Post by CTGull on Jan 3, 2024 17:31:49 GMT -5
The Story – I got a morning email notification from eBay that a Silvertone guitar was recently posted. When I checked, it may have been posted only an hour ago. It had a starting bid of $95, and 5 days to go. The pictures were very dark and fuzzy, so it was hard to see any detail. He did show one small ding and some finish crazing on the side. There were no strings on it, and no side view, so determining the approximate action was impossible. But that’s not a big deal. I set a reminder in my calendar to bid on it Sunday morning at 9am, although I figured it would be up to $500 by then. Before I went up to bed checked the ad and found he had added a “Buy It Now” option of $250, which I immediately did.
The next morning, I asked him if there was any story behind the guitar. He sent: “We acquired this guitar from an older couple who had an estate sale. It was covered in dust and the strings were hanging off. They did not have it for sale, however. I asked if they had any old vinyl and they said no but they had a guitar that had been there forever. It looked very sturdy and was made in the USA, so we had to buy it.“
Later, I was curious about the range of years this model was made. Silvertone guitars were sold by Sears and made by various well-known manufacturers, like Harmony and Kay. The 1220 is a sunburst version of the Harmony Sovereign H1260. A couple of years ago I had spent many hours downloading the guitar related scanned pages of all the Sears catalogs (1896 to 1980). I found the 1220 replaced the 633 in the Fall of 1968 and was last sold in the Fall of 1969. The catalog pages showed the pickguard changed in the Fall of 1969, so the 1220 with the “teardrop” shaped pickguard was only sold for 1 year. The 1221 was introduced in the Spring of 1969, which replaced the “Silvertone” logo on the headstock with the “space dot”.
He dropped it off at FEDEX the next morning, and it arrived 2 days later.
INITIAL OBSERVATIONS – FEDEX never allowed me to do the “Hold at Location” at my local FEDEX Office, so I took a half day (Friday) to wait at home for it, since we were expecting some rain. It was supposed to be delivered between 10:20am and 2:15pm. It was delivered at 9:58am, 10 minutes before I got home!! He left it leaning against the porch railing. It had rained earlier; the bottom of the box was slightly wet.
The box was undersize, 5” x 17” x 44” (2 halves heavily taped together), barely bigger than the guitar. There was some foam on the front and back sides, some bubble wrap, and a cardboard cradle supporting the neck. The guitar body was in a garbage bag. It was so tight in the box, I had cut the end open, but I couldn’t pull the guitar out, I had to cut the tape on the sides to release it. I noticed (1) tuning bushing was about to fall out, and (2) were missing. I immediately searched in the box and packing and found them and added a rubber band around them to keep them from falling out again.
Removing the garbage bag, I find finish crazing all over (as expected), and a few small dings. Nothing bad, and no obvious shipping damage.
The pickguard is about to fall off, but it’s still there!
There’s a .015” heel gap, and the usual Harmony putty in the heel gap after the neck was originally installed, so the gap is actually worse than what it looks like.
The heel cap is missing.
There is some barely noticeable fret wear in the first 2 frets. The Brazilian rosewood fretboard has some very cool fine “spidering” (many dark very fine grain lines).
The pickguard is about half off. The top around the sound hole is rippled.
The internal date stamp looks like F-68, so it was made in the Fall of 1968.
INSPECTION – Checking the neck with the straight edge, I find the neck is back bowed about .05”, and it projects .25” below the top of the bridge. BUT, the heel gap (including the factory filled gap) is about .06”, which results in about .18” of the neck projection. The bridge is .34” thick, and the saddle sticks out .04”/.07”/.04”.
Looking inside, everything looks initially normal. Then I noticed the top braces on either side of the bridge plate are not glued to the top in the middle. The brace behind the bridge plate is the worst. I got a .010” feeler under it for more than half the brace length. The brace in front of the bridge plate took a .007” feeler for less than half the brace length.
THE PLAN – I’m busy with two customer’s guitars, this will have to wait. I need to look at the back bow of the neck. Is the truss rod too tight, or is it back bowed from years without strings??
Fall 1968 catalog page.
Spring 1969 catalog page.
Fall 1969 catalog page. Notice the different pickguard.
I put a rubber band around the tuner shafts so the bushing don't fall out and get lost.
The neck is slightly loose.
The heel cap is missing.
The first few frets have barely any noticeable wear.
