TOP: Could this be the love child of a Danelectro Convertible, a double-lipstick
Dano U2, and a Les Paul?
BOTTOM: Though it looks like a humbucker, this add-on bridge pickup is actually
a ’70s single-coil.
I’m always scouting for cool
inexpensive guitars and gear.
If you’re patient and know
where to look, you can find
some great guitars out there
for $300-$400, and sometimes
even
under $100.
A few months ago, I saw
this guitar on eBay and had
to do a double take. It looked
like a mutant cross between
a Danelectro Convertible, a
double-lipstick Dano U2, and
a Les Paul. Peering at it, I realized
some crazy person (or
genius) had apparently taken
a U2 reissue and cut a giant
round soundhole in the top—so
upon first glance it resembled
a Dano Convertible thinline
acoustic-electric. But the owner
had also added what looked like
a bridge-position humbucker.
Huh? A humbucker mixed with
a lipstick pickup? Surely you
jest. What mad scientist could
have concocted this recipe for
sonic disaster?
The guitar was listed with
a BIN (Buy It Now) price of
$149.95 and $22.95 for shipping.
I wasn’t sure I was ready to
pull the trigger, so I bookmarked
the auction in my eBay Watch
List and went about my business.
But every time I got on the
computer, I found myself checking
the auction to see if someone
had bought it yet. No question
about it, that guitar was
starting to haunt me. Finally,
after three or four days, I could
stand it no more. I broke down
and bought it before someone
else snatched it up.
When it arrived, I was
impressed by the guitar’s looks
as I unpacked it. The previous
owner had painted the front (and
inside the soundhole) a beautiful
blonde color that slightly
resembled an old Fender Tele,
and the finish looked even cooler
in person than in the pictures.
But I immediately noticed
the guitar had one major problem:
the bridge. The action was
very high, and when I tried
to lower the old-style, 3-pivot
bridge, I found it was out of
alignment with one of the
height-adjustment screws. This
rendered further adjustment
impossible on the treble-string
side. This was a perplexing
problem I’d never encountered
before on a Dano.
I studied the situation for
a moment, then removed the
strings, took the bridge apart,
and re-drilled a correctly
aligned hole for the offending
screw. That did the trick—now
I could lower the bridge where
I wanted it.
Bottom Feeder Tip #2251:
Never be afraid to drill a hole
or two to make a guitar play
or sound better. I didn’t
bother
to fill in the old hole, mainly
because it is not outwardly visible.
And because I’m lazy.
The next step was to check
out the electronics and the
amplified sound. After plugging
it in, right off the bat I noticed a
huge volume imbalance between
the neck and bridge pickups.
Upon closer examination, I saw
that the weenie-sounding lipstick
pickup was sitting too far away
from the strings. Because of the
new soundhole, the old pickup-mounting
hardware was now
ineffective at raising and lowering
the pickup properly. Double-sided
mounting tape and longer
pickup-mounting springs
allowed me to bring the lipstick
pickup closer to the strings.
Now the balance between
the pickups was normal. When
I re-read the auction’s item
description, I learned that the
bridge pickup was actually a
single-coil from a ’70s Global
clone of a Les Paul, and
not
a humbucker, as I originally
thought. Interesting.
However, there was one
more problem: When both
pickups were on, they were out
of phase. This didn’t bother
me at first, but after a while
that nasally out-of-phase sound
started to bug me. So back to
my workbench I went. All I
had to do was reverse the hot
and ground wires on one of the
pickups. But which one? I chose
to reverse the neck-pickup
wires, because sometimes reversing
a pickup’s leads will cause
it to hum if you touch it. I
figured I’m less likely to accidentally
touch the neck pickup.
I was lucky—that took care of
the problem just fine.
And how is the Dano now?
It’s really fun. It’s a joy to bend
strings on the flat fretboard, and
the guitar has a nice, Fender-ish
sound when amplified. It took
only a few hours to get all the
bugs worked out, and it was
well worth it.
I love the challenge of taking
a cheap, problematic guitar and
turning it into something special.
If you’re a bottom feeder, you get
used to problems. The trick is
to overcome them while staying
within your cheapskate—er, I
mean
limited—budget.
So is it a keeper? Yep. For
now it is. But you know how
that goes. There’s always another
guitar around the corner.
And I want it cheap.
Will Ray
is a founding
member of the
Hellecasters guitar-twang
trio. He also does guitar
clinics promoting his
namesake G&L signature
model 6-string, and produces
artists and bands at his studio in
Asheville, North Carolina. You can contact
Will on Facebook and at
willray.biz.