Danelectro Single Pickup Shorthorn

Mine is a model number 3011 standard. Made in 1965. Black body, neck and headstock. Seal pickguard, skate key tuners, single lipstick pup and a very cool 1 3/4" wide nut instead of the 1 5/8" on the older models. The catalog said "Two steel I beams inside the neck provide stiffening to resist all warping and twisting. Not adjustable because it never needs adjusting." Well, it?s 40 years later and it doesn?t need adjusting. The neck is perfect, plays like a dream. The frets are mediums and the board has a very wide, I believe, 14"radius . It?s attached to the body with 3 screws in a triangular pattern with a tilt adjustment set screw at the bottom. The neck profile is a slimmer, flatter C shape than the earlier U models and the re-issues and 1/8" wider across the fretboard.
The body is the usual short horn double cutaway with poplar frame and Masonite front and back boards. No rear access panel because the controls are mounted on the pickguard along with a front mounted output jack. The bridge plate is supposed to be suspended over the body on the adjustment screws. Personally, I don?t like the sound of Dannos set up this way. I make steel shims, the same shape as the bridge plate, use these to adjust the overall string height and put the mounting screws down through the top of the plate so there?s a solid contact between the plate and the body. To me, this makes all the difference in the world. That quacky, upper midrange tone is gone, replaced by a full, rich sound with good sustain. I also replaced the wooden bridge with a compensated brass one. Dannos have the tone control in front and the volume in back. Seems backwards to me. The controls on mine don?t work well. I would also prefer a side mounted instead of front mounted input jack because it puts extra stress on the cable end unless you use a right angle plug. The top strap button is mounted close behind the neck, so there?s no room for the usual wide strap tab. There?s a tone toggle switch that doesn?t seem to do anything. The skate key tuners work OK, but have no damping at all and get bumped out of tune easily.

The tone and playability of this guitar rate a ten for what it does. Tons of soul. Great blues axe.
I?ve been playing a long time, am fussy about guitars and this is one of my favorites even with all its quirks.

I think the guitar was made in 1963. It is simple: one tone and one volume knob and a switch to change polarity or something. It has hand whammy bar that is kind of pointy, resembling a letter opener (I jabbed the hell out of myself with it). The guitar is black and sweet, with a duckfoot (batwing?) headstock. The tuners aren't great but ar good enough.

This is my favorite guitar. I own a bunch of old guitars and new guitars and this is the best. This machine defines raw blues/rock and thrash punk to my ear. It can sound sweet like it wants to play nice, but wants that when it rocks with crisp, immediacy?

The necks on Danelectros are a wonder. The are nice and flat and straight. I have a bit of fret buzz on the low E, but I would fix it if was a major disappointment--it's not. The finish is not bad for a 40 year old guitar.

This guitar is simple, light and strong. It is really a great fuitar. The best I have ever played.

This is the best guitar I ever played. I like my old Silvertones and two pickup Danelectros and old Fenders, but the single pickup, shorthorn gives me the sound and feel I want to play.

I believe mine is a 1959, USA made, usual Dano specs concerning construction. Mine was a rebuild project. Came to me with a brushed on silver painted back, no finish on the front, all the tape intact (with silver paint all over it) The neck was sanded and restained with a dark stain. Tuners rusted and shot to sh*t. Masonite sealshape pickguard was intact and unaltered. No electronics, nut bridge, anything. This guitar had clearly been to hell and back.

I found a vintage lipstick tube pickup and harness pots jack etc..that came out of a 60-61 Silvertone U1, luckily as a cost saver, Dano set up most of their guitars with the same wiring/mounting scheme. The sound is great, sweet for blues.

As I mentioned before, this guitar had been to hell, and with the silver paint on the back, a gay hell at that. The dual rods in the neck had kept it straight through all these years of neglect and abuse. The frets can use a dressing, but I can keep the action pretty low with no buzzing (I mostly play slide anyway). After a bit of Ebay surfing, I was able to find a bridge, skate key tuners (this was originally open back) and all the like. After all put back together, this guitar plays great. I painted her the original black with a slight gloss and clear coat with the proper light sanding between coats.. She is indeed a beauty.

I was really impressed with how much abuse she took before me, and not a crack or chip out of the body, the binding tape was able to stand up to ALOT of vigorous scrubbing with Citris Goo Gone to remove all the paint. Neck has stayed straight as an arrow after all these years in not such forgiving conditions. Fingerboard is till in pretty good shape, with very minor pitting and grooves, but I'm sure there are plenty of years left in it. A very solid axe.

Like I said in my Silvertone U1 review...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

I absolutely love this guitar, although parts are a b*tch to get sometimes, I love my Dano's! I've been playing about 17-18 years, had some of the best guitars in the past, but these guys have a special place for me. The best tone straight into an amp as I've ever heard.

This is a Copper 1962 shorthorn. Made In the good ol' U.S. of A. (unlike the new re-issues) 21 frets. Classic masonite/poplar body construction and maple neck with brazillion rosewood fingerboard (don't get that in the reissues either). 1 Lipstick Pickup, 1 Volume, 1 Tone. I don't rate this because it doesn't matter.

I've fallen in love. I have an american standard strat I used to think was the greatest guitar ever made, untill this came around. I plays the blues and this is blues gold (copper actually, I guess). I play an electrified delta like John Lee Hooker meets Hound Dog Taylor. I use a Silverface Fender Twin Reverb and it barks like a junkyard dog when playin' rythm and howls like a wolf when playin' slide. It's a dead quiet. I'm in love.

It's not factory or anything but the previous owner set it up well. The only thing I dislike about it is the rosewood bridge. It's not possible to get perfect intonation, but I never get perfect intonation on any of my guitars and don't really care (I usually play slide when playing notes up high). It stays in tune amazingly well for having such old cheap tuners on it.

It's lasted 40 years and's goin' strong. Without any hums, nothin'. I can depend on it without backup, just extra strings. I'm one of those fools that plays a gig without a backup (I live for the risk). Strap buttons are solid (that's something the new ones are supposed to have a problem with). I couldn't really tell you if the finish is long lasting. It's already worn off the neck and where your arm rests on the guitar.

Non-existent. The new dano is in no way related to the old company. If you've tried getting a company to work on a 40 year old guitar your a fool (unless it's a martin or gibson and you're the original owner).

Greatest guitar ever made (for me anyway). One of a kind.