Time Warp Over six decades on from his early creations, the production vision of designer Nathan ‘Nat’ I Daniel still shines. But what place does Danelectro have in today’s different world? Words Dave Burrluck Photography Olly Curtis 94 GUITARIST OCTOBER 2020 GIT464.rev_dano.
VIDEO DEMO DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE http://bit.ly/guitaristextra review DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE £799 & £899 CONTACT JHS PHONE 01132 865381 WEB www.danelectro.com What You Need To Know 1 Are Danos still made from plywood and hardboard? Back in the 50s, Danelectro pioneered a very different construction using a wood frame (poplar and/or pine) topped front and back with Masonite, better known in the UK as hardboard.
review DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE 1. These aged Gotoh tuners might ape the budget style of yesteryear but they’re a welcome highquality addition here 2. Back in the day Danelectro used a varying number of screws to hold the neck to the body. The modern reissues invariably use five screws on the single-cut designs like this ’57 Guitar 2 1 In a guitar like a Strat, you have the pickup in a cavity so it largely just picks up the sound from the strings.
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra UNDER THE HOOD 50s models for today’s musician DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE review Inside the ’57 you can see the stacked volume and tone controls B oth guitars have rear-mounted controls. The ’57’s are accessed via a circular plastic plate held in place by a single central bolt, screwing into a metal bracket that isn’t fixed to anything: it’s a simple clamp that’s not easy to screw back in after you’ve removed it.
review DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra THE DANO STORY The fast read on how Danelectro came to be H istory might have consigned Danelectro to the cheap and cheerful basket but Nathaniel Daniel shone very brightly back in the forward-looking America of the 1950s and 60s. He’d begun making amps in the bedroom of his parents’ New York apartment before moving to a loft in Lower Manhatten, becoming Daniel Electrical Laboratories.
DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE review 4 on the ’59, which more likely would have had three screws in a straight line back in the 1950s. Both necks sit on a similar length heel platform that’s slightly thinner in width than the neck on the ’59 and quite a lot narrower on the ’57 on the treble side – this was originally where the upper strap button would have been placed. Today, that button sits at the tip of the heel.
review DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE LIP GLOSS A deep look at the Danelectros’ unique single-coil pickup O ne aspect of the new ’59 Divine is the ‘Vintage 50s’ pickups. “The pickups are a great replica of the best 50s pickups,” Steve Ridinger of Dano owners the Evets Corporation told us at the guitars’ launch at NAMM earlier this year. “We looked at a lot of old pickups and analysed them,” he said.
VIDEO DEMO DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE http://bit.ly/guitaristextra 5. These new Vintage 50s single coils are unique to the ’59 Divine and ’57 models. They switch to an Alnico 6 magnet and the famous lipstick tube covers are thinner and made of a slightly different material review 6. It’s always good to see a proper metal jack plate on any electric.
review DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE 7 The ’57’s mixed pickup position has sparkle, balls and quite a gnarly grind: it’s ‘the’ Dano sound Verdict With the huge amount of choice in the lower-end of the guitar market, Dano’s original budget value seems rather compromised. These are the highest priced original-style Danos by quite a margin but that is reflected by the new Vintage 50s Lipstick pickups, the body construction, the bone nut and Gotoh tuners.
