Silvertone Serial Number

• Silvertone Guitar Serial Number Lookup
• Silvertone 1484 Serial Number

Silvertone - Japan Made Models

It is a small portable silvertone. Serial number 478 22. It has a round screen that looks like an oscilloscope about 7-1/4' with a flat bottom. It has an alligator.

(Written by Jimmy Noise / June 2012)

1. Hi, My name is Wayne and I can help you with this. This is from the 1960's The Model is the 319 the other number is the serial number. This was made in Japan (Teisco) Tokyo Electronic Sound & Instrument Company made for and retailed by Sears. These sell for $300-500 at auction and in a private sale.
2. The model number may also be printed on a label located inside, on the back or bottom of the radio. A list of speakers used by Silvertone can be found on the website SF Hobbies.com. Pictures and information about specific model numbers can be found on the website Jitterbuzz.com.

Silvertone was a brand developed by Sears Roebuck Company in theearly 30’s.The Silvertone brand replacedthe Supertone brand on musical instruments sold by Sears.The brand was used on guitars sold bySears; however Silvertone never actually made guitars. All the manufacturingwas outsourced to various guitar suppliers. These included US manufactures andUS importers. To date there has been no information that confirms that theSilvertone directly imported directly from guitar manufactures in Japan. By Searshaving its own brand, it was able to market its guitars as an exclusive SearRoebuck product. The brand was discontinued in 1972. It is not clear why itceased, but Sears Roebuck continued to sell guitars into the 70’s, but notbranded as Silvertone.

This sight will focus on electric guitars made in Japan andsupplied to Silvertone.

SilvertoneLogos

There were two logos used on Silvertone guitars. The first onebeing the word Silvertone painted on the headstock in a thin line. The painthad no clear coat over it and often has rubbed off over the years. Great careshould be taken when cleaning these guitars as to not remove the logo.The logo was the same design as used on otherSilvertone models made in the US.This logo was used on Teisco built Silvertone guitars manufactured up to theend of 1965.

Guitars manufactured after 1965 got a newly designed logo. It’sunknown who designed the new logo, but the new logo was only used on the Teiscoimported guitars by WMI.

Around 1969 imported guitars sold by Sears began to have the new around silver disc. This marked the end of the Silvertone brand on Sears’sguitars. These guitars were supplied by various manufactures in Japan. Theguitars generally had a sticker on the neck plate or the model number wasstamped into the neck plate. These practices fell in line with Kawai builtguitars, not Teisco. But some Teisco’s did have this logo.

Models Supplied byWestheimer Sales Co.

Westheimer Sales was probably the first importer to supply importguitars to Silvertone. It’s assumed that a lot of these would have beenacoustic guitars. However they may have supplied some of the early builtTeiscos as well. It is unclear what actually happened because around the sametime Teisco was in the process of changing distributors in the US.

Models Supplied by WMICorporation– (Teisco)

WMI Corporation became the exclusive importer of Teisco builtguitars in 1965. They supplied Teisco guitars to Silvertone during the mid1960’s. The models supplied were either similar or exact models that were soldunder the Teisco brand. The modifications were often slight, but enough to beable to identify a guitar as being either a Silvertone or a Teisco brandedguitar.

The models shown below were built by Teisco and supplied toSilvertone by WMI Corporation. By clicking on the model number, additionalinformation is available.

If you if have a guitar that you think is a Teisco builtSilvertone guitar and it is missing its logo, there are a few things that youcan check to determine if this is your model;

·Firstlycheck the model tag. If it has a model number that matches any of the above,then it is a Silvertone guitar.

·Thesecond way to tell is look at the logo area and check the shape of anyremaining glue residue in the shape of the logo.

·Checkthe nail holes of the logo. Sometimes the logo was nailed on. If the nail holesmatch the locations shown on the Silvertone logo, then it is a Silvertone.

·Thesharkfin guitars always had striped guards and the hex pickup adjustmentscrews.

·The1436 and 1437 have the white cover in front of the tailpiece and came with theblack tip tremolo bar.

Tone Controls: The tone dial works differently to modernand vintage US guitars. The tone knob works backwards. This is based onfiltering of the high frequency. ie Zero being no filtering and ten being fullfiltering. The USguitars work on frequency. Ie Zero is low frequencies. (Highs filtered) and 10being treble (No filtering). A common fault occurs when some people pick upthese guitars and turn everything to 10. Due to the tone knob being theopposite way, the guitar sounds rather muddy and then is passed off as a cheepguitar. Moral of the story is to play around with the switches and knobs todiscover the full sound potential of theses guitars.

