1965 Danelectro Convertible (Modded) Hollowbody Electric Guitar (Update)

Update: I worked on this just back in February but I have been upgrading store fixtures so needs-must. I originally had it strung-up in "Nashville" tuning but have since converted it back to normal tuning and swapped-in an ABR-style bridge and posts for ease-of-use... now back to my (modified) original writeup...

I have worked on a ton of old '60s Convertibles and a bunch of modern ones, too. This one has a date-stamp which puts it at '65 and it still has the cool old "Coke bottle" headstock shape. I bought this for recording and hangng-out use because I'm a Dano-fan to the hilt.

This one came in without a bridge and with a dead wiring harness, so I replaced the missing bridge with a parts-bin ABR-style with adjustable posts and then replaced the wiring harness and also fit a K&K acoustic piezo pickup inside. The new harness is "volume-volume" in the knobs so you can blend to your heart's content.

The mag pickup on its own sounds as good as you'd expect -- these old Danos have their thing and that thing is delicious -- but I think the best sound is with both pickups mixed-in 100% to the signal. In that setting the whole instrument gets a Rickenbacker-like smeary chime that's so good...

It's playing spot-on and ready to serve. I string these with 10s and, even though the acoustic sound is good enough for practicing and writing tunes on, I think the main focus with Convertibles is the electric/plugged-in sound.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, replacement bridge, new wiring harness (volume/volume), 2nd pickup added (K&K acoustic piezo), added string trees at headstock (unfortunately necessary -- there's very little back-angle up there), cleaning, and setup work.

• Weight: 5 lbs 7 oz
• Scale length: 25"
• Nut width: 1 11/16"
• Neck shape: slim-medium C
• Board radius: 16"
• Body width: 13 1/8"
• Body depth: 2"
• Body wood: masonite
• Bridge: ABR-style
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: poplar
• Pickups: 1x orginal '60s Dano lipstick single coil, 1x K&K single spot piezo
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 46w-10
• Truss rod: two non-adjustable steel bars
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: lower-wider

Condition notes: much is original but the wiring harness and added K&K pickup are not. The bridge is also non-original and I had to add string trees at the nut ("antiqued" Fender-style) to keep the downpressure good at the headstock. I moved the strap button from the back of the heel to the top horn. There's general wear and tear throughout the finish of the body and neck but overall it looks nice. The finish on the neck has darkened a lot and the hardware throughout is a bit dingy.

It comes with: sorry, no case.

Consignor tag: JW