1956 Danelectro
"Danelectro - The Modern, Non-Warping, Slim-Neck, Solid center Electric Guitar" (1956 Advertisement)
This 13 1/4 inch-wide, 1 3/4 inch deep, single-cutaway guitar weighs just 5.50 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 inches. Masonite top and back over a pine frame with 'solid center' strip. Body covered in ginger colored vinyl with tan edging. Two white plastic strap buttons. Medium to thick profile poplar neck (three screw neck-to-body attachment) with dual steel non-adjustable "Never Warp" truss rod system. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with aluminium nut, 21 frets and white plastic position dot markers on both the top-edge and fretboard face (with double dots at positions seven and twelve). 'Coke-Bottle' shaped headstock with trapezoid shaped clear plastic plate (with rounded top and bottom with matching perimeter stripe in silver) and "Danelectro" silk-screened in silver (secured by two screws). Open-back Kluson Ideal G-132 three-a-side strip tuners with white oval plastic buttons. Single "Lipstick-Tube / Split-Shell" pickup with alnico bar magnet and an output of 12.65k. The pickup height can be adjusted via two screws on the back of the body. Clear plastic pickguard with perimeter stripe and 'D' logo in gold, secured by two screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) + three-way metal toggle 'tone' switch. The potentiometers are stamped: 137 521 (CTS, May 1955). White plastic knobs with heavily 'ribbed' edges and domed tops. Combination Brazilian rosewood bar bridge on a four-way adjustable lightweight aluminium tailpiece. There is no visible serial number which is often the case with early Danelectro's. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition with just a few small marks on the edges of the body and on the edge of the headstock. Housed in a slightly later (sixties) three-latch, shaped black softshell case with black felt lining (9.00).
The original price way back in 1956 was $75 !! Just about every great guitar player from Jeff Beck to Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page to Eddie Van Halen - and even Elvis Presley has used a Danelectro or a Silvertone at one time or another…
Before Nathan Daniel started the Danelectro company in 1947, he made amplifiers for Epiphone from 1934 to 1946. Epiphone wanted Daniel to make amps for them exclusively, but he preferred to stay independent. Instead he founded the Danelectro company in 1947 and started making amplifiers for Montgomery Ward. By 1948 Daniel expanded and became the exclusive guitar amplifier producer for Sears & Roebuck. At the same time he was also supplying other jobbers such as Targ & Dinner of Chicago.the Silvertone name. He also produced the same guitars under the Danelectro name, sold to other jobbers. These early models didn't have truss rods but had a 3/4" square aluminum tube beginning at the peghead and through the body to the bridge. The bodies were constructed of solid Poplar wood. The Silvertone models were covered with a dark maroon vinyl covering, while the Danelectro models were covered in a whitish tweed material. Both lines came with either 1 or 2 pickups, concealed under a baked melamine pickguard. Concentric stacked tone and volume knobs were used on the two pickup models only. Notably, when both pickups were used together, the tone was much stronger. This was due to wiring the pickups in series, instead of parallel like most other maker's two pickup guitars. By the fall of 1956, Daniel started making the Silvertone and Danelectro lines using the standard Dano materials: a Poplar wood frame (that comprised the sides, neck and bridge block of the guitar), stapled together and covered with 3/8" thick masonite. The top and back was painted, but the sides were covered in a vinyl material to hide the unpainted poplar wood frame. Also the now infamous "Lipstick tube" pickups were used. These pickups had an alnico bar magnet and coil measuring 4.75k ohms wrapped in brown vinyl tape. The pickup guts were placed inside surplus, chrome plated, lipstick tubes. These pickups were actually the same as previously used and hidden beneath the pickguard. Just now they were adorned in lipstick tubes and mounted in cutouts in the masonite body. Construction methods stayed this way for most models throughout Danelectro's history.
This 13 1/4 inch-wide, 1 3/4 inch deep, single-cutaway guitar weighs just 5.50 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 25 inches. Masonite top and back over a pine frame with 'solid center' strip. Body covered in ginger colored vinyl with tan edging. Two white plastic strap buttons. Medium to thick profile poplar neck (three screw neck-to-body attachment) with dual steel non-adjustable "Never Warp" truss rod system. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with aluminium nut, 21 frets and white plastic position dot markers on both the top-edge and fretboard face (with double dots at positions seven and twelve). 'Coke-Bottle' shaped headstock with trapezoid shaped clear plastic plate (with rounded top and bottom with matching perimeter stripe in silver) and "Danelectro" silk-screened in silver (secured by two screws). Open-back Kluson Ideal G-132 three-a-side strip tuners with white oval plastic buttons. Single "Lipstick-Tube / Split-Shell" pickup with alnico bar magnet and an output of 12.65k. The pickup height can be adjusted via two screws on the back of the body. Clear plastic pickguard with perimeter stripe and 'D' logo in gold, secured by two screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) + three-way metal toggle 'tone' switch. The potentiometers are stamped: 137 521 (CTS, May 1955). White plastic knobs with heavily 'ribbed' edges and domed tops. Combination Brazilian rosewood bar bridge on a four-way adjustable lightweight aluminium tailpiece. There is no visible serial number which is often the case with early Danelectro's. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition with just a few small marks on the edges of the body and on the edge of the headstock. Housed in a slightly later (sixties) three-latch, shaped black softshell case with black felt lining (9.00).
The original price way back in 1956 was $75 !! Just about every great guitar player from Jeff Beck to Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page to Eddie Van Halen - and even Elvis Presley has used a Danelectro or a Silvertone at one time or another…
Before Nathan Daniel started the Danelectro company in 1947, he made amplifiers for Epiphone from 1934 to 1946. Epiphone wanted Daniel to make amps for them exclusively, but he preferred to stay independent. Instead he founded the Danelectro company in 1947 and started making amplifiers for Montgomery Ward. By 1948 Daniel expanded and became the exclusive guitar amplifier producer for Sears & Roebuck. At the same time he was also supplying other jobbers such as Targ & Dinner of Chicago.the Silvertone name. He also produced the same guitars under the Danelectro name, sold to other jobbers. These early models didn't have truss rods but had a 3/4" square aluminum tube beginning at the peghead and through the body to the bridge. The bodies were constructed of solid Poplar wood. The Silvertone models were covered with a dark maroon vinyl covering, while the Danelectro models were covered in a whitish tweed material. Both lines came with either 1 or 2 pickups, concealed under a baked melamine pickguard. Concentric stacked tone and volume knobs were used on the two pickup models only. Notably, when both pickups were used together, the tone was much stronger. This was due to wiring the pickups in series, instead of parallel like most other maker's two pickup guitars. By the fall of 1956, Daniel started making the Silvertone and Danelectro lines using the standard Dano materials: a Poplar wood frame (that comprised the sides, neck and bridge block of the guitar), stapled together and covered with 3/8" thick masonite. The top and back was painted, but the sides were covered in a vinyl material to hide the unpainted poplar wood frame. Also the now infamous "Lipstick tube" pickups were used. These pickups had an alnico bar magnet and coil measuring 4.75k ohms wrapped in brown vinyl tape. The pickup guts were placed inside surplus, chrome plated, lipstick tubes. These pickups were actually the same as previously used and hidden beneath the pickguard. Just now they were adorned in lipstick tubes and mounted in cutouts in the masonite body. Construction methods stayed this way for most models throughout Danelectro's history.
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