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Danelectro Owners Club
- Thread starter portaflexer
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If this is off topic pls let me know and I’ll delete...
I wanted to ask opinions on what’s the most authentic sounding replacement pickup on the market.
Thank You!
I wanted to ask opinions on what’s the most authentic sounding replacement pickup on the market.
Thank You!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,603
- 222,065
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Love the bari solo Jio! ...Well, ok, duo. Did you play the guitar part too?
Thanks Tom - nice to hear from you again! It's my Coral Deluxe Bass (with pick/palm muting) through a BOSS tr-2 tremolo pedal and no, Paul our guitarist overdubbed the doubled guitar. I wanted to cop that Dano sound and being a 4 piece (guitar/bass/keys/drums) and do it live I play the bari part. Kirstin knocked it out of the park on vocals! It gives me shivers every time I hear her outro!
The lipsticks in the first Korean reissues, also sold separately for a time, are spot on. I mixed them with a Seymour Duncan lipstick and couldn't tell the difference.
The thing about pickups is that, by design, they are very cheaply made so there's no real way to cut corners short of changing from Alnico to Ceramic magnets. Alnico is the way to go.
That’s more or less what I figured and what I’ve heard. I figured folks here could confirm.
Thanks so much!
I think Doug Tulloch has something to do with some lipstick style pickups that are close to the originals .
Hey BassGreaser,
I just ordered one of these and was curious how the pickup issue was a couple weeks after you posted this? I'm curious what different drop in replacements are available. How are the tuners? Was thinking of upgrading those too if needed.
@BassGreaser any more updates on how that Dano feels and plays now that you have had it a short while? I'm strongly considering one myself!
Yes, I'm looking at and seriously considering getting one of the two new versions of the very lightweight Danelectro shorties myself. I love the lute-like look of the longhorn's body, but the idea of a floating wooden insert in it's bridge for intonation is worrying me some... It looks a little 'fragile' to me? Does it ever slip or move around when you don't want it to? Does it's edges ever wear down from string pressures and change the intonation? And does it make the longhorn version sound much different from the shorthorn one?
While I do think the shorthorn version also looks cool it's not as pleasing to me as the longhorn one. But I am considering it because of it's more modern adjustable steel bridge... I'd appreciate some comments here as to whether my concerns about the longhorn's unusual wooden bridge insert are worth worrying about or not?
Thanks,
Greywoulf
While I do think the shorthorn version also looks cool it's not as pleasing to me as the longhorn one. But I am considering it because of it's more modern adjustable steel bridge... I'd appreciate some comments here as to whether my concerns about the longhorn's unusual wooden bridge insert are worth worrying about or not?
Thanks,
Greywoulf
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@Greywoulf - I have owned a Longhorn Danelectro and the bridge did sag over time. A lot of people put a nickel or a couple of pennies under it to offset that sag. I've also owned Jerry Jones basses and the adjustable bridge is a big improvement. The new Danelectros with the adjustable bridge is more appealing to me for sturdiness and adjusting the intonation.
The design of the wood-saddle bridge, and the sag, are separate issues.
Design-wise, it works fine. Intonation is close enough for my ears, which means close enough for rock'n'roll. They're not fragile in terms of design.
Some of the modern bridge plates do sag. I keep extra bridge plates around for when that happens.
Another problem is that in my experience, some Chinese-made Danos have soft wood where the bridge screws in, and the screw holes sometimes oval, effectively shortening the scale, and potentially the bridge could come unmoored. I haven't seen this problem on the Korean ones I've seen. Danelectros haven't been made in China since about 2010. And it can be fixed easily.
But overall, I wouldn't call Danelectros fragile. And plenty of people tour with acoustic guitars and violins and the like that are waaay more fragile.
So I wouldn't have any worries about these new short-scale shorthorns (or about any other Danos). If you get it, you'll either like it or you won't, and if there are things you want to change based on your own tastes and needs, you can change them.
