Danelectro 56 Vintage Baritone Red Metal

This is a really good instrument for its price - looks great, has that massive baritone sound with the specific Danelectro flavor and the feeling of playing is very comfortable as well, especially considering the differences in scale length in comparison with a "regular" guitar. I am a little bit disappointed in the build quality of the instrument, but that is sometimes to be expected in this price range. In the first days of playing I had to tighten up the input jack, and also the pickup switch made too much noise - nothing a little bit of soldering can't fix though, and it may vary from instrument to instrument.

Otherwise I'm very happy with Danelectro 56 Vintage Baritone guitar - The sound is massive, it sounds great on a clean tube amp, as well as overdriven and fuzzed. It also works great for ambient soundscape creation. I believe it could also be a good option to playing in duo or trio setup without a bass guitar - using octaver or signal splitter for example, to send a clean low octave to a bass amp, while sending the other signal to guitar amp - but I haven't had the time to check this out yet.

If You're looking for a good sounding and playable baritone instrument, while on a budget, or just wanting to experiment with baritone sounds - this is a very good symbiosis of quality, coolness and price.

I mainly write heavy music and if you were wondering if this thing could pull it off, it 100% can.

Pros: it really has a unique sound. When clean it sounds twangy, but retains a beautiful warmth. On more driven tones, it has a very thick and aggressive sound, and that twang characteristic is even more apparent. It's super easy to play, and it's very light. Since day 1 it's been nothing but an inspiration machine.

Cons: Noise. That's the only complaint I'd have. I'm not sure if it's the electronics or the pickups (or both). Might be something that could be solved with better shielding. And really that's it.

I've had no issues with the hardware (tuners, bridge, knobs) at all, and it was set up beautifully out of the box. If you're planning to go super low, you should have no issue fitting up to a gauge 90 string on the tuners.