This week's Wishbook features one of my favorite brands of guitars.
From the 1967 Danelectro Guitars catalog:
The Danelectro Guitarlin, Convertible, and Longhorn Bass!
Known for making affordable instruments that actually were playable, Danelectro's target market was obviously a couple of tiers below the Gibson and Gretsch crowd. However, Danelectro founder Nathan Daniel believed that value and quality could co-exist in the fledgling "consumer" market for musical instruments. While the "big boys" of the guitar world focused on the professional market, Danelectro targeted its efforts at the growing atomic-age family-consumer. Nevertheless, although most Danelectros could be considered "budget" or "value" models, their construction and reliability were often a cut above their competitors.
Of the models pictured, perhaps the most innovative was the "Guitarlin", actually a guitar with an extended 31-fret fingerboard to provide a mandolin-like range in the upper registers. But perhaps even more important is the 6-string version of the Longhorn Bass, which became a popular fixture in the "Nashville Sound" of the late 50's and early 60's-- often called the "tic-tac" bass. The 6-string Bass was originally introduced by Danelectro in 1956. Fender later followed suit by introducing their own Bass VI model.
The Danelectro Convertible actually began life as a budget acoustic guitar, to which a single lipstick-pickup option was added.
Remember, clicking on the image should bring up the full-sized (zoomable to 1000 pixels) image in a new window. New installments in the series will be posted every Monday. (Next installment will be posted on 11/10/08)
