Here is something you might enjoy.....
Back in 1960, my Mom and Dad were living in Inglewood, California. Dad bought Mom a 1959 Sears Silvertone #1450 Guitar and matching #1451 Tube Amplifier. The 1450 guitar was made by Danelectro for Sears. It is a 3/4 scale, 18 fret beginner's guitar. Both the guitar and amp combo cost a whopping $57.90. At the time, my Dad was making a little less than $100.00 a week.
Mom played the guitar for many years. In the mid 1970s, I showed an interest in learning theguitar. Mom eventually gave me the guitar and amp and I learned to play on it.
In the mid 1970's, I stripped the guitar down and repainted it with a funky two-tone greenpaint job. I also replaced the original lipstickpickup with a Duncan Quarter Pounder SingleCoil. I was playing this through a Traynor 50 watt tube bass head, an Ampeg 6 x 10" basscabinet with a DOD FX 50 overdrive and DOD FX 90 Analog Delay. This was my main guitarrig for many years.
I soon switched to an Ibanez Destroyer DT555 Phil Collen Model, which would later be stolenin 1987. After that setback, I temporarily switched back to the old Silvertone - the only other guitar I had. Soon after, I auditioned for aband. I couldn't play the lead in one of theirsongs, because I only had 18 frets. They tookme to a music store and bought me a pale yellow, 1987 Fender Stratocaster. This becamemy main guitar and I retired the Silvertone to the closet. I still have the 1987 Stratocaster.
In 2010, I pulled the guitar out of storage andstripped it down. The original pickup had long been lost, so I began to collect the parts needed to restore the guitar back to its original condition.
Danelectro, the company that built the guitar for Sears, was still in business, so I ordered anoriginal Danelectro Lipstick Pickup from them, along with the vinyl, embossed binding tape togo around the edges of the body. I drilled out a broken, push-in plastic strap button andinstalled a fluted wooden dowel into the hole. This was later drilled to accept a screw-in strap button.
I did not like the original brown finish, so i decided to choose a color that would look 'retro' and be easy to keep clean. I decided on SageGreen acrylic enamel, which is very similar to some of the pastel colors used by fender andGretsch on guitars through the 1950s and1960s.
In March of 2011, I presented the guitar back to my Mom as an unexpected gift.
Hope you enjoy this.....Robert
Back in 1960, my Mom and Dad were living in Inglewood, California. Dad bought Mom a 1959 Sears Silvertone #1450 Guitar and matching #1451 Tube Amplifier. The 1450 guitar was made by Danelectro for Sears. It is a 3/4 scale, 18 fret beginner's guitar. Both the guitar and amp combo cost a whopping $57.90. At the time, my Dad was making a little less than $100.00 a week.
Mom played the guitar for many years. In the mid 1970s, I showed an interest in learning theguitar. Mom eventually gave me the guitar and amp and I learned to play on it.
In the mid 1970's, I stripped the guitar down and repainted it with a funky two-tone greenpaint job. I also replaced the original lipstickpickup with a Duncan Quarter Pounder SingleCoil. I was playing this through a Traynor 50 watt tube bass head, an Ampeg 6 x 10" basscabinet with a DOD FX 50 overdrive and DOD FX 90 Analog Delay. This was my main guitarrig for many years.
I soon switched to an Ibanez Destroyer DT555 Phil Collen Model, which would later be stolenin 1987. After that setback, I temporarily switched back to the old Silvertone - the only other guitar I had. Soon after, I auditioned for aband. I couldn't play the lead in one of theirsongs, because I only had 18 frets. They tookme to a music store and bought me a pale yellow, 1987 Fender Stratocaster. This becamemy main guitar and I retired the Silvertone to the closet. I still have the 1987 Stratocaster.
In 2010, I pulled the guitar out of storage andstripped it down. The original pickup had long been lost, so I began to collect the parts needed to restore the guitar back to its original condition.
Danelectro, the company that built the guitar for Sears, was still in business, so I ordered anoriginal Danelectro Lipstick Pickup from them, along with the vinyl, embossed binding tape togo around the edges of the body. I drilled out a broken, push-in plastic strap button andinstalled a fluted wooden dowel into the hole. This was later drilled to accept a screw-in strap button.
I did not like the original brown finish, so i decided to choose a color that would look 'retro' and be easy to keep clean. I decided on SageGreen acrylic enamel, which is very similar to some of the pastel colors used by fender andGretsch on guitars through the 1950s and1960s.
In March of 2011, I presented the guitar back to my Mom as an unexpected gift.
Hope you enjoy this.....Robert
e, even to us Aussies. Cheers
