1969 Vintage Danelectro Coke Bottle Neck; Unused Factory NOS;
Maple neck, Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, 18 Frets, short scale.

NOTE:  Skate key tuners on this neck have previously been removed and sold.

$225
18 frets short scale Danelectros???!!!  Yep!  The original Danelectro company was sold to Musical Corporation of America (MCA) in 1966.  About 18 months prior to MCA shutting down Danelectro in 1969, the company was seeking to develop even more economic guitars than they were already famous for.  The Kawai musical instrument company in Japan had made fine pianos for some time and was contracted by Danelectro to make carved-top-and-back all-wood bodies for Danelectro's Firefly model. Impressed by the quality of that work Danelectro contracted Kawai to manufacture all-wood flat-top-and-back tear-drop shaped bodies and a carved-top-and-back long-horn body, both of which Danelectro had previously made in flat top models made from Masonite over a wood perimeter frame and center block reinforcements at the neck, bridge and butt areas.  Kawai also made an all-wood dreadnaught body for Danelectro during the 18 months or-so prior to Danelectro being taken into bankruptcy by MCA. Danelectro made these 18 frets short scale necks to install on the tear drop and long horn and Convertible model bodies as low cost acoustic guitars (I have never seen nor heard of the short scale necks being put on the dreadnaught body but wouldn't be surprised if they did).  Long scale 21 fret necks were also installed on those bodies for more expensive models in both acoustic and electric models.  So that's how & when these 18 frets, short scale, coke bottle headstock necks came into existance.  When these necks went out the door (in sizeable lots) and into the hands of luthiers, these necks have shown up over the years assembled onto Firefly, tear-drop and Longhorn bodies in both acoustic and acoustic-electric versions. Some factory and luthier examples are shown here and here.

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Please pardon some camera focus gliches in some of these photos;  I have a new camera and haven't yet taken enough pictures to better know and understand the macro (close-up) depth of field and sensor focusing.

This neck came from the Danelectro factory liquidation auction when MCA shut down Danelectro / Coral in 1969 and liquidated their spare parts and tooling at auction.  The nylon nut shows that it was destined for one of the non-electric economy model acoustic guitars.

This neck has seal coats but does not have clear top coats of finish.  Also notice that the tuners string shaft holes are not drilled for the thicker splined bushings; But standard slip-on round bushings will fit, or a very small amount of reaming will facilitate either kind of shaft bushings.

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The longitudinal streak on the fretboard in the photo to the left, is not a crack nor split in the fretboard;  It's camera flash on a tiny rise-streak from the factory planing blade; Eccentuated by the "close-up" function on my camera.  The streak "threw me a curve" when I posted this photo, ....until I pulled and inspected the neck to find what made the streak (a tiny ding in the factory's planer blade).  The tiny rise streak could be taken down quickly and easily with very fine sandpaper or emory on a small block of wood (sanded in the direction of the grain, of course).

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Bit of trivia:  One of the reasons Danelectro was shut down in 1969 by it's new owners MCA, was because the factory machinery was wearing & tolerances getting loose (voila, the fretboard streak) and in need of retooling which MCA did not want to invest in after a good 3 years run after purchasing Danelectro in 1966.  Another reason was MCA's failure to manage and market well, and particularly to make a good profitable transition from manufacturing / jobbing for department stores to relying upon marketing their Danelectro and Coral branded guitars and amplifiers almost entirely through guitar dealers.
CLICK HERE to see another neck from this same factory batch.

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