UNDER THE HOOD
50s models for today’s musician
Both guitars have rear-mounted controls. The ’57’s are accessed via a circular plastic plate held in place by a single central bolt, screwing into a metal bracket that isn’t fixed to anything: it’s a simple clamp that’s not easy to screw back in after you’ve removed it. The ’59’s smaller cavity has a coverplate and three screws – both follow the original designs.
Both also use dual concentric stacked pots that allow you to see the unusual values when removed: the volume uses a linear taper B100kohm pot; the tone is a log taper A1Meg (1,000kohms) with a 0.1microfarads tone cap. So the volume’s value is clearly designed to tame some of the highs, and the tone allows a wide taper with considerable roll-off. Although the plastic television-style knobs on the ’57 feel a little insubstantial they do work well – especially the tone.
However, the ’59 is wired in reverse: the larger outer control knob affects the tone and the top pointer knob the volume. It’s not wired incorrectly and the pots are stacked in the opposite manner. The knobs here do seem even more flimsy and that pointer knob points in towards the bridge; on all the original Dano brochures they mostly pointed outwards. It’s easy to change, which we did.
Originally, you’d see these electronics wrapped in copper foil, and by 1962 Danelectro promoted ‘Total Shielding’“from static and interference caused by neon, flashing lights, motors, other nearby noise sources”, says Dano. Remember, Nat Daniel was a skilled electronics engineer and during World War II he worked as a civilian engineer. In the Neptune Bound: The Ultimate Danelectro Guitar Guide book, his son Howard relates that “he found a simple, economical way to equip military jeeps and motorcycles with shielding to prevent the electronic ‘noise’ their engines generated from interfering with the reception of critical battlefield radio messages”. Perhaps deemed less important today, there’s no shielding here with the exception of some foil on the ’59’s coverplate.