Danelectro Sitar Solid Body Electric Guitar (1968)
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Item # 11781
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Danelectro Sitar Model Solid Body Electric Guitar (1968), made in Neptune, NJ, sunburst lacquer finish, hardwood body, poplar neck with rosewood fingerboard, black tolex hard shell case.
This rare and rather eccentric looking Danelectro instrument is the "Baby" version of one of the coolest and most oddball creations of the 1960s, the Vincent Bell Signature Coral Electric Sitar. While that more familiar model has long since gone beyond novelty status to become a studio standard, this slightly later stripped down variant is mostly forgotten. Issued as a low-budget alternative under the Danelectro brand some time after the Coral model's 1967 introduction, this "Baby Sitar" reduced the original rather complex instrument to its most basic essentials.
The original Coral Sitar was the most elaborate of many designs East Coast session guitarist Vinnie Bell created in the 1960s for Nathan Daniel's Danelectro company. Needing the sitar sound for sessions but not wanting grapple with the complex instrument Bell adopted the graduated "Sitarmatic" bridge that combines the Indian instrument's traditional buzzing, twangy tonality with the playability of an electric guitar. Beyond its origins in the Psychedelicized "Summer Of Love" this has proved to be a surprisingly timeless creation.
This Danelectro version eliminated the fancier features of the Coral model, notably the semi-hollow body, extra pickups and the array of "drone" strings along the upper bout. This instrument has six strings in standard guitar tuning with the same "Sitarmatic" bridge on a vaguely gourd-shaped thin solid body. It mounts a single pickup at the bridge (all you need for the sitar sound) with tone and volume controls. The pickguard is silver sparkle back-painted Lucite with a scroll design around the perimeter. As the small oval body is not particularly ergonomic, a large chromed leg rest bar is fitted along the bottom edge.
The neck is standard Danelectro style, made of poplar with a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. It ends in an enlarged "blob" headstock vaguely suggesting the gourd at the head of an actual Indian sitar, with a silver "Danelectro" logo across the face. This mounts Kluson Deluxe tuners (upscale for a budget Danelectro) and a single strap button on the back of the peghead.
This instrument was only in production for less than a year before the sudden demise of Danelectro so is rather rare today even compared to the more familiar Coral. Danelectro expert/author Doug Tulloch posits only one hundred or so may ever have been made. This one has no date markings on the neck or body, and the masking tape sealing the "total shielding" copper foil in the control cavity has never been disturbed so we did not open it to date the pots. As these were only available in 1968 and early '69 this is academic anyway! They appear in the Coral/Danelectro catalog optimistically dated 1969-70 (the company folded in 1969) priced at $139 (plus case) less than half the price of the $295 Coral model. "At $139 Shouldn't you be a sitarnick?" intoned the writeup!
Despite its stripped-down form, this instrument is no less functional than its upscale parent. In the late 1960s, '70s and beyond the electric Sitar sound appeared on many successful recordings in every genre from country to R&B and was a must in every session guitarist's arsenal. Quite a few hit records made great use of the unmistakable sound, including some classic vintage soul records with no psychedelic intent at all! This very useful recording instrument can add a distinctive flavor to a wide range of music beyond its 1960s roots. Although imitated over the last couple of decades the original Coral and Danelectro Electric Sitars remain the original off-the-wall classics yet to be bettered!
Overall length is 36 1/4 in. (92.1 cm.), 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm.) body width, and 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This instrument shows some minor wear and a solitary repair but overall remains pretty much the same as when it left New Jersey in 1968. The all-original finish shows checking and some small dings, dents and scrapes overall but no major loss, the back of the peghead has a small chip of wood missing where the headpiece was grafted to the neck blank below the high E string, and a sealed grain split just above this running through the other tuners. This has been solidly sealed up and is not a structural issue but is visible on close inspection.
The instrument retails all the original (fairly minimal) hardware, with one small crack in the plastic pickguard below the tone knob and a scratch across its center. Many of these that survive have lost the somewhat fragile original pickguard entirely. Some of the metal hardware shows minor corrosion, most notably the tuners. The original milled composite "Sitarmatic" is intact and sounds excellent; modern repros use a molded plastic piece that is not as euphonic. This one sounds and plays great and does the "classic" sitar sound perfectly, even with out the drone string setup. It loved in a period Baldwin HSC. Overall Excellent - Condition.
