The reason the resistance in the middle position is higher is because Danelectros are wired in series instead of parallel. So when you activate both pickups, it is combining their resistance and inductance just like the two coils of a Gibson humbucker. That's why Jimmy Page used the middle position for Kashmir - more output and midrange than the individual pickup positions. This is one of the most unique features of Danelectros and is often overlooked when people install lipstick pickups in Fenders. You really want to combine pickups in series with those. Bonus fact: Brian May's Red Special also combines its low output Burns pickups in series.
Plywood, tape, hollow, junk tuners, unconventional bridge, this thing is going to sound tinny or so I thought. Very unique sound, smooth and pleasing. The under wound under magnetized pickups work very well. Another great show, thank you 😊
This brand of guitar with their cheap lipstick pick ups that actually do have value and have since they were first introduced on stage and in studio for sure. almost e very serious musician and especially studio players have to have one of these, That's the only way to replicate them.
Plywood & hollow is really anything acoustic-like though. These are like anything chambered too. That would be anything Gibson ES-335 to 339, Gretsch semi & hollow for the traditional big brands. Valco made one from fiberglass, Airline's Res-o-glass body, the guitar that Jack White uses for 7 Nation Army.
Back in the '00s (I think) Danelectro put a lot models of this guitar priced at sub £200. They got a lot of attention as I recall but my local geetar shop in Glasgow got a lot of them in but couldn't shift them. One Saturday when I went in for a set of strings they had a knock down price to shift them and I picked one up for £40, bargain! I lent it to my nephew for a bit and when I got it back he'd wrecked the electrics somehow and I just put it aside. You've shown me how to take it apart and (literarly) stick it back together so I think I'll dig it out and have a go at fixing it. Cheers!
bargain! I paid £200 for mine. the bridges are rubbish , if they sag in the middle (mine did, both of them) - try replacing with a strat hard tail. much easier to intonate, too.
200 is all they were and are worth! They do sound good but the base price now (when not on sale) is ridiculous. $559 on Reverb is too expensive after tax & shipping.
Hi Colin great video I had a danelectro about ten years ago got it from a discount warehouse I think I paid 100ish for it it wasn’t the same quality as yours and was a bit tinny when plugged in to a amp but I thought it was different there mostly Chinese made wish I kept it now all the best.
When I was at school, some kids spent a whole year in woodwork making electric guitars. Little did they know that a couple of periods & a wet lunchtime later in art, they could have achieved their goal.
I have 5 different Danos ,Love em. If you change out the tuners have a look at Mosrite Klusons they have the ' Safe Ti Posts' like the vintage style Fenders.
30 years ago, knowing nothing about electric guitars, I bought this. I knew Jimmy Page had one and I didn’t want to just buy the same Fender or Gibson as everyone else. Took me a while to figure out that the lipstick pickups were never going to sound like Jimi (or Jimmy for the most part!)
You're absolutely right Colin, lipstick pickups are just wire wrapped round a bar magnet and inserted into a lipstick container they bought from a factory down the road. There a bit of a winders nightmare because they're so easy to break as you put the coil in the tube.
Jimmy page played this guitar live they haven’t changed a bit sense they started making these inexpensive guitars. I like them for slide. They are amazing. Dan Electro was Jerry Reeds favorite guitars cause they were good and cheap!
I got a bronze 59 u-1 at an auction that hasn't been played in who knows when. 500. I like it. It was mostly just dirty and I had the switch replaced and changed the rusty strings. Nice guitar thanks.
They worked ok for what they were. Everybody in our area started on them 'cause they were local (factory was behind my girlfriend's house. We all dumped them as soon as we could until Page started playing them. Those "short horns" had stacked knobs in the early 60's. I got my first electric in'64- a "convertible" and a 5 watt amp for $60 US. Good vid, thanks!
My favorites are the mid 60s versions branded a Silvertone.The case had a built in amplifier!! Lipstick pickups has it's own sound. Cheap Magic at it's best! Howdy from Texas!!🤘🤠🤘
Dear Guitaristas, Cheers from the US! I owned a Danelectro years ago. I suppose since Pagey used one for slide, I did the same. I found the neck to be the brilliant part of the guitar. The cardboard body could be damaged pretty easily. Mine came with a "sunk in" spot near the pickguard but it played very well.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Danelectro. My first guitar that I had my first three years of lessons n was a Danelectro "Convertible" (thin body acoustic with a pickup) with the same short horn body style. Cheap as chips that thing. God awful to play - action was 5" off the fretboard (ok - I exaggerate) but the fact that I stuck with my lessons on that slab of particle board convince my Dad to get me a proper guitar years later because I stuck with it. Now, 60 years later, I still can't get separated from my guitars. I ran across a used one in a store recently - same model I had - still crap to play....LOL. That model seems to be much better! Cheers Colin!
