Danelectro / Coral Firefly Project
~ Page 6; REFERENCE Photos ~
REFERENCE photos of other Fireflys provided should they be needed in refurbishing the project Firefly:
Example #3
Example #1
Example #2
~ End of reference example photos ~
The bridge on this Firefly is to accomondate the Bigsby tailpiece, a factory option. This bridge is what I call Danelectro's Covertible type bridge, because it's design obviously came from the Convertible bridge that predates this bridge by 5 or-so years. This bridge was simply squared off a bit on it's ends and slots cut in it's rear to prevent the strings from "buzzing" on the fretwire that served as the saddle and without the slots gave the Convertible a sound historicly known as "jangle". A modern retrofit convertible bridge exists that has a slotted saddle and would work in place of making one of these Firefly bridges; Although making a replica of this Firefly's bridge would not be difficult at all for a good guitar tech. The maker of the retrofit bridges sells them on ebay. A number of floating bridges would work as well if not better, maybe requiring some modification of it's base to suit the style a person desired, and in all cases to have a height that matched the Firefly's neck-to-deck angle determined by the neck pocket for original neck-to-deck angle or a higher angle if desired by shimming the neck pocket. Allparts and Stewart McDonald are great places to shop online for guitar parts.
I lifted these photos from the internet, but wish the photographer would have gotten the front of the bridge in the photo! This model of Bigsby is still made today and might be a very good tailpiece for the Firefly project guitar. Bigsby sells a rocking floating bridge whose base can be machined to fit whatever neck-to-deck thus string-height is desired. I would personally prefer the original neck angle because it is designed into optimum pickup height adjustments.
Again, Kluson Deluse, double striped, individual 6IL tuners, still available today and common for Fender solid body electric guitars. Notice the very dark stain on the headstock that is almost black but lets a bit of wood grain show through on both sided of the headstock:
The Coral logo is a 1 piece 3D chrome on a black backing plate that's a glue-on, while 'FIREFLY' is a decal:
This headstock face is a rosewood laminate while the rest of the headstock is is a dark stain a bit lighter than the almost black stain in the previous example:
Notice that this guitar has a 3 color sunburst, whereas most Fireflys had a 2 color tobacco burst.
This guitar has the Coral logo tailpiece that incorporates a standard Danelectro bridge plate that has been modified to serve as the attached bridge of the tailpiece. The front and sides of the original bridge plate is cut off and the rear screw holes used to attach to a plate on the tailpiece, while height adjustment is made via the acorn capped allan screws that sit on a rosewood footing. See the next 2 photos:
The tailpiece and bridge plate ARE NOT screwed into the body; The body DOES NOT have a solid block under the bridge area. There is only a round sound post centered under the bridge pickup, with a channel routed for the pickup clearance, and with only about 1/2" of the sound post extending under the front and rear of the bridge pickup cavity .... see the soundpost and notes on Page 2 and Page 4:
This example seems to have a dark headstock face and standard non-tremelo bridge like example #2 above. Notice this finish is a 2 color tobacco burst and not a 3 color tobacco sun burst like example # 2 above:
