Danelectro Longhorn Bass

Reissue Redux

A few years ago, Danelectro began to offer a reissue of its Long Horn Bass, originally manufactured between 1958 and 1969. That first reissue, which had a list price under $350, featured a crude saddle fashioned from a slab of rosewood and sported stacked volume and tone knobs for each pickup. The company’s latest reissue shares many of the iconic bass’s key traits, like its unique hollowbody design (pressed-wood top and bottom mounted to a plywood frame), sexy “lipstick tube” pickups, aluminum nut, and a deep, “scooped” tone. The new Longhorn features a bridge with individual string saddles and higher-quality tuners.

The “Longhorn 3.0” possesses a slightly different electronics layout from the previous two versions, pairing a pickup-selector switch with master volume and tone knobs. I preferred the older layout—especially because the new one’s switch broke shortly after the bass arrived, making it impossible to solo the neck pickup. I was also disappointed to see the original’s old-school tone dials and the reissue’s retro knobs replaced by bland, vibe-deprived plastic knobs. And as a matter of personal taste, I’m not a fan of the super-glossy black neck finish the company uses; I prefer the satin stain it used on its DC necks. The new all-metal tuners felt sturdier than their forerunners, but their low gear ratio made tuning a chore.

Saddle Up

The Longhorn is a lot of fun to play, especially standing—the Dano is so light you could practically forget it’s strapped on. Seated, its soft, shallow contour caused it to sometimes slip off my lap. The instrument’s short scale made it much easier to pull off fret-spanning finger stretches, and with its stock short-scale D’Addario strings, the Dano felt taut and springy compared to many other short-scale basses I’ve played.

Some basses seem to ask for fusion licks, while others demand healthy servings of funk. Not the Longhorn—this instrument begs for root–5 action. (Luckily, my Eagles tribute-band rehearsal was there to give it up.) If you want a thick fundamental, this Dano can deliver. The Longhorn’s super-deep cutaways make it easy to fly high into the upper registers, though you’ll likely want to spend more time enjoying the mid-scooped thump it provides down low. Unfortunately, like many other switch-equipped Danelectros, the soloed pickups had about half the volume of the blended sound, making it hard to use the bass’s different tones on a gig.

No single style suits everyone, and the Longhorn is no exception: Its quirky looks kept me from taking it on a jazzy soul gig where it might have sounded great. But I loved its distinctive looks and deep voice. For rootsy root work, the Longhorn is a bass that refuses to be put out to pasture.