"The Modern-Day Danelectro"

This is an extremely well made modern day Danelectro with a hollow body double cutaway black masonite top and bottom over poplar sides which are covered in cream vinyl. The (four) bolt-on maple neck has a wide nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a thin profile. The rosewood fretboard has 21 jumbo frets and pearloid dot position markers. The headstock has three-a-side Individual Gotoh closed back tuners with oval metal buttons and a decal with a red circle and "Neptune" in gold edged in black. The truss rod adjustment is at the body end of the neck. Three (angled) Jerry Jones Lipstick Tube single-coil pickups with outputs of 3.41k, 3.39k and 4.17k. Transparent perspex pickguard with single line border and "Neptune" in white, with two screws. Two controls (one volume, one tone) with cream plastic knobs with ribbed sides, plus five-way pickup selector switch with cream plastic tip. Combined (Fender style) Gotoh bridge/tailpiece with individually adjustable saddles. Inside the control cavity is a rectangular white label with "JJG - Nashville / SN 046800". A mint example housed in the original G & G imitation crocodile hardshell case with red plush lining (9.50).

The five-way switch works as follows: 1. N: 2. N+B: 3. M: 4. M+B: 5. B (N=Neck: M=Middle: B=Bridge pickup).

Jerry Jones Guitars is an instrument manufacturer based in Nashville, Tennessee. "The company specializes in making electric guitars and basses based on designs from the fifties and sixties. They also make some more unusual instruments, like six string basses, baritone guitars, sitar guitars, the shorty octave 12-string and the guitarlin, which is a cross between a guitar and a mandolin. Many of the company's instrument designs borrow heavily from the early designs of electric electric guitar company Danelectro." (http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Jerry-Jones-Guitars)

Masonite, a wood composite used for the top and bottom of Jerry Jones guitars, was invented in 1924 and mass use of the material began in 1929. For twenty years Masonite was used for many manufactured goods, including doors, roofing, walls, desktops, canoes, and is still used for home siding. Used in some electric guitars in the past, particularly Danelectros, for its excellent resonant qualities, Masonite slightly accentuates the high end with a tendency to roll off some of the low end rumble. It will produce a smooth transition to the middle range. It is also considered to be one of the best materials for making a Wobble Board.

The Wobble Board is a folk instrument popularized by Australian musician and artist Rolf Harris and featured in his best-known song, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport." Though almost any large, rigid but flexible sheet of material can be used, the rich timbre of Masonite makes it the musician's choice.

The instrument is played by holding the board lengthwise, hands at the sides and flicking the board outward, making the characteristic "whoop-whoop" noise. The angle the board is held at and the way the board is 'flicked' can alter the tone of the Wobble Board. It is similar to the boards that were used to make thunder on stage during Shakespeare's era.

According to an interview he gave to Tony Barrell for The Sunday Times Magazine in 2001, Rolf discovered the musical properties of Masonite by chance while using it as a painting surface. At one point "I propped it between the palms of my hands and shook it… I thought, 'What a marvelous sound,'" he declared.

Continuing, Rolf said “My first Wobble Board was made of 2-foot by 3-foot 1/10th inch thick hardboard (as Masonite is known in Australia), although they can be made slightly smaller. It is played, not by gripping the board with the fingers, but by propping it between the palms of the hands and bouncing it, accenting every second rhythm…I've found tempered hardboard works best."