Silvertone 1464 212 Combo

The Silvertone 1464 is a solid state piggyback amp that introduced in 1966. What do I mean by piggyback? Well, you have your beautiful and solid cab loaded with Jensen Special Design 12" speakers - with a little space at the bottom for your amp head to slide in underneath. The head has two channels with two inputs per channel - reverb and trem on channel two - which can be controlled with the supplied footswitch (which also fits conveniently in the back of your cab! One very cool feature is the VERY long cord which connects the head to the cab. Probably a good 7 feet long Great for isolated recording. Keep your head next to you while the cab is in the iso booth. that way if you want to change the sound of the amp you don't have to get up and go into the other room. Hey, not that big of a deal - but still pretty cool. As far as power goes, the 1464 has power for days! This sucker is incredibly loud. I think it would be safe to say about 50 watts. The tone is incredible - I'm not even going to justify it by saying "for a solid state amp" - it's really just incredible. I've always shunned solid state amps as lifeless, brittle, and weak - no more. My original plan was to buy it for the cab and sell off the head. Then I plugged it in and played it! Instant change in perspective.

My main guitar is a Harmony H78 with three DeArmond Silverfoil pickups in it. My music could be described as somewhere between the Beatles, Cheap Trick and Crowded House. This amp is pefect for what I do. I has a beautiful, warm, punchy overdriven sound. You are not going to get the overdrive of an Orange head - but it's certainly usable. I has an almost Vox-y sound. Picture that beautiful sound of the opening chord of "Hards Days Night" by the Beatles. Nasal and chimey - bright but certainly not brittle. I would bet money that if you heard this amp without knowing what it was you wouldn't think it was a solid state amp. The only giveaway is that immediate sound of solid state amps - you don't have that tube compression sound for obvious reasons. At low volumes it has a very usable warm, clean tone. The breakup starts at about a third of the way up and continutes as you crank it up. No unwanted noise that I can hear. You are definately not going to get any brutal distortion out of this amp unless you use pedals...but you can get some very beautiful overdriven tones out of her. The reverb is kinda cheesy. It is almost an echo and reverb. The one cool thing about the verb though...if you turn it all the way up and your input channel all the way down and strike a chord, you will get the sound of the echo/verb without the attack - almost like setting a delay to play only the repeat and not the attack. The tremolo on this is to die for. I absolutely love it. Very throbbing and pulsy. If it could be made to go slightly slower it would be an improvement...but it does sound great. Almost like The Smith's "How Soon Is Now". As I said before, this amp has certainly changed my opinion of solid state amps. I can't wait to try some of those 60's Vox solid states now. My only complaint - and it's a minor one - is the lack of tube compression. I really love that sound...but I really love this sound too. Find one and see if you don't agree with me

I just got this about a week ago so I'm not sure how reliable it is. The person I bought it from said he used it for guitar, bass, keyboards - and he used it quite a bit. It looks to me to be in near mint condition. And it's built like a damn tank. Very attractive looking amp too in my opinion. Groovy 60's retro look. Check out a photo here

http://www.silvertoneworld.net/amplifiers/1464/1464.html

going by what I've been told by the seller and what I can tell by it's construction I think it's fair to say this is a solid piece of work.

you could try taking it to Sears but they may laugh at you.

I've been playing for about 25 years. I have about 20 amps - Vox, Magnatone, Univox, Harmony, Silvertone, Fender, Supro - and this is the only solid state. If this was lost or stolen I would certainly be on the lookout for another one. I have a feeling this is going to be a great studio weapon. The tone is really something special. It's build really solid and looks very cool. The tremolo is amazing. Similar to the trem on my Univox amps. While the reverb isn't the best in the traditional sense - you can get a very cool effect out of it when you use it in non-traditional ways. If I had to compare it to anything I would say it's closest to my Vox AC30 Top Boost - but it doesn't have the drive. It does have that beautiful, bright sparkle though. My friend compared it to the 60's British Vox solid state amps. I've never heard them so I don't know. If you are a tone hound like myself I highly recommend one of these and give it a whirl. I never thought I would ever rave about a solid state amp before - but I've been schooled.

