Silvertone 1481

It has volume, tone 2 inputs on and off. Particle board cabinet
covered with a grayish Tolex material. 3 tubes 12ax7,6v6gt,6x4
7" speaker? Made in the mid sixties. Your basic practice amp.

Using a strat copy with a humbucker in the bridge this amp sounds
good. Volume is a little low, very quiet idling even at full volume.
Sounds very good. very warm. Mine does not really get much if any
distortion to it at all even at full volume. I just leave it all the
way up.

This amp was purchased at a music store and they said it was dead
and had not been turned on in 2 years. I plugged it in and it was
perfect except the speaker was a little loose. $50 later it was mine.
It is particle board so that does not help the sound or durability,
mine has a nick in one corner. I cleaned it up and cleaned the pots
tightened up everything and it works great. kind of a poormans Champ
amp. Dont play out so no backup is required, I could fix it myself.

long out of warranty.

Fun amp to play with and I would like to have my tubes replaced
and try some different ones to see what sound suits me. It is
lightweight to carry, case construction is not as good as Fender.
a bigger speaker 8" or 10" would be great!

One volume, one tone,power switch,two inputs, and a knob next to an RCA jack on the back panel. I have no idea what this is for, but the amp wont play( the power stays on) unless this knob is turned on. The knob turns like a volume knob, etc. It sounds really fine, especially after some NOS tubes. I really wish it were louder, but a Rat pedal helps to boost the output.

I have a Les Paul w/ humbuckers, a '58 Silvertone w/ a lipstick tube single coil, and a Fender Bronco w/ a single coil. The amp sounds great with all of them, but the lack of volume really hurts the amp. But, I bought it as a bedroom amp so.......

Not loud enough to gig so reliability isnt really a factor for me. My example is in very good shape and I dont abuse my equipment. Once I put the new tubes in, wow!

I wish Icould contact the company!!! I want to know what that switch and knob are for!!!

My playing style is from the '60's Brit blues explosion W/ a liberal dose of the Allman Bros. and a little jazz. The amp suits those purposes well. I just wish it had enough volume to be heard over drums. I have a Fender Bandmaster head & cab and assorted rack equip., but it is a major pain to take the stuff anywhere.

This 1481 is a small, all tube combo amp from the late 1950's, pumping pure tone from an 8" speaker driven by 1-12AX7, 1-6V6, 1-6X4 in a lightweight and handsome vintage gray tolex cab with 2 inputs, and volume and tone controls. This amp is almost 50 years old and in mint condition. Accents include brushed stainless and chrome. Looks great, sounds better.

I've played Chicago/Texas blues with Fenders and Gibsons for over 30 years. This is the amp, the circuit and the tone that others pay big bucks for as a "new, low-wattage boutique amp." The response is pure, sweet and made specificially for vintage tube tone at lower volumes. It's the perfect "bedroom amp".....low wattage, low volume, fantastic tone and even low volume tube breakup. I tried new boutique amps at under $1,200 and nothing came close to this vintage original. Around 11 o'clock, it's clean as a mountain stream, but past 2 or 3 o'clock it breaks up very naturally into sweet blues overdrive. This is the tone that made bluesmen into blues legends in late night blues jams in 1950's Chicago. If you are searching for the very essence of fantastic pure tone at low volumes, this it it, period. If you want louder volume, mic it. Pure blues tone does not get any better than this....this is the real deal.

This amp has been pampered since Day One, so it still looks almost new. It was not built for rough handling....you can't just throw it into a truck, but you wouldn't throw a '54 Strat into the back of a truck either. The circuit is clean and basic, has never failed me. Not bad for almost 50 years old.

I've been searching for tone like this for over 30 years. My other amps are all-tube Fenders, but the Silvertone is special. As mentioned above, this is the amp that made legends out of bluesmen almost a half century ago. This is the amp that super-expensive "boutique" amps try to emulate. You can wrap this amp up in three words: real vintage tone. When it comes down to it, nothing beats the real thing, and this amp is the real deal. There are so few of these left, that they will soon be found only in blues museums. If you can find one now, buy it, especially if you are a collector or tone fanatic.

The 1481 is a 1x8 combo with volume and tone knobs (whee!). mine came with a fisher speaker that may or may not have been original (a lot of the bigger s-tones had jensens). 1-12AX7, 1-6V6, 1-6X4. lightweight little box (~10 pounds) in cute, cheesy, textured grey "tolex." two inputs. pretty standard 60's era stuff. mine was about a '64 or '65, i'd surmise.

people are way into the single-ended, low-wattage, single-speaker thing these days; i've "gone through that phase." i have to say this is a very cool little amp... it does *not* have a lot of low-end response (which may sound funny, but my similarly-configured gibson GA-5T is a miniature earthquake disguised in blond tolex); it is, however, quite sweet in the mids and present, even brash, in the highs. the tone knob in mine was quite effective so that allowed me to move easily between pleasure and pain. obviously pain was easier to achieve with my hamer tele copy than my special FM with duncan humbuckers. :)
the amp stays relatively clean at low-medium volumes, even with humbuckers. around 11 o'clock on the volume dial and it's pretty loud but breaks up nicely in a touch-sensitive way. crank it up past 2 o'clock and you've got sweet, full-on blues/country/indie overdrive. this amp was actually a bit loud to do this much in my apartment. my GA-5T is much darker and is just dying to break up as soon as you switch it on. i think the brightness of the amp lends itself well to humbuckers as opposed to single coils, but my tele had a very nice, punchy, clangorous sound through it as opposed to sheer walls of brittleness (at least when the tone knob was set sensibly). in the end, though, the amp was a bit too loud and didn't have as much low or low mids as i would like-- not a terribly cold sound but it definitely "sounds its size." i would have liked to rig it up to a 4x12 but never got the chance. silvertones are oft referred to as the poor man's fender-- this really hasn't got the same character as a champ (of any era), but it's definitely got its own personality, and one that's pretty easy to live with.

the amp had weathered 30+ years rather well. it appears, however, as if it's been garaged for much of that time. the circuit appears well-engineered but some of the parts seem a tad on the flimsy side; these weren't built as boutique pieces. the cabinet is pretty iffy, made of what appears to be 1/4" balsa wood or something, and a generally good piece of advice for silvertones is "don't gig with them if you want them to last." working on these things should not be a problem for any tech who's worth his/her salt.

this amp is pretty goshdarned cool. but in the end i fell prey to vintage profiteer syndrome (my hypocrisy astounds me at times) and ended up making a decent margin (compared to what i'm used to) going through ebay-- mine was in pretty good shape. "vintage" guitar dealers would have you believe this amp is worth $200-300. i think they're being typically "visionary" or "futuristically optimistic," this amp might be worth that in 20 years (especially after inflation factors in-- they might sell the amp in 20 years if they hold their price firm at $200+). but if you find one for $75 or under... check it out. i personally am on the lookout (although i have to admit, i'm not looking real hard) for a decent price on a 1484 head or 1482... i can always use a weird old amp with trem. :)

Pretty simple amp: one tone knob, one volumbe knob, and two inputs. It's all tube: a 12AX7, 6V6GT, and a 6X4.

This thing says it's 30 watts but it sounds more like 5 or 10. But it does have a good sound at lower volumes before it distorts. My Boss Turbo Distortion doesn't sound that great through it though.

I haven't really used it that much since I don't have a speaker for it anymore, but it hasn't ever broken yet.

I've never had to deal with the company, but I'm guessing that the warranty is gone considering that this thing is probably 25 or 30 years old.

This seems to be a pretty nice little amp. Maybe it would sound better if I replaced the tubes with some new ones.