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Danelectro Coral Deluxe Bass project

#41
SLivinghouse said:
I agree - especially after getting out the dictionary and looking up "ethnographic." As a Canadian you must be a fan of Invalid Link Removed who established cultural relativism after working with the Kwakwaka'wakw in Northern Vancouver BC. Poor Franz though predated bass guitars leaving the torch to be picked up by Jio.
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What is Ethnographic Research? Anthropologists, ethnographers, and other social scientists may engage in something called ethnography. Ethnography, simply stated, is the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing.

Boy, me a scientist? SCIENCE! ;) I'm just drawn to back-stories. I contacted the seller of the bass for more info. As I gathered looking at his other items for sale on eBay, he's an antique dealer and not a musician. It was part of an estate he purchased including a '58 Strat, other lesser guitars and misc parts. He did his homework on it and learned it was rare which is all he needed to know reselling it. Sending the bass separately from the case costed him more than if sent together, but that didn't affect me as it was a set fee for shipping I determined to be reasonable based on doing a lot of bass-shipping myself. So at the end of the day - I feel it was a fair price for what I got for a rare vintage restoration project. Seeing all the layers of finishes reminded me of my first bicycle. My dad assembled it from parts and I painted the frame a few times when I got tired of the colour. The last finish was the best - candy apple green using the small Testers model-car spray cans. It had a roll & pleated white sparkle banana seat, 'monkey' handlebars and big white-sidewall ballon tires. "Pimped out" before I knew the term. (grade school) Shortly after finishing it - it was stollen.:( I survived. :)
 
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#42
JIO said:
What is Ethnographic Research? Anthropologists, ethnographers, and other social scientists may engage in something called ethnography. Ethnography, simply stated, is the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing.

Boy, me a scientist? SCIENCE! ;) I'm just drawn to back-stories. I contacted the seller of the bass for more info. As I gathered looking at his other items for sale on eBay, he's an antique dealer and not a musician. It was part of an estate he purchased including a '58 Strat, other lesser guitars and misc parts. He did his homework on it and learned it was rare which is all he needed to know reselling it. Sending the bass separately from the case costed him more than if sent together, but that didn't affect me as it was a set fee for shipping I determined to be reasonable based on doing a lot of bass-shipping myself. So at the end of the day - I feel it was a fair price for what I got for a rare vintage restoration project. Seeing all the layers of finishes reminded me of my first bicycle. My dad assembled it from parts and I painted the frame a few times when I got tired of the colour. The last finish was the best - candy apple green using the small Testers model-car spray cans. It had a roll & pleated white sparkle banana seat, 'monkey' handlebars and big white-sidewall ballon tires. "Pimped out" before I knew the term. (grade school) Shortly after finishing it - it was stollen.:( I survived. :)
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I had a bike like that except purple. Even had a shifter on the bar in front of the seat that I later realized probably didn't do anything.
 
#43
Matt Liebenau said:
I had a bike like that except purple. Even had a shifter on the bar in front of the seat that I later realized probably didn't do anything.
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Was it a Schwinn Lemon Peeler? Invalid Link Removed My (generic) frame was bigger than a Stingray but it had all the trapping of one.
 
#45
More fun with excavation - whilst removing the cavity coatings, I discovered a strip of silver metal (grounding) tape.

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Hard to say but it looks like it was put on over uncoated wood, or the tape pulled off the white (as seen on the wall) All successive coatings were applied over the strip.
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Most all the brittle layers are removed (it was pretty easy using a sharp chisel as a scraper) and more questions were uncovered. The black (shielding paint?) stops 1/2 way into the pu cavities. Also, the pg screw dowel-fix was coated with the same black (scraped off) so the black coating was done after the dowel-fix. Not that I'm going to lose sleep over it, but my excavation uncovered only mystery.
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#48
Matt Liebenau said:
I'm not a Danelectro expert but, if it was shielding paint, I'd be surprised if it was original.
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I suspect you are correct - going with that still leaves a mystery as the strip has every layer over it from white to yellow. So.., if the strip was original, why would the cavity be coated with something black (over the tape), and then over-sprayed with the white to begin with? Wish I could see a pic of the cavity of one like it to see if the strip was factory or not. It seems possible it is original because that's where the metal control cover is so it could be a way to ground it.

Here's an attempt to show the size of the body compared to a J. Hip on the right side is about even. Generally the same size but definitely a bit zaftig with restricted higher-frets access... but then, I doubt those frets saw much action.
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The big difference is the way all the edges taper - like an airplane propeller.
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#51
wraub said:
Ibanez had some guitars like that in the 80s-90s iirc...
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Close - now that I think of it the SR series are similarly tapered. It feels great - none of that hard-edge Ric-like lack of contour. More like a disc than a slab.
 
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#53
Shiny clear-coat had to go. As much as I'm restoring the bass, I'm doing some contemporary 'upgrading' along the way. No thick shiny-ness even if that was the vogue in 1968. I sanded the body also and brushed on a sealer. White base-coat, watermelon and a satin clear lacquer finish coat. Probably use the satin nitro for the neck also.
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Sanded/oiled the fb and buffed/polished all the 22 frets - in perfect condition they are. They are also very flat which was the way they were.
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Lint from the rag I used... another cool detail is aluminum side-dots.
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#54
Speaking of flat frets.., this is a "Penco" (sexy right?) 70's Japanese clone of a J that I set up for a friend. I put flats on it and got the action nice and low. It has thick poly clear like on a Ric over the maple fb and the frets were similarly low. Played like a dream - better than what it was imitating at that point.

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The Coral fret ends have a seamless taper unlike these rounded blunt ends. If I were to make my own neck I would do it that way.
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#57
Gilmourisgod said:
Only problem with that “ramp” style fret end is you can fall off the board, so to speak. Are they all ground down to the same ramp?
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Yes, both sides every fret. I'll know about falling-off (or not) once it's playable. Will report back on this.

Jon Clegg said:
That fretboard looks amazing, especially for a vintage bass
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I sanded the glossy clear off the neck & the rest of the hs and applied a pre-stain prep coat, brushed (thin) and wiped off. I want to apply a stain on the maple as it's pretty clear and would benefit from something a bit darker like vintage examples I've posted. Not Fender 'vintage amber' - more brown. I also worked more on the rw fb. I used a snap-blade to scrape the surface even. Much better. This 50+ yr old rw is like cocoa - fine rich powder when shaved off. It's really unfortunate about the rosewood ban. It's really special beautiful wood. I get why and thanks for nothing Gibson CEO (who golden parachuted since) for causing the full ban on rw because he broke the agreement to only use so much. Another example of corporate greed.
 
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#58
While working on the neck - I addressed the relocated upper strap-peg hole. Part of its history I know, but not it's original or most current history. ;)
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I glued in a dowel - it turned dark but as long as it filled the hole I'm good, as in - I'm not against it being seen. Kinda like a skunk "beauty mark" if you follow my drift. :D Plus, the neck will be darker so the 'dot' will not look as dark against it. It will live on as a mark of its final restoration.
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Polished one of the tuners. Not "like new" but perfect. I like the combination of silky smooth feel, chrome shiny-ness and discolouration/scarring/imperfections caused by time. :thumbsup:
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