Silvertone Single Pickup Amp-in-Case Model

Mid-sixties.
Amp in case model
Single pickup.
Backwards tuners will drive you crazy, and they don't stay in tune too well either.

How does the single lipstick tube pickup in this guitar sound so good when the rest of it is so cheesy ??
The amp sounds good too and is good for playing in the basement.

The design of the bridge is amazing. Very simple but a lot of good adjustments there.
I don't like the short scale and the bridge is mounted so far back, that just makes it worse from a playing point of view.

I bought mine from a guy in Virginia who bought it new, played it once, then put it on the shelf in his garage for 35 years. The only mark on it is from when he put it away that one time and the warm cord made a curved mark in the finish on the back.
The dark marks on the fingerboard are entirely from my fingers the dozen or so times I've played it.

I call this my "almost owned by Joe Perry" guitar. It seems that Joe's landscaper lives near the shop where I purchased this. He went in one day to find something "unique" for Joe's birthday and, knowing that Perry enjoys vintage guitars, wanted to buy this for him. The salesman told him that Joe already had a couple of these and steered him towards something else. This is the classic Dano/Silvertone/Sears (and Roebuck) that we all harrassed our parents to get us for Christmas. Mid 60's You know the specs. I saw it in Rick's Music, Raynham, Ma. and sat down and played Secret Agent Man, which brought tears to my eyes and lightened my wallet $290. It came with the AIC working just fine. It's hard to rate this. It is basic, plain and simple. What's with the backwards control knobs?

This is a nostagic, fun player for me. Ah yes, those old basement band days. You can get a real nice whammy effect by just pulling the neck back a bit. Ooooh...

Well, I have to be carefull not to slice my fingers on the protruding frets as I glide up and down the neck. It is an easy player. I recommend it for old farts like me or, young kids starting out that want to impress there guitar teacher.

There still around aren't they? There is still a listing for this guitar on this review site! Live playing? I just caught Kid Rock playing one on one of the awards shows. (maybe this year's R&RHoF)

I don't think anyone at Sears has heard of them before.

I have been playing since these were new. My main guitars are a Fender '52 RI blonde Tele, Fender '54RI Tele bass and a Taylor 710, along with a whole group of Fenders, Oahu's, Silvertones, Kent, Washburn, etc. If it were stolen I would wish the thief good luck and to have a lot of fun with it. Then I would ask Joe Perry if he would sell me one of his....

Very basic vol/tone knobs and single pickup design. Mine is mid 60's. For a guitar is has all the features you really need, only the tuners are so poor and opperate in reverse (counter clock-wise lowers pitch). Also 3/4 scale. Hence a 5.

Mine is set up with a special bridge that gives the "electric sitar" sound - like the Coral Sitars. It was installed by a luthier in Seattle where I bounght it.

The sound of this guitar is completely unique (I own 15 or so other guitars - pre-cbs strats, teles, jags as well as epi's etc...) The best way I can describe it is "Airy" "Open" "3-Dimmensional".

I am a full-time music composer/producer, and I often put the sound of this guitar into my mixes. Simple little parts with ringing strings and open-tunings. Very cool....

The Amp-In-Case sits in storage - it works, but I have never really checked it out.

It is what it is - a very budget guitar from the 60's.

Solid.

Because of the unique quality of sound - 10

63 amp in case. Black sparkle with one lipstick pickup and one volume and one tone control. Masonite body with an aluminum nut.
As we all know this guitar was built by the Danelectro company and sold through Sears as a Silvertone.

I bought this guitar at a used guitar store with the amp in case, took it home, pluged her in and she rocks!! I love the old vintage "garage" sound it makes. So far it stays in tune like a champ and the amp works great too!

The finish is the old sparkle that I'm sure was just spayed on with little expence but that's the way they came and I wouldn't change a thing. I love the neck on this thing and the only problem would be with the action at the nut on the low E, it has a slight buzz but I've learned to use it rather than damn it.

