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NBD: Danelectro (advise me on cosmetic repair)

Kenan

Kenan

Sep 13, 2014
386
701
#1
I have had Danelectro long scale somewhere down on my GAS list for a while and today one popped up on my local Craig's at a deal of a price. It's the '63 Long Scale Bass in a cool seafoam green color. It seems to be in pretty good condition except for one flaw I'll discuss later. The electronics work and it sounds pretty good. The bridge pickup is quite weak, but it sounds good with the neck pickup or with both. For others who own one, let me know if you find this to be true as well. The truss rod needs a bit of a tightening--and will probably need more after I put flats on-- which I guess means taking off the neck, which is a pain.

The cosmetic flaw I mentioned is that the tape along the sides of the body is separating near the neck pocket. See pic. It's not as simple as gluing it down because there is not enough slack to push it down to the body. I guess the tape material has shrunk. Does that sound right? I guess I would have to add some kind of patch to it, or perhaps remove it entirely. From the little I can see under the tape, it doesn't appear to be hiding anything ugly, except sticky residue. Let me know what you think--patch, remove, or other?

Thanks.
 

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#2
Common issue with these. I would say that virtually all of them had problems with that side tape, to some degree. I had one where it was very minimal.

I say just don't worry about it until it gets really bad and then.....I dunno!
 
#3
Kenan said:
I have had Danelectro long scale somewhere down on my GAS list for a while and today one popped up on my local Craig's at a deal of a price. It's the '63 Long Scale Bass in a cool seafoam green color. It seems to be in pretty good condition except for one flaw I'll discuss later. The electronics work and it sounds pretty good. The bridge pickup is quite weak, but it sounds good with the neck pickup or with both. For others who own one, let me know if you find this to be true as well. The truss rod needs a bit of a tightening--and will probably need more after I put flats on-- which I guess means taking off the neck, which is a pain.

The cosmetic flaw I mentioned is that the tape along the sides of the body is separating near the neck pocket. See pic. It's not as simple as gluing it down because there is not enough slack to push it down to the body. I guess the tape material has shrunk. Does that sound right? I guess I would have to add some kind of patch to it, or perhaps remove it entirely. From the little I can see under the tape, it doesn't appear to be hiding anything ugly, except sticky residue. Let me know what you think--patch, remove, or other?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you live in the Bay Area I saw the same bass for sale earlier today. Nice score!
 
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#6
I would take the whole bass apart for inspection cleaning and fixing micro issues if any. Then carefully remove the tape, clean the surface beneath and look into the vinyl car wrap stuff. Plenty of options with colors and finishes.
 
#11
Hair dryer works temporarily, but I have a bubble in the tape on my Longhorn that I tried to take out with it and it keeps coming right back. For something that minor I wouldn't sweat it even a little. As for the weak pickup, I've found my Dano's lipsticks to be rather sensitive to height, so you may be able to balance outputs a little better by adjusting their heights. Bridge pickups are always going to be a little bit quieter just because of the nature of where they pick up the sound but you can get a pretty good balance usually.
 
#12
Yeah as far as pickups: I found each one single to be fairly low output. But both together was much louder and stronger. I think it may have been wired series, because it was a pretty serious gain in volume, with both pickups.
 
#13
Toptube said:
Yeah as far as pickups: I found each one single to be fairly low output. But both together was much louder and stronger. I think it may have been wired series, because it was a pretty serious gain in volume, with both pickups.
Click to expand...

I think you must be right about wired in series. Sounds louder and better with both pups for sure.
 
#14
JimmyM said:
Hair dryer works temporarily, but I have a bubble in the tape on my Longhorn that I tried to take out with it and it keeps coming right back. For something that minor I wouldn't sweat it even a little. As for the weak pickup, I've found my Dano's lipsticks to be rather sensitive to height, so you may be able to balance outputs a little better by adjusting their heights. Bridge pickups are always going to be a little bit quieter just because of the nature of where they pick up the sound but you can get a pretty good balance usually.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply JimmyM. To be honest, I didn't realize you could adjust the height on these lipsticks. Is it simply a matter of cranking the screws on the back of the body?
 
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#18
Does anyone know what Allen wrench size I need to adjust the bridge saddle screws? They are very tiny compared to Fender etc. My smallest wrenches are 1/16" and 1.5mm, but those are too big.

I started working on this bass today, as I suddenly have a ton of free time. I glued down the side tape today, but it is still drying.
 

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