unidentified silvertone.

[johnnyb]

i just picked up this silvertone guitar and am just about done restoring it. it has no identifying model or serial numbers. the only thing it has is "made in the usa" chicago. on the underside of the knobs. ive seen an old kay and an old craftsman on e-bay that had the same body, headstock, tuners, pickups and knobs, but they had no info on the date or model either. ive checked out the vintage silvertones website and they are wanting to know what it is as well. aparently its not in any old sears and robuck catalouges. does anybody have a clue?

[VintAxe]

Hey johnnyb,

Your guitar was built by Kay. In the Kay catalogs it is known as model 1962 and was produced from 1960-65. It was part of the Value Thinline Series and came in 1, 2 and 3 pick up versions. Your model isn't an exact match to the 1962 (the pickguard is a bit different) but it is similar in most respects. Just a "Silvertoned" version of a Kay. The only Sears catalog I have from the early 60's is the 1964 and your instrument isn't listed. I bet if you scour the early 60's Sears catalogs you'll find the exact year they offered it. sb

[Spud1950]

Sweet looking guitar! What did you do to it to get it looking that good as compared to how it was when you originally got it?

[johnnyb]

well, with this guitar i was relatively lucky concerning the finish. whoever owned this axe played it often and must have always kept it in its case. there were some scratches that buffed out but no major dings. i could tell it was played by the wear on the fret board, which is a thick slab of brazillian rosewood. yet the brass frets held up to very well, and a fret dressing is all it took to make the neck perfectly flat.. oh yeah this needed a light steming to get all the years of finger gook off, and then i condition the fretboard with mineral oil. i took off as much of the rust on the tailpiece i could, it was really bad, there isnt much chrome left on this one. but it looks nice. looks old. a little chrome polish on the pickups was all they needed. the pots needed to be broken open and manually cleaned, had to do a light 1500 grit sanding on the brushes to revive the contacts. an eraser usually works on the ceramic side. now theyre clean and scratch free. the tuning pegs were also taken apart , cleaned and lubed. they were real stiff, but now hold in tune and are nice and smooth. the biggest problem was the pickguard, it was trashed, warped, broke etc.. i made a template from the original and made this temporary one. im waiting on a cream/black/cream blank to make a nice new one. im still keeping the old one in the case though. last, i made a new bone nut that i litterally took from my dogs mouth, took a chunk and gave it back. i dont like to pay $15 for a bone blank. now its a player, not a wall hanger.

[jedistar]

Lucky find - that's a keeper..I'm a sucker for the LP shape -