I don't play out much anymore and have never left the house with this guitar. There is a band in the area that features a girl player than I have seen with a guitar just like mine and she uses it all the time. I like to use it for recording, especially to get a Rock a Billy thing going.
The hardware looks good and the tuners are staying right in there though I hear others fault the guitar in that area.

Long gone but luckily there isn't much to do on this guitar.

I've been playing for 35 years.
I own a lot of other "interesting" guitars and some of the standard stuff. (strat, etc.) I love playing this little guitar. It's very easy to play and it's just a hoot.
There is another at the place I got this one but without the case. Someone repainted it a sea foam green that I kind of like though it's not original, I may go back for it too.

Not exactly loaded with features - tone knob, volume knob, one AMAZING lipstick pickup (see SOUND below), masonite construction, cheapo tuning pegs.

This is the selling point of this guitar.
It sounds better than any of my Fenders and plays almost as nicely.
For the money this is probably the best tone-for-dollar value on the planet. Can't say enough good things about the old Danelectro lipstick pickups, they sound a million times better than the new reissues.

This was a budget guitar in the 60's, don't expect beautiful inlays and binding.
Cheap black finish with little silver sparkles - cheap and charming.
Great straight neck and low action, strung with 12s, very easy to play thanks to the short scale 18 fret neck. Feels like 10s.

This guitar is older than I am and still holding together just fine. The masonite body is probably easy to cave in but if you treat this guitar the way you would treat an acoustic or hollowbody it should last forever.
Feels much more solid than reissue Danelectros.

No way. Forget it. Fix it yourself.
The new Danelectro company doesn't know squat.

Got all kinds of stuff in my collection, including some expensive vintage pieces. The Silvertone isn't going to replace any of them any time soon but it has its own role that it plays very well. Very cool little retro sounding guitar for 60's sounds and trashy lo-fi stuff. Plays great, sounds even better, and can be had for less than a reissue costs. No comparing these to reissues - these old ones have THE SOUND and the reissues just have the look.
I love this guitar, going to look for the longer scale 2-pickup version.

The Silvertone Guitar was made by Danelectro in late 1963; it has one lipstick pickup, one volume, one tone control, white melamine pickguard, body made of poplar and masonite, neck made of masonite, 3/4 scale neck with 18 frets made of Poplar, "Gumby-style" headstock, aluminum nut. I purchased this guitar in poor condition on Ebay for $62. It had no tuners (no great loss), part of the headstock missing, no knobs, no bridge, electronics were there, however, as well as remnants of the lipstick pickup. Initially, I was sure I paid too much. I am a part-time Luthier (Guitar Zen) and enjoy a challenge. After a full restoration, This humble instrument has become one of my favorites! ALthough I prefer to leave most vintage instruments as original, my opinion is different for low-end proletariat guitars. They were originally sold with very poor tuners and bridges; to be a serious instrument and not just a wall hanging, these must be upgraded. This guitar received Gotoh tuners, new Danelectro Lipstick pickup, new Danelectro Bridge, silver metalflake basecoat/clearcoat finish and mirror finish buffing. With these modifications, this guitar becomes a pro-worthy, stunning looking, beautiful sounding blues box. I share similar feelings about old Danelectro/Silvertone guitars as FatDawg at Subway Guitars in Berkeley: http://www.fatdawg.com/danelectro.html
Leave high quality vintage instruments stock, but low end cheapies? Solve their problems with high end parts and reap the benefits!

This is the amazing aspect of old Danos...they sound amazing! For some reason, the strange combination of lipstick pickups, masonite, aluminum nut, and hollow body have intrigued pros for decades; Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Eric Clapton have recorded with these little monsters...they are wonderful! Pick up the DVD of "That Thing You Do" and check out Lenny's Guitar- Silvertone Amp-In-Case Two Pickup! Check inside the jewel case of a Poppa Chubby CD- the dude wails on a Silvertone Amp-In-Case guitar! Big sound with shaking bass and ethereal, shimmering highs!

