Silvertone Hollowbody Archtop

This guitar was made in Japan, so I am told in the mid sixties. I would love if somebody could write to me and tell me how to identify this thing. It has 22 or so frets, with a real thick top, that looks solid, but is painted over. It has two volume and two tone white plastic knobs with a three-way switch. It has two humongous single-coil chrome pickups, bigger than anything I have seen. I would guess that it is a maple body, but again I have no way of telling. It is a black hollow body with two medium sized f-holes. It is probably over 3 inches thick. It came with grover-tuners but they are not the originals, and I am glad because it stays in tune great for such an old guitar. It has a really fat neck, probably for jazz with little frets. It also has double white inlay surronding most of it. Only thing better would be if it had a bigsby.

I like to play everything, but lately have gotten a bug for rockabilly. This guitar suits it perfect. I play through a 53 fender princeton or sometimes a 50's - 60's Danelectro dm-25. This guitar is so warm sounding. It does great rockabilly slap and is wonderful for jazz chording in either the neck or bridge pickup. The bridge pickup is a twangy pickup that can really put out some nice setzer lead style. It is not going to have a lot of sustain, but good twang, one just has to learn how to play faster. When I switch to the neck it is very warm, almost too warm. I does great for jazz and some rhythm, but can get out of hand because the neck pickup has so much output, especially bass output and the E-string will get to ringing if not tightly controlled. I wish the bridge would have more output, and I cannot figure out how to get the strings not to buzz without just cranking up the action. Probably a 7 or 8 for sound quality.

I am really suprized at how good this guitar looks and is finished. It has a black lacquer finish that is cracking a tiny bit, but overall looks great. This guitar was adjusted from the store I bought it from and stays in tune and has great intonation. I put 11's on it and it works great. The neck is thick and binding and fretboard are in great shape. I can see a tiny gap between the neck and body, but other than that it is perfect. This guitar has been around for years, and is great. The chrome on the pickups are a little weathered. The switch is quiet and in great shape.

This guitar will definitely withstand live playing. It stays in tune and I never break strings. The hardware is still in good working order, so what is 10 more years. For a hollowbody, this is a super-solid guitar.

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It is great for looks, style and I love it for rockabilly. If I could fix the string buzzing and get more output out of the bridge pickup it would be perfect. I have compared it to an older cheaper Gretsch, and it seems pretty good compared to that. A bigsby would also help.