1967 Danelectro Dane Electric 12-String Guitar

Holy hell, right? Danelectro Danes are rare enough -- especially in this "red crackle" finish. They're also rare to find so clean. But -- I'll tell you -- this is the first time I've seen one in a 12-string format personally. A buddy of mine brought this up and it came strung as a 6-string and with one of the worst warps in a Dano neck that I've ever seen -- it had a full 1/16" warp to it. I'm guessing someone strung it up with an acoustic 12-string set and left it in storage for 30 years at some point. I've seen other electric 12-strings crippled that way before.

Suffice to say, I convinced him to let me do it up properly, which I've done. As a result, it plays like a gem, is as effortless as a 6-string to play, and it plays in tune up and down the neck due to a fully-compensated saddle, too. I can't stress how important that is for an electric 12-string to sound professional. As for the sound -- it's Dano-heaven! These sound like nothing else -- they're chimey and clean and kerrangy and warm and rootsy all at once -- and are lightweight to boot.

Work included: a board plane/level and a refret with jumbo/pyramid-shaped stock. The shielded wiring harness was grounded better and I added a ground to the bridge (who'd'a'thought'a'that?!) as well. The bridge itself got a "riser" washer so the ball-ends were made easier to mount and I fully-compensated (+/- for each string in a pair) the original rosewood bridge saddle, too. There are a few replacement (same-style) tuner ferrules added. Post-work the neck is dead straight under tension and it plays bang-on with 1/16" action overall at the 12th fret. I used a custom string-set with gauges 20w/42w, 15/32w, 9/24w, 8/14, 11/11, 8/8. That might seem an extremely-light set but it feels natural when you're playing it. I wanted to keep this neck healthy considering its past. These gauges make it feel like "banjo tension" and help keep the tension at about 160-170lbs -- the same as a 6-string with 54w-12 gauges on it. Considering that the interior design of the neck is no different from a normal 6-string Dano neck (which usually only run 90-110lb stung for 10s or 11s), it seemed important to keep the tension as light as possible. 

Scale length: 25"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"

Body length: 19 3/4"

Lower bout width: 13 1/2"

Upper bout width: 11 1/4"

Side depth at endpin: 1 3/8"

Body wood: poplar, solid

Fretboard: rosewood

Bridge: rosewood saddle, steel base

Neck feel: slim-to-medium C, 12" radius board, jumbo frets

Neck wood: poplar

Condition notes: it's 100% original save my added ground wire, a couple tuner ferrules, frets, and mod to the saddle. It's also very clean save a minor crack in the pickguard near the jack and the usual finish-rubbing on the lower-bout from arm-wear and on the back of the neck from hand-wear. Someone added a tiny screw just south of the neck pickup -- presumably to keep the pickguard from bulging-up as it's changed over time.

Outrageous finish, right? I love the chrome Danelectro nameplate, too.

The new frets and freshly-planed neck give this thing a boutique feel, now.

Everything in the control layout works as you'd expect on a Dano -- the two pickups both on are wired in series and serve as God's-own-awesomest-sounding-humbucker. That's where I like to leave it as it drives an amp deliciously. Separately, they're a little thinner-sounding.

The only control that's really weird is the tone control for the bridge pickup (lowest knob) which is more like "tone-sucker." It removes bass and presence from the pickup rather than muddying it to dark and only bass. It's totally weird but it does give you neat effects when used in tandem with the neck pickup or if you want a quieter/thinner strummy-effect just from the bridge pickup.

The original "skate key" tuners are going strong, but if I were tuning-up 12-strings daily, I might opt for StewMac repro 12-string units instead as these are lower-ratio and have slack if you down-tune.