1959 Danelectro Companion

I'll be honest, I'm not an expert on Danelectro.  I've owned a Silvertone U-2 in the past but didn't really do much digging on the history, etc.  I happened across this Dano Companion and bought it with no strings.  The bridge was just rattling around in the case and I even though it was missing a piece.  I decided to string it up as is after seeing some pictures online.  It played great and the bridge held very well.  It was just as intended.  The neck was straight and the action was perfect.  I fell in love!

The Companion was apparently a fairly rare model.  It's very similar to Jimmy Page's Danelectro 3021 with the exception of the natural finish and the bridge.  The electronics are the exact same setup with two single coil pickups with stacked/concentric volume and tone knobs for each.  The middle position on Danelectro guitars is the tone that everyone is looking for.  They wired it so the pickups would run in series instead of parallel.  These guitars come alive with lots of output when you're playing in the middle position.

Do you have one of these for sale?  Contact me.  I'm always on the lookout for this kind of stuff.

The Holy Grail of vintage guitar amplifiers: 1956 Fender Deluxe

I used to have a couple of tweed fenders and one was the Deluxe.  It was a '59.  The speaker had been changed a couple of times.  The capacitors were recent and who knows where the output transformer came from.  The tweed was ripped and covered in candle wax from a couple of different recording sessions.  And it sounded, in a word, like a small piece of rock heaven.

The amplifier pictured is clearly not my old tweed Deluxe.  This one led a completely different life than the one from the recording studio.  This one was bought used in 1964 by guy who just liked guitars.  He wasn't a great player but neither were most of the people who bought these amps new.  They were not holy grails then.  They were small, cheap amps that distorted when cranked up.  People in the 50s didn't really think that was "good."  High quality amplifiers weren't supposed to sound distorted at any volume.

So it was bought used by the second owner and played very little for most of its life.  He said he had a couple of guitars he would play through it -like his Gibson Les Paul Jr. - but mostly he played a Gretsch Chet Atkins.  Eventually, he sold those guitars but had little motivation to sell the amp because nobody cared.  As a result this amplifier sat in his closet with the cover on for years.

A friend mentioned to him recently that it was a fine amplifier and there were people out there that would pay good money for it.

Would I like to buy a near mint condition tweed deluxe?  Why yes, yes I would.  It didn't matter to me that it was 5 hours away.

When I got there I didn't even plug the thing in.  He had pawned it a few weeks before so I had to pay the pawn price and give the rest in cash.  I was happy to do so.  

The Fender Deluxe (model 5e3) was introduced in 1955 lasted until 1960.  According to the Fender Amp Field Guide this one has about 15 watts of all tube output through a 12" speaker, usually a Jensen.  A pair of 6v6gt vacuum tubes make up the power section with two 12ax7s in the preamp.  The original tubes were probably RCA but these are General Electric.  The amplifier and speaker are housed in a fingerjointed pine cabinet covered in diagonal tweed.

 Living in an apartment has its disadvantages.  One of them is not being able to crank up an amp to get that sweet, sweet tube saturation.  I took it to my buddy (who helped me find it- thanks man!) at the local music shop and we put it through its paces.  With a brand new Gibson R8 Les Paul it started distorting with the chicken head knob pointing at 3.  3!  From there to about 9 it had that beautiful overdrive these tweed fenders are known for.  9 to 12 got a little piercing with the harmonic overtones and that just wasn't what I was going for.

Then he brought out a 1960 Gibson ES-330 and let me have a go with it.  That was the combo I was looking for.  I had the 330's volume and tone pots dimed on the neck pickup with the Deluxe on about 3 and a half.  The tone.  I was just doing a little blues noodling around the 7th fret and it was everything I had hoped for.  The P-90 was thick and nuanced.  The Deluxe's pair of GE 6v6s were lightly distorting and absolutely growled when I dug in deep.  It was very responsive. The lightest touch produced sparkly cleans that darkened substantially with a little right hand heat.  I was sold.

After the tone expedition we decided do do a little research into the originality of this amp.  The capacitors, transformers, potentiometers and switches all seemed original and in good shape.  The GE tubes were probably replacements but I am still not convinced on the speaker.  It should be a Jensen but there were some exceptions.  Oxford and Rola seem to come to mind.  In all likelihood the original Jensen was changed by the first owner.  The second owner said he did not change the speaker and I believe him.  The music he was playing did not require loud or distorted tone so it is unlikely he pushed the speaker to its breaking point.  If you have any more information or theories then please feel free to comment!

Fender amps are easily dated by their tube charts.  They usually have a stamp with two letters for a year and a month.  This one bears the letters FJ meaning 1956 and October.

They also usually have a little piece of masking tape bearing the initials of the person who wired the amplifier.  This one is a bit obscured by time but the name on the tape is Lily.  The other popular names that show up are: Lupe (most popular), Lily, Eileen, Margaret, Rachel, Maybell, Lydia and Julia.

Hope you enjoyed a look at this amp.  Maybe I can get a real guitar player to help me out with a video of it.


My buddy Chris at Bailey Brothers Music in Birmingham was kind enough to shred on this amp after I got it all cleaned up.  He also let me take a few videos of it.  Check them out:

Thanks Chris!  Nice playing!

