I really don’t care who you voted for in the 2024 Presidential election or even why, but what is important is the news that the Gibson Guitar Company has threatened with a cease-and-desist order to Donald Trump for copyright infringement.
On it's webpage16 Creative states it is the world’s first Veteran owned, multi-focused branding agency, we are privileged to work with an iconic lineup of entertainers, athletes, businesses, Veterans and military organizations to bring their brand and legacy to life through strategic marketing campaigns and branded merchandise. The company is mainly in the business of offering logo based promotional merchandize.
Apparently this company was hired by the Trump campaign to put the Trump brand on guitars. These limited-edition instruments range in price from $1,000 to $11,500.
Only the high-end models are autographed by President Trump.
At the time Ibanez was turning out some very convincing replicas of a variety of Gibson style guitars. Some of these looked quite like Les Paul style guitars.
The Eastern District Philadelphia based Federal Court did not get a chance to rule on the case as it was settled out of court. The case was settled between the parties with the agreement that Ibanez could duplicate the body style but could not use the same headstock shape(s) found on Gibson instruments.
With all of the Asian based Gibson-style guitars sold on the web, I hardly think that Gibson can use their argument. Ironically, the Trump Guitars are probably manufactured offshore.
In other Gibson news the Federal Government seized a shipment of 3,000 Asian manufactured guitars in a Los Angeles based seaport. All the instruments bore the Gibson logo.
These guitars would have been worth almost 18 million dollars had they not been discovered to be counterfeits.
If you haven’t read the story of Danelectro guitars, here is a quick rehash about their designer, Nathan Daniel. He was an immigrant to the United States. As a child, his parents fled from Lithuania to the United States to escape the persecution of Jews during the czarist Russian era.
Daniels was gifted with a real desire to learn. It was during his high school years that he experimented with electricity by building crystal radio sets. He became fascinated by radio and its inner workings.
In the 1930,’s he dropped out of college and made a living building amplifiers of his own design. He built these, at first, in the bedroom of his parents’ apartment. His first customer was the Epiphone Musical Instrument Company.
During WWII, Daniels worked as a civilian designer for the US Army and devised a way to equip the radio receiver/transmitter in military vehicles with a system that made them unaffected by engine noise. Daniel, or Nat as everyone called him, was a gifted electrical engineer who had studied about electronic theory and design.
After the war, he set up shop in New Jersey under the company name Danelectro. And once again he went to work making amplifiers for the Epiphone Guitar Company under the Electar brand.
His big break was when he became associated with Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Wards.
During the 1950's and '60's Danelectro manufactured amplifiers for the Montgomery Ward Company under the Airline brand name. For this current generation, it may be hard to understand the importance of Sears, and Montgomery Wards.
Both businesses were catalog based companies that began in the late 1800's when much of the United States was rural and transportation was limited. In the mid twentieth century by companies had department stores, however catalog sales were as popular in that era as Amazon is today. Though Daniels built amplifiers under the Danelectro brand name, being associated with these huge catalog companies was a real coup for his company.
Both companies contracted Danelectro to build amplifiers to be sold under each stores' brand names. Respectively these names were Silvertone and Airline. At the time, 90% of Daniel’s guitars and amplifiers sold through Sears or Montgomery Wards.
I was a very little guy in the 1950's. During that era there were a lot of local live shows on the family's black and white Westinghouse TV on our 3 channels.
Much like me, television was in it's early years and was trying everything it could to fill air time, and sell advertising. So even in those years my eye caught the guitar players.
Many guitarists that played popular music such as Les Paul and Mary Ford through electric guitars. Others played Country and Western using electric and Steel guitars. At five years old, I knew there was a difference, but wasn't sure what. I was fascinated the guitars were played through a speaker (with amplifier).
During the 1950's Danelectro - Nat Daniel - was developing different amplifies for Silvertone, Airline, and even the Harmony Musical instrument company. These amps had different features and prices.
The 1950 Sears Silvertone model 1336 was a class A practice amp, similar to the specs of a Fender Champion of that same era. It pumped at best 5 watts into a six inch speaker.
The following year Sears offered the Silvertone model 1349. This was a true professional amplifier, built by Danelectro. It was rated at 50 watts and had two twelve inch speakers.
Also in 1954 Silvertone/Danelectros' top of the line model with the 1336L Twin Twelve amplifier, which included a tremolo effect. This was rated a 50 watts RMS and had two twelve inch speakers.
