Elmore James' 1954 Silvertone 1361

[BluesHawk]

Not the very guitar owned and played by Elmo'...it's the model that he played. There's one available on eBay now and the photos are fairly good. The price is reasonable today (Friday, April 12 at 10:24 p.m.) but may get above what a refin with replaced tuners could possibly be worth... Info from silvertoneworld.com:

"The 1361 and 1363 were a couple of odd birds that Sears offered for only one catalog, Spring/Summer 1954. Danelectro soon provided their first electrics in Fall/Winter '54, and Sears was happy to offer up the Silvertone 1375 & 1377.

The 1361 and 1363 guitars are a bit of a mystery. The catalog illustration looks like a Harmony H44. The actual guitar examples that I've seen, however, look very much like a Kay-made guitar, something like a K-141/142. Mystery aside, they were some of the very first true solidbody guitars offered by anyone, anywhere.

These were some of the first attempts at production solidbody guitars, and show an amazing degree of sophistication, both in the very Les Paul™like body shape, and the single piece neck and body, with the sides added on much like Les' original 'Log' prototype electric guitar. Needless to say, these are exceedingly rare, especially the 2-pickup 1363."

Caution: this one on eBay has been refinished and has replacement tuners:

[Riotonsunset]

Yeah,I think it was made for Sears by Kay. It is very similar to this Orpheum guitar which was also made by Kay in the early 50s

[BluesHawk]

Sold for US $1,025.00. Seems inflated to me...but someone wanted it badly enough...

[simonm]

$1000 is about the market rate for a refin of one of these early Kay solids imo, I was expecting this to go higher cuz of the Elmore James connection to be honest. Prices of the Harmony H44 Stratotone (a quite similar guitar) are also going up again - 2 sold for around $1800 recently.

[BluesHawk]

Thanks for the "adjustment", Simon. Wow! For a refin...

I try to keep up with prices (I have the Vintage Guitar Price Guide, 2011 ed., and read Vintage Guitar Mag) each month. But these Kays, Silvertones, Harmonies, there's not so much published about them. So I'm impressed with the market value you've seen...hard to believe these low-end guitars command so much... ...when they're playable, they're "novelty players". But have very limited player value.

But it's like primitive folk art...for collectors, sentimentality can be a big part of the value. So I appreciate the info!

[simonm]

I like these kinds of guitars a lot. I realise it's kind of a niche interest, but it's not about sentimentality at all - they sound amazing and can feel and play great if they still have a straight neck - players like Marc Ribot, Keith Urban, Tom Waits, and the whole west coast blues crowd love them too. They are primitive in some ways, but well made.

I'm expecting this one to be delivered tomorrow, all the way from Australia - a '57 Magnatone Mark III Standard that I was very lucky with - it's another through-neck one pickup wonder, and it might just be the best of the bunch (designed by Paul Bigsby):

[BluesHawk]

I'm listening. You got me interested, Simon. That '57 Magnatone Mark III Standard is beautiful and if it plays well...well, I'm a Bluesman (three Danelectro amps ) and might want something like it.

Gotta say, I shy away from 1-pup guitars. But about half my repertoire is neck pup only. If I knew how to get a range of tones out of this axe, I'd get one.

Any tips for finding somethin like these at a reasonable price, say plus or minus $500 USD?

[simonm]

Hi Doug
There was a bit of a dip in interest in thr the H44 in the lasr few yrs, after peaking in the old days of 2007-8. I got my H44 for about $600 and H88 (2 pickup version) for less that $800, but as I said prices are on the up again, probably because of Keith Urban and this pic



Joe Perry was photographed with a related gtr (the yellow one - H42) on the cover a big guitar mag recently also...

so $500 examples are not likely, not on ebay, but check Craigslist. The 2008 reissues are supposed to be decent, with very similar build but slightly slimmer necks - you see these on ebay for about $400, but you'd need to spend another $80+ for an original pickup (early to mid '50s examples are lower wind, only a bout 3.3K, compared to later ones which are about 8K).

The main thing to be aware of is the lack of adjustable truss rods on the originals - so a straight-ish neck is essential.

The Magnatones are much more rare (and some have adjustable truss rods even), but a refin Mark III went for only $678 on ebay this year.

[BluesHawk]

Another valuable tip, thanks...truss rod model vs. the shifting neck. And, I know I wouldn't pay $800 for a reissue. I could have a good used Les Paul Special, or The Paul for that.

