New Dano Longhorns

[Dave W]

The the originals had a poplar frame which was stapled together and then covered with masonite. The necks were poplar with a non-adjustable reinforcing rod.

The newest reissues have a plywood frame.

[ilan]

The the originals had a poplar frame which was stapled together and then covered with masonite. The necks were poplar with a non-adjustable reinforcing rod.

...and Brazilian rosewood fretboards. At least the one I used to own, a 1960 6-string bass (shorthorn with "baby seal" pickguard).

[Dave W]

Yes, AFAIK they all had Brazilian rosewood boards. It wasn't expensive at the time compared to ebony.

Poplar isn't very stiff, but with the reinforcing rod and the fretboard's stiffness you seldom saw a bowed Dano neck.

[rahock]

The the originals had a poplar frame which was stapled together and then covered with masonite. The necks were poplar with a non-adjustable reinforcing rod.

The newest reissues have a plywood frame.

I knew someone would jump in with the specifics
Based on the construction  methods and materials you stated, it sounds like a definate recipe for failure,  but it wasn't.

Rick

[ilan]

Not to mention pickups encased in surplus lipstick tubes, cheap tiny machine heads, the aluminum nut held in place with a screw, and the textured cream wallpaper glued to the sides to save paint. But it all worked very well. That's the magic of guitar making, sometimes you don't need exotic tone woods, figured tops, gold plated hardware, fancy inlays and active electronics to achieve good sound.

Old Danoelectros had a neat tone circuit. A switch toggled between "normal" tone (treble cut) and treble-bleed (like a variable baritone switch).

[Bernardduur]

I have no switch on mine; just 2 dual concentric knobs

Pickups are placed in series (humbucker); you regulate tone and volume of em with the knobs so you can make great single coils sounds with it.

[Dave W]

I have no switch on mine; just 2 dual concentric knobs

Pickups are placed in series (humbucker); you regulate tone and volume of em with the knobs so you can make great single coils sounds with it.

I don't know which model you have, but your pickups are definitely not in series if you can make single coil sounds using the knobs. Two coils wired in series is the equivalent of two lights controlled by a single dimmer switch. There's no way to turn only one light down.

Also, a humbucker consists of two coils with one reverse wound and reverse polarity of the other. The coils can either be in series or in parallel. There are single coil guitars and basses with this setup but I've never heard of any vintage Danos wired this way.

[ilan]

I have no switch on mine; just 2 dual concentric knobs

I should have mentioned I was talking about the single pickup model.

[patman]

I bought one, and liked it so much I bought another---really light and fun to play---

They do fingerstyle, pickstyle & slap pretty well--within kind of a unique framework---kind of "Rickish" sounding--a little hollow sounding, but yet Fenderish also.

They also set up within what I call "professional" specs--i.e. I'm kind of picky, and they set up well.

I generally use them with both pickups on, as it is quiet--since they're in series, the volume goes down significantly when you use only one of the pickups.

[Dave W]

I generally use them with both pickups on, as it is quiet--since they're in series, the volume goes down significantly when you use only one of the pickups.

Again, that's not series wiring. Pickups in parallel without a selector switch will do that unless you wire them like a standard J (with the hot wired to the center lug). Pickups in parallel with a selector switch will do  that when both pickups selected

If you can control two pickups separately, they're not wired in series.

[patman]

Not sure of the mechanics, but I read the series thing in a Bassplayer review---said the decrease in volume when switching to a single pup was because when both were on, it was in series.

I'm more of a musician-type so I can really only tell about the tone...both is good'n hot / bass only is o-k / treble only is useless far as I can tell...it's real close to the bridge so it sounds kind of anemic like a capped Rick bridge pup.

Seems like I remember reading something that said they wired the pickups like that because for some reason it allowed them to use that cheap little toggle switch as the only switch for all of their guitars and basses?

[Dave W]

BP obviously hasn't improved. 

I'm no wiring authority but that's definitely incorrect. As I said above, series wiring is like two lights controlled by a single dimmer switch.

I think where people get confused is that with most humbuckers, the two individual coils of the humbucker are wired in series, so people assume that a Les Paul or SG is series wired. But the two pickups are actually in parallel.

[patman]

At least in my instruments you don't have controls for the separate pickups--one is volume the other is a tone cap / both of these affect both pickups--this is from the Danelectro history page---if it helps...cutting and pasting this was about the limit of my computer skills...

 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.

[Dave W]

If you have one volume control that affects both pickups equally, then they're in series.

Edit: I want to make it clear that I'm not familiar with various Dano wiring schemes. I see that the Vintage Guitar Guy site says they wired two pickups in series. And he would know a hell of a lot more about it than I do.

But I do know that in any series circuit, the same current is flowing through both pickups. They can't be controlled by two separate volumes acting independently. So if you have a two-pickup circuit with two volume knobs that act separately on each pickup, it's not a series circuit.

[ilan]

The longhorn shape is an acquired taste.