Danelectro Owners Club

[danosix]

I admit it has a sound all it's own. I traded in a bass at GC last week, while ordering a new bass, and the Dano was assigned rehearsal duty that night. We play everything from Satriani to Seals and Crofts so the bass got a workout! So did my hands because it doesn't quite play as easily as say, my Carvin B40. BUT, the bass has a low-end thump and a clarity that really cuts through. It the middle position it sings like the low keys on a piano, although the notes don't ring very long, which is fine. Some songs sounded better with it than any other bass I have, which is saying alot for a bass that costs me so little. I'll keep it forever.

Well, yeah, it'll likely never play as well as your Carvin (PS - nice). But if you have patience (LOTS of patience if it's not right), you can get them to play REALLY nice. And I bet your back felt better after that practice than it has in years.
And yeah - as far as I'm concerned the middle position is the ONLY position. If I wasn't too anal to leave holes or non-functioning controls on my bass I'd remove the switch altogether. And I hate those hole covers that some guys like Dick Dale use - they just look like hole covers to me.

 

[mel0dic.bassist]

Yup

 

[danosix]

Yup

Very nice. I love the old DCs and have been looking to get one of those short 6 string things whatever those are called.

 

[mel0dic.bassist]

My DC is my baby.. I love the vibe of this bass, just did a setup last week and it plays like a dream again, even with dead strings.. Have to straighten the bridge piece (common thing with these floating/rosewood bridges), to set the intonation properly.. It's a hair # at the 12th, but it's very close to being spot on. I love Dano's, nothing else sounds like 'em! Despite their inferior materials, it stays in tune very, VERY well

The other is a 2001 Dano '56 Reissue, also Korea. The best part is, these DC reissues are becoming harder and harder to find.. Did a search on eBay the other day and couldn't find a single DC bass.. Several guitars, but no bass (save for the odd longhorn).

 

[Turock]

My late 90s MIK Longhorn:

 

[portaflexer]

Trying to keep up here guys bit I'm not sure who does/doesn't want a number. Just PM me if you want one.

 

[danosix]

I

My DC is my baby.. I love the vibe of this bass, just did a setup last week and it plays like a dream again, even with dead strings.. Have to straighten the bridge piece (common thing with these floating/rosewood bridges), to set the intonation properly.. It's a hair # at the 12th, but it's very close to being spot on. I love Dano's, nothing else sounds like 'em! Despite their inferior materials, it stays in tune very, VERY well

The other is a 2001 Dano '56 Reissue, also Korea. The best part is, these DC reissues are becoming harder and harder to find.. Did a search on eBay the other day and couldn't find a single DC bass.. Several guitars, but no bass (save for the odd longhorn).

Yeah, the DCs are getting hard to come by - I'd love one, but had to settle (and I'm pretty happy) for the '63 longscale.

 

[mel0dic.bassist]

@portaflexer - sure, i'll take a number, clubs seem to be a thing around these parts

@danosix - If you ever find a DC reissue, get it and KEEP IT!! The only way I'd get rid of mine is to trade for a silver sparkle in the exact same condition mine is in. I love my salmon, but silver sparkle, how can ya say "no" to that?

 

[portaflexer]

Here ya go. Welcome to the club.

01 - portaflexer
02 - Rob Martinez
03 - rllefebv
04 - The EH Man
05 - Turock
06 - Abaroa
07 - mongo2
08 - deste
09 - JimmyM
10 - Mastermold
11 - williamk
12 - smcfarland1337
13 - jumbodbassman
14 - atomicdog
15 - rfslick
16 - Bullitt5135
17 - bamofo88
18 - sub006
19 - emblymouse
20 - msb
21 - GBassNorth
22 - guylorenz
23 - moonshinegtrs
24 - AphekGreg
25 - brokencode
26 - Farmerboymusic
27 - Wagz
28 - ddinpsl
29 - johninmemphis
30 - gus79seyffert
31 - sneha1965
32 - jasongil1
33 - 1stnamebassist
34 - iamthebassman
35 - rodl2005
36 - April
37 - JoeyDiLamma
38 - rapidfirerob
39 - Southway
40 - benlauziere
41 - FatherG
42 - JGintheHam
43 - mcgreivey
44 - King Kenton
45 - racecarguy
46 - CaptainGrog
47 - SherwoodGreen
48 - foxxiroxx
49 - johnnyangel69
50 - DENelectro
51 - RandyMolson
52 - pinebrookjohn
53 - GIBrat51
54 - suprblip
55 - 4-stringB
56 - tacman6749
57 - Thedeadking
58 - leftieray
59 - jsutton1988
60 - AaronVonRock
61 - scabpicker
62 - rogerbmille
63 - danosix
64 - RicMetsBruce
65 - Back To Bassics
66 - fjadams
67 - Fuzzbass666
68 - old mark
69 - HelpImaRock
70 - R&B
71 - Robin
72 - AlexanderB
73 - biglugpa
74 - sethmadsen
75 - mel0dic.bassist