Sears Silvertone Solid State 100. Made in the good ole USA in approx 1963. I own two of these amps, one I got for free and the second at a Guitat Center for $99. (You will not find them for this price as I was VERY lucky twice) These amps have brilliant tone, very warm and clean. They have a nice reverb and tremelo. I play mostly classic rock and garage rock. One amp does not have enough power, but two of them is perfect connected with an A/B Y switch.

I use a Fender Telecaster, a Fender (billy) Squire strat, and my main axe is a Danelectro 59DC. These amps are now over 50 years old and still going strong. The tone is to die for, very warm and clean. Not sure if the "100" stands for 100 watts. They are more along the lines of a 50 Watt tube amp. I run 2 and together they can hang with my other guitar players Ampeg VT-22 (The loudest combo amp ever produced!)

How many amps are still going strong after almost 50 years?? I would say that justifies a perfect "10" in my book. No scratchy pots, reverb and tremelo both work perfectly. I did install grounded plugs as the originals have no ground.

I doubt anyone at Sears would recognize the amp and give you service for it. Take it to Sears and try it!

I have been playing for about 15 years with some gigging. I run a DOD BiFet preamp pedal to warm it up a bit as these pedals really help solid state amps. If they were stolen, I would freak out and do my best to replace them. You don't see them very often.
Awesome amps...buy one if you can find one.

I'm on my 2nd of this amazing piece of Musical History. I bought my first as the full-fledged 212-combo from a fraggin idiot who went all digital in 1997. I payed $350 for it and thought it was worth every penny. All you arseholes who bought it for way less than it's worth from fraggin idiots who don't realize what they got on their hands are gonna pay a terrible karmic price for such blatant disrespect to one of the most cherished pieces of vintage gear. Solid-State don't get warmer than this, boys!

I really would like to rate this sucker a '10' on each account, but really... I don't know how the reverb sounded on these units new, but 40 years later; unusable. The tremolo on my 1st 'head' (dropped=broken) was quite usable, but this second unit has the trouble of not really engaging the effect until the 'strength' knob is on '10' and then it drops the volume drastically.

But enough knit-pickin! This pup's got 3 knobs to shape your tone with: Volume; Bass; & Treble. This thing is louder than all-get-out too. I will generally not crank the volume past 9:00 (around 2.5;) and I play in a progressive/thrash/indie power-trio, so you know I gotta be friggin LOUD!!! This amp is so flat that the sound of your guitar and effects shine through!!! Forget excluding this amp from being able to produce any style of music! XP

Seriously. Flat EQ, the tonality of your guitar and effects shine through, just an all around warm sound from a solid-state amp.

Our band played a party once and this drunk guy kept telling me how much he loved my tube-amp and that he loves that tube sound and I was like, "Solid-State!" and he trailed off and left me alone. Yet another time, a friend of mine who is a musician heard my amp and asked me about how many tubes it had in it! I know tricking a drunken ear is no big whoop, but tricking the trained, discerning ear of a fellow musician? Yeah...

I would say this amp is dependable as shite! The only reason my 1st one broke was because it slid off of the cabinet; I had put the cab @ 90degrees so the speakers would travel more on their own; and the sound guy accidentally knocked it off and the circuit-board broke to hell. Not my doing, but partially my fault. Still...

These amps work like magic (sans effects) even after being 40 years old. Just be careful with them and they may last even 40 more!!!!

Sears?

OK, so I gotta say that this amp means more to me and is more a part of my tone than any guitar or pedal. If it was stolen I would seriously find the bastard and obliterate!!!

