Having checked out the costliest electrical guitars supplied in Nineteen Sixties – over 50 years in the past. Conventional makers – Gibson, Guild, and Gretsch – targeting flashy amplified archtops that retailed up into the $700 to $800 vary – lovely devices, however not consultant of the place the electrical guitar was going. Extra forward-looking makers supplied high-quality solidbody devices topping out round $400, notably Gibson’s Les Paul Customized and Fender’s new Jazzmaster.

As odd as it could appear as we speak, in 1960, most guitar makers shied away from the confirmed (however non-traditional) true solidbody. Gretsch and Guild supplied guitars the identical measurement and form as a Les Paul, however with a chambered semi-hollow physique. Concord and Kay, masters of the funds possibility, additionally went this route with cheaper, however conceptually comparable, devices.

Arguably essentially the most forward-looking-and long-lasting of this design got here from the New Jersey shore; Nathan Daniel’s Danelectro firm took an especially utilitarian strategy, untethered to conventional guitar-making ideas. The agency’s motto was, “The best high quality and essentially the most reasonable worth go collectively when it’s a Danelectro,” they usually meant it! Every thing Danelectro offered was completely constructed to a worth, however with Daniel’s inventive engineering, typically amazingly useful. This resulted in a catalog the place the de facto prime of the road had a decrease checklist worth than some makers’ least costly providing. Each the Guild and Gretsch tariffs from 1960 bottomed out with single-pickup/non-cutaway archtop guitars at greater than $150; Gibson had the plain-but-functional single-pickup Melody Maker at $100. Danelectro supplied the “Customary” two-pickup mannequin (a.okay.a. “Jimmy Web page”) a dual-pickup electrical semi-hollowbody as a pro-level mannequin on the identical $100 checklist. So what was the most costly providing from New Jersey’s satisfaction precisely 50 years in the past?

Danelectro’s precise highest-priced providing different 12 months by 12 months, however the constant “prime of the road” title-holder (for a six-string guitar, anyway) was the immortally fashionable Mannequin 4123 Guitarlin (“Guitar+Mandolin”) typically remembered because the “Longhorn guitar.” Together with the matching Longhorn Bass (four- and six-string) it was launched within the 1958 catalog on the worth of $150 – not prime of the road fairly but. For that 12 months solely, the additionally new three-pickup Mannequin 3031 Customary guitar was costlier, at $165. This modified within the 1959-’60 catalog, when the three-pickup Customary was changed by a brand new three-pickup Deluxe (Mannequin 6036-7; the distinction being trim and wiring) with the worth dropped to $145; the Requirements topped out with the $100 twin-pickup Mannequin 3021. The Longhorns debut was alongside the double-cutaway re-designed Customary fashions; the earlier single-cutaway type was retired.

Reportedly, the Guitarlin’s lyre-like physique form began as a doodle by Nathan Daniel. Stylistically, it’s unmatched as probably the most distinctive-wanting devices ever. It’s truly the identical physique body because the double-cut shorthorn, with chunks of Masonite, poplar, and air eliminated, creating the sweeping, deep, symmetrical cutaways. All are constructed utilizing the identical flat-sided semi-hollowbody building of Masonite and pine with a poplar neck, however the Longhorn’s smaller physique cavity has much less hole house than different Danos, with a correspondingly brighter tone. In typical Dano style, guitar and bass share parts; although the extra-long neck blanks should not equivalent, many components are the identical, whereas most {hardware} is frequent throughout the vary. Each use a attribute bronze-to-white sunburst particular to Danelectro. “Alert guitarists will shortly respect the musical prospects and showmanship supplied by this new guitar” ran the advert copy, with “showmanship” being the important thing phrase!

The primary sensible benefit of the Guitarlin was its 31-fret prolonged neck which “shades into the mandolin vary” as Danelectro put it. The fingering is fairly cramped on the prime finish, however is kind of playable. In fact, the precise promoting level was its completely depraved appears, mixed with the low worth! Sound-wise, it’s fairly typical Dano – clear and crisp at decrease quantity, shading to snarly when cranked. There was no true “bass” pickup on the Guitarlin (it will have needed to be on the prolonged fingerboard!) however Nat Daniel had a manner round that.

