Danelectro '56 U-2 Reissue, Aqua Burst

Finish and body. The gloss is intact on the top, the back and the neck, with no checking, no fading and no cracking. One chip breaks through the finish on the back rim of the upper bout, about the size of a pin head, down to the brown board under the paint. A second, much smaller mark sits on the front edge of the lower bout. No buckle rash anywhere on the back.

Side tape. The cream vinyl tape that covers the seam carries light soiling and fine scratches along the treble side, heaviest around the controls and the output jack. It has not lifted, split or shrunk anywhere visible.

Neck, frets and board. No fret wear at any position and no divots in the rosewood. The back of the neck shows no play polish and no thinning in the finish.

Hardware. The chrome is bright with no pitting. The tuners are Grovers, fitted in place of the originals, and six screw holes from the tuners that came off are open on the back of the headstock in three pairs. They are not filled and they are not hidden. The bridge is a six saddle intonatable type rather than the one-piece rosewood saddle this model left the factory with. It sits on the correct Danelectro plate, uses the original mounting points, and there are no extra holes in the top around it.

Electronics. We have played it through an amp. It plays well and everything works.

BACK COVER. A cream circular cover plate sits on the back of the lower bout, about four and a half inches across, held by a single screw at its centre and set off to one side rather than centred. It is the standard Danelectro round back cover and it is intact, with light soiling and no cracks. Nobody here has had it off.

The guitar on its own. No case and no gig bag.

Danelectro built guitars cheaply on purpose in the 1950s, and the method turned into a sound. A poplar frame with masonite glued to the front and the back, vinyl tape over the seam, and single coil pickups housed in chrome tubes the company bought as surplus lipstick cases. Light, hollow and bright, with a thin cutting voice a solid plank does not make. That voice is still the reason anyone buys one.

This is the '56 U-2 reissue, built in Korea between 1998 and 2004: single cutaway, two lipstick pickups, the seal shaped pickguard with the D on it, and stacked concentric knobs that give each pickup its own volume and tone. Aqua Burst is the factory colour name rather than a description, cream through the middle going out to aqua at the edges, and it is the finish from that run that consistently sells for more than the solid colours it was offered alongside. The gloss is intact on the top, the back and the neck, with no checking anywhere.

Two things on it are not factory, and both are the changes a player makes. The tuners are Grovers. The originals on these were poor and most owners replaced them, so anyone who intends to play it is getting a swap they would have paid for anyway. The cost is six open screw holes on the back of the headstock, unfilled, and the close-up of the back of the headstock shows all six.

The bridge is the other one. These left the factory with a one-piece rosewood saddle that cannot be intonated at all, which is the standing complaint about them. This one carries six adjustable saddles on the correct Danelectro plate, so every string can be set on its own. It uses the original mounting points and there are no extra holes in the top around it.

Almost nothing else has been touched. The frets are unworn at every position, the board has no divots, the back of the neck has no play polish, and there is no buckle rash. One chip goes through the finish on the back rim of the upper bout, about the size of a pin head, down to the brown board under the paint, and the close-up of the body edge shows it. These are easy guitars to knock about and this one plainly was not. We have played it through an amp: it plays well and everything works.

Pickup only. We are not shipping instruments yet, so this one is bought here: 215 East Lewis Street, third floor, Livingston, by appointment.

Right for somebody who wants the lipstick sound and means to play the guitar rather than keep it under glass. The two changes make it more usable and take it out of the running as an untouched example, which is a trade most players make without thinking about it. It suits slide, surf, garage and anything where a thin cutting voice sits better in a track than a thick one, and it is light enough that the difference shows up after the first hour.

Buy something else if you are after an original 1950s U-2. This is the reissue, and the two are different instruments at different money. Buy something else if you want an untouched example, because the six open holes in the headstock cannot be undone and that is exactly what a collector prices against. Buy something else if it has to survive a hard touring life, because masonite over a poplar frame dents where a solid body shrugs it off. And buy something else if you want one guitar that covers everything.