 

[danosix]

My late 90s MIK Longhorn:

Yummy! I really miss my MIK longhorn. I've have a LOT of basses, guitars and amps and my biggest regret is parting with my longhorn. I totally dig that colour too. That yellow is both classic and completely Danelectro eccentric - I only recently noticed those came with the brown tape which totally sets the colour off.

 

[sethmadsen]

Or you could just ship that longhorn to me and not have to deal with such an awful thing anymore. I'll make the sacrifice of taking on the burden myself.

Hehehe... nice try! Would never give this baby up

Really appreciate the tips! I just saw them now, so I'll have to get back to you when I try them out.

I absolutely love this bass, but when playing it in a group, especially writing music with another, it's frustrating to be like, dude... it's C not a C#, yet I'm playing a C, but intonation makes it sound a little off.

Once I get that figured out, I'll be back to it and put my P bass and Stingray down!!!

 

[danosix]

No problem.
If you're having problems with the low C on an A then you probably have a high nut - that can be easily adjusted. If you're talking the 5th fret on the G, you probably can fix it with the tips I said (assuming the bridge isn't backed ALL the way back. Also - bridges are adjustable for a reason so don't be scared (assuming the E string is close enough) to have a straight or even "backwards" slanted saddle if that's what it takes to intonate. Finally - how old are your flatwounds? The multiple layers of winding on those means they can sound out of tune when they get old - again, roundwounds are a lot thinner too so they intonate easier.
Finally - I swear this is my last suggestion (at least today) if you're really brave you can put a shim at the end of the neck to adjust its angle and effectively lengthing the length between bridge and nut - or even at the end of it to push it away from the bridge a smidgen (that's drastic and could risk other problems so last resort).
Last-and-a-half suggestion (what that's cheating!?). I just discovered a place called CJ Guitar Tooling that makes replacement bridges for Danelectros. He makes a machined steel (won't bend like the old ones) bridge with Fender '51 style adjustable pieces (2 per string) that looks very good and he even makes rosewood bridges so you get something of a "best of both worlds and these seem to have the kind of travel a Fender bridge would have rather than a Dano Bridge - so longer travel for better adjustment AND the string starts further behind the saddle so more likely to bend right at the saddle - also a higher break angle as his is intended to be screwed down (the front screws on TOP for better to make room for the height adjustment) so they seem all-round superior. He doesn't have prices for the bass bridges on his site, but a full bridge for a guitar is $100 and since it looks lilke he really is tooling these things it should be actually less work for him and less material.
I'm thinking of ordering this myself as my current 4 stringer has the same "upgraded" bridge as yours and I frankly hate it. But don't hold your breath waiting on me - I'll have to convince the wife first and for some reason she wants to "pay the bills" before we spend our money on upgrading a bass that currently isn't getting played anywhere but on the couch.

 

[GIBrat51]

@danosix[/USER] - If you ever find a DC reissue, get it and KEEP IT!! The only way I'd get rid of mine is to trade for a silver sparkle in the exact same condition mine is in. I love my salmon, but silver sparkle, how can ya say "no" to that?

You mean one like this? Guess it's a good thing I have two of 'em, then. And, yes, the leftys really are hard to find anymore.

 

[Eldo]

I'd like to join up! I thought I had a better photograph but alas, I do not.