The Longhorns – guitar and bass – characteristic an oddball wiring circuit shared solely with the up to date “Deluxe” fashions. As a substitute of the concentric Tone and Quantity setup used on the acquainted Silvertone and Danelectro Customary guitars, the Longhorns use stacked pots that perform as on/off (the highest) with a Quantity management beneath. The unlikely-looking “flipper” swap ideas (made from painted wooden!) are peculiar to this method. There is no such thing as a tone management… the tone setting is constructed into the pots with massive capacitors wired into the circuit. “Every feather-touch pointer turns its corresponding pickup on or off,” says the catalog. “Every pickup is pre-tuned to emphasise its personal vary; treble, center or bass. This leads to the only, quickest number of actually completely different tone colours.”

Sadly, the outcome can also be the person by no means hears the pure sound of the pickups… the big bass and treble emphasis caps are at all times engaged. Essentially the most helpful tones are usually discovered by conserving each pickups on and mixing the volumes, however many gamers have misplaced persistence with this method and re-wired the guitars extra conventionally. This specific concentric pot additionally appears crankier in motion than the extra frequent double-taper variations; authentic Guitarlins typically undergo irritating ground-outs and surprising electrical failures. Daniel’s typical foolproof engineering appears to have been lacking, or maybe merely overthought, on this case, and one wonders if the Guitarlin might need proved extra common with the easier, extra user-friendly wiring of the Customary mannequin.

Regardless of this oddity, the Guitarlin is such a putting and logical design, it appears stunning it’s no more generally encountered. There are a number of different potential contributing elements; Danelectro did a lot enterprise with Sears, Roebuck & Firm – some sources declare as much as 85 % of the corporate’s output went out as Silvertones – the Danelectro model could have languished as an orphan in its own residence. Add to that the very fact the model was seen as budget-concious, sellers could have been reluctant to order the corporate’s higher-priced choices and targeting the confirmed Customary and Convertible fashions itemizing at $100 and under. These had been inbuilt big numbers and are nonetheless frequent as we speak, however the Deluxe collection and the Longhorns qualify as uncommon. The Guitarlin underwent few manufacturing variations; adjustments had been the “skate key” Danelectro-made tuners rather than Klusons (circa 1963) and the addition of the “Completely Shielded” sticker on the headstock (and the precise copper foil wrapping the pots inside) a few years earlier than. Whereas the “flipper” knob tops had been generally pictured within the catalog, not all Guitarlins seem to have been initially fitted with them, though it’s exhausting to say exactly as many have been eliminated by guitarists irritated by the benefit of “flipping” the guitar into unintended silence with an errant decide stroke!

Within the early ’60s there was one instrument listed by Danelectro at the next worth – $175 to be actual – nevertheless it wasn’t strictly a “single” guitar. That is the Mannequin 3923 Doubleneck guitar/bass, typically now known as the “Stan & Dan” mannequin due to a famously sensible LP cowl that includes that nation/gospel duo displaying a brace of them. This LP was proven in Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars in 1982 and the title has been connected to the mannequin ever since. The doubleneck debuted in ’59, utilizing typical modular Dano building, and is actually a single-pickup Shorthorn guitar and bass constructed onto one massive bronze/white sunburst physique. The inventory bass neck is extra-short with solely 15 frets and each it and the guitar have solely a neck pickup, so neither has a lot sound vary. Whereas a helpful “double” and undoubtedly an excellent worth, with solely primary electronics and a lot of hole house within the physique it was not Danelectro’s most versatile-sounding creation. Nonetheless, at lower than a 3rd the worth of a twin-neck Gibson, there have been sufficient clients to maintain within the line for seven years. On reflection, it’s too unhealthy the Doubleneck was by no means supplied as a guitar/six-string bass mixture (some have been subsequently transformed).

One other new Danelectro debuted in ’63 which took over the “prime” priced spot-the 12-string/two-pickup Bellzouki Mannequin 7020, which offered for the whopping (for a Dano) worth of $210. Maybe Vinnie Bell’s royalty pushed the worth up a bit! The Longhorns remained the highest-priced common guitar and bass supplied; these two had been extra clearly specialty devices. Jed Clampett as soon as performed a Doubleneck on the “Beverly Hillbillies,” chosen in fact for its appears…

The Guitarlin did discover some spotty fame within the ’60s. Essentially the most infamous skilled person was Hyperlink Wray, who was pictured in excellent guitar-hero mode – bomber jacket, creepers and Longhorn – on the quilt of his 1960 LP Hyperlink Wray and the Wraymen. It’s additionally price in search of out a wonderful (if blurry) clip of him taking part in his Danelectro on “The Jack Spector Present” (a neighborhood DJ-hosted TV showcase) in 1960; the track is “Path Of The Lonesome Pine” and there are guitar close-ups aplenty. Why this forbiddingly cool mixture of participant and instrument didn’t immediately promote 1000’s of Guitarlins to impressionable teenagers stays a puzzle, however the Longhorn doesn’t appear to have scored one other such excessive profile person within the US. Hyperlink himself, ever delicate to the charms of a cool-as-ice guitar, switched to a Polaris White Firebird III by 1964!

