Silvertone Review: Archtop Acoustic

History:

Purchase: There are still vintage guitars to be found in dumpsters! I have heard about stories like mine (usually from someone who fell into it), but it NEVER happened to me. Until last week,anyway. This friend was telling me about his weekend plans to help this old woman clean out her attic- I asked him to keep an eye out for any thing musical- Imagine my surprise when he presented me with an old Silvertone archtop- Price: FREE!!! FREE RULES!!!

What I Like About This Silvertone Archtop Acoustic: AGAIN: FREE!!!! The old box (the guitar- not the old lady) looked pretty good after a thorough cleaning and polishing with some Old English- A new set of .010's and some exact-fit cheapo jap tuners, and I'm well on my way to becoming the next T-bone Lee Waters! This thing would look cool with 2 P-90's on it, but I hate ta cut it up(even if she is only a Silverbone), so guess she's safe fer now.

What I Do NOT Like About The Silvertone Archtop Acoustic: There's always a reason when ya find an old git-fiddle without strings, and ya usually find out why when ya put 'em back on....Do they have such a thing as a guitar chiropractor? This ol'gal's neck was way out of whack. No truss rod, tho...... I leveled the frets to get it playable- the fingerboard's got plenty of meat to level it out, but it's O.K. for now... Maybe someday, but the original frets are so nice I hate to... This big "V" neck's kinda clubby fer this ol' Tele picker!

Silvertone Archtop Acoustic Quality Rating: Typical 50's Silvertone...built for the long haul...I swear you could paddle a canoe with this sucker, dry it off to sing around the campfire, and still fight off a bear on the way home if ya had to! Seriously, though, the construction and materials of these late 40's-early 50's Sears flagships were as good as any....It's no D'Angelico, but whattya want fer FREE!!!!

Review Summary: Again; FREE!!! Beggars can't be choosers, so no sour grapes here- I surely would rather have had my bud drop a '59 sunburst or a nice ol' Tele in my lap, I ain't complainin'!!! This thing fairly DRIPS with cool!!! Nobody famous plays one, so they're not really worth any major bucks, tho-- Guess I'll just keep her around in case I wanna go campin' this summer!!

Rating of this Silvertone product: 5

This Silvertone Archtop Acoustic Acoustic Guitars Review Submitted By: BLUZEMAN55

Review Date: 2002-12-29