Danelectro Owners Club

[Verne Andru]

I just ran across this well done article on the history of Danelectro's Longhorn and double-necks including a Link Wray shout-out.

The (Way) Back Beat: Top O’ The Line, For Only $150! | Vintage Guitar® magazine

Having looked at the most expensive electric guitars offered in 1960s – over 50 years ago. Traditional makers – Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch – concentrated on flashy amplified archtops that retailed up into the $700 to $800 range – beautiful instruments, but not representative of where the...

www.vintageguitar.com

The writer mentions possible improvements to the original double-neck including a 6-string bass neck and multiple pickups which I've already done to mine.

And he also mentions the "Coral models (including a Deluxe Longhorn-style built on a laminated wood, arched body sourced from Kawai in Japan)" of which I have 2 (one I got from a fellow TBer).

 

[AZBob1960]

Don't dismiss them out of hand; La Bella has made those FD's for many, many years.

I'm using this bass mainly for rock and it's the only one I play with a pick. The 760-FDs are working well, thus far!

 

[Bobby Stevens]

Recently completed my DC collection. From left to right in order of acquisition: Daddy O Yellow, Black Metalflake, Silver Metalflake, Commie Red, Cool Copper, Limo Black. First one in ‘99, the latest last month. I play ‘em live a few times a month on average, and I like to have three onstage - 2 in standard tuning and one in D. At this point the only competition they get is from my Longhorns!

 

[JIO]

I just ran across this well done article on the history of Danelectro's Longhorn and double-necks including a Link Wray shout-out.

View attachment 7097666

The (Way) Back Beat: Top O’ The Line, For Only $150! | Vintage Guitar® magazine

Having looked at the most expensive electric guitars offered in 1960s – over 50 years ago. Traditional makers – Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch – concentrated on flashy amplified archtops that retailed up into the $700 to $800 range – beautiful instruments, but not representative of where the...

www.vintageguitar.com

View attachment 7097667

View attachment 7097668

The writer mentions possible improvements to the original double-neck including a 6-string bass neck and multiple pickups which I've already done to mine.

View attachment 7097669

And he also mentions the "Coral models (including a Deluxe Longhorn-style built on a laminated wood, arched body sourced from Kawai in Japan)" of which I have 2 (one I got from a fellow TBer).

View attachment 7097670

Thanks for posting this! - I used a vintage MIJ Coral hollowbody longhorn body to create a ebony fb lined fret-less 24 fret ss with a vintage Teisco pu and an under the table (top) piezo. Apparently there were many of these Kawai Coral bodies floating around after Coral tanked in '68.

 

[Verne Andru]

Thanks for posting this! - I used a vintage MIJ Coral hollowbody longhorn body to create a ebony fb lined fret-less 24 fret ss with a vintage Teisco pu and an under the table (top) piezo. Apparently there were many of these Kawai Coral bodies floating around after Coral tanked in '68.

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Nice. The way I understand it Kawai did a number of the hollow-bodies for Coral, including the Firefly, with Vinnie Bell the primary driving force. By the time these longhorn bodies were shipped Danelectro was pretty much history so they never did see a big release. Somebody had a stock pile of them that went out in dribs and drabs until the internet/ebay happened and spread the word. That's how I discovered them. They are hard to find now.

My 6-string has the floating Kent Armstrong humbucker and a couple piezos under the sound-board running into a Fishman Powerjack end-pin jack. The 7 string just has the humbucker as I never use the piezo, but it's nice to have it if needed.

 

[JIO]

Nice. The way I understand it Kawai did a number of the hollow-bodies for Coral, including the Firefly, with Vinnie Bell the primary driving force. By the time these longhorn bodies were shipped Danelectro was pretty much history so they never did see a big release. Somebody had a stock pile of them that went out in dribs and drabs until the internet/ebay happened and spread the word. That's how I discovered them. They are hard to find now.

My 6-string has the floating Kent Armstrong humbucker and a couple piezos under the sound-board running into a Fishman Powerjack end-pin jack. The 7 string just has the humbucker as I never use the piezo, but it's nice to have it if needed.

 

[2saddleslab]

Thanks for posting this! - I used a vintage MIJ Coral hollowbody longhorn body to create a ebony fb lined fret-less 24 fret ss with a vintage Teisco pu and an under the table (top) piezo. Apparently there were many of these Kawai Coral bodies floating around after Coral tanked in '68.