This rare and rather eccentric looking Danelectro instrument is the "Baby" version of one of the coolest and most oddball creations of the 1960s, the Vincent Bell Signature Coral Electric Sitar. While that more familiar model has long since gone beyond novelty status to become a studio standard, this slightly later stripped down variant is mostly forgotten. Issued as a low-budget alternative under the Danelectro brand some time after the Coral model's 1967 introduction, this "Baby Sitar" reduced the original rather complex instrument to its most basic essentials.
The original Coral Sitar was the most elaborate of many designs East Coast session guitarist Vinnie Bell created in the 1960s for Nathan Daniel's Danelectro company. Needing the sitar sound for sessions but not wanting grapple with the complex instrument Bell adopted the graduated "Sitarmatic" bridge that combines the Indian instrument's traditional buzzing, twangy tonality with the playability of an electric guitar. Beyond its origins in the Psychedelicized "Summer Of Love" this has proved to be a surprisingly timeless creation.
This Danelectro version eliminated the fancier features of the Coral model, notably the semi-hollow body, extra pickups and the array of "drone" strings along the upper bout. This instrument has six strings in standard guitar tuning with the same "Sitarmatic" bridge on a vaguely gourd-shaped thin solid body. It mounts a single pickup at the bridge (all you need for the sitar sound) with tone and volume controls. The pickguard is silver sparkle back-painted Lucite with a scroll design around the perimeter. As the small oval body is not particularly ergonomic, a large chromed leg rest bar is fitted along the bottom edge.
The neck is standard Danelectro style, made of poplar with a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. It ends in an enlarged "blob" headstock vaguely suggesting the gourd at the head of an actual Indian sitar, with a silver "Danelectro" logo across the face. This mounts Kluson Deluxe tuners (upscale for a budget Danelectro) and a single strap button on the back of the peghead.
This instrument was only in production for less than a year before the sudden demise of Danelectro so is rather rare today even compared to the more familiar Coral. Danelectro expert/author Doug Tulloch posits only one hundred or so may ever have been made. This one has no date markings on the neck or body, and the masking tape sealing the "total shielding" copper foil in the control cavity has never been disturbed so we did not open it to date the pots. As these were only available in 1968 and early '69 this is academic anyway! They appear in the Coral/Danelectro catalog optimistically dated 1969-70 (the company folded in 1969) priced at $139 (plus case) less than half the price of the $295 Coral model. "At $139 Shouldn't you be a sitarnick?" intoned the writeup!
Despite its stripped-down form, this instrument is no less functional than its upscale parent. In the late 1960s, '70s and beyond the electric Sitar sound appeared on many successful recordings in every genre from country to R&B and was a must in every session guitarist's arsenal. Quite a few hit records made great use of the unmistakable sound, including some classic vintage soul records with no psychedelic intent at all! This very useful recording instrument can add a distinctive flavor to a wide range of music beyond its 1960s roots. Although imitated over the last couple of decades the original Coral and Danelectro Electric Sitars remain the original off-the-wall classics yet to be bettered!
Overall length is 36 1/4 in. (92.1 cm.), 13 1/2 in. (34.3 cm.) body width, and 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This instrument shows some minor wear and a solitary repair but overall remains pretty much the same as when it left New Jersey in 1968. The all-original finish shows checking and some small dings, dents and scrapes overall but no major loss, the back of the peghead has a small chip of wood missing where the headpiece was grafted to the neck blank below the high E string, and a sealed grain split just above this running through the other tuners. This has been solidly sealed up and is not a structural issue but is visible on close inspection.
The instrument retails all the original (fairly minimal) hardware, with one small crack in the plastic pickguard below the tone knob and a scratch across its center. Many of these that survive have lost the somewhat fragile original pickguard entirely. Some of the metal hardware shows minor corrosion, most notably the tuners. The original milled composite "Sitarmatic" is intact and sounds excellent; modern repros use a molded plastic piece that is not as euphonic. This one sounds and plays great and does the "classic" sitar sound perfectly, even with out the drone string setup. It loved in a period Baldwin HSC. Overall Excellent - Condition.