THE DANO STORY

The fast read on how Danelectro came to be

History might have consigned Danelectro to the cheap and cheerful basket but Nathaniel Daniel shone very brightly back in the forward-looking America of the 1950s and 60s. He’d begun making amps in the bedroom of his parents’ New York apartment before moving to a loft in Lower Manhatten, becoming Daniel Electrical Laboratories. His first big customer was Epiphone. Post-WWII he reopened his business in Red Bank, New Jersey, as the Danelectro

Corporation, soon picking up large contracts with the two major retail chains Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward to supply amps under the respective names of Silvertone and Airline. He moved into the guitar business in 1954 (making both Danelectro and certain Silvertone models) and relocated to larger premises in Neptune City, New Jersey, by the end of the decade. By the time he sold up to MCA in 1966, Danelectro employed around 500 people. Quite an operation.

Many of Nat Daniel’s ‘firsts’ were not patented, such as the six-string bass in 1956, the 31-fret Guitarlin in 1958, and the 12-string electric guitar in 1961. There was also the famous Silvertone ‘amp-in-case’ guitar that sold for under $50, and a ‘Convertible’ beginner acoustic that could be purchased with or upgraded to an electric semi with a pickup kit. Nat was all about making highquality amps and guitars at prices beginners could afford. There’s little doubt that he helped spread rock ’n’ roll across America and beyond. Early Dano/Silvertone users read like a who’s-who of rock ’n’ roll… Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and thousands more.

In many ways his methods and the materials he used were just as innovative – certainly as ingenious – as that whippersnapper Leo Fender across the continent in California. By the time the U series appeared in 1955 he’d settled on what looked like a solidbody but was actually a sealed semi-hollow design made from a frame (and with a centre block that stops just behind the bridge) of stapled pieces of polar and pine with a Masonite (hardboard) top and back. Oh, and don’t forget the glued-on textured vinyl that covered the sides. Necks were made from poplar, originally with a square and hollow aluminium rod reinforcement before the ‘Never Warp’ neck with its two steel rods appeared in 1956. Later, a neck-tilt adjustment was added almost a decade before the folk at Fender used it – and they still do, of course. And don’t forget the stacked volume and tone controls, which also pre-dated Fender’s use on the Jazz Bass by a good few years.

Although the story stopped in 1969 after MCA pulled the plug, the popularity of these funky guitars didn’t. The brand reappeared with new owners in the late 90s and has been producing pretty much constantly over the last two decades, invariably Korean-made instruments (some from China) that certainly uphold many of those original design principles as we document in our review.

Nat was all about making high-quality amps and guitars at prices beginners could afford

Reference: Neptune Bound: The Ultimate Danelectro Guitar Guide by Doug Tulloch