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Danelectro Owners Club

#3,581
out of curiosity..... (there's a L.H. nearby...)

How noisy are the lipstick pickups? I know with both on it'll humcancel, but what about soloing picukps? Has anyone had any luck with grounding the lipstick tube? I like the sound / vibe but I find hum to be very distracting.... wondering if there's any way to minimize it.
 
#3,585
kodiakblair said:
The actual tube is plastic, leastways it's been plastic on any of the lipsticks I've handled.

There's a ground wire leading to the mounting plate if that concerns you.
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well unless there's some sort of internal shielding... that answers my question on whether it's noisy. It's weird because the history on them appears to suggest a metal lipstick tube. I guess they switched to chromed plastic at some point.

mcgreivey said:
The Danos I have have metal lipstick tubes. Are some plastic?
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I'd be interesting to see if there are some that are metal... Do you have a multimeter? Set it to continuity and touch each side of pickup with the leads. If the housing is metal and conductive, it will beep.

Edit: Has anyone tried aftermarket pickups to see if they're metal?
 
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#3,586
mrperkolator said:
out of curiosity..... (there's a L.H. nearby...)

How noisy are the lipstick pickups? I know with both on it'll humcancel, but what about soloing picukps? Has anyone had any luck with grounding the lipstick tube? I like the sound / vibe but I find hum to be very distracting.... wondering if there's any way to minimize it.
Click to expand...

The first thing to determine is if you like the lipstick tone or not. It is unique, airy, chimey and open sounding because it is a single-coil. As soon as you start mucking with that the tone that makes them unique diminishes. If you want that tone then you'll have to put up with some noise.

They do hum solo (originals were not RWRP so they hum even when both are active) so you have to turn your body in a direction that minimizes the noise.

Another trick is to understand your frequencies - i.e. what frequency the 60-cycle hum is in and what frequencies your microphones are sensitive to. By choosing a microphone that doesn't hear anything in the range the hum is you get the benefit of single-coil goodness without sacrificing tone or playing posture. Old studio trick.

The original lipsticks were made with Alnico 5 magnets which can have their polarity switched with a machine - you basically zap them with a high-energy current. Some of the lipsticks use ceramic magnets which cannot be flipped so it's important to understand what you have to begin with.
 
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#3,587
Verne Andru said:
The first thing to determine is if you like the lipstick tone or not. It is unique, airy, chimey and open sounding because it is a single-coil. As soon as you start mucking with that the tone that makes them unique diminishes. If you want that tone then you'll have to put up with some noise.

They do hum solo (originals were not RWRP so they hum even when both are active) so you have to turn your body in a direction that minimizes the noise.

Another trick is to understand your frequencies - i.e. what frequency the 60-cycle hum is in and what frequencies your microphones are sensitive to. By choosing a microphone that doesn't hear anything in the range the hum is you get the benefit of single-coil goodness without sacrificing tone or playing posture. Old studio trick.

The original lipsticks were made with Alnico 5 magnets which can have their polarity switched with a machine - you basically zap them with a high-energy current. Some of the lipsticks use ceramic magnets which cannot be flipped so it's important to understand what you have to begin with.
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well if the single coils are put into a metal housing (conductive but non-magnetic), which is in turn grounded then it's fairly well shielded and should be quiet. iirc Lace has a pickup with a micro-mesh that's conductive that achieves great shielding for a single coil that's quiet (man o' war perhaps iirc). So there's ways to do single coil and quiet. Just not if they switched to chromed plastic.

Good to know the studio trick. Doesn't work well with my DI setup, but still valuable info thanks!
 
#3,588
mrperkolator said:
well if the single coils are put into a metal housing (conductive but non-magnetic), which is in turn grounded then it's fairly well shielded and should be quiet. iirc Lace has a pickup with a micro-mesh that's conductive that achieves great shielding for a single coil that's quiet (man o' war perhaps iirc). So there's ways to do single coil and quiet. Just not if they switched to chromed plastic.

Good to know the studio trick. Doesn't work well with my DI setup, but still valuable info thanks!
Click to expand...

Like I said, if you want the tone of lipsticks you have to deal with the noise. Lipsticks do what they do because of how cheaply they are made; wire is wrapped around an alnico 5 bar magnet that is wrapped in tape then stuffed into a metal lipstick tube.

Both my Danelectro re-issues lipsticks are in metal tubes, just like the originals. Not sure who is doing them in plastic cases as this is the first I've heard that claim being made but I don't think it's Danelectro or Seymour Duncan. I just got a set of lipstick humbuckers from GFS and those tubes are metal as well.
 
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#3,589
Verne Andru said:
Like I said, if you want the tone of lipsticks you have to deal with the noise. Lipsticks do what they do because of how cheaply they are made; wire is wrapped around an alnico 5 bar magnet that is wrapped in tape then stuffed into a metal lipstick tube.

