Danelectros anyone?

AcornHouse

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Anyone spend any time playing Danelectros? Impressions on sound and playability?
I know they're a little cheesy, but they're also kind of retro cool. For some reason they've always made me curious and tempted.
 

Walter Broes

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Yep. I have an early 60's Silvertone labeled copper colord single pickup single cutaway Dano that I love. Also have a Jerry Jones replica of a longhorn six string bass in copperburst, and a 90's reissue U2. Love Danelectros, especially old ones, but the newer ones can be really fun guitars too.
 

gilded

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How's the sound from those paired lipsticks?
Are you talking about how both neck and bridge pickups sound together on a baritone? Fine. I really did have a lot of fun with it. You can play a whole lot of Western Twang songs on one. Wish I still had it.
 

AcornHouse

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I mean general opinion of the sound overall. How does it compare to buckers, P90s, single coils on a Strat, Franzes, minihums, etc...
 

gilded

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Well, if you define Gibson Humbuckers and P90s as thick, HB1s and Gretsch 'buckers as not quite as thick and Strats and Ricky toasters as thin, then Dano's are thin.
I always thought it would be a nice neck pickup for a Tele, instead of a mini-humbucker.

That said, I could get a good twang tone and a good 'natural' electric guitar tone. The tone controls weren't fabulous, but it worked well with my Fender and Vox amps
and I was more than satisfied with the guitar.
 

Walter Broes

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How's the sound from those paired lipsticks?
On a typical twin danelectro, the pickups are wired in series, so the "both pickups on" switch position is a lot louder and fatter than just the bridge or neck pickup by itself. Sounds like a bright twangy humbucker with some strat flavor thrown in.

Old lipstick tube pickups are a little louder and fatter than a vintage style strat pickup. Low DC reading, but the coil's wound on a big honking alnico magnet, and that helps.

The pickups on the reissues get some of that tone, but they typically sound a little brighter and thinner.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I love Danos. I've owned one of the short-scale amp-in-case Silvertones for decades and also have a '90s Jerry Jones triple-pickup shorthorn. The J.J. comes real close to the sound of the oldies, though it's wired like a 5-way Strat rather than combining pickups in series. The oldies have very flat fretboards. The sound is bright but with plenty of punch too.

-Dave-
 

AcornHouse

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Sounds like I might like a vintage one, but not a reissue. Maybe I'll keep an eye out when I can.
 

AcornHouse

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I think I'm going to fish around and see if I can a Gretsch Boxcar reso that I got to try my hand at slide (not for me.) Maybe I can find someone with a reissue who wants to try too.
 

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I've always wanted a vintage Danelectro. I had an early 2000s Danelectro Innuendo model with onboard distortion, but it had strat type pickups so it wasn't unique. The new ones they're making with the NOS lipstick pickups sound good and play all right.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Just to note: "NOS" lipsticks in this case refers to early Evets Corp. (current owners of the Dano brand) pickups rather than '50s/60s originals. :) AFAIK now that Jerry Jones has retired no-one is making authentic repros of those pickups. The Evets pickups do sound good. But different too.

-Dave-
 

Walter Broes

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Just to note: "NOS" lipsticks in this case refers to early Evets Corp. (current owners of the Dano brand) pickups rather than '50s/60s originals. :) AFAIK now that Jerry Jones has retired no-one is making authentic repros of those pickups. The Evets pickups do sound good. But different too.

-Dave-
I don't know if they follow the original recipe, but the Seymour Duncan lipsticks sound great. Curtis Novak sells replicas that are made just like the old ones, and so does Mojo pickups in the UK.
 

AcornHouse

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Stewmac also has Golden Age lipsticks. Plenty of options should I choose.
 

starfirejoe

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Anyone spend any time playing Danelectros? Impressions on sound and playability?
I know they're a little cheesy, but they're also kind of retro cool. For some reason they've always made me curious and tempted.
I have a late 90s Korean reissue that is a real good sounding, great playing guitar. I used it instead of my US Tele, to track most of my band's latest record. It has a fab, clean, almost-Strat tone. IMO, The reissues are very good guitars.
 

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My buddy's reissue Dano is one that snuck past qc. The frets are not where the should be, so the damn thing won't play in tune.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I don't know if they follow the original recipe, but the Seymour Duncan lipsticks sound great. Curtis Novak sells replicas that are made just like the old ones, and so does Mojo pickups in the UK.

Oh, excellent! Somehow I missed both Novak and Mojo. Duncans sound a little spikier to my ears than the originals I've had. Still very good, though, and depending on what you're going for maybe even preferable to vintage Danos. For my taste Jerry Jones got the treble response right with his version(s).

-Dave-
 
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