Danelectro 57

review
DANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE
98
GUITARIST OCTOBER 2020
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. His first big customer was
Epiphone. Post-WWII he reopened his business
in Red Bank, New Jersey, as the Danelectro
Corporation, soon picking up large contracts
with the two major retail chains Sears Roebuck
and Montgomery Ward to supply amps under
the respective names of Silvertone and
Airline. He moved into the guitar business in
1954 (making both Danelectro and certain
Silvertone models) and relocated to larger
premises in Neptune City, New Jersey, by the
end of the decade. By the time he sold up to
MCA in 1966, Danelectro employed around
500 people. Quite an operation.
Many of Nat Daniel’s ‘firsts’ were not
patented, such as the six-string bass in 1956,
the 31-fret Guitarlin in 1958, and the 12-string
electric guitar in 1961. There was also the
famous Silvertone ‘amp-in-case’ guitar
that sold for under $50, and a ‘Convertible’
beginner acoustic that could be purchased
with or upgraded to an electric semi with a
pickup kit. Nat was all about making high-
quality amps and guitars at prices beginners
could afford. There’s little doubt that he
helped spread rock ’n’ roll across America and
beyond. Early Dano/Silvertone users read like
a who’s-who of rock ’n’ roll… Hendrix, Jimmy
Page, Eric Clapton and thousands more.
In many ways his methods and the materials
he used were just as innovative – certainly
as ingenious – as that whippersnapper Leo
Fender across the continent in California. By
the time the U series appeared in 1955 he’d
settled on what looked like a solidbody but
was actually a sealed semi-hollow design
made from a frame (and with a centre block
that stops just behind the bridge) of stapled
pieces of polar and pine with a Masonite
(hardboard) top and back. Oh, and don’t forget
the glued-on textured vinyl that covered the
sides. Necks were made from poplar, originally
with a square and hollow aluminium rod
reinforcement before the ‘Never Warp’ neck
with its two steel rods appeared in 1956. Later,
a neck-tilt adjustment was added almost a
decade before the folk at Fender used it – and
they still do, of course. And don’t forget the
stacked volume and tone controls, which also
pre-dated Fender’s use on the Jazz Bass by a
good few years.
Although the story stopped in 1969 after
MCA pulled the plug, the popularity of these
funky guitars didn’t. The brand reappeared
with new owners in the late 90s and has been
producing pretty much constantly over the
last two decades, invariably Korean-made
instruments (some from China) that certainly
uphold many of those original design
principles as we document in our review.
Reference:
Neptune Bound: The Ultimate
Danelectro Guitar Guide by Doug Tulloch
Nat was all about
making high-quality
amps and guitars
at prices beginners
could afford
3. In Danelectro lore this
is known as the ‘Coke
bottle’ headstock.
Instead of the usual
aluminium nut, here on
both our review models
it changes to bone
4. These pointer-style
knobs were another
style used by Danelectro.
Oddly, however, their
functions are reversed
so that top pointer is the
volume and the larger
circular knob controls
the tone
3
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
GIT464.rev_dano.indd 98 03/09/2020 17:10