Both my Danelectro re-issues lipsticks are in metal tubes, just like the originals. Not sure who is doing them in plastic cases as this is the first I've heard that claim being made but I don't think it's Danelectro or Seymour Duncan. I just got a set of lipstick humbuckers from GFS and those tubes are metal as well.
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If they are conductive, then a small modification (dab of solder) can be added to make the tube part of the shielding, which should drastically reduce hum. Same reason people shield j basses and ground the pole pieces. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on one to mess with. Thanks for info!
 
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#3,590
mrperkolator said:
out of curiosity..... (there's a L.H. nearby...)

How noisy are the lipstick pickups? I know with both on it'll humcancel, but what about soloing picukps? Has anyone had any luck with grounding the lipstick tube? I like the sound / vibe but I find hum to be very distracting.... wondering if there's any way to minimize it.
Click to expand...
They can be typically noisy, but I never run my Longhorn with soloed pickups. The best tone is both pickups on full (which is series on the stock wiring). Instead of turning down a pickup volume, turn down the tone control. This way you keep the hum canceling, get the series power and punch but the phasing of the high end diminishes. I run both volumes up full and the bridge PU tone knob on 0 with the neck tone on 10 pretty much all the time. The other setting used occasionally is with the bridge tone turned up to 10.
 
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#3,591
mrperkolator said:
If they are conductive, then a small modification (dab of solder) can be added to make the tube part of the shielding, which should drastically reduce hum. Same reason people shield j basses and ground the pole pieces. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on one to mess with. Thanks for info!
Click to expand...
Lipsticks come with a ground already attached to the casing.
 
#3,593
I have a DC59 bass Korean reissue with low output. Its not unplayable low - just a lot less than any of my other basses. The bridge Pup measures 3.56K and the neck 3.5K. I checked the wiring and its done correctly.

Is this normal for these basses? If so, I'll crank up the amp gain and all is good. But if its not normal, I'd like to fix it.

Also, its the vintage cream color and I have a chip I'd like to touch up. Any idea where to get a close enough matching touch up paint? Thanks!
 

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#3,594
jpmcbride said:
I have a DC59 bass Korean reissue with low output. Its not unplayable low - just a lot less than any of my other basses. The bridge Pup measures 3.56K and the neck 3.5K. I checked the wiring and its done correctly.

Is this normal for these basses? If so, I'll crank up the amp gain and all is good. But if its not normal, I'd like to fix it.

Also, its the vintage cream color and I have a chip I'd like to touch up. Any idea where to get a close enough matching touch up paint? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Around 4k is about usual. I think I have one that's more like 3.75k.

3.5k is a little lower than I'd expect, but if it sounds good to you, it's good enough. If you want a higher-output sound, replacements are available, for money varying from $25 to $100+ per pickup.

My favorite Dano basses happen to be around 4k.

Your ears should decide
 
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#3,596
jpmcbride said:
I have a DC59 bass Korean reissue with low output. Its not unplayable low - just a lot less than any of my other basses. The bridge Pup measures 3.56K and the neck 3.5K. I checked the wiring and its done correctly.

Is this normal for these basses? If so, I'll crank up the amp gain and all is good. But if its not normal, I'd like to fix it.

Also, its the vintage cream color and I have a chip I'd like to touch up. Any idea where to get a close enough matching touch up paint? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Never measured the pickups but my Korean DC59 screams.
 
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#3,597
Problem solved by raising the pickups. I didn't think the pickup height was adjustable on Dano's because on the DC59 and on my Longhorn nothing happened when I turned the screws, they just backed out. Turns out that on the DC59 someone had removed the foam under the pickups - you could see where it had been torn out, with some of it left stuck to the wood. In the Longhorn, the foam was there but completely worn out.

I added foam, raised the pickups, and now they both sound amazing. I actually like the sound with the pickups really close to the strings. When you do this on a Fender or Gibson you get weird overtones and chorus sounds. But the lipstick pickup sounds great when really close to the strings - it has an almost overdriven sound. I like!
 

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#3,599
I'm trying to figure out what my DC-59 is exactly. Its short-scale, has stacked pots, pickup selector switch, adjustable bridge, and a serial number sticker on the back of the headstock that says Made-in-Korea. I think its a 90's re-issue, but not sure. Anyone know how to date these either by features or the serial number?
Dan-o serial number.png
 
#3,600
jpmcbride said:
I'm trying to figure out what my DC-59 is exactly. Its short-scale, has stacked pots, pickup selector switch, adjustable bridge, and a serial number sticker on the back of the headstock that says Made-in-Korea. I think its a 90's re-issue, but not sure. Anyone know how to date these either by features or the serial number?
View attachment 5126540
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Doesn’t have the rosewood saddle and has the selector switch. Those weren’t on the first run reissue. Not sure when the bridge changed.
 

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