Silvertone Acoustic Archtop

Satin sunburst finish, archtop solid wood(I think birch); stiff, open tuners, no electronics, looks like a mahoghany neck, spray-painted faux "inlays". Cream painted outlines. Made in 1960. Pretty basic.

For what it is, the sound is great! That dry, bluesy southern tone. Very midrange to bright in tone that projects well; good for leads. I've played a '30's Gibson archtop L style, and this is not far from that sound for a fraction of the price, without the cosmetic appointments.

This is a no frills archtop acoustic--the trim lines are just painted on so it doesn't look too plain. No real inlays, just painted on.
Here's what I had to do to make this playable: Action was so high you could drive a truck under the strings; I had my luthier straighten the neck with a heat treatment to get the bow out; some frets were high and had to be tapped down and re-glued in place. Saddle was shaved a bit to also help the action. Now action is not super low, but at a level that is playable without buzzing. Further action would be to dress the frets with a full setup, but I don't think that is worth the cost. Spent about $70 on the aforementioned remedies, but now it plays very nice. Worth the cost to do that.
The spray-painted inlays are almost comical as some of the "inlay" edges show spray falloff at the edges, but add to the mojo of the guitar; the amber burst finish is actually done very well and visually more pleasing than some of the garish colors I've seen in other Silvertone archtops. The tuning keys are very stiff; I've got to be careful when tuning as to not shear the buttons off. Tried gear oil as a lube, but even that doesn't seem to work.
I restrung it with light gauge strings to take a little tension off the neck.
You wonder how many hundreds of these were made that day---I'm sure many!

This guitar is like a "closet classic" from 1960; Credit the previous owner's care(and just one previous owner) that it's in the shape it is today! It's actually built pretty solid. Just the stiff tuning keys/tuning buttons seem like they would be a problem down the road.
It would easily withstand live playing.

Silvertone service is long gone, no help now!

I've got many acoustics, but this is my first and probably my only archtop acoustic that I'll have. Been playing since 1975. If lost or stolen I would look for something a little higher end, but the novelty of this and the nice tone it produces on the 'sound palette' makes it a worthwhile addition.
They are increasingly hard to find in good condition, and the one I found was near mint.
Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $200 for one, but they are lots of fun to play with the personality of their "tone"---the Silvertone!

This is a sunburst-finish, non-cutaway Silvertone acoustic archtop, probably of late 50s-early 60s vintage. It has a 26" scale (!) and 19 small brass frets on a rosewood fretboard. The three-on-a-side headstock sports a white plastic bell-shaped trussrod cover, the shape of which I've been told indicates it was made by Kay (rather than Harmony) for Sears.
The body and neck are bound with slightly yellowed white plastic binding. It has a simple nickel-plated (chrome?) trapeze tailpiece, and a non-compensated but height-adjustable floating rosewood bridge. There are two f-holes in the laminated top, which I've been told is birch ply.
I got it because it just looked funky and great, and after trying many lower-priced acoustics that I could afford, I couldn't find anything that just sounded perfect. So I bought what was cheap, unique and looked perfect, and figured I'd figure out how to eke a tone I liked out of it...more on that below. But before I get to that, let me add that I installed a floating neck pickup and a volume pot...I figured it wouldn't hurt the playability, would allow me to plug in, and while it's in really good shape, it's not an L-5, so what the hell?

Prior to having this, I didn't have an acoustic style--I was an electric rock guy and neophyte lap steeler. I try to play rhythmically interesting folk-rock, I guess, sometimes in altered tunings.
Initially I thought it was impossible to bend on (26" scale) and sounded like a trash can lid. Time and hand-strength improvements have helped, though. It doesn't sound good (thin and harsh)when you strum hard. It sounds very intimate and midrangey when played softly with varied and subtle palm muting, which I tend to do anyway. By experimenting with different picks, where on the strings I pick, and using softer pick attacks, I've learned how to get a sound I really like. It doesn't have the big dreadnought bass or hi-fi trebles most acoustic players seem to dig. If you've ever heard David Rawling's lead work with Gillian Welch, it sounds a little like that--he plays an Epiphone acoustic archtop.
The long scale makes lowered tunings pretty articulate, and capoing up from standard or drop-D works well, too, at least up to about the fifth fret.
I don't have an acoustic amp yet, but in trying several out I've found that the magnetic neck pickup on this type of guitar does not land in most amp-designer's idea of where acoustic guitar eq should be. Crate acoustic amps in particular just don't work with it...their mid-sweep totally misses this guitar's sound. I like it through the Ecoustic 112 and the smaller Trace Elliot amps, though. Through my Valco tube combo, it sounds like an old jazz guitar, which is cool but not for my all-around sound. I'll need an acoustic amp at some point. Oh, yeah, it sounds great miked with a U87, a C414 or an SM57, which is interesting.

It had been badly set up by some caveman for left-handed use when I got it and needed a new nut and tuners. I put on a used set of Kluson Deluxe tuners and had a synthetic nut put on.
After a good setup, it plays pretty well with roundwound .011 acoustic strings. A 26" scale feels a lot stiffer than even a 25 1/2"
scale to me, but I'm getting used to it. Man, put me on a Mustang or an SG...I could fly! Heh. The small frets require a lot of finger pressure. I plan to have it refretted with somewhat taller and wider fretwire to facilitate easier string bending.
There are slight checks in the finish on the body, but to me that adds character; the finish is actually pretty nice for its age and the guitar is structurally sound. It's hard to make it go out of tune, even though the Klusons aren't the most precise tuners in the world. They look like they came on it, which is nice.

Live playing is no problem. It's tough. I feel no need for a backup at a gig, but have only gigged with it a few times so far. I need to settle on a means of amplifying it. I'm working on a solo set, and will probably combine a miked signal with the pickup signal at some point. That isn't really what I'm supposed to talk about here, but that's really my only concern with live use.

This guitar's makers, whether they were employed by Kay or Harmony, are long-gone, but there's a great shop in St. Louis that specializes in these kind of guitars. Delta Strings. 314-727-0445. If you like offbeat mail-order axes from the old days, call them. They gig with these things, they play real fingerstyle blues in open G, and they can fix or build anything.

I've been playing off and on for twentysomething years...wish I had the chops to show for it. I've got a Gibson Melody Maker, a couple no-name lap steels, a couple asian fender-style rock guitars, a couple amps of varying sizes (both tube and solid state), and various pedals. I'm playing mostly acoustic for the time being. If this guitar was stolen/lost/irreparably damaged, I'd look for another old funky archtop that sounded something like this one. I've really come to love what it does.