NGD: Surf Green Dano U2

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:43 am

90s Dano U2 reissue. May still be in the honey moon phase, but this may be my best sounding guitar. The lipsticks are great. It needs sight truss rod adjustment but hoping that is on the heel of the neck...

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:47 am

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:48 am

Strap button placement is probably high on the list of 'worst ever guitar strap button placement'.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:32 am

I like the 90's re-issues by and large more than most of the recent ones they've released.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:53 am

Really like the colours on these 90s U2s. I was looking for one recently, but managed to find another 90s DC-3 instead.

The pickups are lower output than the recent reissues and sound more danelectro-y.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 2:51 pm

I had the same model, couldn't get on with it, as much as i really wanted to. It did sound great though.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 3:03 pm

I'm the proud owner of a black 90s reissue U2. I love it. It's battered to fuck. And it still sounds great and I love the feel. It actually messed me up a bit because the fretboards are so flat and everything else so simple that it made other guitars feel odd. I leave it at Jasmines now so I have a guitar to play when I go round so I only see it every week or so, but whenever I pick it up to play it feels so fucking easy.

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:42 pm

Yeah it's really simple and really easy to play. Will definitely be one of my gigging guitars

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:08 pm

So hot

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 5:12 pm

would love a 90s DC-2. i actually wanted that to be my first guitar but they were hard to find at that point. still are, come to think of it.

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:46 pm

Upon further playing:

The poorly designed bridge is 'collapsed' as all dano bridges of this era do. The strings are lower in the middle and fret out on higher frets. I'm looking at a site that machines bridges with tele saddles and look like Duo bridges to put on. Hopefully this willl remedy the tuning issues I've been having. I am also dubious of the metal nut for tuning, as this thing has been going out pretty frequently. Other than that it is sweet. Won't be changing the pickups. May swap out the switch as it is LOOSE.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:24 am

You can buy the metal saddled adjustable bridge found on the 90s U3 and DC3 here:
http://danguitars.com/PARTS.html

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:45 am

timhulio wrote:You can buy the metal saddled adjustable bridge found on the 90s U3 and DC3 here:
http://danguitars.com/PARTS.html

I was looking at that but read even those cave in under pressure in a couple of years

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 7:31 am

YES, this is an issue and has happened to mine as well. Although a few years back I had my friend make a new wooden saddle to compensate for the collapsey bridge so it's not an issue so much.

I've been looking at alternatives but almost all of them involve changing the guitar quite radically. One option is for a Les Paul-type bridge, maybe a short-archtop-style tailpiece, but that would also necessitate neck shims. Unless you go the route Dano went with their unofficial Jimmy Page signature with the wraparound bridge which actually had a long rectangular recess routed into the guitar for the bridge to sit lower. It was quite neat but it would be a fair bit of work to do yourself, not to mention necessitate some sort of refinish around that area.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 8:10 am

cobascis wrote:I was looking at that but read even those cave in under pressure in a couple of years

What caves in where? I need pics of this phenomenon because I frankly don't believe it happens.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 9:06 am

They're just a slab of trapezoidal metal which rests on two points at the wider front edge and is anchored by a single large screw in the middle of the short edge. The strings are anchored in cutouts on the short edge and pass over the wooden saddle near the middle. The pressure exerted by the strings on the wider edge eventually causes the whole piece to bow significantly in the middle. It isn't uniform; some bow more than others for whatever reason, but it's a pretty major curve eventually.

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:13 am

Like this? Those Danelectro bridges are fine. They don't bend over time or anything. The only thing that'd bend it is a hammer.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 10:23 am

timhulio wrote:Like this? Those Danelectro bridges are fine. They don't bend over time or anything. The only thing that'd bend it is a hammer.

Those are slightly different, I'm sure the folded section at the back would give it more resistance. But it's probably the quality of the metal, too. The chrome plating looks scrappy as fuck and if the metal is poor then the ten+ years I've been loading this thing with 11s and 12s tuned to E are going to have taken their toll.

I'll try and take a picture next time I'm at Jasmines.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 11:52 am

No, you daft ha'porth, the caving people are on about is when the top of the guitar itself bows inwards, like you see on old (usually cheaper) acoustics. None of the reissue Danos are old enough for this to happen. Doesn't even happen on the old ones that often.

One of the guitar-things that gives me greatest regret is my not buying Danelectros any more, post-hate. They've even done a MIK baritone reissue lately...

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Fri Sep 07, 2012 12:12 pm

I'll take pics after school. It basically makes the strings follow an upside-down radius so the middle strings are lowest. Which is bad.