When I disassembled this guitar for rebuilding, I was shocked at the cheezy construction of this guitar...a Poplar frame covered by two sheets of Masonite, the electronics are shielded by a "made in hurry" cardboard box inserted in the frame. Vinyl tape hides the unsanded sides of the guitar. Hot glue runs throughout the interior of the body-an insult to Lutherie! But on closer inspection, the Poplar neck is arrow-straight with a Brazilian Rosewood neck. The Masonite really takes a nice paint finish...this one received a "show car" metalflake finish. The action, with very little adjustment, is excellent. The shape of the body is one-of-a-kind, which has been imitated by several high-end, over $1000 guitars which reprise the genius of the design. Fit & Finish: -3, Action: 8

The original finish on these guitars is bargain basement, but repaint them with a pro paint finish...very nice! Replace the frightening "skate key" tuners with die-cast tuners, Replace the tailpiece with perfect replacement Danelectro Intonateable Bridge (available at www.allparts.com)...this beauty should last you another 40 years! Hardware durability: 2, body and neck durability: 8

Danelectro has reissued the pickups, most parts are available from Allparts (at much better prices).

The Silvertone Amp-In-Case guitars are available for bargain prices and they seem to be found everywhere. Now that I have discovered the charms of the single-pickup 3/4 size version, I am searching for the dual pickup full-size version...here is a guitar that is truly greater than the sum of its parts!

October 1965 Silvertone 1448 "amp-in-case": everyone's first electric guitar in the '60s!

Manufactured by Danelectro for Sears-Roebuck, this was their entry-level electric guitar/amp combo. It retailed for $69.95, and originally came with an instruction record!

3/4-size neck with a single pick-up made from an actual lipstick tube! The body is made from masonite (!!) with a Brazillian rosewood fingerboard. The guitar has one tone and one volume control. The bridge is a slab of rosewood attached to a metal tailpiece. You adjust the intonation by sliding the rosewood back and forth and by adjusting it's angle. Primitive, but it actually intonates fairly well once the other issues are addressed.

The "slate key" tuners are crap, and in most examples will not stay in tune. I'm fortunate that my guitar was not used very much, and the tuners still work. Many of these instruments have had the tuners replaced.

This model was offered with just one finish - black with silver mertallic specks throughout. Very cool!

The case has the legendary built-in tube amp with a 5" speaker. I'm told that the amp is rated at 5 watts! It's works very well as a practice amp, and gets a nice, fat bluesy tone with warm overdrive at a fairly low volume. This whole package is very convenient for low-volume living room jams (with no drums present!). The amp/guitar run pretty quietly considering their age and cheesiness.

Those lipstick tube pick-ups RULE. This guitar is best suited for blues, and has that rich deep fat tone that blues players love. No wonder that stars like Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton have recorded with vintage Danelectros over the years.

These were cheap guitars, and they have very low-cost appointments. Like I said before, most of these have tuning problems. Another problem is the height of the action, which tends to be very high (which is why many have been converted to slide guitars). Fortunately, the necks are very well made, and are usually straight as an arrow. My guitar, which in generally excellent condition, also had poor action when I first bought it. I unbolted the neck and inserted two nickels into the neck cavity, and bolted the neck back on. With the neck angled back due to the coins, the strings were now closer to being parallel to the neck. I adjusted the height of the tailpiece/bridge and set the intonation, and VOILA! the guitar plays like a dream now!!

The overall tone and intonation is MUCH improved by this neck adjustment. It is actually fairly well intonated all the way up the neck, and it sustains much better for some reason. This is an essential modification to make these guitars playable.

I also plan to file down the edges of the frets. They are sharp and scratch your hand as you move around the neck. Just another example of the "cheapness" of these guitars.

All of these issues aside, these guitars really have great necks once you get them set up properly. Wide and flat like a Tele, and the 3/4 neck doesn't feel weird at all. The short scale makes it easy to make deep bends even using heavy gauge strings. (I use .011's).

