on poplar. Instead of a truss rod there were two heavy steel bars under the fretboard. The same article says the pickups had alnico magnets in metal tubes resembling lipstick dispensers, which is where the informal name “lipstick pickup” comes from.

Chasing Guitars adds that the bodies were finished with vinyl and Formica, and that the nut was usually aluminum. It also gives a winding figure of about 4.75k for the pickups. That is a single dealer’s number, so treat it as indicative. Mixdown says Silvertone-badged models had maroon vinyl and Danelectro-badged ones light tweed.

If you want to compare lipstick tubes with a full-size humbucker, our PAF humbuckers explainer covers the latter.

One design detail matters when you shop for reissues. Vintage Guitar’s 1999 report on the revival attributes to Steve Soest, the guitar authority who advised on the reissue, the view that the plain, flat, three-screw bridge was critical to Danelectro’s sound; the 56-U2 kept it while adding an adjustable truss rod and enclosed tuning keys.

The Models, in the Order They Appeared

Early single cutaways and the U Series

Fjestad’s column describes the first solidbody, introduced in 1954, as a solid poplar body with tweed covering, a bell-shaped headstock, a baked melamine pickguard, and one or two pickups. The C Series arrived in 1955 and the U Series in 1956. U Series guitars had a single-cutaway Masonite body with vinyl edging, a bolt-on neck, a “Coke bottle” headstock and one, two or three pickups. The column lists six standard finishes, including Antique Bronze, Bermuda Coral and Lagoon Aqua. It gives a 1956 catalogue price of $75 for a one-pickup U-1, and in 2009 valued a Very Good (70 percent) example with an original finish at $700 to $850.

Shorthorn and Longhorn

Premier Guitar’s 2013 article says Danelectro used single-cutaway bodies through 1957 and moved to double cutaways in 1958, with “Longhorn” and “Shorthorn” models. Fjestad’s column agrees that the U Series was phased out in 1958 as those two arrived. Wikipedia dates the Shorthorn to 1959, so the exact year depends on which source you trust and, perhaps, on catalogue versus shop-floor dates. Premier Guitar’s 2013 article calls Longhorn the extreme design and Shorthorn the milder one.

Jimmy Page’s best-known Danelectro is a Shorthorn. Mixdown’s list of Danelectro players says he bought a 3021 Shorthorn for about 30 pounds in early 1966, and that he used it with an altered tuning on “White Summer/Black Mountain Side” and “In My Time of Dying.” Guitar.com’s gear piece on Physical Graffiti calls his guitar a 1961 Danelectro 3021, so the two accounts disagree on the year. Guitar.com also says it is widely believed that Page used the Danelectro on “Kashmir,” but it presents that as unconfirmed. For more on his rig see our Jimmy Page guitars and gear guide.

Guitarlin

The Guitarlin was meant to cover the standard guitar range and the higher range of a mandolin, according to Premier Guitar’s 2013 vintage feature. It had 31 frets, reachable because of deep double cutaways, a rosewood fingerboard, an aluminum nut and a Coke bottle headstock. The same article says about 200 Guitarlins were made from 1958 to 1968, and that the design was too radical for most players, so sales were weak. Link Wray used one on recordings and tours in the late 1950s, which the article names as a main reason for its collectability. Our Link Wray guide covers his Guitarlin and U2 use.

That article gave the 1958 price as $150 plus $25 for the case. Chasing Guitars lists the Guitarlin as having a 25-inch scale.

Baritone

Art Hill’s 2007 Premier Guitar piece on baritones says Danelectro was the first company to manufacture a baritone electric in the 1950s, and that it “was by no means an overnight success.” It calls Duane Eddy probably the first well-known performer to use the baritone regularly, and says his work on tracks such as “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and “Bonnie Come Back” helped lead Gretsch, Guild and Gibson to make their own. Mixdown adds that Eddy used a Danelectro baritone with heavy tremolo and reverb almost exclusively on the album The Twang’s the Thang. Our Duane Eddy guide covers the rest of his setup, although it describes his Danelectro on that album as a UB-2 six-string bass rather than a baritone.

Baritones are not just a historical footnote at Danelectro. As of 16 October 2026 the maker’s own site lists a Longhorn Baritone and a 66BT Baritone, and its page for the pair describes the 66BT as having a large single-coil pickup in the neck and a pair of Lipstick humbuckers in the bridge, with a Wilkinson tremolo. Our piece on the Squier Paranormal Baritone Cabronita Telecaster covers the same low-tuned territory from the Fender side.

Six-string bass and the Longhorn bass

Mixdown says a six-string bass arrived in 1956 and became a session staple for “tic-tac” bass parts, although it never sold well. Chasing Guitars describes the same instrument as the first marketed six-string bass, used in studio sessions to double upright bass parts.

The Longhorn bass is a separate instrument with the same horned body. Vintage Guitar’s 1999 article describes the 58 Longhorn reissue as a four-string, short-scale bass. Mixdown says Tom Petty played a Danelectro Longhorn bass in the video for the Traveling Wilburys’ “End of the Line,” and that Victoria De Angelis of Måneskin plays one as her main instrument and has a signature model. Our Tom Petty gear guide looks at the rest of his instruments.

