Fall 2013

11/30

It's Been a Busy November... holidays, new guitars from Silvertone, more holidays on the way... I'm just tryin' to stay caught up. Here's some really cool stuff we've seen the past month, and we're getting ready for some more great things comin' your way from Silvertone World in December and in the New Year!

I'm Puzzled by These Early Silvertones... They're not Harmony guitars... then I thought they were Kays... but for some reason, I've got this weird idea they might be... Gibson made. I mean, Gretsch made an archtop for Sears right after World War 2, and Gibson certainly 'jobbed' plenty of instruments for other retail outlets, so... why not? Any ideas on that, Silvertonians?


Check these 1941 Silvertone flat-tops, and then give a gander at the guitars at this link... there are certainly similarities. Could it be?



Oh, Santa... The new reissues of the 1449 are in music stores all over! Samick / Silvertone continues its excellent reissue series with this guitar and its reissue 1423.
Dig those finishes!


Check the details... string-through individually adjustable bridge, adjustable pickup height, chromed stacks, reinforced neck attach, mucho glitter... sweet!





The original 1449 didn't last very long in the Sears lineup, as it was seen as too similar to the 1448. So, it was re-designed with that red-black 'burst paint job we know so well and adorned with a new style pickguard that surrounded the rhythm pickup.


 

One of the many iterations of the end-of-the-Silvertone-line 124X guitars:



Secret Silvertonian Neil Young turned 68 on November 12th. Here's Neil onstage as 'Shakey Deal' on his 1988 "This Note's For You" tour... and what's Neil's trusty guitar Old Black plugged into? Why, it's a Silvertone 1485!



The 'Jumbo Clone' guitars available in the Sears catalog began in 1951 with the 618, ran for a few years, and the just-a-tad-fancier 620 closed things out in 1959.


 

The availability of Teisco-built guitars at Sears began stealthily in 1966 or so, with a family of guitars that never appeared in any Sears catalog. After the success of these 'store only' axes, the 'Japanese Invasion' began in full force in late 1968.



Photographers! Make sure to get the headstock in your shots... I'm beggin' ya! Anyhoo, here's young Freddy from the Spring of 1957 rockin' his snowflake-markered Silvertone 614!



Here's some of that 'Japanese Invasion' I was talkin' about, with the second-banana 1440.



Before there was Silvertone, there was SUPERTONE!



Fancy shields and 'cheese wedge' fretboard makers, here's a great 'Aristocrat,' the 670.


Check this out: it's an incomplete 'U' style Dano/Silvertone body! Maybe it was the slight damage at the neck pocket area (lower right corner of the composite image) that got this piece rejected from the line... but the Dano factory's loss is our gain. Look at the construction details; no less than eleven pieces of poplar stapled and glued together to make up the frame. This allowed Danelectro to use several less expensive pieces of wood rather than two or three bigger, more expensive pieces. Glue some Masonite panels top and back, and voila! It's the body we know and love. It's amazing that this has survived to the present day, but I'm very happy it did.



10/31

A Silvertone In a Horror Movie? It's true! The B-movie is "The Spider," and like many horror movies from the late 50s, this one had a 'rock and roll scene' in it. As I was watching the band set up, I thought I saw a familiar shape up on the high school stage. The band started rockin' ( really rockin'... seems the producers hired actual musicians for this segment, and their totally boss playin' was enough to wake the giant spider from the dead!), and there it was again... could it be? Then a closeup of the pompadour'd picker and there it was! A Kay-made Silvertone 1356 model, the one-pickup job with the knobs near the edge and the cool three-piece fret markers!



Here's the movie if you want to give it a gander... the spider-waking rock and roll starts at about 34 minutes into the flick...


The weird and wobbly theremin music in this flick was played by podiatrist turned theremin player Samuel Hoffman, who provided theremin music for many a flick, horror or not, in the 40s and 50s, beginning with Hitchcock's "Spellbound" in 1945. Here's a charming bit from 1956 featuring Dr. Hoffman on the Johnny Carson Show:



 

10/1

Busy Times in Silvertone World! The Silvertone World team has been hard at work the past month, prepping some video reviews of the Silvertone Classic 1478 and 1303 reissues  with our friend Paul Johnson, and getting the seasonal Frankentones all gussied up in their gauze, gizmos and garish colors.

Samick / Silvertone has begun reissuing a great line of  'Silvertones Classic' series guitars. The first axes out the door are reboots of the 1303 'U2' and 1478 'Bobkat.' In these videos, our friend Paul Johnson ruminates as he wrangles and wrings some cool sonics from these terrific guitars.
 

We've got an all-new crop of ghoulish guitars, mummified mods, and other spooky strummers for ya, plus lots of favorites from the past few years, all in a new, easy to browse format. Click on ol' Franky below to enter the crypt... Moooohahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa...

Remember to look for more great products from Samick / Silvertone in the very near future, including a reboot of the 1449 two-pickup ampincase guitar, and a  beautiful revival of the well-loved 1423 'Jupiter,' complete with 'Blender' control! Visit Silvertoneclassic.com for more, and we'll keep you posted, of course.



Also, we've got an all-new page for the classic Harmony-built 1423 with all-new photos in the gallery, and great catalog shots from the life of the guitar:

 

ABBREVIATION KEY:
MODEL # / MANUFACTURER / INSTRUMENT TYPE / CONDITION / PRICE / NOTES
Abbreviations: M-Mint, NM - Near Mint, E- Excellent, VG- Very Good, G- Good , F-Fair, P-Poor, NS- Non-Stock, HBEG- Hollow Body Electric, FHAC- F-Hole Acoustic, FTAC- Flat-Top Acoustic, SBEG- Solid Body Electric, SSEG- Semi-Sold Electric, MIJ- Made In Japan, MOD - Modified significantly from stock, w/ O/C Original / Case, BOA - (related to price) Best Offer Accepted; price shown was asking price, sold for less, DNS - Did Not Sell; used mainly to show an item of interest whether it sold or not.
Unless otherwise noted, I'm rating them by what I see in the pictures and read in the description.

The items depicted on this page are not for sale by Silvertone World. These are reviews of items from completed eBay auctions on or around the date specified.