- Jan 28, 2009
- 2,929
- 4,152
- Disclosures
- Owner: Moonshine Custom Guitars
I've been on the lookout for a Dano Shorthorn bass for a few years now, I've run across a few but the time was never right. Until now...
I first saw this bass on another forum, a member was asking if it was worth the $350 asking price... I'll be the first to admit the bass looked pretty rough but I surprised at all of the negative responses; "I'd pass on that", "approximately $0", "I had a Danelectro guitar in 1971 and it was rubbish".
My first response was "Man, that's ugly... but Cool!" My Dad had a name for it; Bulldog ugly. So ugly it's cool. The olive (avocado?) green isn't the worst color choice, it kind of grows on you after awhile. The drawing (it's been called a bird, a possum and a platypus... I prefer Danosaur) is cool in a weird way but the icing on the cake for me was the Dan Armstrong "See Thru" bass pickup. Earlier in the year I met a guy that owned a Silvertone 1444 (Dolphin nose headstock) bass that had been converted to a double cutaway and had the same pickup installed; After Danelectro shut it's doors Ampeg ended up with leftover Dano inventory and they handed the everything over to Dan Armstrong who assembled some of the remaining inventory into Ampeg Dam Armstrong Modified Danelectro instruments. Both of the basses with Dan Armstrong pickups were not those instruments, but I feel there is a good chance that these two came from that era.
Another theory is that these may have come from the infamous Fat Dog who owns Subway Guitars (in Berkeley, I think) who purchased the lot of remaining Danelectro carcasses and continues to sell frankenstein versions of the originals.
I decided to message the OP and found out that the bass was listed in the New Jersey Craigslist and started making arrangements to buy it (the OP said he would buy it and ship it to me in Nashville for a small fee) but after thinking more about it (that and being low on bass buying funds) I decide to offer him a trade for a really nice Silvertone 1444 bass that I had picked up for a steal earlier in the year... 1: I had paid less for the Silvertone than the guy was asking for the shorthorn (in spite of it being in almost mint condition), 2: I already had two other 1444's and 3: there seems to be a plethora of 1444 basses for sale at this time.
I made the offer and the OP jumped at it but at the time I offered he was leaving town for a couple of weeks and said he would get in touch with the seller when he got back... He did and thankfully the bass was still there. It arrived in a beat up alligator chipboard case.
Wrong tuners and missing the rosewood saddle, I also found that the bottom of the neck pocket was uneven (haven't fixed that yet). I installed a set of Gotoh tuners and set the bass up as good as I could, the bridge actually needs to be moved forward about 3/8" for the bass to intonate correctly and the previously mentioned neck pocket issue still needs to be addressed. but when I got it restrung (using the same dead strings that came on it) and plugged it in it was pure magic! The bass has some serious thump.
Here it is now (The cat wasn't impressed, she just wanted to be in the picture because, you know... she's a cat):
I'm not sure if I will get around to restoring it back to playing condition, The main reason I have been wanting a Shorthorn bass is I have been wanting to make some reproductions and I will use this one for specifications.
My plan is to produce a fairly accurate reproduction including the poplar, non adjustable 15 fret neck. And some double necks of course.
Moonshine
I first saw this bass on another forum, a member was asking if it was worth the $350 asking price... I'll be the first to admit the bass looked pretty rough but I surprised at all of the negative responses; "I'd pass on that", "approximately $0", "I had a Danelectro guitar in 1971 and it was rubbish".
My first response was "Man, that's ugly... but Cool!" My Dad had a name for it; Bulldog ugly. So ugly it's cool. The olive (avocado?) green isn't the worst color choice, it kind of grows on you after awhile. The drawing (it's been called a bird, a possum and a platypus... I prefer Danosaur) is cool in a weird way but the icing on the cake for me was the Dan Armstrong "See Thru" bass pickup. Earlier in the year I met a guy that owned a Silvertone 1444 (Dolphin nose headstock) bass that had been converted to a double cutaway and had the same pickup installed; After Danelectro shut it's doors Ampeg ended up with leftover Dano inventory and they handed the everything over to Dan Armstrong who assembled some of the remaining inventory into Ampeg Dam Armstrong Modified Danelectro instruments. Both of the basses with Dan Armstrong pickups were not those instruments, but I feel there is a good chance that these two came from that era.
Another theory is that these may have come from the infamous Fat Dog who owns Subway Guitars (in Berkeley, I think) who purchased the lot of remaining Danelectro carcasses and continues to sell frankenstein versions of the originals.
I decided to message the OP and found out that the bass was listed in the New Jersey Craigslist and started making arrangements to buy it (the OP said he would buy it and ship it to me in Nashville for a small fee) but after thinking more about it (that and being low on bass buying funds) I decide to offer him a trade for a really nice Silvertone 1444 bass that I had picked up for a steal earlier in the year... 1: I had paid less for the Silvertone than the guy was asking for the shorthorn (in spite of it being in almost mint condition), 2: I already had two other 1444's and 3: there seems to be a plethora of 1444 basses for sale at this time.
I made the offer and the OP jumped at it but at the time I offered he was leaving town for a couple of weeks and said he would get in touch with the seller when he got back... He did and thankfully the bass was still there. It arrived in a beat up alligator chipboard case.
Wrong tuners and missing the rosewood saddle, I also found that the bottom of the neck pocket was uneven (haven't fixed that yet). I installed a set of Gotoh tuners and set the bass up as good as I could, the bridge actually needs to be moved forward about 3/8" for the bass to intonate correctly and the previously mentioned neck pocket issue still needs to be addressed. but when I got it restrung (using the same dead strings that came on it) and plugged it in it was pure magic! The bass has some serious thump.
Here it is now (The cat wasn't impressed, she just wanted to be in the picture because, you know... she's a cat):
I'm not sure if I will get around to restoring it back to playing condition, The main reason I have been wanting a Shorthorn bass is I have been wanting to make some reproductions and I will use this one for specifications.
My plan is to produce a fairly accurate reproduction including the poplar, non adjustable 15 fret neck. And some double necks of course.
Moonshine
