Last fall I got bit by the Dano bug (again) and picked up a pair of Corals: a Hornet and a Firefly. Both were made in 1967 as part of the Vincent Bell Signature series. I
really like 'em both and have been having lotsa fun playing 'em.
The Hornet is a cool sounding but kinda strange instrument. It has three volume pots, one of which is a normal-behaving master. The other two, though, combine volume reduction with tonal adjustment. The first of these seems to mainly affect the neck pickup, cutting bass along with volume. Fully backed off the low end is pretty much gone. The second pot seems to mainly affect the bridge p'up, cutting high end in the usual "tone knob" manner while also rolling off volume. Fully backed off the sound is very dark. The interesting thing to me is that each of these two pots seems to affect both pickups volume-wise but only one or the other p'up tonally. Also interesting:
both pickups are always on except when the master vol is rolled off. Some different wiring in there for sure. Dano electronics are often encased in a wrap of shielding, brown paper and masking tape…that's the case with this guitar, so I can't see what I'm hearing. There is an online dissection/description of the guts of a triple-pickup Hornet, so I kinda get what's going on. But my Hornet is the two-pickup version and its guts are unique to it.
Then there are the four tone switches.
For the obsessives amongst us I took some notes the first time I plugged my Hornet into an amp. "Up" and "Down" are from a player's perspective and "switch 1" is nearest the pickups.
—
switch 1 cuts bass when Up (least
bass cut)
— switch 2 cuts bass when Down, but
only when switch 1 is also Down
— switch 3 cuts bass when Down, but
only when switches 1 & 2 are also
Down (most bass cut)
— switch 4 cuts mucho treble when Down
Maximum tonal response comes with switch 1 Down
and all the others Up.
Switches 1 & 2 Down and 3 & 4 Up yields a Fender
Jaguar-like "strangle switch" sound. Great with
bass-heavy effects and/or amps.
Switches 1, 2 & 3 Down and 4 Up yields a very
thin "funky strumming" sound.
Switches 1, 2 & 4 Down and 3 Up yields a bandpass
sound.
All four switches Down pretty much eviscerates the
guitar's output.
One more interesting thing: the Hornet came out right around the same time as Teisco's Spectrum 5, another cool sounding guitar with a variety of tone switches and all of its (three) pickups always on. Hmmm…
This is a Hornet (not mine…this one has the same finish as mine but lacks vibrato):
Wonder where that body shape came from?! BTW, the guitar is quite light and well balanced. The body is nicely contoured, highly sculpted and very comfy against one's tummy. (Dano also made an amp-in-case Silvertone variant with less sculpting and much simpler 2 vols, 2 tones wiring. I've seen footage of Mark Knopfler using one of these while recording.) I've raised up the bridge a bit and put ~1mm of back tilt on the neck using the slick adjustment screw. This gives me a decent break angle over the bridge—to my ears it improves tone—while keeping the action nice & easy. Intonation is pretty good considering the simple straight-edge rosewood saddle. (I'm using roundwound .011s with a wound .020 G.) I've let the low E go a bit sharp to keep the high B & E in line. Also I've disabled the vibrato, including removing the spring. Too much friction involved.
The Firefly is a less complex affair. A double-cut hollowbody with a ~.5" thick reinforcing block glued to the top and running from the neck pocket to at least the bridge. Think ES-330 with a somewhat thicker body, bolt-on neck and lipstick tube pickups instead of P-90s. Trapeze tailpiece. This guitar really took me by surprise. It plays super easy, with a chunkier neck than the Hornet, and sounds terrific. Two vols & two tones. One of the tones cuts bass.
Here's a Firefly, again not mine but pretty much identical to it:
(Edit: I corrected my italicized notes after playing the Hornet earlier tonight and realizing "this doesn't exactly work the way I wrote it down.")
-Dave-