Vintage Danelectro Bass

Danelectro got it's start in 1947. It was founded by a man named Nathan Daniel. It was not until late 1954 that they started producing Electric guitars. The first seven years were spent manufacturing amplifiers for companies like Montgomery Ward and Sears.

Nathan Daniel wanted to make guitars that were less expensive but still had great tones. He applied different methods in order to cut down on costs. Some of the earlier models were constructed out of plywood and Masonite. They were then covered in either light tweed or maroon vinyl.

Perhaps the most famous method of cutting costs was the use of what was called Lipstick tube pickups. These pickups were actually made by putting the electronics inside lipstick tubes. The result was a guitar that most people could afford.

Danelectro was also quite an innovator. They were the first to come up with the idea of a six string electric bass guitar. This idea was copied by Fender and Fender came up with the Fender VI bass. At the time neither the Danelectro nor the Fender became very popular, although the Danelectro six string bass was used and seen more often.

If you have a Danelectro vintage bass, trying to figure out what year it was made can be difficult. You are going to have to find the serial number. For most electric basses it was underneath the neck, where it bolts to the body. If you can not find the serial number there, you are going to have to search the whole body. Look in every nook and cranny that you can find. You are going to be looking for a four digit or three digit number. That number will actually tell you when it was made.

If the number is four digits long, then the first two numbers are the week that it was made. The third number remains a mystery and the fourth number is the year.

On the three digit serial numbers, the first number is the year and the second and third numbers represent the week that it was made.