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| Vintage 1964 Silvertone 1457 guitar with amp in case (photo Gerry Joe Weise). |
Silvertone 1448 guitar.
1962-1967: Masonite black metalflake (or sometimes red sunburst metalflake) with white vinyl side edged body, 1 lipstick pickup. Amp-in-case, 3 watts amplifier with a 6" speaker.
Silvertone 1457 guitar.
1963-1967. Masonite red sunburst metalflake (or sometimes black metalflake) with white vinyl side edged body, 2 lipstick pickups. Amp-in-case, 5 watts amplifier with an 8" speaker.
Silvertone Hornet model guitar.
1967-1969: All amp-in-case models had a different Silvertone Hornet body shape, compared to the former 1448 and 1457 models.
At the origins of the Silvertone guitar and amp-in-case models. In 1962 at National Headquarters, for Sears Roebuck in Chicago IL, Nathan Daniel and Joe Fisher made an all-in-one: "electric guitar with carrying case and built-in 5 inch speaker plus amplifier". The guitar with an amplifier in the case weighed approximately 25.00 lbs, the original sale price was at $49.95.
Specifications: the 13 inch wide electric guitar weighed 5.20 lbs, the bodies were hollow built around a wooden frame, using a masonite top glued over poplar wood. They were spray painted black or red sunburst, then edged with white vinyl. The bridge was screwed into an internal wooden block that connected the top and back of the body. The neck is a poplar wood 21 fret (scale length of 24 1/2"), with a Brazilian rosewood fretboard and white dot position markers. Fitted with a screw mounted aluminium nut (1 11/16" width), and a "neck tilt" adjusting system. The headstock had a silver silk-screened "Silvertone" logo with a one-piece six-in-a-line metal tuners, stamped "Skate Key" on the buttons.
Dating 1960s Silvertones.
The serial number can be found inside the neck cavity.
3 digit serial numbers: 1st digit: week of the year. 2nd digit: unknown. 3rd digit: last digit of the year.
4 digit serial numbers: 1st and 2nd digit week of the year. 3rd digit: unknown. 4th digit: last digit of the year.
The one "lipstick tube" pickup alnico bar magnet was wound to a low output of approximately 3.30k to 4.80k resistance, housed in an actual surplus lipstick tube bought from a cosmetics manufacturer. They then stepped up the guitar model in 1963 to include two "lipstick tube" pickups, and wired "in series", (N.B. when both pickups were used together, the tone was much stronger due to wiring the pickups "in series", instead of "in parallel" like most other maker's two pickup guitars). Nathan Daniel designed the Lipstick tube pickups, as well as designing a winding system using a photographic timer and winder, that would rotate to the desired number of turns depending on the pre-set. It also had a baked melamine pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) black plastic knobs with white tops, three-way toggle switch, and jack socket, all on pickguard totally shielded. On guitars with 2 pickups, Silvertone used 2 white "concentric" stacked knobs. A combination rosewood bar bridge stud tailpiece, that had notches cut into the metal base to hold the string ends, a small piece of Brazilian rosewood was used as the saddle.
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| Close up of a vintage 1964 Silvertone 1457 guitar (photo Gerry Joe Weise). |
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| Lipstick tube pickups and pickguard of a vintage 1964 Silvertone 1457 guitar (photo Gerry Joe Weise). |
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| Headstock and tuners of a vintage 1964 Silvertone 1457 guitar (photo Gerry Joe Weise). |
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| Amp in case with speaker of a vintage 1964 Silvertone 1457 guitar (photo Gerry Joe Weise). |
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| Gerry Joe Weise's red slide guitars. Left to right: 1974 Fender Mustang. 1965 Gibson SG. 1977 Gibson Firebird. 1984 Fender Stratocaster. 1964 Silvertone 1457 model. 2009 Danelectro Hornet 67. 1960 Airline Town and Country. |