Very low saddle, as usual.
The hole for the strings are very uneven in height.
You can barely make out the date code of F-68.
The "serial number" and model number.
The vertical side reinforcements, indicating solid wood.
The short (vs. full width of the guitar) bridge plate.
What's this?? A gap under a top brace??
There's a gap under BOTH braces, on either side of the bridge plate.
The next morning, I asked him if there was any story behind the guitar. He sent: “We acquired this guitar from an older couple who had an estate sale. It was covered in dust and the strings were hanging off. They did not have it for sale, however. I asked if they had any old vinyl and they said no but they had a guitar that had been there forever. It looked very sturdy and was made in the USA, so we had to buy it.“
Later, I was curious about the range of years this model was made. Silvertone guitars were sold by Sears and made by various well-known manufacturers, like Harmony and Kay. The 1220 is a sunburst version of the Harmony Sovereign H1260. A couple of years ago I had spent many hours downloading the guitar related scanned pages of all the Sears catalogs (1896 to 1980). I found the 1220 replaced the 633 in the Fall of 1968 and was last sold in the Fall of 1969. The catalog pages showed the pickguard changed in the Fall of 1969, so the 1220 with the “teardrop” shaped pickguard was only sold for 1 year. The 1221 was introduced in the Spring of 1969, which replaced the “Silvertone” logo on the headstock with the “space dot”.
He dropped it off at FEDEX the next morning, and it arrived 2 days later.
INITIAL OBSERVATIONS – FEDEX never allowed me to do the “Hold at Location” at my local FEDEX Office, so I took a half day (Friday) to wait at home for it, since we were expecting some rain. It was supposed to be delivered between 10:20am and 2:15pm. It was delivered at 9:58am, 10 minutes before I got home!! He left it leaning against the porch railing. It had rained earlier; the bottom of the box was slightly wet.
The box was undersize, 5” x 17” x 44” (2 halves heavily taped together), barely bigger than the guitar. There was some foam on the front and back sides, some bubble wrap, and a cardboard cradle supporting the neck. The guitar body was in a garbage bag. It was so tight in the box, I had cut the end open, but I couldn’t pull the guitar out, I had to cut the tape on the sides to release it. I noticed (1) tuning bushing was about to fall out, and (2) were missing. I immediately searched in the box and packing and found them and added a rubber band around them to keep them from falling out again.
Removing the garbage bag, I find finish crazing all over (as expected), and a few small dings. Nothing bad, and no obvious shipping damage.
The pickguard is about to fall off, but it’s still there!
There’s a .015” heel gap, and the usual Harmony putty in the heel gap after the neck was originally installed, so the gap is actually worse than what it looks like.
The heel cap is missing.
There is some barely noticeable fret wear in the first 2 frets. The Brazilian rosewood fretboard has some very cool fine “spidering” (many dark very fine grain lines).
The pickguard is about half off. The top around the sound hole is rippled.
The internal date stamp looks like F-68, so it was made in the Fall of 1968.
INSPECTION – Checking the neck with the straight edge, I find the neck is back bowed about .05”, and it projects .25” below the top of the bridge. BUT, the heel gap (including the factory filled gap) is about .06”, which results in about .18” of the neck projection. The bridge is .34” thick, and the saddle sticks out .04”/.07”/.04”.
Looking inside, everything looks initially normal. Then I noticed the top braces on either side of the bridge plate are not glued to the top in the middle. The brace behind the bridge plate is the worst. I got a .010” feeler under it for more than half the brace length. The brace in front of the bridge plate took a .007” feeler for less than half the brace length.
THE PLAN – I’m busy with two customer’s guitars, this will have to wait. I need to look at the back bow of the neck. Is the truss rod too tight, or is it back bowed from years without strings??
Fall 1968 catalog page.
Spring 1969 catalog page.
Fall 1969 catalog page. Notice the different pickguard.
I put a rubber band around the tuner shafts so the bushing don't fall out and get lost.
The neck is slightly loose.
The heel cap is missing.
The first few frets have barely any noticeable wear.
Very low saddle, as usual.
The hole for the strings are very uneven in height.
You can barely make out the date code of F-68.
The "serial number" and model number.
The vertical side reinforcements, indicating solid wood.
The short (vs. full width of the guitar) bridge plate.
What's this?? A gap under a top brace??
There's a gap under BOTH braces, on either side of the bridge plate.