The finish isn't anything fancy - overall this guitar is kind of crude in a cool way. Nevertheless, it has held up over the years, and still looks brand new with no fading or checking. Heck, it was probably just spraypainted with cheap paint and then laminated! The shiny metal flakes in the paint really look hep under stage lights!

My guitar is 36 years old next month and still looks almost new. Masonite isn't the strongest material in the world, but with proper care it should hold up for another 36 years! As long as the wanky tuners don't fail, I think this guitar is fine for gigging.

The original Danelectro company is long gone (although the new reissues are pretty cool, and a good deal for the price).

I don't think that Sears would be able to help either! :)

I've owned two of these guitars in the past before getting my current one. As much as I loved the look and "vibe" of these goofy guitars, they were just not playable. They wouldn't stay in tune, the action was too high (I never tried the trick with the coins before), and there was worn frets, and I didn't want to spend the $$ getting them fixed.

I was stoked to find a clean example with working tuners. (I like the look of the tuners, and didn't want a guitar with non-original parts. Call me a purist!) I have a real affinity for "cheap" old electrics, and own a Silvertone 1446 (made by Harmony), which I use as my main guitar. (See my review of that guitar as well.)

These amp-in-case guitars apparently have a lot of nostalgia value for people in their 50s, who began playing during the years 1962-1966 (when these guitars were being manufactured). I wasn't born until 1964, so I just love it for it's funky coolness and great tone!

I say, why a Dano reissue when you can get a REAL one for $150-300?? Just be sure that the instrument is in good enough condition to not require expensive repair work in order to make it playable.

1963 Danelectro built hollow-body thin-line electric 6 string with ONE pickup and a tone and volume control. This guitar employs several interesting features such as an aluminum nut and a 3 bolt neck with an Allan-wrench neck-body angle adjustment (shades of 70's Stratocaster). So-called 'Lipstick-tube' pickup is height and angle adjustable. Three-point chrome plated bridge is adjustable for height and angle. Wood saddle is adjustable in two dimensions; front to back and side to side. Tuners are of a completely unique six-in-a-line-all-in-one-single-case type that looks like something designed by retards in Slobivia. Body is vaguely Fender-like and overall look is the post-WW II Atomic motif. Rosewood fretboard is wide and flat. Electronics are mounted underside of Masonite pickguard and encapsulated in a copper-foil sheath.

Guitar is quiet. Tone is open and full; it has that toinky metallic surf/garage tone that many people (including myself) find so appealing. I LOVE the SOUND of this GUITAR. Actually, when I'm playing it, I get the urge to play either jazzy licks OR gut-bucket rock-a-billy stuff....Go figure....

OK. Let's get down to business. When this guitar came to me, it was mostly complete, but with NO STRINGS and totally scruffy. My first reaction was "oh prunes...this is a DOG." But I minded what others have said about this instrument and decided to go with it.

First, I took pictures of it front to back and the disassembled it completely. Then I scrubbed and cleaned every part as best I could without jeapordizing any of the originality. With that completed, reassembled the whole thing and strung it up with new, medium guage roundwounds. GUESS WHAT....it was just perfect! It played like butter and sounded TERRIFIC! Of course, it did require some adjustment. But with a simple tweak of the saddle and a quick turn of the screw at the pickup and bridge, this guitar was ready to GO! Let me say that my biggest worry was the creepy Frankenstien tuners; I was certain that they would have to be replaced. But diassembled them (it) dutifully, cleaned it up, loaded it up with Sta-lube and installed it.
Guess WHAT!? The darn thing stays in TUNE perfectly. I didn't even have to stretch the STRINGS, if you can believe THAT!!!!

Action was made even MORE dream-like after cutting the nut-slots down properly for the first three string (e,b,g) which for some reason were WAY high. The guitar is now perfectly suited to my hand and plays like I've owned it my entire life. (p.s. I've been playing guitar since 1963 and have several VERY nice Gibsons and Fender, so I know from whence I speak).