I'll be keepin my eyes open for somethin like these. Ya never know...

[cheepaxes]

A good friend /bandmate owns that copper Stratotone. I'll have to forward him a copy of the K. Urban picture.

[johnny2hats]

This is my first post! (besides my intro, bio deal) Great topic to get started. So . . . about 18 years ago I had the honor of holding and admiring what was Elmore James's last guitar. I was hesitant to play it because I didn't want to taint a relic. I live in the Mississippi Delta near Greenwood. (where Robert Johnson was poisoned) I was 18 or 19 years old and a blossoming blues lover. (My first post and I've already used the word "blossoming"! Yikes!!!) Two years before, I befriended a local blues dj who was also a publicist and promoter for Mississippi Crossroads Inc. They owned the rights to, represented, and managed the Robert Johnson estate, and were in the process of taking on the Elmore James estate. They also produced a blues radio show, which was played on stations across the country. Anyway, getting to Elmore . . . . One day my cousin and I stopped by the studio, and my dj friend, Pat, said he had a surprise to show us. He left the room and came back with a guitar case in his hand. In this case was Elmore's last known guitar. Sources said that Elmore, in classic unpredictable bluesman fashion, pawned his guitars. He was known to be a gambler and moonshine "enthusiast" Preparing to go play overseas at the American Folk Blues Festival, he acquired this last guitar. It's been so long and I was not the vintage pawn shop guitar freak that I am now, therefore I don't recall what brand it was. Sorry!!!! It was missing a couple of strings, but the blues don't need but one. It was brought to the Crossroads office by a family member of Mr. James. The story goes, he was putting some strings on it while at his cousin's house, stopped, went in the bathroom and died of a heart attack. The guitar didn't see the light of day for more than 30 years until a relative found it and and gave it to Mississippi Crossroads Inc. The Crossroads took on several bluesmen's estates to protect, preserve, promote, and manage them in the interest of the artists' descendants, overseeing the portioning of royalties amongst legitimate family. You can only imagine how many folks came out of the woodworks! It was quite a task! So anyway, that's my first post, and I promise they won't all be this long.

[BluesHawk]

Welcome, Jonny. You bring us great research right from the birthplace of the Blues! Keep your stories comin.

About 15 years ago I did some avocational field research in the Delta...at Abby Leatherman Plantation and at Morgan City near you. The story I pieced together from folks around Morgan City is that Robert was poisoned at Three Forks juke, located in the fields of a plantation...I interviewed the plantation owners there in Morgan City as well as nearby residents. I have the name of the plantation and the owners filed away...the plantation has the Yazoo River as one boundary, the Morgan City main highway as another boundary, and a creek near Mt. Zion church as another boundary

After Robert fell sick, he was taken to one of the nearby sharecroppers' shacks where he lingered for several days before he died. Perhaps transportation was lacking to transport him, but most told me no hospital or MD would have treated an itinerant Black man. He was buried in the cemetery of the adjacent Mt. Zion Baptist Church...a longish walk to the far edge of the plantation from Three Forks. Of course this gravesite is unconfirmed, but it is the closest to Three Forks of the three possible sites.

Three Forks juke was moved in the early 1990s from the intersection of three dirt roads near the sharecroppers' shacks in the plantation fileds. Its new location, when I interviewed the plantation owners, was out at the edge of the plantation, at a four-way intersection on the main highway that runs through Morgan City. At the time I was there, it was a rental house. The Three Forks sign had been removed after thte move, and was rescued from a trash fire by some collectors who gave it to the Delta Blues Museum (in Greenville? or Clarksdale?). I took several photos of Three Forks and of its original foundations back in the fields.

When I returned from this pilgrimage, I called Peter Guralnick in Boston and he was very encouraging of what I'd learned and the maps I'd drawn of key locations. But I've not published any of it.

Have you seen any of this, Jonny?

[twangjunkie]

This is my first posting as I've only just discovered this brilliant site, that Magnatone is beautiful, I've never managed to find one though I did play on one once, tone monster of a thing the pickup is amazing. Keep up the good work posting pics of these lovely unusual guitars.

[BluesHawk]

[twangjunkie]

Hey Doug
thanks for the welcome, my main squeeze is a 57 Esquire, but I am off today to pick up my early 60s silvertone stratatone, I'm a little over excited over it, can't wait to plug it in.