Design-wise, it works fine. Intonation is close enough for my ears, which means close enough for rock'n'roll. They're not fragile in terms of design.
Some of the modern bridge plates do sag. I keep extra bridge plates around for when that happens.
Another problem is that in my experience, some Chinese-made Danos have soft wood where the bridge screws in, and the screw holes sometimes oval, effectively shortening the scale, and potentially the bridge could come unmoored. I haven't seen this problem on the Korean ones I've seen. Danelectros haven't been made in China since about 2010. And it can be fixed easily.
But overall, I wouldn't call Danelectros fragile. And plenty of people tour with acoustic guitars and violins and the like that are waaay more fragile.
So I wouldn't have any worries about these new short-scale shorthorns (or about any other Danos). If you get it, you'll either like it or you won't, and if there are things you want to change based on your own tastes and needs, you can change them.
I also remember talking with Paul and Adrian Chandler years back and they were saying they made the first lipstick reissues back in the day and they were totally authentic. Adrian does all the winding by hand. I think he made good on his threat to focus on doing pickguards - Home | Pickguard Planet - but may still do custom pickups.
The adjustable bridges are available separately and are super easy to install. I replace the rosewood bridges on all my Danos.
Could you share the link to the source please. How about for the "pro" tuners as well if you have that info. I have one of the original '98 Korean Longhorn reissues and am considering upgrading the bridge and tuners to the Pro version. TIA.
Well I can see that in the long and the short of it which modern Dano SS to get is going to be a complicated decision for me.
(Pun intended..)However I did recently find something that wasn't complicated, and that's regarding my comparison of the Dano SS's with the new SS Sterling, which are all in the same okay price range for me...
Both Danos had a clear, crisp sound that I was now surprised to discover was missing in the Sterling, which sounded muddy to me in comparison. I was listening to both the Danos and Sterling demos on my PC with good AKG K275 headphones, and the clean tone and sound of the Danos was far more to my liking! Which really surprised me because I'd always assumed those skinny little lipstick PUs could never sound as good as large dual coil humbuckers! But I was wrong...
So the Sterlings are now out! -But which Danelectro to go for?
Long or short horn???? -----Arrrrrrgh!!
Enjoy,
Greywoulf
So that solves my problem... If I do get the longhorn SS and decide I don't like the wood-insert type bridge I can then replace it with the adjustable bridge type that's standard on the shorthorn SS, right?
Greywoulf
Lipsticks are incredibly clear!Well I can see that in the long and the short of it which modern Dano SS to get is going to be a complicated decision for me.
However I did recently find something that wasn't complicated, and that's regarding my comparison of the Dano SS's with the new SS Sterling, which are all in the same okay price range for me...
Both Danos had a clear, crisp sound that I was now surprised to discover was missing in the Sterling, which sounded muddy to me in comparison. I was listening to both the Danos and Sterling demos on my PC with good AKG K275 headphones, and the clean tone and sound of the Danos was far more to my liking! Which really surprised me because I'd always assumed those skinny little lipstick PUs could never sound as good as large dual coil humbuckers! But I was wrong...
So the Sterlings are now out! -But which Danelectro to go for?
Long or short horn???? -----Arrrrrrgh!!
Enjoy,
Greywoulf
Yes. If you can find one. They're scarce right now, and going for way too much money on *bay and Reverb, when they appear. They should be $30-40, but they're showing up for over $100.
But if Allparts will get around to making some more, things will get easier.
Personally, I find the wood-saddle bridge totally fine.
My '90s long-scale DC bass has the not-excellent plastic-key tuners on it, and I was going to replace them, but one day I decided to take them off and take them apart and clean and lube them. They're fine now. I would have replaced them with a $20 set of Kluson knockoffs, like I used for another project.
My other Danos have great tuners that work just fine (
2011 56 dolphin-nose bass,
'90s Longhorn neck with "pro" tuners that I mounted on a Dano Pro Body,
~2008 Chinese Longhorn,
~20?? Chinese Dano Pro neck
)
