9/5


1448 Dano  tube amp in case only G $100 BIN Scuffs/stains on outside of case and grille, crack in amp mounting board , functional

1484 Dano tube amp w/ cabinet G $430 Slight separation on on corner of amp cab , missing some covering on amp, otherwise nice, footswitch incl.

853 Ukelele F $22 Missing nut & tuners, crack on headstock

1446 Harmony HBEG w/OC VG $795 BIN  Looks good, minimal wear, NS replica pickguard

1448 Dano SSEG w/ tube amp in case VG $500 BIN Guitar and case both look great, some hand-drawn position marker weirdness on the side of the neck , slight stain on the spkr grille

Kay Pickups, said to be from a Silvertone VG $153 All three: , close up:If they all came from the same Silvertone  guitar, it's gotta be a 1445


9/4


1204 Harmony FTAC w/OC G $20 Script logo , replaced/refinished or modded bridge

1431 Dano tube amp G $175  Some covering dings, original spkr. and tubes, grille in good shape
1430 Dano tube amp F $182 Big corner ding, scrapes to finish, logoplate tarnished, fuse holder modded to work w/o fuse, back present, amp functional

1385 Harmony HBEG w/OC G $760 Screw-in polepieces, logo broken, some finish checking, (1) knob & pickguard missing

1423 Harmony SSEG w/OC  VG $700 BE Another great guitar from the Lawman! Great shape, ready to rock.  A little headstock wear.

1391 Dano tube amp G $129  Chassis has some new support & screws, volume knob MIA, frayed covering at seams, grille looks good, brass logoplate has some tarnish.

UNK FHAC F $77

9/3

RIP Jerry Reed- The 'Alabama Wild Man' started a whole new school of country pickin' and his sense of humor and songwriting craft has been something Nashville's been lacking for YEARS. I remember staying up late, waiting for my local country station to play "Lord, Mr. Ford" and "Crude Oil Blues" back in the day. "Amos Moses," "Uptown Poker Club," and an incredibly beautiful song, "Smell the Flowers" are the ones I remember. I still quote his end rap at the very tail end of C.O.Blues: "He who expecteth nothin', ain't gonna be deceived." I got to see him at the NC state fair a few years back... his voice wasn't what it used to be but boy, could he play. Also, as one of the few (if not the only) folks to stand up to Col. Tom Parker and refuse to give away half his rights to his songs just because Elvis was cutting it, he stands head and shoulders above the rest. A true original, a great player and a very nice man. See him pickin' 'Jerry's Breakdown' with Chet Atkins (Chet's first guitar was a Silvertone, dontcha know...) Wikipedia Entry

Getting the month going with some nice items, a rare 1475, a 'Wish Book only' 1304, an OK (but rare) 1385 and a super nice 'Chris Isaak' 1446! And check out that crazy 1481 mod! I gotta show you a coupla bigger pics of that one. Can anybody ID the cabinet it's built into? I kinda recognize it, but can't quite put my finger on it.

1448 Dano SSEG w/ tube amp in case VG $503 Shiny finish, still has cord holder at output jack, very clean guitar and amp, early non-skate-key tuners, pointier body, but line knobs

852 Ukelele VG $175 BE 'Hawaiian Girl' model

1304 Dano SSEG w/OC VG $420 Square cutaway, light playing wear, light headstock wear

1475 Teisco MIJ HBEG w/OC VG $560 Script headstock, 'thumbnail' fret markers, some wear on the neckplate

9/2

September... school's back in  session, ball teams are playing, Hallowe'en suits are on the rack, and we shall commence with the pricing of Silvertone items from online auctions, namely completed ebay auctions. Really didn't see much over the summer, y'all... humdrum prices and everyday guitars, the coolest stuff I saw is detailed below the current prices... I'll leave it all up for awhile. Also, if you haven't checked out the latest pages linked below, give 'em a spin!
 

1446 Harmony HBEG w/OC E $1200 Very nice, no issues, seller has owned seven of these, says it's the best he's seen.

1204 Harmony FTAC G $49 Script logo, headstock scrapes

14XX Dano Footswitch G $41 Trem/reverb

1444 Dano SSEG Bass w/OC VG $900 Logo present, clean

1448 Dano SSEG guitar only G $100 (!) Whatta deal! NS tuners

1481 Dano tube amp MOD $114 Very interesting, Dr. Frankentone...

1457 Dano SSEG guitar only VG $450 BIN Serial #1084, light dings, orig. footswitch and cord incl.

1385 Harmony HBEG w/OC G $946 Screw-in polepieces , light wear, some dings, logo broken , NS Bigsby bridge

700 Harmony FHAC F $103 Clean, A few repairs, hairline crack on side, serial #3131H700, stamped   F47

1485 Dano Tube Amp VG $720 Corner dings, bump on front panel, otherwise clean

1474 Dano tube amp G $275 BIN Scratchy pots, dings


 

Well, it seems August is upon us, and I think I'm going to continue my summer vacation from auction tracking (not that I've really stopped, I just haven't been detailing the rather run-of-the-mill items up on the ebay block the past two months. I promise to start tracking auctions again in September. Too much going on here lately in the real world, and really not a lot goin' on in the Silvertone Auction World. Some nice pieces going for some bargain prices, but auction activity continues to be diminished. If you need to get a bearing on what an item may be worth, just give the archives a look (the link are at the bottom of this page).

I've been churning out more pages for the site, and working on another site of mine, waxingpoetics.net, so it's been a busy time on the Internets out my way.

Look for a bunch of catalog and non-catalog Teisco made Silvertones to enjoy, and we'll start counting the money in September. I'll still be checking in here when something remarkable pops up auction-wise, or to let you know about newly featured guitars. As always, keep those cards and letters coming!



