Actually, in case you're tracking this: I'd seen (and liked) a few of your videos, but (probably like a lot of your new subscribers) it was Phillip McKnight's positive mention a couple weeks ago that got me to subscribe and pay more attention. And I'm digging what you're doing. Thanks!
I have a 1484 head that I bought in 1994 for $20. I promptly blew the output transformer n lost the tubes. I held on to that thing until I found replacement OT in 19. I got bored during the panic and I fixed it all up n found a matching cab with orig speakers. The thing rocks hard.
I never had a Polka emergency but I had a Polka disaster once. I was playing a gig at a local club. We were playing the Beer Barrel Polka. A big fat lady was dancing with her husband. They were the only ones on the dance floor. They were dancing round and round. Each time they came around they were a little bit closer to me on the stage. The stage was only a raised section about 6 inches. I watched with consternation as she kept getting closer and closer. Finally she got too close. Unfortunately it was as she had her back to me. She went ass-over-teakettle, plowing right into me. I instinctively flipped up my Gibson SG as a protective measure. She hit my mike stand which sent my SM-58 slamming into the back of the SG imprinting a # pattern into the finish. I fell back narrowly missing the drummer. Damn, I hate Polkas.
I only got knocked over once, fortunately there was a wall behind me, so I didn't go down. The fiddle bow and myself survived intact. Can't remember if I was playing a Polka. It's entirely possible. This was in Deddington, UK, yes we have rough houses here as well.
Little bit expensive for "Little Johnny" in the mid-'60s ($160.00 new in 1966, less than 1/2 the price of an equivalent Fender amp), and readily available via the Sears catalog. Tons and tons teenage/high school bands had these in their backlines.
I’d venture to guess there’s a lot of fun work and good video content to be had working on old Danelectro, Sunn, Gregory, Alamo, Ampeg, Valco, Gibson, and amps of the ilk. The non-Marshalls Fender and Vox ones.
Let’s see, have one In my collection. Purchased in 1971 for $100. In the company of vintage Fender, Marshall, Gibson and a few others. I consider this one of my prized possessions.
I love these old Silvertone amps. I wish I never got rid of the 1484 that I had many years ago. Great content sir. I love these videos as they are ultra informative.
Love to see the re cap I have a well preserved 1484 unmolested and in need of a recap. Everything works except the reverb, just makes me a bit un easy too use it. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to try the re cap.. and are confident with the quality of your video productions to get it done . It may not be pretty but but enough get through the job safetly. always educational Thank you
A band mate of mine many years ago had a 1484, and it sounded godlike, right up until the moment it let the magic smoke out :P I believe he basically rebuilt the thing after and got it happy again for a long time
The white light, don't forget the white light followed by the small cloud of smoke. I bought a Silvertone head at a garage sale. Not sure of the model but it looked just like the ones here. It looked in really bad shape. Worse than the fire torched one here. Much worse. I was feeling adventurous though so I plugged it in, kept my distance as I flipped the on/off switch on. Poof! A bolt of white light out of the back and small cloud of white smoke. I was not supersized in the least.
@@matchrocket1702 in fairness we were recording, and the amp was in the live room, We were all in the control room where you couldnt see the amp, but we could sure smell the smoke lol
Turning into DANO WEEK. Simply a wonder what was done with sheet aluminum and Masonite panels. I wonder how those Sears Roebuck houses by mail faired thru the ages.
Ah man. Not the fire extinguisher. Just yesterday I was rereading the chapter in my auto mechanics textbook about safety, and at fire extinguishers, it mentioned one of the types damaging electronics and corroding metal and things when sprayed. I guess this is a practical example of that
Its kinda funny how popular these amps are getting. I put it down to most good vintage Fenders and Marshalls quickly becoming unobtanium... so old Gibson and Silvertones are getting more attention, but once you get a look inside the shock hits and you kinda wonder what you've gotten into, hahaha. They do kinda sound cool, but nothing like a Tween champ or a blackface Princeton.
