Vintage 1963 Danelectro 4021 Batwing Headstock Hand Vibrato Two Pickup Guitar

Description

Vintage 1963 Danelectro 4021 Batwing Headstock Hand Vibrato Two Pickup Guitar
All Original
Vibrato Bridge
"Batwing" Headstock - the coolest of Danelectro's vintage models.
Brazilian rosewood fingerboard
See photos for condition of body/neck.
1.66" Nut Width
25" Scale Length
No Case (will be packed well - read my seller reviews)
Purchased from McKenzie River Music in Eugene, OR and last setup by Truetone Music in Santa Monica, CA.
Please understand what you are purchasing. This is a 58 year old Danelectro guitar that was meant for either budget minded or new players to the instrument at an affordable price back in the 1950's & 60's. It's a vintage guitar that is cool and very pleasing and playable. The necks on these guitars simply don't bow ever. Its amazing, not one but two truss rods. All original Danelectro guitars were made that way. The flat neck is a joy to play. Fret wear is minimal.
The pickups both work great as well as the selector switch and original concentric knobs and pots. Not scratchy, and these are all original parts, 58 years old and could probably still use a spray of de-ox-it or something of the sort to lube and clean them up. Please note that the tone control for the bridge pickup has less range or sweep than does the neck pickup. This may or may not be a defect in the stacked pot. The stacked pot and wiring harness looks original. I brought this up with McKenzie River Music after purchase and they said a new stacked pot could be installed but in their opinion better to leave in original condition.
They were and are still fun, great playing guitars that guys like Jimmy Page and Warren Haynes both discovered later were pretty damn good instruments for being made out of masonite.
As Found on the web..."One of the rarer curios of the original 1960s Danelectros (which is saying something), this Model 4021 was added to the company's line in the early 1960s. The reason for its existence is revealed by its rather prosaic name: the "Hand Vibrato Guitar." The popularity of Fender guitars with their smooth trem arms, and Gibson and Gretsch guitars with a Bigsby, must have made Nathan Daniel realize this feature was becoming a necessity in the growing teenage market.
Daniel then cleverly engineered his standard 3-point bridge to incorporate a large coil spring underneath the rear screw, accessed by a press-on plate in the back. The simple metal handle is pinned to the back edge, and for no obvious reason can be attached to either side of the bridge. The design is very basic, but it works surprisingly well; certainly good enough for surfy twang, though we don't advise dive bombing on this one!
This fairly early two-pickup Model 4921 dates to 1963 and uses the same black-finished double-cutaway body as the celebrated contemporary "Jimmy Page" model, with a larger proprietary pickguard surrounding the pickups. This is mated to the standard Danelectro neck but topped off with an eccentric flaring 2-sided headstock shared with the Bellzouki 12-string.
The black and white "Tuxedo" livery makes the Masonite-and-pine body look relatively classy, offset by the regular pebbled white vinyl siding used on all Danos. The neck has a thick rosewood fingerboard while the black-finished headstock mounts Waverly strip tuners with plastic buttons and a cool chrome "Danelectro" logo on the face.
The electronics circuit is the same as the Standard Shorthorn model, with two Danelectro "lipstick" pickups controlled by concentric pots for tone and volume, as well as a 3-way switch, all mounted to the enlarged white Masonite pickguard. The strap buttons on this guitar (including a third one mounted inexplicably to the TOP of the headstock) are specific to this period, transitional between the plastic 1950s style and the one-piece screwed-in type used by 1964.