Danelectro Sitar Red Crackle

I'll skip the review part, I'll just address the folks who have had intonation problems. You might have intonation problems out of the box. No problem. First, adjust the rear screw on the bridge to where you have a decent break angle between the tailpiece and the bridge. Google "break angle-guitar bridge" if you don't know what that is. Next, with a digital tuner, adjust the two front screws to situate where the "buzz" happens. The bridge is made of what are basically long trays upon which the strings buzz. Where that buzz happens along the length of the tray determines the scale length and thus the intonation. Once you understand that principle, it's a pretty easy job to dial it in. My bridge was waayyy sharp but it only took me about 10 minutes to get it just about perfect. It even made the string height better.

As for a review, suffice to say that it does what it is supposed to do, the build quality is fine and it is quite comfortable to play. No quibbles here.

Hope this helps.

Pour le prix assez élevé de ce sitar, je m'attendais à autre chose et j'ai dû le renvoyer.

Impossible de jouer, le manche n'a pas été réglé, ou le sillet de tête est trop petit? Que fait-on dans les usines asiatiques en matière d'évaluation de la qualité..?

Le sitar est fort déséquilibré du point de vue du poids.

On est loin de l'original des années soixante. Dommage car le son est assez génial pour qui cherche du sitar électrique avec cordes sympathiques...

I was a little nervous about buying this instrument online and untried. These things have a bit of a reputation for being unruly and difficult to set up, with poor intonation and uneven response.

I shouldn't have worried!!! First off, the instrument is well built with a decent fingerboard and frets and good hardware. Electronics are noise free. In addition the instrument arrived very well set up, and after a quick tuning tweak it was plug and play - the buzz response is even across all strings and all up and down the fingerboard - no choked notes, or undesirable clean ones either! Intonation is a tiny touch iffy above the 12th fret on the bass strings, a bit more tinkering with the bridge and the string gauges might improve this, but even out of the box it was possible to play lead runs, double stops and chords in higher positions without too much problem. The "Balrog-burst" err, eye catching, but it's durable.

The only downside build and setup-wise is with the harp strings. They work fine, but tuning is via a peg and wrench system (like an autoharp). You have to go easy with the (supplied) wrench whilst tuning as it's very sensitive. Having said that, once the harp strings are tuned, tuning is pretty stable.

The guitar (yes it's a guitar, not really a sitar) is pretty easy to play with a flattish uncramped fingerboard and a comfortable satin finish neck. The floating plastic string guard over the harp strings acts as a comfortable arm rest.

Sound- wise, there is quite a range available, albeit always a bit buzzy. The lipstick pickups can give plenty of jangle and sizzle but also plenty of body if required. Anyone who thinks this instrument is a one trick pony should think again. Especially for recording it adds a very useful set of tonal options to the player's palette and it's great for doubling lines to add colour. There is so much more you can do with this than the obvious ethnic/psychedelia stuff. You just need to be inventive.

The harp strings do add an extra shimmer when left to ring, especially when recording. They can be tuned chromatically, to a scale, or to a chord. Or turned off!

This instrument is robust and stable enough to be played live too, as long as you don't throw it around too much. Be prepared for lots of comments about it! A downside in a live situation is that as it takes more than a little time to retune the harp strings, you'd need to limit yourself to one tuning.

Highly recommended for any guitarist who likes something unusual. Good value, very useful, and lots of fun.

I have dreamt about this instrument since the 90s after I saw it being used by some of my favourite artists like Steve Vai and Pat Metheny, also by bands like Yes and Genesis and I am happy that Danelectro reissued it and it's now available on Thomann.

I think the quality, in general, is very good - the neck is straight, feels nice to the hand and it's comfortable. I could say that it's pretty much like a Stratocaster neck.

The finish of the body looks very appealing and the plastic guards are nice too although one needs to be careful with them because they seem a bit fragile.

The volume and tone controls are wisely designed and they give a wide variety of sounds one can choose from.

There are just two downsides I see so far and because of them I gave only 4 stars on "quality:

1. if one needs to make truss rod adjustments, they need to remove the plate of the neck pickup and this might be a bit annoying.

2. The sympathetic strings are difficult to tune precisely and it might get annoying too if one isn't patient enough.

Besides that, the sitar sounds very nice even purely acoustically and this was a pleasant surprise to me because I didn't really know that the body is actually hollow just like on a real Indian sitar.

My overall impression is good so I think this instrument is worth the investment.