I heard that squeak from the Silvertone reverb tank. I've got a twin twelve combo with *reverb* and I wondered why it was wired with about thirty feet of zip cord. I guess the idea was to roll it out and hang it out a window somewhere. The feedback is that bad. On the other hand if you like 1950s science fiction movie sound effects you're in luck.
The single pickup version of the amp in case set probably discouraged some people from continuing with guitar because the amplifier was a transformerless "hot-chassis" circuit that likely gave a lot of budding players electrical shocks, especially if they were standing barefoot or in damp socks on a concrete slab like in the basement or garage. The 2-pickup amp-in-case set had a better amp with more output power and an actual power transformer so although it wasn't grounded you were less likely to get zapped, until such time as the death cap failed.
Here's a link to a 2-pickup Dano from the amp-in-case set being played on stage by David Lindley and El Rayo-X ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--hIgXy1Y7vg.html (the video was posted by the drummer seen here, Walfredo Reyes Jr, who played with Santana for a bit, now currently playing with Chicago). On some of the German El RayoX concerts you can find on RU-vid such as Rockpalast, Loreley and Berlin Metropol shows, both Lindley and the rhythm guitarist are playing 2-pickup Silvertones, or perhaps a Silvertone and a Supro resoglass "map" guitar.
@@angryshoebox , The "All-American 5" radios were often built with a non conductive wooden or plastic chassis and plastic knobs, and designed in such a way that it was very difficult for somebody to accidentally contact any metal parts that were connected to the chassis and would have been electrically "hot" or live. A guitar amp is a special case where the strings and metal parts of the guitar are basically tied to the chassis of the amp through the guitar cord, and such hot chassis guitar amps really should never have been sold to the public. (You obviously know all this but I posted this information for somebody else who might not have ever heard of an AA5 radio or a transformerless, AC-DC, hot chassis design).
@@goodun2974 Yeah, from back in the days of 2-prong non-polarized electric outlets. My understanding is people would flip the plug around if they got a bad hum in their radio, thus energizing the chassis.
About 2-1/2 minutes in when you said the choke had died, I thought well why not pull the choke from the first amp to get the second working. Then I saw the second choke and went nope not an option this time.
Tell Neil Young that these are not serious amps, whatever build quality issues the fact remains that they sound fantastic, plug in any guitar and you are Mick Ronson! Someone is missing the boat by not making a solid build version ,I had one that had clean sound like a Hi-Watt, why oh why did I sell it?
I'm not aware of Neil using Silvertone amplifiers but I know he used to use vintage Magnatones, and now reportedly uses the new reissue Magnatones which really aren't the same as the originals.
OK,then ask Jack White or one of the guitarists from Wilco who was using one on Austin City, fact is I 'm seeing them in a lot in the backline of people that can afford anything,and half of the comments were from people who love how they sound and are sorry they sold them .l don't know why it angers people that something not made to last has a mojo that they can't explain or quantify - maybe a lot of us find meaning in the sound of something coming apart , or burning up- my 57 deluxe never sounded so good as right before it caught fire.I find these amps are ideosynchratic- they all sound different , perhaps because of the cheap manufacturing the fact that we are still talking about them is meaningful and for some., the sound they make is the sound they were seeking.If it sounds good to you is what matters.
Some *early" Sears Silvertone amps were indeed built by Valco, but around the mid to late 50's/early 60's Sears switched over to Danelectro. If the chassis is aluminum it's almost certainly a Danelectro (use of Masonite speaker baffles and Homesote ---- compressed paper wallboard ---- and/or particle board for the cabinets is another Dano identifier; Valco mostly used plywood). Valco invariably used a steel chassis, sometimes chromed and sometimes painted. .
