# Info about a Silvertone acoustic ?



## John Bartley (Jul 23, 2009)

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


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

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


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## WannabeGood (Oct 24, 2007)

I think this might be a better link.

Welcome to Silvertone World

Regards,


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

^^^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.


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## John Bartley (Jul 23, 2009)

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


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

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.


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## John Bartley (Jul 23, 2009)

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


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## Lawrence (Nov 14, 2014)

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.


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## John Bartley (Jul 23, 2009)

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 :


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## John Bartley (Jul 23, 2009)

Here are the next (and last) five images :


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