View attachment 7100021
View attachment 7100022 View attachment 7100023

I had one of those hollow bodies and tried to make a usable instrument with it. Finding a proper bridge was difficult so McGyvered my own, which was less than up to standard. Great looking platform though and looks like you made the most of it.

This is the only pic I could find.

 

[JIO]

I had one of those hollow bodies and tried to make a usable instrument with it. Finding a proper bridge was difficult so McGyvered my own, which was less than up to standard. Great looking platform though and looks like you made the most of it.

This is the only pic I could find.

View attachment 7100460

I lucked out finding a nice vintage ebony floating bridge for mine. The neck pocket looked like it was originally a set-neck that looked like it was hacked out of the pocket with a butter knife. Needless to say much recovery was needed and I had a ss 24 fret neck w/paddle hs & ebony fb made for it. I pulled & filled the frets, narrowed it to the heal pocket width, cut the Teisco/Kimberly Phantom-esk hs shape and bound the neck & hs. It's why I named it Phaedra - a reference to Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

 

[radapaw]

I'm not sure how it happened, I was looking for a hofner club to lighten the load and the next thing I know this MIK Longhorn pro followed me home like an ugly dog you really love. What a surprise tonally, and what a fun bass to play.

Since then I've read through the last 200 pages and fallen hard into the rabbit hole. I'll say it too, I'd love to see a 15 fret Shorthorn reissue and have been eyeballing a vintage project locally vs the possibility of swapping a guitar fingerboard. I'm also searching for Corals daily, designing bridge supports and saddles in the back of my mind, and am eagerly awaiting the Guitars from Neptune book update... I've got it bad!

I'd love a number, here is my bass. I though the allblack colour scheme lacked a little dano-charm, so I've swapped the black knobs with cream Harmony/Silvertone reissues (I try a set of chrome teacups every 3 days or so too) and dressed up the pickguard while staying on-brand with a pin stripe like Smoove-Groove and some rolux illusion film (I happened to have some leftover from a rickenbacker lightshow project, never thought I'd use that again!!)

 

[Verne Andru]

I lucked out finding a nice vintage ebony floating bridge for mine. The neck pocket looked like it was originally a set-neck that looked like it was hacked out of the pocket with a butter knife. Needless to say much recovery was needed and I had a ss 24 fret neck w/paddle hs & ebony fb made for it. I pulled & filled the frets, narrowed it to the heal pocket width, cut the Teisco/Kimberly Phantom-esk hs shape and bound the neck & hs. It's why I named it Phaedra - a reference to Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

View attachment 7100607 View attachment 7100605 View attachment 7100604

They are a project, that's for sure. That worked out well.

I got my first body off ebay because I had the neck left-over from my Dano double-neck after it was replaced by the baritone/bass6. It previously had a neck on it but, undisclosed by the seller, the glues used to hold the body together had started failing and the string tension caused the body to start pulling apart.

The first thing we did was flood the inside of the body with new glue, the hole we cut for the battery box for the powerjack gave us room to work inside. It was a bit of work but the bodies should last quite a while now.

Since nothing off-the-self would work my luthier custom made the tailpiece, bridge, fingerrest and headstock veneer from ebony.

I got the second body from a fellow TBer who got it back in the day but never made anything out of it. That became the 7-string with tailpiece, bridge and fingerrest custom made from ebony. Kent Armstrong custom-wound the 7-string floating pickup.

 

[JIO]

They are a project, that's for sure. That worked out well.

I got my first body off ebay because I had the neck left-over from my Dano double-neck after it was replaced by the baritone/bass6. It previously had a neck on it but, undisclosed by the seller, the glues used to hold the body together had started failing and the string tension caused the body to start pulling apart.

The first thing we did was flood the inside of the body with new glue, the hole we cut for the battery box for the powerjack gave us room to work inside. It was a bit of work but the bodies should last quite a while now.

Since nothing off-the-self would work my luthier custom made the tailpiece, bridge, fingerrest and headstock veneer from ebony.

I got the second body from a fellow TBer who got it back in the day but never made anything out of it. That became the 7-string with tailpiece, bridge and fingerrest custom made from ebony. Kent Armstrong custom-wound the 7-string floating pickup.

View attachment 7100712

 

[JIO]

I'm not sure how it happened, I was looking for a hofner club to lighten the load and the next thing I know this MIK Longhorn pro followed me home like an ugly dog you really love. What a surprise tonally, and what a fun bass to play.