@@PsionicAudio , You can find historical video of Howling Wolf playing a Gibson Firebird through one of these Silvertone heads. He was pretty successful financially and could probably afford whatever musical gear he wanted, including obviously a Gibson Firebird. Some years ago I watched part of a Lollapalooza festival I think it was on TV, and Kings Of Leon was using these on stage. There's a guy on RU-vid somewhere [Eric Haugen guitar] doing guitar instruction lessons who was getting a really good classic Richard Thompson tone for "Calvary Cross" out of one of these (although Richard himself is mostly a Fender guy). Sure, the reverb sucks, but we have pedals for that nowadays; otherwise they're interesting and unusual sounding. Messy build quality however and definitely not made to be easy to service. Still, I should clarify that I am kind of a sucker for weird, tacky amps and guitars.....
@@book3100 , Long John Baldry would say, " Don't try to lay no boo-gee woo-gee on the king of rock and roll...." by the way, there's an alternate version of the"Rockin' pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu" titled "Tu-Ber-Cu-Lucas and the Sinus Blues". ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x9TWNemXQ1E.html
The subjectivity of music is wild. Other than the hum, I thought the clean on that thing was great and way better than many vastly more expensive amps. They're ugly, and it seems now overpriced if they were meant to be a cheap amp back then, but nothing wrong with the sound as far as I could hear it. I can't play for peanuts despite years of dicking around - I just don't 'get' how music works, but it seems to be a good player playing just about anything sounds better than an average player with all the best gear.
They have a sound that screams Velvet Underground. They aren’t pretty and that’s what makes ‘em beautiful. If he ever wants to get rid of the bad one, have him get a hold of me …somehow😂
The fire survivor might have more use than just a conversation piece. Perhaps the owner could send it to a certain 'ologist and we could all enjoy the laughs? Sorry, that was mean. Forget I said it.
I consider some Silvertone amps to be a lot less junky than some modern Fender, Marshall and Mesa products. At least the Silvertone amps and guitars never pretended to be anything near state-of-the-art professional-grade equipment, and were priced accordingly. In the past two decades or more,, Marshall and Fender have built an awful lot of products that purported to be for working and professional musicians but that are built like crap, with shitty circuit boards, poor layout, failure-prone soldering, and the same design problems continuing from model to model for years without ever being fixed, as Lyle can attest. I'd rather work on a Silvertone head than a Mesa boogie, that's for sure. Or a Marshal with conductive circuit boards.....
I don't know Lyle. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5_MNpKqp95k.html These Mexican polka musicians get an A+ for dedication and medals for bravery too. This is '"just another gig'" for this band. Kudos to that band for staying upright & keeping the beat. These professional Mexican musicians are really great customers too. A lot of them are heavily narco-subsidized and they tip really really well especially when you give them exceptionally good repair services.
When they bought their amps did they look for and select products on the basis of "you can store your weed in there" speaker-cabinet cubbyholes? Is that how the service tech gets "tipped", by finding someone's stash in a hidden compartment 😁?
Yea disagree. Pcb board? It’s just piece of cardboard with eyelets on it. Why unusable ? If eyelets are loose. Get rivet gun pop them tight. Board loose. Get 3/16 rivet 1/2” long pop it in bracket. Mint done I’ve done 2 of these so far. I found they were built well but just hard to work on because of the layout and clutter. But doable no problem ! 😎
Those Silvertone amps made by Dan Electro in Neptune New Jersey are generally crap grade quality products. Sears Roebuck & Monkey Wards never ever really "MADE" anything, but they sold EVERYTHING. In the 1920s & 30s The Gibson Mandolin Company made guitars, banjos & mandolins for the Ward's Recording King brand. Lyon & Healey/Washburn made guitars, autoharps etc. for Sears & Wards. In about 1957 the Danno & Valco stuff started showing up in catalogs. The pressed paper cabinets, wimpy iron and almost totally random layout of electronic parts in Dan Electros amps is legendary Danno. Valco had some very uniquely clever designs. Danno? Not so much. There were two really super nice 1950s J.C. Higgins' Sears rifles made by FN, a Belgian made .30-06 Mauser action and an FN .270 Mauser action. Sears or Wards the rest were all Savage, Stevens, Mossberg, Marlin, H&R, Iver Johnson type stuff. Cheap but functional, just like Valco or Danno.
