I bought the Silvertone guitar and cowboy case on ebay some years back. I think I paid around $60.00 shipped. It came from the sandhills of Nebraska and the seller said it belonged to a cowboy. That was all the information he had.At the time, I thought I got gyped. The guitar was falling apart. The braces were loose. But I sure liked the case!I glued up the braces and did a strong job - a pretty ugly job if you looked inside the sound hole. I lubed the tuners and it played. The tone was poor and boxy, but typical of a Silvertone made by Harmony in Chicago circa 1962 and sold by Sears. A Sears catalog guitar for a cowboy. I wish I knew more of a story.The guitar has mostly lived in the case leaning up in a basement corner. I would infrequently get it out and play it a bit then put it back.I recently started having fun with factory guitars in open G tuning. My few years of playing GDG CBGs paid off in a skill transfer that lets me do pretty good on a six string and a bit better if I take off the big string and play it as a 5. I decided to convert the cowboy guitar to a resonator and to electrify it. I used a Lowe cone cannibalized off a cbg. The pre-wired mag pickup came from Gitty. It had to modify the 'pick guard' part to fit.I strung it up today. I somehow have the saddle about a quarter inch closer to the nut than it should be. I am hard of hearing, but I can hear bad intonation. Regardless, it is pretty good. Played with the slide, I kind of hear and find the sweet spots. String height is just where I like it with the exception of the G string, which sits too low in the nut.I kind of like the ratty look of this one. Unplugged it sounds a little like a resonator, but not greatly so. It does sound considerably better than it did before. Plugged in, it sounds very good. The treble strings ring out more clearly than most.It may stay as it is for a while. Maybe later on I will make a new biscuit and get that intonation corrected and put some super glue in the G string nut and get the height of that string corrected.
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Nice to hear that Uncle John, we're surrounded by history, it sure would be good to find out more about your guitar and case, but enjoy it now you've got it mate!
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Thanks, Slim.
Nice to hear that Uncle John, we're surrounded by history, it sure would be good to find out more about your guitar and case, but enjoy it now you've got it mate!