Trebly and distinctive, but also accurate and smooth - full of surprises. Like you, I always fancied the idea of a Danelectro '59, but haven't yet committed to a purchase - yet! This typically eccentric review may have persuaded me to go ahead. Great video, as always. Mind you, I think I've heard some of your best one-liners today. "The IKEA of guitars.....ooops, me knob's just fell off...". Ha! Always happens to me when I work with screwdrivers...
Mine is pretty old I guess. it has two volume controls with tone controls in the middle of them. I have flat wound strings and the action is amazingly low. I use Danelectro effects too. I love it.
For me the engineering of the bridge is awesome of simplicity ! In fact the complte guitar is like this As usual a complete and really interresting review! Lot of surprise to dismount that baby😂 I was always dreaming to get one, now it's sure I'll go to it
Great review! I remember trying to take the pick guard off of my Danelectro Vintage 59 12 String. I thought it would be a breeze because there were only three screws holding it down. Then, I discovered the double sided tape. Mine is finished on the sides by the way. Fun guitars!
I have a DC3 from Danelectro, same body but 3 pickups and a 6 way switch and an overdrive that turns on all three pickups at once. Got it in the 90s. It can do everything a strat can do plus bridge and tail or all three pickups on, very nice guitar.
Colin, Silvertone is offering a reissue of the 1303 U2 BUT with what they call updates, a solid mahogany body, modified bridge and some others. Price has dropped dramatically but a comparison of your Danelectro Shorthorn and the “updated” 1303 U2 might be interesting and certainly a first. Love the channel ❤ from ol’ New York, USA.
I had a ‘57 Dano Shorthorn bass for the longest time and it was a great bass. Put flats on it and it’s instant Jamerson/Motown. The top and back were Masonite, tiny little tuners, single lipstick pickup…this was before they used serial numbers but the electrics dated to late ‘56/early ‘57. Good value, Col! I’ve promised myself to one day getting a Dano 12-string. Cheers, mate!
Thanks for showing us this Colin! I'm a huge fan of Link Wray,and he played a Danelectro because it was light in weight,and he had a bad shoulder. I think I NEED one!
Oh man I love these things! I've got one in orange sparkle with the leo quan style wraparound bridge(with the adjustable saddles). They're fantastisc (but they are quite difficult to play higher up the fretboard since the strapbutton is placed so awkwardly). Man I'm sure going to enjoy this video here, Colin. Have a nice weekend oh great wise man
Love this review! What an odd little bird of a guitar! It's a great guitar. It was fun to see what it was made of. Please keep reviewing odd ball guitars along with the Gibson's/Fender's etc. It's really informative to learn about the history of some of these companies that have been around awhile. The TV Channel is awesome. 🎸🎸👍✌
I always wondered about a Danelctro. When I was a kid in the 70’s my grandfather had a Silvertone looked an awful lot like that and now I know why. Thanks for the breakdown of the guitar. Wonderful playing as always have a great day.
Dan electro did make the sears roebuck Silvertones . . My uncle had given me my first electric guitar in 1976 it was a Silvertone (Dan electro) . . He noticed my interest in Guitar and pulled it out of his closet (he bought in the mid 60's) The amp was built into the guitar case . . . i should have kept that . . . Damn
I have one with the p90 and split lipsticks and it sounds like a chainsaw through my marshall and also has amazing cleans. So much fun to play and a unique vibe ❤
In the 50s and 60s, this was a poor man's Rickenbacker made of plywood and pressed cardboard. Nobody would think of building a guitar like that today, not even the Chinese. But it seems you can sell anything these days if you just write vintage or relict on it. We used these junk things (we called them Herticasters in Germany in the 70s) as firewood when we could finally afford real guitars.
* All pickups are "cheap" ... Gibson Humbuckers have a lot of material in them i admit.. but a typical "pickup" is magnet and wire contruced around some kind of skeleton.
Great vid. I'm afraid I've never seen the attraction of Danelectro guitars. I personally don't like their looks, and the construction is something a fifth former might slap together in their lunchbreak. Sure Danelectro have managed to make a pile of rubbish play and sound okay, but it's really still no excuse to charge fans the price they ask these days.
