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Summer 2013 Pt. II
 8/28
As Long as Folks Keep Guitars Under Beds,
we'll always have treats like this popping up. It's what I call the
"Flat-o-Caster," the two-pickup version of the Teisco-built
Silvertone 1436.
1436 Teisco SBEG w/ C E
<$575 Clean, minimal wear, stickers still on switches, logo tag
looks good, whammy present, chrome shiny, seller says "Stored
literally under a bed, acquired from the original owner.
These pickups sound great. Interesting controls, very 60's: 2 volume
pots, with 2 toggles for each pickup that turn off/on, and switch EQ
from treble to bass. Also a boost switch. I cleaned all of this with
contact cleaner and everything is nice and quiet, no scratchiness, other
than very minor scratch on
the bridge treble/bass toggle when you switch it. When playing, all is
dead quiet.
This has a really nice vibrato bar, very good movement
for 60's swerve. The
bridge is surprisingly sophisticated: it's a "tune-o-matic" type, as in
can be adjusted for intonation. Also, slots allow the strings to be
adjusted left/right. And it's a rounded surface, so the strings roll
smoothly when using the vibrato and stay in tune."
  
8/13
The Final Chapter in the Danelectro Story
is kind of sad, but with somewhat of a silver lining. MCA bought the company and tried to shift its focus from
mass marketing (Sears, Montgomery Ward) to individual guitar shops (guys
with pricey Fenders and Gibsons hanging on the wall). This
move, along with a softening guitar market in the late '60s, doomed the
Neptune manufacturing giant, and the factory was shuttered by late 1968.
What of all the remaining parts and pieces that were surely still behind
those padlocked doors? Well, we don't know where all of the Dano
bits ended up, but we do know about some necks and bodies and
electronics that escaped the sad fate of rotting in a New Jersey
landfill and became the instruments they were meant to be, albeit with a
little re-branding and modification along the way. Dan Armstrong was the
key player in all of this, and I'll just point you to these
well-written and
researched links for you to
find out the story. There are a couple of little nits I'd pick...
like the origin of the neck tilt mechanism (the 1448 and 1457 had it
early on; they didn't originate with Armstrong), and the 'swoop' neck
cutaway bodies (the last 'dolphin nose' guitars, a few late 1304s and
the 1444 bass all had 'em)... but that's small potatoes next to this very
interesting story of an American guitar legend working on some legendary
American guitars.
  
I urge you to check out the links from
MyRareGuitars (none other than Jim Washburn appears in the
commentary section with some great info!) and
DanArmstrong.com.
And, if you'd like to buy one show above,
Olivia's
Vintage has the one pictured above for a little under two grand.
Silvertonian Phred
has used his best Dr. Frankentone talents in restoring this
1438 bass: "The
poor thing was not only missing the bridge and cover, and tuners, but
also one of the strap buttons, a knob, a pot was broken off and the
black paint had been stripped from the control cavity. The body was also
really, really banged up, and I think had some water damage. But it was
cheap. About a month ago, I located a Teisco branded version with a
super bowed neck, also for cheap, and stripped it. Between the two
basses, I made one Silvertone version, that actually turned out pretty
nice despite the abuse they had both suffered over the years. I used the
Teisco body, the Silvertone neck, and just went from there. I did not
refinish anything. I simply cleaned and polished all the parts, then
picked the best. As cheapo as these instruments were (they do not come
close to my Danelectro Silvertones), a good setup has turned this into a
rather decent, if odd bass."
Great job, sir!
 
8/5
Hallowe'en Is Three Months Away, but
I'm already seeing decorations and whatnot appearing at my local
BuyMarts, so I reckon I'll go ahead and treat you with this little trick
that sold yesterday. Frankentone
at its creatively wacky best, this is a Dano-built body married to a
Valco lapsteel electronics/bridge package. Scarily cool!
1450/1452
Dano SBEG MOD $476 Clean, some
wear, logo strong, NS Valco electronics, guitar date-stamped 1965
 
