Guitar Info

Danelectro U2 Guitar Project

Before:

After:

This wasn't actually a very difficult project, seeing as what I was doing was basically making a new guitar from the parts of two broken ones. Nevertheless, putting the thing together, stringing it up, finding that it's got a nice low action and then plugging it in and hearing that wonderful Dano tone really made my day.

This weekend I received a parcel containing a recent eBay win. This was a broken Danelectro 56-U2 guitar. Apparently the guy who was selling it had a clumsy friend who dropped it on some wooden flooring and the head and end of the neck smashed to pieces. So, this guy put up the remains of the guitar for auction thinking someone would be able to use the parts - perhaps cannibalise it for the lipstick-tube pickups which are quite desireable.

I saw the auction and thought, "Yes! Just what I'm looking for", because it just so happened that I had a Danelectro 56-U2 neck complete with machine heads in my box of guitar parts and spares! What luck was that?

So, I thought, it would just be a simple task to bolt the neck to the body and - Hey Presto! A new guitar!

But it wasn't to be so easy, as it turned out that the bolt holes in the body did not match up to those in the neck. I ended up filling in the holes in the back of the neck with wood filler (pressing it right down into the holes using matchsticks!) and then drilling new holes. After that the neck fitted wonderfully, and then it was just a matter of stringing it up and tuning it.

Then came the real test - plug it in and play. It sounded wonderful! Those Danolectros have a fabulous tone - I think it's those retro lipstick-tube pickups. In fact, I like this guitar so much I think I am going to keep it for myself and sell one of my others instead (that'll be the Telecaster copy).