Jerry Jones Long Horn Six String Bass

Danelectro Long Horn six string bass repro made in Nashville. This review is of a recent Neptune version with a truss rod, maple neck/rw board, and metal adjustable bridge, as opposed to the straight Dano copy wooden shim bridge and poplar neck older models. It's made of masonite on a frame; hollow body. 2 of Jerry's own tremendous sounding alnico lipstick pu's with v/t/pu selector switch. Passive of course. Beautiful rosewood board with great fret work. This one is finished in a "copperburst" copper to white paint job, like the early danos. Nice kluson tuners. 30" scale neck, which is Extremely important for the twang thang.

The ultimate twang sound, period. Dano 6's were first used to double upright bass sounds in the early 60's, they were referred to as Tic Tac basses. Then Dwayne Eddy started doing instrumentals on them, and they took off! Fell out of popularity until Dave Edmunds brought them back in late 70's..This is a great sound for roots/country music. You have to use a pick, play it near the bridge, have the right gauge strings (made by D'adario, set XL-155), a Twin Reverb and compressor, etc. It is NOT a bass though..so don't use it for one, ok? although in a pinch I have.. Other fun things to try are capo-ing it up around the 5th fret..and playing slide on it too. Also, jazz-bos love this ax, and if I ever figure out the chord progression to Stella by Starlight, I would probably be playing that too..though i is in NO hurry.

"Vintage" dano six string longhorn basses have LONG been taken off the scene by obnoxious collectors, and you can't touch one for under $1000. Jerry's is better as you can actually play it! and it stays in tune, with all the tone(and usually MORE, as older dano lipsticks eventually fade away) of the ridiculously overpriced danos, which do not stay in tune, and DO not have truss rods in their noodle-like poplar necks..( well, some are noodle-like, you takes your chances)I bought this one used as usual, and the bridge was all the way down on the body, as low as it could go, and there was still NO rattling or funny business going on..a really good clue about his workmanship. These are all hand finished.

see above!

Jerry runs a small place in Nashville, making wonderful instruments. He has been more than helpful/patient with me, always returns your calls, gives you set-up info, etc., even tried to help me locate a used one when my original vanished! Try that at Guitaroppolis USA.

My first Jerry Jones 6 was permanently "borrowed", and I felt like I was missing an arm...After you own one of these for a while, you will begin to wonder how you got along without it..they are that cool. I used to own a 1963 Fender Bass VI, the $$$ "vintage" Fender version of this, but this one KILLS it as far as tone is concerned..same goes for the Fender Baritone, and an older dano six I had as well. Don't even bother with the Chandler..To have the real twang, you need alnico pu's..2 of them, especially the bridge pu. Sometimes you will see an ad for a dano shorthorn at what SEEMS to be a reasonable price (under $700, gee what a deal...), BUT there's only one pickup, so it does NOT make THE sound. A reasonable alternative used to be a solid body Sears dano 6, the SHORT SCALE one, but these seem to have disappeared too. For under $500 used, this is a great buy, as are ALL of Jerry Jones' instruments. Someone find me a used JJ sitar.. BTW he also makes a baritone guitar, which is 1/2 way between this and a regular guitar, a 28" scale, with a low "a"..But I vote for the low E...Bawaaang!