Projects sorted by construction style.
This is probably the cheapest violin bass on earth, and I got a discount on top of that because it had a persistent buzz that turned out to be a bad string. "Brownsville" is a house brand for Sam Ash, where I bought it on a whim. The scale is about 30.5". It's a beauty, isn't it?
More: Brownsville Violin Bass ...
For those of you who thought my Stratocaster bass was an abomination, feast your eyes on this. The MusicmanBird. ThunderJazzRay. FenderManBird. I just call it FenderBird #2.
More: Cherry Fenderbird ...
This body style was originally reissued in a range of models - guitar, bass ( long and short scale ) and baritone. I only have the guitar. These were part of Danelectro's Chinese production, and while not bad, are not as nice as the prior or later Korean models. A second reissue in 2015 restored the gloss sparkly finish of the vintage original. None of the reissues use the original headstock shape, though.
More: Danelectro '63 (1457) Guitar ...
This was a box of junk I got on eBay, originally a vintage Convertible. I replaced the front and back with cabinet-grade birch plywood, as the original mother-of-countertop material is no longer available. I rebuilt it as something like a Companion, which is a very rare model. The neck and sides are vintage, the rest is modern.
More: Danelectro Companion Guitar ...
This beauty is Evets' reissue of a 1960s Danelectro Hornet. The solid-body Hornet has the same body outline as the Silvertone 1452, a sort-of cross between a 1457 and a Fender Jazzmaster. But unlike the slab-sided 1452, the body of the Hornet is a continuous curve, front and back, with a completely rounded edge. ( This is as sexy as a guitar gets, but makes it a little slippery on your knee. ) The reissue from Evets has the same contours as the original, and even the same 'lightshow' pickguard. The three-tone sunburst on this one was an exclusive to Guitar Center. I picked this one up as an 'open-box' from their subsidiary Music123 for a song, so to speak. The body was originally slathered in dullcote, which I polished off, resulting in a beautiful shine with just a bit of orange peel that I left.
This is an Evets '90s-vintage original reissue, made in Korea. These reissues are actually much better instruments than the originals from the 1960s. While a copper-burst would be more authentic, I like the sky blue better. The newer reissues are even more true to the originals.
More: Danelectro Longhorn Bass ...
Another early build for me - 2010, a reissue Danelectro neck on a built body. The finish is pearl automotive acrylic lacquer. The pickguard is actually clear with a piece of paper under it.
More: Danelectro Longhorn Guitar ...
The body was traced directly off the guitar, finished in very dark brown poly with tan Tolex. The neck is a reissue that has lain around for years. The bridge was originally left-handed, a few minutes with a file and it was right-handed. The double lipstick is switchable series/parallel/single-coil, for some variety. This is my first dry-erase pickguard.
More: Danelectro Pro-1 Bass ...
This is a factory guitar, but I have modified it enough that I guess I can call it a project. This is a reissue produced by Evets around 2007. This was not a high point for Evets quality, they had shifted production from Korea to China, and it showed. The reissues from the '90s are Korean-made, and quite nice, and this guitar is not in the same class. That said, it's not terrible either, but there's quite a bit to go into. Evets eventually shifted production back to Korea, and the quality went back up.
More: Danelectro Pro-1 Guitar ...
Rather than design an acoustic bass according to luthiery principles, which are basically 500 years of "we do it this way because we've always done it this way" together with 50 years of "there is no other way", I would like to design an acoustic bass like a loudspeaker. Plenty of bookshelf speakers and subwoofers are about the same volume as a guitar.
More: Acoustic Bass ? ...
