Justin Hayward-Young's 2009 Danelectro Dead On 67

Further Information:

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• First off, that brilliant name: Dead On 67.  Launched in 2009, with an ever so subtle clue in the title.  This isn't a model without history.  More a 21st century facelift, combining and updating look, features and feel of the Dane D and Coral Hornet, both released by Danelectro.  In . . . 1967.

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• This one is from that first year of production.  Justin was clearly keen to make his mark with something distinctive and new.

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• There are so many things to love about this guitar:

  • The "Totally Shielded" truss-rod cover, not just a logo, but a truth - not a touch of buzz or hum from the electrics - and these are single coil pickups!

  • The audio-style volume and tone knobs, in line with the original 67 models, and bringing a home-made-to-production feel to the set-up.

  • The characteristic lipstick single-coil pick-ups - as the story goes, back in the early days, Danelectro sourced a job-lot of lipstick tubes to house their pick-ups, and have stuck with that unique look ever since.

  • The homegrown bridge and vibrato system - the essence of simplicity, no elegance, but perfect for narrow pitch variation.

  • The back to the 60s look of the "mother-of-shower-curtain" pickguard.

  • And, of course, that wonderfully sculpted retro body profile.  A guitar for today, with the heart of its history well and truly on its sleeve. 

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• What's most to love is the range of sound you can get out of this guitar - particularly in relation to it weighing in at an incredibly light 2.5kg.  There's not a lot of resonance in that body.  But the single-coils belie the simplicity of their design, from surprising warmth in the neck setting to piercing attack at the bridge.

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• If there's one thing that I couldn't quite get used to, it was the heavily grained rosewood fretboard.  Or so I thought.  This is no custom-shop smoothed board.  You can really feel the grain working with and against you on the bends.  But it wasn't just that - the frets were worn flat and not just indented, but heavily scratched.  The goodness and badness of enthusiastic use over so many years.  Now beautifully revitalised with some perfect fret-crowning by the great John Armitage at The Guitar Hospital. 

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• All in all, this guitar is one to bring back memories long-forgotten.  It's not just retro in look and feel.  The "Ratatouille" effect for any of us that can remember their first electric.  For me, it was a 70s Jedson Les Paul copy.  That really was hard work.  This Dead On 67 isn't a hard guitar to play at all.  Lovely action and surprisingly good intonation for such a relatively fixed - and barely adjustable - bridge.  But I tell you, that grained fretboard is going to take you back to where it all started for you - and bring a big smile to your face as you see how far you've come!