On the left is my Jerry Jones Neptune Longhorn in Seaburst, a pretty rare color combination. It was on loan to Mitch Easter's studio when it was stolen. Almost 2 years later it popped up on eBay and came home to me. In the middle is my '63 Reissue and on the right is the MIK Dano I bought in an attempt to replace my then-stolen JJ. It popped up on GC's used section for $99 last year and I couldn't call them fast enough!

Notice how the JJ Neptune body is not as round as the Danelectro. This seems to be the case only with the JJ Neptune Longhorns while the Jerry Jones Longhorns more closely resemble the Danelectro.

 

[1stnamebassist]

I had both Jerry Jones Longhorn and Neptune reissue basses at one time. You're right the original Longhorn look just like the Danelectro Longhorn. It was however much better quality.

 

[Freddy Johnson]

I have one of these, it's in beautiful shape, missing the volume and tone knobs and the strap buttons. Anybody want to buy it? It has been sitting in my garage for 12 years, used to have what was left of the original case but that died years ago. I will post some pix once I find some new knobs and strap buttons. I just saw one on EBay going for $1,000 bux. Stand by for more.

 

[sethmadsen]

No problem.
If you're having problems with the low C on an A then you probably have a high nut - that can be easily adjusted. If you're talking the 5th fret on the G, you probably can fix it with the tips I said (assuming the bridge isn't backed ALL the way back. Also - bridges are adjustable for a reason so don't be scared (assuming the E string is close enough) to have a straight or even "backwards" slanted saddle if that's what it takes to intonate. Finally - how old are your flatwounds? The multiple layers of winding on those means they can sound out of tune when they get old - again, roundwounds are a lot thinner too so they intonate easier.
Finally - I swear this is my last suggestion (at least today) if you're really brave you can put a shim at the end of the neck to adjust its angle and effectively lengthing the length between bridge and nut - or even at the end of it to push it away from the bridge a smidgen (that's drastic and could risk other problems so last resort).
Last-and-a-half suggestion (what that's cheating!?). I just discovered a place called CJ Guitar Tooling that makes replacement bridges for Danelectros. He makes a machined steel (won't bend like the old ones) bridge with Fender '51 style adjustable pieces (2 per string) that looks very good and he even makes rosewood bridges so you get something of a "best of both worlds and these seem to have the kind of travel a Fender bridge would have rather than a Dano Bridge - so longer travel for better adjustment AND the string starts further behind the saddle so more likely to bend right at the saddle - also a higher break angle as his is intended to be screwed down (the front screws on TOP for better to make room for the height adjustment) so they seem all-round superior. He doesn't have prices for the bass bridges on his site, but a full bridge for a guitar is $100 and since it looks lilke he really is tooling these things it should be actually less work for him and less material.
I'm thinking of ordering this myself as my current 4 stringer has the same "upgraded" bridge as yours and I frankly hate it. But don't hold your breath waiting on me - I'll have to convince the wife first and for some reason she wants to "pay the bills" before we spend our money on upgrading a bass that currently isn't getting played anywhere but on the couch.

By the way, I choked the string on the wrong side of the nut. It had a little bow between 1st fret and nut. For advice to do that, but was pinching between peg and nut. I'm guessing smaller gaged strings would help with this as well.

 

[msb]

I'm still running the original strings on my first Korean Longhorn .

To be honest they sound great . If you like the sound of older rounds ...

 

[danosix]

By the way, I choked the string on the wrong side of the nut. It had a little bow between 1st fret and nut. For advice to do that, but was pinching between peg and nut. I'm guessing smaller gaged strings would help with this as well.

lighter strings will do the job - or have the nut adjusted to fit your strings if you really like your flats (you won't get that thin with flats).

 

[danosix]

BTW - did anyone see Prince on SNL this week?
Very graphic full frontal of a '90s MIK Longhorn in the hands of Ida Nelson. I did a quick search and it looks like the bass is Prince's - all of the picks I could find of her were with various Fenders (poor dear can't afford a Dano I guess) and I found an old pic of Prince with the same longhorn.
She was getting an awesome slap tone with it (through some processing) which I thought was cool 'cause most people think you can't slap with those while it's the only bass I could ever get a good slap tone with.
I'm not a huge fan of Prince (frankly I thin the vast majority of his music is awful) but he's just so talented I can watch him live anytime - and he always has great backing musicians.