[John Bartley]

In the early 1960's, probably about 1960, '61, '62, in that time frame, my dad acquired a new Silvertone acoustic guitar. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift for him from my mom. I have had it for many years now, along with the original blue/gray mottled cardboard case. It's in pretty nice shape, with a bit of corrosion on the plating, some very light crazing in the lacquer finish and a bit of separating at the body/neck joint.

Inside the body, stamped in ink under the F holes are "N5" and "L6134".

I have no intention of selling it, but I wonder if someone would have any basic information about it .... who made it? ... how many were made? ... how much did it sell for when new?

Here's a picture of it and a link to a picture folder :

Silvertone_L6134_N5 by John Bartley

 

[Steadfastly]

Silvertone was the brand name for Sears. Silvertone was the name used on other things in the Searl line as well. Radios were one of them. Here is a link for you. Nice guitar, BTW.

Home - Silvertone Guitars - The Roots of Rock

 

[WannabeGood]

I think this might be a better link.

Welcome to Silvertone World

Regards,

 

[sulphur]

^^^That's where I was digging around.

It seems that the four dot necks were earlier models, they subsequently went to five dots.
Under the '50s acoustic models, it shows a similar model to the one you showed.

 

[John Bartley]

Thank you for all your replies. I am following the links, and it's very interesting to see all the varieties. I am also searching for a copy of the 1960 Sears catalogue. Hopefully I will be able to find one that illustrates the guitar choices.

This guitar is in pretty nice shape. The only defect that I can identify, other than the previously mentioned corrosion is the failure of the neck/body joint. There is some depressing happening where the neck lays on top of the archtop at the front mounting block. I am hesitant to do anything with it yet. I think I'll try to find a similar model in poor condition and work on it first, for practice, before tackling this one.

I also still have the first guitar I ever bought new. It's a Roderich-Paesold, model RP130 which I bought new at Gervais Music on Cumberland Street in Ottawa in 1973. It has a broken neck tension (truss?) rod, so I'll have to get the fingerboard off, get the rod out and repair it.

cheers

Thank you again for the replies.

John

 

[Steadfastly]

See third row down on the left. There are more guitar pics as you scroll down.

1960 sears catalog - Google Search

Here is another but I am not sure if there are any guitar pics or descriptions in it.

Mid-Century Living: Sears 1960 Catalog

If you want, you can also buy a 1960 Sears Catalogue from eBay but they are a bit pricey.

 

[John Bartley]

Thank you again. I appreciate the Sears catalogue links. I am not having much luck finding any complete catalogues on line, but I'll keep looking.

It seems that I tend to end up with oddballs. My first guitar was a semi-acoustic Egmond, with a cherry sunburst finish and a tremelo bar that was always coming loose. I bought it used and I wish I still had it. Then there's my Roderich Paesold P130 (which I still have) for which no information seems to be found on the web.

cheers, thanks again!

John

 

[Lawrence]

Back in the 60's I could not afford a guitar so I would go into the Sears store in Edmonton. The fellow who looked after the music section let me play as long as I wanted. He was a great guy who helped me want to be as best as I could be. I will never forget him.
The model you have brings back memories! I am sure I played it.

 

[John Bartley]

Just an update. Since Photobucket has played silly buggers, I have had to repair some photo links. It's time to repair the photos in this thread. I'll put the other five in the next post :

 

[John Bartley]

Here are the next (and last) five images :