Two channels one with reverb and tremelo. The cabinet says Solid State 100. I don't think that means 100 watts. Very clean, even with two twelve inch speakers in parallel at 4 ohms. I don't have the footswitch. It looks like it was a two button with a stereo plug. The trem doesn't work and the reverb is bizarre. It has two knobs for reverb, Depth and Drive. The reverb is some kind of cardboard tube suspended by coiled spring steel. It's not as good as the spring type I'm used to.
I wish it had a master volume for a preamp overdrive but they had not wanted that in 1967

I play mostly rock and rock and roll with a Strat so this amp will need an overdrive unit. It has no hum which is good. I could see that in the past a person could put a mike in one channel and guitar in the other and play small gigs in the old days.

It is cheaply built with particle board. Which is actually lighter than plywood. It still operates since 1967 so that says something for good old US technology. I just bought it so I don't know about how it will fare in my possesion. I will most likely sell it. I put in a speaker jack and a new cord so it won't shock anyone.

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I have been playing since 68. I own 15 other amps. I like to tinker.
I like to buy bargains and fix them up. It's fun to talk with people about their equipment especially if they are selling great old stuff for little money.

Sears... great company for old stuff like this. SOlid state isn't my bag but this is supreme. It's late 60's. I bought the head at a pawn shop 2 days ago. I built a cab with one 12" marshall. It's got inputs, 2 channels, reverb and TREMELO, foot switch jack, and then another jack that i have yet to mess with.
The speaker wire is hardwire but has been cut to hook up to any speaker.
I LOVE TREMELO... and as far as tremelo goes, this is it. Very veritile and can really be choppier than nessecary (which I like). Much like the 1482 combo's trem, but no clicks and less warm. The reverb (at least on my model) sucks... I'm planning on putting in a cleaner reverb from a peavey, or going all out and going spring. It destorts... prolly caseu mine is rusty. The 4 channels is overboard, but hey, if one goes out, BLAM... you have a backup.

Very jazzy clean, lots of warm *click noise with single coils. Very nice for a solid state. Their seems to be a static sound or something. like very high gain noise... it's pretty much diapears at high playing levels. This thing doesn't even overdrive really, just gets warmer. The high levels sound like the high levels of a tube amp... very cool.
I have mine through a 2000 Marshal single 12" from a busted amp... sounds great through a 4 12" as well.

Doesn't seem too reliable to me... the face plate seems loose or at least flimsy, but hey, it's lasted since the late 60's so, must be pretty good.

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This thing is great. I usually play out of a Fender Hot rod Deluxe... nice back up and just freakin' cool.

212 piggyback 100watt {combo/stack?} solid state 100.year unknown would guess late sixties bought it with an electric piano for $75.00 nice clean sound not much distortion cheaply made cabinet.my band uses it along with my peavey special212 and it keeps up fine.really bad reverb and tremelo. jensens speakers hardwired to the head,for the money and the age it is a dandy 2nd amp and i would suppose a good studio rig for clean sounds. i play a peavey t-60 through it and i need to bass it down a bit to cut down on earbleed.

sounds excellent for an early solidstate 100watt amp.pots noisy but so is my 15year old peavey. will break up but almost full volume to do it. sounds good with my various effect pedels. start clean so you can put any effect through it and get what you want. good amp for country,rockabilly ect. not your heavy metal amp.

have had it a year or so and cleaned an actual mouse/rat nest out of the cabinet and was in a damp garage for??? decades? worked first time i tried it at the garage sale i bought it at.just cleaned it up and gigged with it. who could ask for more out of a 35 or 40 year old amp.

sears are good people but it ain,t gonna happen

i have been playing for 25 years and have the afore mentioned special 212 peavey as my main amp and use the silvertone in the house where i don't need the brutal volume. and when my band buddies are between amps. if it were stolen i would like another on but only if i could get it cheap.i would like to have the combo version of this amp to go with my collection. i just gave it a good cleaning tonight and an armoralling and it even cleans up good.love the clean sounds hate the scratchy pots and switches and jack but nothing contact cleaner wouldnt take care of.also be carefull of the cabinet its just particle board and mine has some damage in the cavity that you store the head in.