Coral electric sitar

The Coral line was Danelectro’s slightly higher-priced budget brand. Vintage Guitar’s 2015 piece on the Coral electric sitar says the session player Vinnie Bell designed it for Danelectro and hand-built the first prototypes. The production version has six playable strings and 13 drone strings, and the featured example has a teardrop body, a “Sitarmatic” bridge and three lipstick-tube pickups. Because it is tuned like a normal guitar, any guitarist can play it. Mixdown says Ron Wood used a Danelectro baby sitar on “Paint It Black” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (our Ron Wood guide covers the rest of his rig), and Vintage Guitar names Eddie Van Halen, who it says used one for the solo on “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.”

Early twelve-strings

Danelectro also appears in the early history of the electric twelve-string. Chasing Guitars says the Bellzouki dates to about 1961, citing a blog by Daniel’s son. Our Rickenbacker 360/12 article states that the Danelectro Bellzouki and the Gibson EDS-1275 both preceded the 360/12, and we have not independently verified the dates.

Sale to MCA and the End of the First Run

The sources agree on the shape of the story and differ on dates. Premier Guitar’s 2009 column says Daniel sold the company to MCA in 1967, while Mixdown and Chasing Guitars put the sale in 1966. Chasing Guitars adds that MCA moved the company to a bigger plant in Neptune City, New Jersey, and launched the Coral line in 1967 for distributors other than Sears. All of them agree that the factory closed in 1969. Fjestad says MCA closed it at the end of the 1960s guitar boom, and Mixdown says a push into small guitar stores backfired.

The Revival

Fjestad says the trademark passed through Anthony Mark in the late 1980s, without any guitars being built, and that Evets bought it in late 1995. Vintage Guitar’s 1999 account says Evets, headed by Steve Ridinger, acquired the trademark from Anthony Marc in the mid-1990s; the two sources spell the name differently.

The return began with pedals, shown at the January 1997 NAMM show. Dealers and players then asked for guitars, and Evets developed them with Steve Soest, who modelled the design on the 56-U2 after studying about a dozen originals. The 56-U2 debuted at the January 1998 NAMM show, and Vintage Guitar says demand was strong enough that the company was backordered for some time. Limo Black was a popular colour, which the article suggests may have owed something to Page. The four models announced in October 1998 were the 59-DC, a double-cutaway reissue with a $299 list price, the single-pickup 56-U1 at $199, a left-handed 56-U2 at $349, and the four-string 58 Longhorn bass at $349.

Wikipedia says guitar sales slowed and stopped after 2001 (2004 on the official site, it adds), and that new owners resumed limited annual runs around 2005 to 2006, with the dates contested. We treat that as a lead, not a confirmed date.

Danelectro Today

As of 16 October 2026, Danelectro’s site lists guitar families including the Dan O. Cool, Fifty Niner, Red Hot Longhorn, Triple Divine, the Longhorn and 66BT Baritone, the Blackout 59 and Stock ’59, the ’59X12, the ’64XT and a Metal Flake 59M NOS+. Its page for the 59M NOS+ calls it the “classic flagship model, spiffed up for its 60th anniversary,” and lists NOS+ pickups, an adjustable die cast bridge, and stacked tone and volume controls. The page shows no price; it links to a Sweetwater listing, which we did not open.

The ’59 design descends from the double-cutaway line described above. One example on our site is the Double Cutaway ’59 reissue in the 2017 gear list in our Kristin Hersh guide.

Who Played Them

Mixdown’s feature on 16 guitarists who built their sound on a Danelectro is the broadest list we found, and the details below are attributed to it unless stated otherwise.

• Duane Eddy: baritone, as covered above.
• Jimmy Page: the 3021 Shorthorn, with open tunings. Guitar.com cites a 1998 Guitar World interview in which Page said the Danelectro was essential for open tunings; we paraphrase it because we saw the line only in Guitar.com’s version.
• Syd Barrett: a 3021 as a spare guitar, seen at the 1966 UFO Club shows.
• Mark Knopfler: a 1963 DC-1 for slide on “Miss You Blue” and “Corned Beef City” on Privateering (2012).
• Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys: Danelectro alongside Harmony, Supro and Silvertone guitars, with a 1960s Danelectro on El Camino. Our Dan Auerbach guide also lists 1958 vintage Danelectro combos in his live amp rig.
• James Hetfield: a Danelectro ’58 Longhorn Baritone for a blues arrangement of “Fuel” at a 2024 benefit show.
• Phoebe Bridgers: a black metalflake ’56 Baritone used on Stranger in the Alps (2017) and at the start of Punisher (2020), which Mixdown says she calls her main writing tool.

Our Stevie Ray Vaughan gear guide describes one of his instruments as having three Danelectro lipstick pickups, a good example of the pickups being used outside a Danelectro body. We did not verify that detail against an outside source.

Buying Notes

• Check the neck first. Originals have two steel bars and no truss rod, so there is no simple adjustment to rely on, and Fjestad’s yellow U-1 example is described with neck wear. In our view, that is the first place to look.
• Ask which bridge it has. The original-style flat bridge is the part Steve Soest, in Vintage Guitar’s reissue story, called critical to the sound; Danelectro’s page for the 59M NOS+ lists an adjustable die cast bridge instead.
• Expect to pay for the name on a Longhorn or Guitarlin. Premier Guitar’s 2013 article put a Guitarlin at an estimated $2,000 that year, many times the original $150.
• Check the badge. Fjestad says many identically built instruments carry different names, and our Auerbach guide notes that Silvertone guitars came from both Harmony and Danelectro.

Frequently Asked Questions