Danelectro 57

99
OCTOBER 2020 GUITARIST
reviewDANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE
Feel & Sounds
Both guitars weigh in the same and are
nicely light, too – they hang well from a
strap, though. The extended heel stops
directly under the 14th fret and houses the
upper strap button, and despite the guitars’
differing outlines, the heel’s position means
fluid upper-position fretwork is somewhat
compromised on the ’59, and slightly more
so on the ’57.
If you like slim necks, you’ll feel at
home here and we could be describing a
contemporary shred-friendly design. 1st
fret depth on both is 19.9mm, filling out a
little by the 10th to 22mm. In profile we
have a flattish ‘C’ without the shoulder of a
D shape, which is combined with a pretty
flat fingerboard radius that we measured at
392mm (16 inches), not the quoted 356mm
(14 inches). This slightly unusual feel is
enhanced by a medium width wire that
is a little on the low side (around 2.67mm
by 1mm), and you can’t help thinking a
slightly higher wire with just a slightly
rounder fingerboard would elevate these
further. Mind you, both are set up nicely
and intonation is very good – unlike some
originals we’ve played over the years. Scale
length, by the way, is 635mm (25 inches),
the same as PRS.
Quite possibly the last guitar you’d want
to take out on a long covers or function gig,
the Danelectro sound shoots for character,
which frankly both of these models have in
abundance. We discuss the new Vintage 50s
single-coil pickups elsewhere in this feature
(see the Lip Gloss box, over the page) but
our first impressions are that the output is
low and bass is light. The ’57 sounds a little
thicker at the bridge, more clouded at the
neck, and there’s quite an open midrange.
In the mixed pickup position, due to the
series wiring, the volume leaps, thickening
The Danelectro sound
shoots for character,
which frankly both
of these models have
in abundance
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.
Another thing separating the two models
is the actual placement of the single-coil
pickups, even though both use two single
coils. The centre of the ’57’s bridge pickup
sits approximately 35mm in front of the
bridge; the neck single coil is 135mm away.
The ’59’s pickups are slanted so the treble
side sits closer to the bridge than the bass
side: 26mm to 32mm for the bridge pickup
and 113mm to 120mm for the neck. This
placement means that you’d expect a little
more treble cut on the ’59’s bridge pickup
and less depth on its almost mid-placed
‘neck’ pickup. Conversely, we’d expect the
’57’s bridge pickup to have less treble while
the neck pickup should be a little deeper
sounding. We’ll see.
reviewDANELECTRO ’57 GUITAR & ’59 DIVINE
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GIT464.rev_dano.indd 99 03/09/2020 17:10