Another little discovery I made this summer; a Silvertone
sighting in one of my favorite movies of recent years. It's in the movie
"Into The Wild," starring Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, Kristen
Stewart (pre-Twilight), William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden and others, and
featuring a terrific
soundtrack from Pearl Jam
frontman Eddie
Vedder. The movie is an account of the experiences of Christopher
McCandless, "freshly graduated from college with a promising future
ahead, McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the
wild in search of adventure." See it if you haven't; it's a great film.
In a concert sequence at
'Slab City,'
there's a wide view of the makeshift stage that members of this ragtag
community perform from, and leaning against a Fender amp, is a
Danelectro-built Silvertone 1457.
Notice how it's shifted a bit from the closeup to the wide shot.
8/4
Some More Exceptionally Exciting Ephemera
from our research & acquisition department's summer finds... Once again,
it's some items I've been looking for quite some time, and it came my
way (mostly) in the form of a 1971 Sears Entertainment/Electronics
catalog. Would that I had one of these 'specialty' catalogs from every
year; no telling what I'd find!
First, it's a guitar that I'd have thought would have been
long gone from the 'available' list at Sears, it's the hollowbody
electric 1453. Built by
Harmony, cousin to the Harmony-branded
H82
'Rebel' models, and obviously based on
Rickenbacker's stylish guitars.
Next, we've finally located a listing for the doppelgänger
of the Harmony-made
600 series, the arched-back EKO-built Made in Italy model 698, from the
1965 Wish Book:
Last, it's a very modern take on the
Hawaiian lapsteel, the copper-colored Harmony-built 1499.
8/1
To Tell You The Truth, it's been a
sleepy summer auction-wise in Silvertone World. Summer usually is. Don't
get me wrong, there's been some fine Silvertonium comin' up from the mines,
but nothing out of the ordinary for the most part.
1472 and
1482 amps
have been selling like crazy, and the
1454 and
1485 guitars are
enjoying some 'heat,' thanks to
Dan Auerbach of
The Black Keys, but those are the only notable trends I've
been able to perceive. So, after a month off from the auction reporting &
commentary circuit, we're back.
Let's kick it off with something that literally had my heart racing with glee
when I saw it.
I've been looking for a picture like this for years. It's an
'in store' photo of the musical instruments department at a Sears that
had its grand opening way back in 1966, and the local newspaper was
invited in for a preview of the massive new department store. Here's the
kicker: it was the Sears located in Virginia Beach, VA not five miles
from my childhood home! It's a great shot for many reasons; it nails
down the availability of the non-catalog Teisco-made 143X guitars, it
shows how guitars and amps were shown off at Sears, and it lets
us know that the 'raincoats' included with certain hollowbody
electrics was standard equipment, and, well, it's just supremely cool.
So, take a little trip back in time to July 19,
1966...
Here's the store...
located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, this Sears was the 'anchor'
for Pembroke Mall, an indoor mall being a fairly new concept at the
time. I remember buying my first vinyl at the Sears record department
there (The
Very Best of Ray Stevens), going with my Mom to get my 'Toughskins'
jeans for school, seeing the awesome model train setup during the
holidays in Sears' Toyland,' buying a rubber shark during the 'Jaws'
craze in 1975 (still got him!), and being bored to tears as I waited for
my mother to peruse the dresses. In the mall, I recall going to visit
Santa in their great elf-and-reindeer-and-Mrs.
Claus-and-rosy-cheeked-kids-populated animatronic Christmas village,
wondering at the weirdness of the Spencer's Gifts store, being
mesmerized by the nifty indoor water fountains and the variety of
tastiness in the food court, playing my first vector graphics video game
outside the Woolworth's (Space
Wars!), seeing "Alien" and "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Night of
the Living Dead" at the giant
'Ultra-Vision' theater there... it all just came flooding back when
I saw these photos from the
Virginian-Pilot newpaper's photo archives.
And here's that beautiful minty-fresh Silvertonium! Guitars left to right
are: 604,
615,
802 5-string banjo,
621,
619 archtop,
657 classical,
1437,
1436,
1438 bass,
1446 'Chris Isaak,' and
far right, just just
barely in frame, a 1454. Amps on
the frontline; 1484,
1483,
1482, and trailing out of frame,
a 1481.
Awesome!
Another shot of the same general area at the 'public'
grand opening on July 27th, 1966. Hey, what's that guitar
in the far left-hand side of the shot? Why, it's a
1448; with the ampcase just
visible standing behind it seen edge-on, and the
1481 from the previous shot
just below the 1448!
We don't have a time machine (yet), but this is certainly
an amazing window into the past... wouldn't you love to step through?
Holy Modifications, Batman! Another
kool thing we ran
across recently was this gaudily groovy late-50s
1429, 'kustomized' by the King
of all customizers, George Barris.
Barris is the mad genius behind everything from the
Batmobile to the
Munsters Koach
to the Green Hornet's car to the Beverly
Hillbillies ol' jalopy to the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee to Elvis' cars and planes and
many more krazy kustom kreations. Ol' George is apparently no stranger to
musical mania, either; dig the
famous
Voxmobile:
 
I haven't been doing nothing, of course; the page factory
at Silvertone World is always movin' and groovin', and we've got an
all-new page (actually, two pages) up for the super-popular
600 series flattop
guitar with its many model numbers/variants; one of Sears' top-selling strummers.
Over one hundred new photos of examples of the long-running
guitar series, with a timeline and complete year-by-year look at its
catalog listings from Sears.
Our
Silvertone World Facebook page is going great guns, too; bringing
daily doses of Silvertonium and lots of fun to the vintage/retro fans at the
popular social networking site. Got a snap of yourself with your fave
Silvertone guitar or amp? Join with the 'in' crowd over at
"Me and My Silvertone!"
Here's a wonderful "Me and My Silvertone"
vintage snap; a happy rocker with his 1448 setup, at home in the
mid-60s. Check the living room decor and the plastic coverings on the
couch and chair... classic!
Silvertone /
Samick is now shipping the new 'Classic Series' 1303 and 1478
guitars all over the country! Check their
Facebook page for a dealer near you, and look for even more terrific
classic reissues to come! Also, look for some video reviews of both
guitars here at Silvertone World right around back-to-school time!
Time To Get Your Pick On! The
pick store is back with classic
black 'thin script' logos on a white matte-finish Delrin pick.
Our first batch sold out fast, so get 'em while they're hot!
 
Make sure to visit Summer 2013 Part I,
we saw some great stuff as we
cranked up the heat!
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, 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.
Links in blue
open in a new window, and take you to a Silvertone World info page, a
period catalog listing, or a link of interest.
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