Danelectro Bass

1962 Dan Electro Longhorn Bass. Flormica, yes you read correctly, flormice top and back, with pine, again yes, you've read correctly, pine body sides. Hollow, with no "f" holes. 2 Dan Electro Lipstick tube pickups, 2 concentric volume, on/off knobs. (No tone controls). 4 bolt on maple neck, with a 30" 24 fret rosewood fretboard. Stamped metal bridge with 4 "v" cuts for the ball end of the string, with a stick of rosewood for the saddle. The tuners are Kluson GUITAR tuners! (4 of 'em!) Which makes putting new strings on the beast an interesting excerise in un-winding. Tons of weird, cheesey, fiftyish features. VERY DELICATE!!!! Not for a metal player or punker!

Jazz, blues, yes. Some soft rock or pop, again yes. Anything that requires a loud, sharp attack? Hell no. There's nothing close to describe the tone of one of these things. Think a lighter Gibson EB-3L, that mated with a Fender jazz, and that bastard child was scared by a Ric at an early age. For looks, it's ok for the stage. (Which I do rarely, but it's worth all the women digging it!) With the proper amp, it BOOMS! Definately a studio axe though. Not real versital, but it has it's own sound.

Remember, this is a 43 year old instrument, not made to last 5 years. The body is starting to collapse upon itself. The action is slowly raising, and one day I expect to hear that fatal "Crack". The metal nut works fine, and the frets are beautiful. The pickups are still the finest, IMHO, ever made.

43 year old flormica and pine instrument, sold at Sears for $19.95. How durable do you think it is? Oh, and by the way, true, there is no truss rod adjustment. But with the twin "I" beams that Dan Electro used, you don't need one. My neck is still factory straight.

Uh huh.

Iv'e been playing some 20 odd years, and switched over to guitar 6 years ago. The other bass I own is a '80 Kramer DMZ6000B. Which is the completely opposite of the Dano.

Just adding a few comments to the review above. I have one of these basses also and love it for the same reasons as the previous reviewer. I would add that some construction details can vary with these old beasts, as they were being put together by different retailers. Mine came with really great jumbo frets from the factory. I have also seen versions with what looked like an early attempt at master volume with pickup blend as well as treble and midrange tone pots, pretty ahead of the pack for it's time. There are a few different versions of this instrument out there with varying string scale lengths, 30", 32", 331/2, ect. The Coral versions I've seen are actually totally different instruments in size, shape hardware, ect. The Silvertone/Dano is is kinda Big Boss Mannish, while the Coral versions are a bit more delicate, maybe like something the Strawberry Aalrm Clock would have used with a cheesy fuzz box. Hey, they were just tossing these puppies together to fill orders in those days. Christmas Eve was the limit. None of them seems have had an adjustable truss rod. Not good..... As with alot of this Dano/Silvertone stuff, the collecters have managed to jack the price up beyond reason. I'd say that it is a good idea to have some luthier ability if you want work with one of these. Have fun!

Made in 1967 in Neptune, NJ, USA. Some was made for SEARS, as is this one, some were made with the Coral name, these were called Hornets or Wasps or something, and some were made by Dano for their own bad selves and called "Danes". But they are all the same thang ya'll, except for some minor..um..cosmetics. Huge solid poplar body in newnewnew for 1959 space age jizzmasterish shape. 2 lipstick pickups, v/t/v/t and pu selector switch. poplar neck, with a braz. rosewood board and crappy frets. Aluminum nut....headstock looks like a cartoon drawing of a pbass headstock, quite lovely axually. This one was stripped (poplar looks like a 50's coffee table!), but they usually come in a hideous redburst finish. It has the usual dano slab of wood shim bridge. Vintage fender style reverse tuners(weird for dano's but original on this one) 34" scale, making it a VERY interesting dano bass..

Very good long scale-ish sound, not as punchy as my Jerry Jones 30" scale longhorn, but with flats, it makes a very good tone indeed. A great rootsbluesabilly machine..wunderbar for right hand muting techniques...also, with both pu's on, lots of bass for whomping root/5's.

this was already "setup", but all danos need lots of loving care to make them happen. fret work is mandatory, and you must learn to intonate the bridge..or get a replacement, which changes the tone, so leave it alone and figure it out, ok? Also, I rewired it to a blend/vol/tone, and bypassed the selector. actually, all I need is a blend control..this also has a tilt back 3 bolt neck, which WORKS, IF you know how to adjust it. plan on spending many happy hours, cowboy.

Perfect live gig/road bass, once it's setup. Lipsticks sometimes go south due to shorts, etc, but hey there's 2 pickups..and BEWARE of replacement lipsticks, unless you don't care WHAT you sound like.

umm huh. The best thing about danos is learning to DO IT YOURSELF. Go to a knowledgeable repair person (good luck finding one who knows about danos/silvertones though) for frets, etc. The guys that bought the dano name are NOT the people to talk to. Fat Dog at Subway knows some, there's also a book "Guitars from Neptune" though it's slant is for c********s, not people who play instruments to make music.

I had been looking for one of these after reading about how nice they sounded from Hutch Hutchinson and Jerry Scheff. They was right! Unfortunately, the c********s have noticed them too lately, and are starting to charge upwards of $500 for them, which is too much , as you can buy a used Jerry Jones for that and have a way better bass. But if you can find one for what I paid, and put some sweat in it, I think it's a better choice then a mex fender, or p.o.s. gibson thang.