Since then I've read through the last 200 pages and fallen hard into the rabbit hole. I'll say it too, I'd love to see a 15 fret Shorthorn reissue and have been eyeballing a vintage project locally vs the possibility of swapping a guitar fingerboard. I'm also searching for Corals daily, designing bridge supports and saddles in the back of my mind, and am eagerly awaiting the Guitars from Neptune book update... I've got it bad!

I'd love a number, here is my bass. I though the allblack colour scheme lacked a little dano-charm, so I've swapped the black knobs with cream Harmony/Silvertone reissues (I try a set of chrome teacups every 3 days or so too) and dressed up the pickguard while staying on-brand with a pin stripe like Smoove-Groove and some rolux illusion film (I happened to have some leftover from a rickenbacker lightshow project, never thought I'd use that again!!)

View attachment 7100672

Nice incorporation of the swirl pg underlay. Alludes to another Dano product - my '68 Coral Deluxe Bass

 

[JIO]

Dano advocate Nels Cline - looks to be a Jerry Jones judging by the hs decal. (blurry but looks like his branding) When I first started seeing/hearing Nels in the mid '90s playing here in SF he was rockin' Dano's. This cool double neck is pretty deluxe with the pearl fb blocks and a 3-pu 12'r! Dano's are the perfect double-neck platform they are light and ideally designed for full access to both necks.

 

[JIO]

Since recently acquiring my '99 MIK Longhorn - I've wanted to replace the white side tape. It was bubbled in a couple places and it wasn't the more authentic textured style tape as found on vintage Dano's. Found a guy on eBay that Dano owners here most likely are aware of selling just such product in white, black & tan/beige.

78" CUSTOM WHITE VINYL DANELECTRO LONGHORN AND DOUBLE NECK GUITAR BINDING TAPE | eBay He also selles Dano waterslide hs decals.

The seller "Blacky" was very helpful, fast shipping and it is exactly the same tape as on Jerry Jones longhorns & other models. What was on mine was very thin and barely textured. (you had to look close!) He send detailed instructions which would be helpful for those reluctant to try and install it. Key is taking your time, doing the advised prep and being patient. As a cyclist well versed at wrapping bar-tape, such detail-work is familiar to me. It took about 1/2 hr start to finish - it's really pretty straight forward. If like me you are replacing the thinner tape - this replacement tape is thicker. Which is good, more durable - but should be taken into account installing. The original thin tape didn't wrap over the neck-pocket which I did installing this thicker tape for a clean look, so I used a strip of the trimmed-off tape to attach to the neck shim so it would maintain the same tilt. Once done I had a 12" leftover piece, so plenty of tape to do a longhorn.

 

[Matt Kustom]

Hello all.

Matt here from 916 Pickups in Sacramento CA.

We recently received a small order of Alnico 6 rod magnets to experiment with Danelectro Tone in alternative form factors. Danelectro winds in P bass , J bass , Stratocaster , Telecaster , P90 , etc.

We also have Alnico 6 for standard lipstick

If anyone would be interested in these alternatives we would love to hear thoughts from Dano players

Our most recent prototype is a Pbass focused on the middle position sound in standard p Bass wiring. The P can be wired in series for single tone wound to single or middle output.

Cheers.

Matt

916 pickups

 

[JIO]

I hate when people do this -

Vintage Danelectro Bass Aluminum Nut - 1960s | eBay

Original vintage Danelectro bass nut! Aluminum, comes with installation screw.

www.ebay.com

 

[mcgreivey]

I hate when people do this -

Vintage Danelectro Bass Aluminum Nut - 1960s | eBay

Original vintage Danelectro bass nut! Aluminum, comes with installation screw.

www.ebay.com

Do what? Part out a Danelectro?

Yeah, I know what you mean. Then again, it's the only way we get parts these days, since Evets and Allparts aren't selling Dano parts anymore.

 

[JIO]

Do what? Part out a Danelectro?

Yeah, I know what you mean. Then again, it's the only way we get parts these days, since Evets and Allparts aren't selling Dano parts anymore.

Parting out is one thing, asking that price is another. There are 'rare' irreplaceable parts that justified or not are sold for a premium. Luckily I have the skills to make my own aluminum nut and trust me it's not difficult.

 

[mcgreivey]

Parting out is one thing, asking that price is another. There are 'rare' irreplaceable parts that justified or not are sold for a premium. Luckily I have the skills to make my own aluminum nut and trust me it's not difficult.

Oh! I didn't actually notice the price.

Yeah, I'd make one myself before is pay more than $10 for one.

 

[MAJOR METAL]

James Hetfield recently rocked a Longhorn live!