8/20: The Mt. Fuji headstock'd guitar, the short-lived 1418

8/13: Japan-mania continues... please greet the 1460!

8/4: You shall have your Teisco pleasure! THAT I decree! Here are new pages for the non-catalog
1436 and 1437 Teisco-built Silvertones.

7/31: Teisco-mania in full effect... I've been on a roll with these crazy guitars, and it's still rollin'... here's the non-catalog 1435!

7/24: Gettin' bass happy! Here's the non-catalog 1438 bass!

7/22: Sorry I've been away so long! Here's a new page for the 1490 bass.

6/26: Another Kay off the wall: the 4-string model 661

6/20: Happy 1st day of Summer!
OK, I don't have all the guitars up yet, but here's a Dano-built Silvertone guitar timeline!

6/20: Wish Book Only Dano-made 1304 available for your perusal

6/19: Thanks to Silvertonian Dan for reminding me to get this 1457 guitar page up!

6/12: Last Silvertone Standing: The MIJ Country Gentleman clone, Silvertone model 1475

6/10: More Kay goodness with the Kay-built Silvertone 620

6/9: New Patent Information on the Buck Owens American Model!

6/8  Kay-built Silvertone Model 618!

Wheeeeeee doggies! As Jed Clampett would say... I've been enjoying a little bit of vacation, a good bit of Silvertonin' and a whole lot of work. New pages for the site, lots of emails from all of y'all, and of course the actual work that gets the bills paid. All in all, a pretty normal summer. I just attended a reunion of my 'New Wave' compadres from the early '80s, and that was a pretty good deal. Saw lots of folks I hadn't seen in 25 years or so, saw some great friends that I still keep in touch with, and found where we've lost a few along the way. A good time was had by all, and a concert is planned in Norfolk Virginia for the fall.

Been gettin' lots of emails inquiring about some guitars I don't have on the site yet. I'm prioritizing what I put up by that list, so if you own a particular model I don't have a page up for yet, or there's something I haven't covered yet that you want me to bump up to the front of the line, just let me know!

To be honest with you, not much exciting has been on the auction block the last little bit, that 'lightning bolt' acoustic from the 40s (see below) was the most interesting thing I've seen lately, and prices and auctions have, shall we say, diminished somewhat. I don't know if it's summer-related or economy-related. As I've said before, if you've got some cash, now's the time to get a Silvertone bargain. I'm still kicking myself for missing out on that $179 1451 guitar from a couple weeks back.

6/26: Bargain-o-rama! A very nice 1451 guitar went for just  $179 yesterday!

6/24: YOWZA! If you've been hankering for an 'amp in case' style guitar of the 1448, 1457 or 1451 variety, there are at least 17 guitar/amps or just the guitars active on ebay as of this post (noonish on 6/24).



6/19: A rarely-seen stock black '59-'60 era Kay-made Silvertone Model 649 went for a respectable $461 yesterday.

Here are my notes the seller used in his auction:

1959 Model 649 Silvertone.

The L1 tells me that Kay made it. Kay guitars are VERY hard to track by the inside stamps. Early on they used the actual Sears model number as part of the stamped numeral, but abandoned that by the mid-late 50s. And with precious little info on Kay production runs and serial numbers, we're left to visually ID the beauties.

I narrowed yours down to the 649 model that I told you about. I've checked my Sears catalogs thoroughly (I've got a collection from the early 40s through the early 70s), and I believe my info to be accurate. They were available for only the brief 59-60 window, as hollowbody cutaway acoustics fell out of fashion. Too 'jazzy' for the rock and roll 60s.

6/18: Thanks to all my fellow Silvertonians for pushing the hits higher! Our friends at Quantcast show peaks and valleys, but steady growth, and our highest ranking ever! Woohoo!

6/18: A trio of rareness went on the block the last couple of days, check these out:

Here's a very nice 1300 Dano-built guitar; one of the first of the so-called 'U' style body, along with a companion 1390 amp. The pair went for $610. The seller said he found it in an attic. We should all be so lucky.



How about a 'tan and ginger' 1357 guitar, along with an accompanying 1330 amp. The pair went for $631. Note the narrower 'C' style body, the 'cupcake' knobs and the contrasting (not white vinyl) sidewall finish.



Thirdly, here's a guitar from the very earliest days of Silvertone. It's a Kay-made guitar, I don't have any catalog listings for it, but I've seen similar ones in my 46/47 catalog. Check out the wooden (!) pickup housing, the upper bout mounted controls, the lightning bolt headstock, and the screw-on cord jack, seen only in this early family of models. This piece of guitar history went for $460.



I've said it before... I LOVE surprises!

You don't see too many of these babies! The Made in Japan (presumably by Teisco) 1475; first available from Sears in late 1968, it's one of the many 'Japanese invasion' guitars that came into the Sears catalog that year, replacing the Danos and most of the Harmony and Kay electric models. Price was originally $137.95 (dropped to $124.95 in '69 and $99.95 by '71), so it didn't sell so well, and it was gone by early 1971, making it a pretty rare guitar. One of the very last (if not THE last) Silvertone-branded guitars available from Sears. This example is actually one of the first available, as the very last ones had a simple 'block' logo decal (and block neck markers) instead of this axes' more desirable metal inlay. There was originally a wood panel inlay in the 'Bigsby-san' tailpiece. This one went for $600.

Just gotta show you this absolutely unique 1210 that just sold on ebay for $339: Let's call it the 'Ava Maria.' It's really top notch work, although I imagine all that overlay kinda dampens the sound of the guitar. Pretty though; nice details on the edges.