1960 Danelectro Shorthorn Electric Guitar

This is a customer's Dano "shorthorn" electric that was in for a bit of fret-end dressing, proper compensation at the saddle, and a good setup. It's the cleanest Dano I've ever seen and it even has its original hard case in cherry shape! As usual, it sounds excellent. After setup the action and feel is fast, easy, and professional -- despite its lowly birth from masonite mixed with pine and poplar blocking.

The lightweight semi-hollow design also gives them a distinctly different tone -- bright, crisp and clear like a Fender but with a certain dryness and airy fundamental sound more like a proper "archtop" semi-hollow guitar.

Long-scale Danelectros like this one are a bit rarer than the usual "student fare" models with the shorter, 22-23" scale length. The difference between these and the shorter-scale models is immense as these have more sparkle, sustain, and clarity right off the bat. I do, however, love the short-scale Danos if they're equipped with flatwound 12s or similar -- they get a curious "vintage jazz" tonality, that way.

The necks on these are flattish in radius and have a thinner, C/D-shaped rear. They're poplar with two glued-in steel rods for support and have Brazilian rosewood fretboards.

The controls are like a Fender Esquire with volume, tone, and a 3-way tone-modification switch.

Note the string-compensation notches on the original rosewood saddle -- Danos won't intonate well unless they're modified a bit. These are compensated for 3-wound, 3-plain stringing and I lightly "tacked" the saddle in place (they often loosen-up mid-gig just when you don't want them to) with a couple super-glue dots after I located it correctly.

The original case is in awesome shape. How about that? I see those so rarely.