Danelectro Longhorn Bass Bridge and Machine Head Repair

Having owned the Danelectro Longhorn Bass for about 15 years it’s about time it got a few new parts. The bridge on these is really quite poor (I know, the whole guitar is quite poor but the bridge is worse) and there are many upgrades and replacements around, I went for a standard Fender Precision style one with the strings anchored on the bridge, not through the body. The body is made out of ‘joinery grade (yeah, right)’ MDF, so not much of a solid body guitar, which means not much resonance, anchored at the bridge will be fine.

The machine heads are not very robust, the heaviest strings had started to loose their ability to stay in tune and some careful inspection revealed that the condition of the machine head inside the cover had detriorated sufficiently to simply slip just short of being in tune.

I found a set of 2L and 2R machine heads for under 7 pounds, those will do. Fitted them and the guitar is now transformed, it stays in tune, the intonation is almost perfect, if only the frets where in the correct position it would be 100%. I fitted some light guage strings to the bass, ideal for a short scale guitar.

I seem to remember that I paid 99 pounds for the bass new, not quite my ’72 Fender Precision but it is a very playable instrument.