Man I’m jonesing for an old Danelectro.

[Rambozo96]

I got to work on the later wood bodied Jaguar looking job and though the pickups would be too low output for the modern day the neck reads 3.5k and the bridge 4k, I should have hooked it up to my LCR meter to get the whole story but that didn’t occur to me until I delivered the guitar to my coworker with my offers to buy it sadly shot down. Through my old converted Lafayette tube PA (converted to a tweed deluxe front end) it was absolutely insane. I always commended Nat Daniel for finding interesting ways to keep the costs on the guitars low. Its reported that the metal flake in the paint of those guitars are shavings leftover from the aluminum nuts. For whatever reason my heavily modded old late 90’s Dano U2 doesn’t sound the same, not a bad sound by any means and understandably 3.5k-4.5k is such low output that some buyers would be lead to believe they received a lemon but it seems to me such low output and the primitive bridge played a big role in the jangly sound. Much to my surprise prices on the old Danelectro/Silvertone is way up there for what used to be cheap catalog guitars, even some people asking over $1000 for the dual amp in case model! Guess I’ll need to consider replacing the stock lipsticks on my Danelectro U2 reissue with something spec’d out closer to the originals!

 

[79D25MMan]

If you're ever in Idaho I'll sell you mine! I got a 1961 Silvertone Dano U1 (The 3/4 scale Coke Bottle headstock one!). Sweet little guitars, kicks ass and plays great. Metal nut is interesting, but the guitar does not stay in tune the greatest. Probably a combo between the nut, break angle, old wavily/grover original tuners, nut lubrication, and bridge design.

Photo of when I got it only good ones I have as it started to snow shortly after!

 

[Guildedagain]

The orig Dano pickups are low enough to be deemed defective by today's standards, especially the bridge. Why they have 5-6kΩ at the neck and 3.5kΩ at the bridge I'll never know and I've been tempted to swap them.

It's not how they makes amps break up, but rather how they make amps not breakup that makes them sound amazing.

Let's just say the pickups have more headroom than most.

 

[Rambozo96]

I believe that’s the reason why the pickups were wired for in series. Otherwise you’d have a DC resistance of 1.5k-2k which I’m not sure if that would’ve very audible. I can’t say I blame Danelectro for winding the pickups hotter for the modern player otherwise they’d probably get tons of returns because the owner thought they had defective pickups. I think I heard the original pickups used Alnico 6 magnets which I had no idea even existed.

 

[Guildedagain]

Nat Daniel was a true genius.

 

[79D25MMan]

Nat Daniel was a true genius.

Definitely. The guitar is so light and nimble, and the pickup sounds great through my 1 watt supro blues king. Perfect for a smaller apartment or dormitory!

 

[Guildedagain]

A guy wanted to buy my Dano Page Model who was obsessed with the Rain Song, wanted me to see if it broke up like his old U1.

I fooled with it for three days, and decided it doesn't break up well at all, only when you really rattle the strings.

And if you see a good tutorial on the Rain Song, the clever guys will explain that you need a tube amp, and then roll back the volume on your typical high powered guitar like a LP so that the amp just barely goes into breakup. It's all about dynamics and tone controlled by your fingers.

Back in the old days I always said I can get my Gibson to sound just like a Fender, roll the volume back to 3 ;]

 

[Rambozo96]

I think some danos would have a difficult time driving an amp into overdrive seeing the one I just worked on (and sadly couldn’t get the owner to sell it to me.) pickups were reading at 3.7k-4kish Didnt think to hook my LCR meter to it to get a better picture

 

[Rambozo96]

The thing that I thought was cool about Nat Daniel was the resourceful mindset of the company. The metal flake in those finishes? Aluminum shavings from the aluminum nuts they cut. The whole lipstick pickup thing where the casings were surplus lipstick tubes, the tube amps had particleboard cabs but despite that they have tone for days provided the amp works properly. The series filament stuff didn’t sound as nice and potentially dangerous to use so I personally avoid those.

 

[Guildedagain]

I took readings off mine, shockingly low on the treble pickup, I wouldn't even want to post the bridge pickup reading in the ad, too low.

 

[Guildedagain]

I had a really clean Silvertone Valco Twin Twelve, and man that thing had the best breakup on earth. Just turn it to 10, and throw everyone of your dirt pedals in the garbage, and it was loud!

Took it into the vintage store to sell it to the owner, a collector. I demo'ed it in the store full of people, a couple powerchords and he begged me to turn it off and bought it on the spot ;]

 

[Rambozo96]

I seen a cheap MIJ Sears bass with a pickup that read 3k. But those MIJ pickups either ranged from very low output to so high that it made the microphonic issue worse. Sears guitars in general had pickup specs all over the place. All the Kay’s I had consistently read at 5.5k and my Airline branded Harmony has Dearmonds reading at 10k!