Seems about as solid as you'd expect from a cheap, Sears guitar designed for student use in the early 1960's. The NECK is quite solid and is straight and true as the day it left the factory. I'm impressed. Other features, such as the El Vinylite tape body binding looks funny and was pealing off. I had to glue it back on. Other than that...everything still works after 40 years or whatever...

NONE, of course. I set-up my own guitars. NEVER would I EVER ship a guitar anywhere for sight-unseen work or adjustments. NEVER.

This guitar is an INCREDIBLE testiment to the ingenuity of the Danelectro Wizards. I have played, owned and adjusted many guitars and basses over the years, but I find THIS guitar to be completely amazing in it's simplicity. It's a techies dream. It's a perfect example of post WWII do-it-yourself technology, proving along the way that 'less is better' in many cases. I was MOST impressed with the 3-point bridge adjustment and the novel, instant intonation adjustment at the saddle. This is the most logical and user-friendly set-up I've EVER seen in a guitar and even puts the Telecaster bridge to shame.

This guitar sounds BOSS, plays like butter, looks kooky, and will win friends and influence space-aged guitar-stranglers for another 50 years I'm sure.

Oh, btw...it sounds great unamplified TOO (but you knew that already didn't you)

This is a 1963 (or somewhere around there) single pickup Amp-in Case model Silvertone guitar. It has one lipstick tube pickup, one volume control, and one tone control.

It can do almost any style, except metal (if you buy this guitar for metal, you should be beaten upside the head many times), but I find that is works the best for Jazz. It has a big hollow body tone when playing clean, and a very "60s Garage Band" type tone when slightly overdriven.
Very good sounding guitar, I highly recommend it for someone looking for something a little different.

The only real dislike about the guitar is that it will not stay in tune! But for a recording guitar, it works great.

I got the guitar in near mint condition, in the original case, but the amp was removed long before I bought it. I assume everything is exactly the same as when it left the factory. It has no problems, other than the tuning issue.

I do not think this guitar could withstand any great number of live shows. It seems better suited for home playing, or recording, than stage work.

Not any more.

I've been playing for 6 years, and I have 7 guitars and one bass. I mostly play blues. My main guitar is a '57 reissue Fender Strat, but this Silvertone is my jazz guitar. If this guitar were stolen, I would replace it as soon as possible, but the only problem with that is that these old Silvertone guitars were very inconsistent in quality and tone, so it would be hard to really "replace" it.
I'd say that if you're looking to buy one of these, try as many as possible, and chances are that one will fit whatever sound you're looking for.

This is one of the dano-built models from the early '60s (complete with tape binding & lipstick tube pick-up cover. Black-sparkle finish, one single-coil pickup, one volume-one tone control. The body is roughly strat-styled. It has the standard dano(sliver of wood on metal) bridge. Has 6-in-line tuners on an odd(3 on a side style) Headstock.

For a guitar with just one single-coil pick-up & one volume & tone control it is amazingly versatlie in the sounds it can create. I can get killer tones with it on anything from punk to country to jazz. I never use the amp in the case since I prefer my Super Reverb to that. Either clean or distorted beyond recognition it's a great instrument.

The action for me is great although I do like it to fight me a bit. The pickup is adjusted o.k. although, there isn't much variety in adjusting this pickup. For a guitar of 35+ years the hardware is in supprisingly good condition. It has a metal nut which is cut fine.

I believe this guitar would withstand live playing fine. The only problem I could see might be with the wood saddle slipping. The strap buttons I'm using are the stock ones. They're as good now as they were then. As far as the wiring goes I would depend as much on it as I would with a much more expensive model. I wouldn't use any guitar on a gig without a backup though.

I guess that danelectro still produces parts (& some third parties producing lipstick tube style pickups). Being that I bought this guitar used & the guitar is 35+ years old there would probably be no warranty to speak of still existing.

I've been playing for 3 years I've never found another guitar so limited in features that is so versatile.