Quickly afterward, the Guitarlin had one other burst of recognition, this time within the residence of the British invasion. Earlier than ’64, the Danelectro line was unknown within the U.Ok.; someday in late ’64 or early ’65, Selmer – most likely casting about for any electrical 12-string to compete with Rose-Morris’ Rickenbacker – came across the Bellzouki and commenced importing them. Different fashions adopted and for a short time, Danos had been a optimistic rage in London. An early pop star adopter was Graham Nash of the Hollies, who within the fall of ’65 appeared on the quilt of Beat Instrumental, his guitar is already lacking one set of knobs! This introduced a flurry of letters to the BI workplaces, which required a particular reply a month later.

Guitarlins and Longhorn basses seemingly appeared within the U.Ok. by late-summer ’65, distributed by Selmer and costing 70 guineas… In February ’66 they had been talked about as being lately in brief provide however newly restocked, on the new worth of solely 60 guineas. By June of ’66, the “partitions had been bursting with them” in response to BI, nevertheless it appears the fad for the weird instrument had already handed.

The Who’s Pete Townshend is often pictured with a Guitarlin in 1965-’66. Some experiences recommend this was primarily as a result of low value, and Townshend would conveniently shoulder the Dano simply earlier than the act’s harmful finale! A ’66 advert for Premier drums exhibits the Who with matching Longhorns. Townshend used the shorthorn Customary mannequin across the identical time, and in 1967-’68 performed and endorsed the Coral Hornet, a solidbody Jaguar-esque creation from Neptune. To finish the Guitarlin’s “mod” credentials, Steve Marriott of the Small Faces performed (or a minimum of posed with) one in ’66. Two such style-conscious gamers had been definitely the kind of “alert guitarists” to “…respect the showmanship supplied” as Danelectro had hoped in ’59!

In ’67, Nathan Daniel offered Danelectro to leisure conglomerate MCA, and priorities modified. Although not included within the ’67/’68 full-color Danelectro/Coral catalog, Longhorns had been supplied on separate one-sheets typically nonetheless seen with them, indicating manufacturing ran near the demise of the corporate, when it was heartlessly folded by its company proprietor in late ’68. The worth was nonetheless listed at $150 – remarkably unchanged over 10 years! By that time, there have been many Coral fashions (together with a Deluxe Longhorn-style constructed on a laminated wooden, arched physique sourced from Kawai in Japan) listed at increased costs, however no costlier Danelectro-branded devices. Not one of the firm’s endorsers on this interval had been pictured with Longhorns, which seem to have been thought to be previous hat. Nonetheless, the Guitarlin met its demise because the highest-ranked Danelectro guitar – just about the place it got here in!

Even after the Danelectro firm itself folded, the unmistakable Longhorn design lived on. The primary revival happened whereas the unique was nonetheless in manufacturing – the Dynelectron guitar and bass, an amazingly shut imitation constructed (or a minimum of distributed) by Meazzi in Milan, Italy, from the mid ’60s up into the ’70s. The Dynelectron was, in some methods, better-made than the unique, with plywood as a substitute of Masonite prime and an adjustable truss rod within the neck. These European clones at the moment are considerably collectible in their very own proper. Within the late ’70s, the overall form was copied by Hondo II (of Japan) in a stable, humbucker-equipped guitar and bass set. Extra correct re-creations of the unique Danos have been supplied in current occasions by Jerry Jones and the trendy Danelectro firm.

The Guitarlins are largely remembered for his or her pure type, however like all Nathan Daniel designs, are sensible if quirky devices. Few occasions within the historical past of the electrical guitar has a lot been supplied for thus little, and the highest of the road – actually and figuratively – come so low cost!

Subsequent month, we’ll observe the Longhorn story down – manner down, into the bass division, the place the design has prospered much more over the past 50 years.

This text initially appeared in VG’s October 2010 situation. All copyrights are by the writer and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.