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1963 Harmony Rocket H59 with 3 Rowe Industries DeArmond "Gold Foil" Pickups

This one has been a favorite since day one, the Harmony Rocket:

I just about jumped out of my chair when this one popped up in PoDunk, AL (not a real place).  It was covered in half a century's dirt and dust from being in a garage for so long.  After a quick wipe down with a barely damp cloth the finish was sparkling.  I was amazed at how well this one cleaned up.  

Seems like the first thing anyone notices about these are the knobs.  SO MANY KNOBS:

Individual Bakelite volume and tone knobs for each pickup.  The rotary pickup selector allows you to select pickup 1, 2, 3 or All.  So if you want just pickups 2 and 3 you must select All and turn the volume all the way down on pickup 1.  I really like the tone possibilities as well as the way all those knobs just call to you when you see it.

Tuners are cheap Kluson knock offs that tune very well after you lube them and adjust the screw on the poll.  I have had no problems with them and do not wish to change them out.  No, they are not as smooth as "Grovers", or as lame.  Sorry.

These had very thin Nitrocellulose finishes that wore off very easily in certain places:

This one shows very little (to no) fret wear.  It does have this tasteful looking wear mark on the neck.  Almost looks like it had some kind of red primer or undercoat.  Do any of you guys have any definitive info on this?  Comment and let me know.  I'm curious to hear what you think.

The Rowe Industries Gold Foil Pickup:

I really like these pickups.  Loads of output but still has a jangly, single coil "Harmony" thinness to them.  Kind of hard to describe I guess.  If you want a '57 Classic sound then do not buy this guitar.  Go buy a Gibson.  

These pickups usually read about 12k ohms which is pretty hot!  I haven't measured mine but they sound great.  Check these pickups out on eBay- people are really digging them as of late.  You could buy one of these guitars and make money just parting out the pickups on eBay. Don't do that please!

October 30, 1963

Still has the original case which is pretty dirty and wouldn't do a very good job protecting it on the road:

The only downside to this example is that it doesn't have an adjustable truss rod.

The later ones ('65 or '66 and later not sure) did have an adjustable truss rod.  The neck is actually pretty straight and plays well.  It has just a little more relief in it than I would like.  Probably would benefit from a fret leveling and crowning but I haven't gotten around to it.  I do most of my play between 0 and 9.  I'm no lead shredder.  It sounds really good with just a little tube compression and nice smooth bluesin'.  

See those little wooden spacers?  These guitars don't have adjustable poles or pickup heights unless you can make more spacers out of Walnut!  I really like the aesthetics of the spacers.  They just look really classy and neat.  

A note on my pictures:  I am not a photographer.  I don't know anything about it.  My wife has a cool camera that I borrow.  Do you have any feedback on how I could get better pictures?  Let me know.

My Vintage Guitar and Gear Wishlist.... and why I think these things are cool

There are always weird guitars and gear that I see and hope to run into one day.  Recently it has been a Harmony made Silvertone and a brand new amp from Fender.  More on that one later.

The Silvertone 1446l has been popping up on my radar just about everywhere.  These things are American made by Harmony in Chicago from 1962 until 1967.  They featured a Bigsby Vibrato, a hollow body of laminated maple (even though the ads said Spruce top and back!) and the very illusive Seth Lover designed, stagger-poled mini-humbuckers.  I have never held one of these in my hands but supposedly these pickups screamed with higher output and thick silky humbucker tone.  This one is often refferred to as the Chris Isaak model but I believe that Dan Aurbach of the Black Keys is a fan as well.  Do you have one for sale?? Contact me!

And now, for something completely different: The Fender Pawn Shop Series' Greta.  These things are a bit "gimicky" but they are just so damn cute.  It is a two watt (tube), table top radio style guitar (and iPod) amplifier.  It features one 12ax7 preamp tube and one 12 at7 power tube and breaks up faster than your "high school sweetheart" friends.  The 4"speaker has a bit of a hard time keeping up with the output but plugged in to a cabinet this thing is an apartment ready blues machine.

Notice the "VU" meter?  It is a total gimmick and I love it.  VU stands for "Volume Unit" with the green section indicating clean tones and the red indicating distorted.  The meter is backlit with a small blue LED that is really just fun to look at.  The knob on the left is gain and the one on the right is tone.  

The coolest part about this little amp is what is on the back:

From left to right: Guitar, Aux In, Line Out, 8 ohm Ext. out, Switch, Power Input

Fender made this amp very versatile with all the ins and outs.  With the 4" speaker there isn't much headroom before the speaker farts out.  Which is why they added the 8 ohm extension out.  This thing sounds really good through a 4 12" cabinet.  It has a little more headroom but still has a nice, thick tube crunch.   If you are looking for a sparkly clean tone then you should probably look somewhere else.

But what if you have a larger amplifier that you like but can't play at the volume you want at home?  Enter the Greta, once again.  It has a Line Out that you could run a 1/4" cable directly into that amp's input.  Just use it like a distortion pedal.

But what if you are a trendy hipster with a turntable and feel like your warm, analog signal path is being ruined by your solid state stereo?  Enter the Fender Greta's Auxiliary 1/8" input.  Plug your turntable into this little guy for analog tone that lets your recent Grizzly Bear or Bon Iver vinyl sound like it should, I guess.  Or just plug in your iPod (digital music through an analog amplifier?).  I actually have not experimented with this feature of the Greta although I would love to.  My wife and I listen to a wifi radio (Logitec Squeezebox) every morning and I would be very interested to hear how it sounds through the Greta.  Do you play your iPod through your Greta?  Comment and let me know what you think about it.