Doing Things Wrong

Factory Mods

Brownsville Violin Bass
Danelectro Silvertone 1457 Rescue Guitar
Danelectro Companion Guitar
SX Precision Bass
Schwinn Stingray Bass
Samick SG450 Guitar
Fender Squier Stratocaster Guitar
Danelectro Pro-1 Guitar
Danelectro '63 Guitar

These are factory instruments that I either significantly modified, restored or refurbished.


This is another factory guitar, vintage 1960s, made by Danelectro and sold exclusively through Sears. The 1448 was one of the cheapest electric guitars in the Sears catalog, but it came with something special - it's own amplifier built into the hardshell case. There is almost no wear on this guitar, I don't think it was played much.



Around the time that Evets was putting out their first round of Danelectro reissues in the late '90s, several disaffected Gibson employees started their own company, and put out two models - 'Mona' and 'Lisa'. The Mona is a copy of the Danelectro 1457 from the 1960s. It is a mix of old and new. The body is classic masonite over a hollow core, but lacks the Tolex edge binding of the original. While it has the speckles of the original, the finish is modern polyurethane. The pickups are true lipsticks, wired in series, but the pickguard is bevel-edged plastic, and the bridge is basically a Fender. The headstock is the right shape, but bent down to lessen the awkward string angles.


This is my attempt to recreate my very first bass, a "Montaya", as well as one of my first ventures into 'modding'. These SX's are great instruments. For 109 bucks you get an alder body with a beautiful 3-tone sunburst, a decent neck, functional bridge & tuners, and a flawless finish. What you don't get is any kind of useable pickups or strings. On this one, I installed a USA Fender pickup, my favorite d'Addario strings, and gave it a careful fret dressing and setup. I also added the tortoise pickguard, rosewood thumbrest, and ashtray for the looks only. At the time, I was going purely from memory, but I later found a picture of the original, and I got it dead right.

Factory Mods


Oops, bridge assembled upside down

Some small parts for the new Ric. The logo is laser-printed on an adhesive packing label. A coat of poly locks-in the toner. The font is a free one called Dymaxion. It is a pretty good match for the Ric logo, which was actually hand-drawn.