The tape lifting off of the body sides is practically inevitable. I assume they're rather thoughtlessly stretching it in place. It'll likely be fine at the factory but destined to pull up during shipping. My solution was to take a hair dryer to it and spread/stretch the tape down with my thumb. It's barely a minute of effort and to date (roughly 4 years) it's never peeled back up. Also, more trivia on the series middle position. In one of the many attempts to keep the price down, a generic on-off-on SPDT switch was used instead of a selector switch. Each 'on' position would short-out its respectively opposing coil with the middle 'off' position acting as a freely open path for both. **Another mandatory song: Rebel Rouser on the neck pickup.
I just ordered the 59M NOS+ before I watched your video. This guitar has been lingering in the background of purchases for several years. No more. One thing your video convinced me to avoid is taking the pickguard off. 😅 If I feel the need to change out tuners, I believe that I can handle that. Thanks for another informative video.
Great stuff ...is it a keepeer ?...ooops just listened to 40.11 ....enjoy...some intresting comment on other non 'key brands' is that you bring your vibe to the guitar !...wonderful play out 2U !
Had a metal flake black one about 20 years ago...Loved it to death... The pickguard is known as the Seal pickguard cos it looks like a seal.... My one had an actual rosewood fingerboard... couple other differences, my ones machine head's were different to those...the volume control wasn't like that one.... Bitchin axe....🎸🎸🎸🤙🤙🤙🤙🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿
Should be called the Danelectro pickgaurd from hell. Cool guitar, cool review, keep doing, what your doing Colin. putting smiles on peoples faces. Thanks Colin
Mines old black and white and has rosewood neck with badass bridge like Jimmy had later on. I leveled the frets and it’s great. Paid 400 for it with hard case
If it sounds good it is good and also has the cool history. However you can buy a Yamaha Pacifica with Seymore Duncan pick ups,Wilkinson bridge and tremlo,Grover tuners,Mahogany body rosewood and maple neck and ss frets with graphite nut and trees. So which one would I buy? well it is like comparing a Lada to a BMW
I’ve been gassing for a 59 12 string, what you say and go buy one and review it for me? I put lip sticks on my squire like SRV did at Montrose, sounded phenomenal and is a affordable keeper, notice I did no say cheap! 😊
I just recently bought a 59 like this one, but with the wrap around tailpeace. I was expecting it to be similar to the 2007 Gibson Melody Maker I used to own, but it's just so much better. It's a cheap, but doesn't look it, nor feel it, where as the Melody Maker was a cheap Gibson, built very poorly that looked cheap.
They were cheap guitars but were iconic looking Jimmy page used one and when Zepplin took off again because of the live dvd things fans seen page play it! So briefly the prices went nuts!
(...that's what I should 'a said?) I remember (He looks off towards the sky all dreamy eyed weary and worn out) er yes, I remember the '70's, 1st sighting of this black 'n white thing made of Masonite, light as a feather with almost no fretboard radius...
This is probably the cheapest "hero" guitar of all time. I have to figure its the masonite construction and the lipstick pickups just costing nothing and the manufacturing being mostly stable without the yearly saga of sourcing the proper wood that other guitar builds require. Well built. Simple controls and layout for that uncomplicated sort of LP Junior effect that focuses you rather than it distracts you. Its cheap, but this guitar slays. Clapton had one. Jimmy fricken Hendrix had one that got burned in a fire and he said it was like his friend died. I bought one and had money left over to buy a Jimmy Page poster and a very high collared shirt ;) Good guitar for learners or giggists. Good guitar.
I wonder what all those tone wood snobs think of these😂 or more specifically, what they’d think of the sound in a blind test. If it’s good enough for Jimmy Page, it’s good enough for me!!
The guitar sounded great but I don't like the way it looks at all !!, but anyway different strokes for different folks, a bit of a Marmite guitar I guess🎸😛
Not quite faithful to the original. Doesn't have the concentric Vol & Tone Pots. The pickups are wired in series not in parallel hence the DC resistances.
Great review! I've no experience with one of those..neveer played one but like my Casino it's got a nice hollow tone. It looks like a guitar a kid would put together in woodshop at school. I think Roger Daltrey did that ..made his guitar at school...I like the red and white on that one..I've seen a lot of Longhorn basses in that beige burst that I'm not a fan of but this one looks good.
Regarding the tolex binding lifting. Heat gently with a hairdryer and then tape down or tie down with a scarf between cutaway and down to bottom of guitar. Add some contact adhesive via cocktail stick or similar if needed.
Jimmy page used one of these throughout his career. That proves that for the most part the reason one's playing sounds bad is because of the player not the guitar
Stock the middle position on a danelectro the pickups are in series. Most others are parallel. Essentially they make them a humbucker like hence why the reading goes up not down.
