Guild Beginner
Member
Hey, I found a nice old guitar the other day on my semi-local Craigslist. Some of you have probably seen this Silvertone model before--it' the one called the "Chris Isaak" because he plays one often. It's actually a Silvertone 1446L.
It's a pretty unique Silvertone because it's actually close to "pro quality" from where I'm sitting. The pickups are stock Gibson mini-humbuckers Harmony traded some guitar bodies for (or so the legend goes), and the tuners are the same Waverlys my CE-100D has. Nice inlays and everything too--the "Silvertone" logo is aluminum instead of painted. The Bigsby is stock. The neck feels a lot like one of the early, thicker Guild necks, and it is clear from the sound/style that Harmony was approximating a Gretsch-esque rockabilly guitar or a Gibson. I don't think they were so far off the mark, really.
Anyway, it plays great and it's quite clean. The bridge is a replacement Gibson bridge, but the original came with it. The year is either a '64 or '65. I bought it because I've never owned a single electric with 'buckers and I was curious. I'm not disappointed at all and I got it for a couple hundred less than they go for on ebay. I was actually on-the-clock on overtime while I checked it out (delivering parts down the I-5 corridor), but my boss had said "go for it" because it was supposed to be my day-off. That worked out well. 8)
It's a pretty unique Silvertone because it's actually close to "pro quality" from where I'm sitting. The pickups are stock Gibson mini-humbuckers Harmony traded some guitar bodies for (or so the legend goes), and the tuners are the same Waverlys my CE-100D has. Nice inlays and everything too--the "Silvertone" logo is aluminum instead of painted. The Bigsby is stock. The neck feels a lot like one of the early, thicker Guild necks, and it is clear from the sound/style that Harmony was approximating a Gretsch-esque rockabilly guitar or a Gibson. I don't think they were so far off the mark, really.
Anyway, it plays great and it's quite clean. The bridge is a replacement Gibson bridge, but the original came with it. The year is either a '64 or '65. I bought it because I've never owned a single electric with 'buckers and I was curious. I'm not disappointed at all and I got it for a couple hundred less than they go for on ebay. I was actually on-the-clock on overtime while I checked it out (delivering parts down the I-5 corridor), but my boss had said "go for it" because it was supposed to be my day-off. That worked out well. 8)
