Silvertone 1485 - Six Ten

Price quoted was for a working 1485 amp, with original speaker cab, 6x10", with reissue green-frame jensens. (the price was 450, but the cab is particle board, and had water damage...and the bottom promptly fell out of the cab when I pulled it out of the box, and I got a 100$ refund).
This is the grand-daddy of all the silvertones, close kin to the 1474 combo, big brother of the 1484 Twin Twelve. Technically, it's like 2 twin twelve amps, in the same cabinet, sharing the pre-amp stages. Sears did some monkey-math in making this amp. Instead of making a twin twelve with twice the wattage and one larger output transformer, they just put in a second set of 6L6's and a second output transformer (read on to hear the inherent problems). The twin 12's were supposedly around 35 watts (2-6L6's), the 1484 has 4 6L6's, but, because of the output transformer setup, the 1485 is more equivalent to running two twin 12's side by side, instead of one 70 watt amp **Caution, to run the 1485 normally, you'll have to have 2 separate 4 ohm cabs! If carrying 2 cabs isn't your thing, all you have to do is pull the tubes associated with one of the transformers, this cuts off that transformer, and allows the amp to need only one speaker cab...but, you're running at half capacity. Interestingly, originally, the amps were hardwired to the 6x10 cabinet. (the cab was wired technically as 2 sets of speakers to accomodate the 2 output transformers.) I quickly cut the embilical cord and wired it up with 2 ouput jacks. The amp has 2 channels, non-switchable, with volume, bass, and treble. 2 inputs per channel. Channel 2 is supposed to be beefier, but there is very little difference between the channels on mine. Somewhere I heard that the tone controls only "subtract" frequencies...meaning that with the controls on 10, the tone is unaffected. It also has reverb and tremolo. The reverb on working models is useless as a normal reverb, but cool sounding, very ghostly. My reverb on mine is broken...no huge loss. The tremolo works well...I'm not a tremolo expert...so to me, it's just another tremolo..(but I think it's the kind that "ticks" if that helps anyone). Tube compliments are 4 6L6's, 2 6CG7/6FQ7's, and 4 12AX7's. Mine still has both original 6CG7's and one original 12AX7, probably soon to be replaced.
My philosophy for old tube amps is the fewer knobs and features, the better, so this one ranks pretty high for features.

I wanted to go ahead and post my review of this amp...but remember, it's a work in progress.
I loved the tones of the twin 12's I had heard...but they were too quiet... I figured that the 1485 would just be a louder twin 12...WRONG. When I got this amp, it was loud as all get-out. It dwarfed my 68 bassman for volume. It was almost equivalent to an old 100W plexi. Bright and crunchy. The twin-12's that I have tried were alot warmer, and fatter, with more compression. Concerning the actual circuit, the only difference between the 1485 and twin 12 is the power transformer. So, I can only assume that this is the main reason for the tonal differences. A fun feature of all of the larger silvertone amps is that they overdrive early. This amp overdrives before it "fills out." It begins to overdrive at volume 3...so you can have an overdriven sound, with no sustain...sustain doesn't start until around volume 5-6. So if you want clean headroom...sorry, this ain't it. I gave it it's 35 year make-over with a cap job and new tubes. Somehow, one of the wires to one of the tubes got disconnected...screwing up the ability to bias it (running around 7 mA)...and until the tech found the problem, it sounded alot more like a twin 12...much fatter..but it didn't work properly. Now, with it fixed, it's back to bright and crunchy..and still damn loud...even when only running 2 of the 4 main tubes, it's definitely louder than the twin 12. It's moderately noisy at all times, probably due to not having self-grounding jacks in the input, but it's not overbearing. Soundwise, I have no idea what to compare it to...or even any recordings that sound like it... but it's definitely old school, and definitely close to marshalls, even with the new Svet 6L6GC's in it. It's such a strange and pure crunchy tone that I'm not sure whether it sounds incredible or crappy. Usually I'm pretty firm on this topic, but..it's like that one wierd lookin chick in school...there's something really magical about her, but you can't quite decide whether she's really sexy, or just plain freakish. So, we'll give her the benefit of the doubt and give her an 8.

I have no idea of how reliable this thing is going to be. all the transformers could fry an egg after normal use. One caution though, the silvertone output transformers were supposedly the weakest link (twin 12's also). They give out first... and there's no official easy replacement. But, they can be wired up with a fender or marshall Output, so, just expect that one day, you'll have to replace them, maybe sooner than later. But, since the 1485 has 2, if you only run on 2 tubes the whole time, you at least have a proper replacement!
I'm worried about it's reliability, but that's cuz it's had so much work done to it recently... I won't gig without a backup for a few months just in case.

everyone makes the same joke about the silvertone service department...so I won't repeat it.
but the 3 original sivertone tubes do say that they have a 1 year warranty.

Concerning tone, it's a nice difference from my normal fat bassman. It'll be great for the days when I'm just in a pissy mood and feel like having tone from hell.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the 1485. I'll be glad to give you an update as to how the amp is surviving, or not-surviving.