Other Imported Models by UnknownSuppliers

There were other imported models that weren’t built byTeisco.It is unclear if WMI suppliedthese non-built Teiscos to Silvertone, or if these were supplied by anotherimporter.

It’s not confirmed, but Westheimer Sales may have sold guitars toSear in the late 60’s & 70’s that were supplied by the Kawai guitarcompany. These guitars are often mistaken as Teisco’s however they are not madeby Teisco, even tho Kawai had bought Teisco in 1967.

Catalogues

Because Silvertone was the exclusive brand of Sears Roebuck, theguitars only appears in the Sears Catalogues.

·Sears Catalogue Links

Unfortunately there is only a limited number of cataloguesavailable to post on this site. If some more become available, we will postthem in the future.

Links

For more information on Silverstone’s we recommend the Silvertone World web page. It seems to have the mostaccurate information available. It covers both US and Japanese made guitars.

Return toGuitars Brand Page

This site has been visitedtimes.

(Last Revised: 25^th of June 2012.)

©2012 MAI Music Publications

·Firstlycheck the model tag. If it has a model number that matches any of the above,then it is a Silvertone guitar.

·Thesecond way to tell is look at the logo area and check the shape of anyremaining glue residue in the shape of the logo.

·Checkthe nail holes of the logo. Sometimes the logo was nailed on. If the nail holesmatch the locations shown on the Silvertone logo, then it is a Silvertone.

·Thesharkfin guitars always had striped guards and the hex pickup adjustmentscrews.

·The1436 and 1437 have the white cover in front of the tailpiece and came with theblack tip tremolo bar.

Tone Controls: The tone dial works differently to modernand vintage US guitars. The tone knob works backwards. This is based onfiltering of the high frequency. ie Zero being no filtering and ten being fullfiltering. The USguitars work on frequency. Ie Zero is low frequencies. (Highs filtered) and 10being treble (No filtering). A common fault occurs when some people pick upthese guitars and turn everything to 10. Due to the tone knob being theopposite way, the guitar sounds rather muddy and then is passed off as a cheepguitar. Moral of the story is to play around with the switches and knobs todiscover the full sound potential of theses guitars.

Other Imported Models by UnknownSuppliers

There were other imported models that weren’t built byTeisco.It is unclear if WMI suppliedthese non-built Teiscos to Silvertone, or if these were supplied by anotherimporter.

It’s not confirmed, but Westheimer Sales may have sold guitars toSear in the late 60’s & 70’s that were supplied by the Kawai guitarcompany. These guitars are often mistaken as Teisco’s however they are not madeby Teisco, even tho Kawai had bought Teisco in 1967.

Catalogues

Because Silvertone was the exclusive brand of Sears Roebuck, theguitars only appears in the Sears Catalogues.

·Sears Catalogue Links

Unfortunately there is only a limited number of cataloguesavailable to post on this site. If some more become available, we will postthem in the future.

Links

For more information on Silverstone’s we recommend the Silvertone World web page. It seems to have the mostaccurate information available. It covers both US and Japanese made guitars.

Return toGuitars Brand Page

This site has been visitedtimes.

(Last Revised: 25^th of June 2012.)

©2012 MAI Music Publications

SilverTowne LP was founded in 1949 by Leon Hendrickson, and grew from a small coin shop to become one of the largest retail bullion and precious metals dealers in the country. What most folks don’t realize, however, is that SilverTowne produced a very limited and relatively short-lived run of poured silver ingots beginning in 1973, mostly serialized, that are just now gaining attention in the collector world.

Based on our extensive serial number database, we have conclusive evidence that SilverTowne used a single serial number run that was shared by all ingot sizes without duplication, with a total of only approximately 75,000 ingots produced nearly 50 years ago. Without doubt, a high percentage of these ingots have been melted over the years. Please note that the serial ranges below are shared between multiple sizes of ingots, so actual mintage numbers will be less than the span of the range, and to be sure, many did not survive the great melts so actual surviving examples are likely far less.
Today, SilverTowne Mint produces what we call “retro” ingots in 5oz, 10oz, and kilo weight class that in many ways resemble the vintage ingots shown below, but without serial numbers. We often field inquiries from collectors regarding these newer examples, as they often confuse them with vintage pieces. The giveaways to us are the newly poured complexion, cooling bubbles and uncharacteristic surface texture compared to vintage ingots, and the lack of a serial number. Examples can be found on the SilverTowne.com website and often on Ebay.

Silvertone Guitar Serial Number Lookup

Silvertone 1484 Serial Number