By 1958 Sear's included the budget model 1389 amplifier. It had a slightly different look. Once again this was a six watt amp with a six inch speaker. It sold for $32.95. If you bought the single pickup model 1304 guitar with it, the price for both was $57.90.
In 1957 Sears offered the Silvertone "Two Twelve" amplifier with an upgraded cabinet design. The model 1396 was their best for the years of 1957 to 1959 and included 50 watts of power into two twelve inch speakers. This amp included a tremolo circuit. It's price in 1957 was $139.95.
The Sears Silvertone models 1330. 1390, and 1430 Meteor amplifiers were very similar with an output of a mere 3 watts into a six inch speaker. The price was only $22.95. Thes amps were offered from 1955 through 1965.
By 1961 Sears offered the Model 1434 Medalist, built by Danelectro. This amplifier featured an upgraded cabinet design. Once again it had 50 watts of RMS power into two twelve inch speakers.
On Sunday, February 9th, 1964, the guitar boon hit after The Beatles made their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. This show caused every American kid to want an electric guitar. Danelectro and Sears were ready to oblige with guitars and amplifiers.
In 1963 Sears/Silvertone had offered the model 1481 budget amplifier. It was only rated at 5 watts into an 8" speaker, two tubes running in a class A circuit In that year and retailed at $38.95 . In today's market they are asking over $500 for this tiny amplifier.
That same year Silvertone model 1482 was available through the Sears . In today's market they are asking over $500 for this amplifier.. This amp may be considered a 'poor man's '57 Fender Deluxe'. It pumped out 15 watts RMS into a 12" speaker and included a vibrato circuit.
In 1963, if you or your family could afford to spend $139.95 on a guitar amp (the average annual family income was $3710), then you could get the Silvertone Model 1474. It has 50 watts of power into twin twelve inch speakers. It came with two channels and not just tremolo, but reverb as well, all housed in a single cabinet with type AB power.
Back in the day, two of my friends owned the Silvertone Twin-Twelve model 1484 was probably the most desirable of the Sears amps of the day. This came as an amplifier with a separate cabinet. The amplifier portion was housed in its own chassis, designed to be conveniently placed at the bottom of the speaker cabinet, when not in use.
The speaker cabinet contained two 12” Jensen special design speakers, that were wired in series. The amplifier had two channels with volume, treble and bass controls for each, reverb depth, tremolo strength and speed. Each channel had two input jacks, plus there was a jack for a footswitch that turned the tremolo and reverb on or off.
The three switches on the guitars lower front panel controlled were and on/off switch, a standby control and a ground control. The amplifier unit was permanently attached with a 25 foot cable.
This amp was loud enough for combo playing, rated at about 40 watts RMS and extremely clean, although the literature claimed it to produce 60 watts. Its price was less than $149.95 in 1964.
The chassis and cabinet were made of particleboard and coated with a gray cloth material. The speaker baffle was made of high-density fiberboard. The cord from the speakers to the amplifier was permanently attached instead of having input jacks and a separate speaker cord. The reverb unit, probably made by Hammond, was smaller than those used on Fender amps, since it had to fit in the amp chassis.
A player was able to coax a weird sound out of the amp, by turning the volume down and turning the reverb all the way up.
My other friend played bass and his first real amplifier was a Sears/Slivertone model 1483 bass amplifier. Just like the 1484, this amplifier was a separate head unit and cabinet. This useful feature prevented the speaker vibration from rattling the tubes.
Both amps utilized twin 6L6GC power tubes.
Due to the design the bass model 1483 produced 23 watts of tube power.
This was much less than a 1960's Fender Bassman, which was rated at 40 watts. The tweed Fender Bassman was rated about the same as the Silvertone at 23 watts through two 6V6 power tubes.
The 1483 Silvertone bass amp had two channels with volume, bass, treble controls and two inputs for each, a ground switch, an on/off switch, and a standby/operate switch. It came with a 15’ Jensen special design bass speaker.
Much like the Twin-Twelve, the cabinet was particle board and the speaker baffle was again, high-density fiberboard. Due to the bass frequency caused the baffle board to vibrate. It also distorted, which although desirable today, it was not so in 1965. Instead of the amp unit being stored on the bottom of the speak cabinet, it was stored vertically on the cabinets side.
The model 1483 sold for under $130, which was much less than a Fender Bassman of that era.
The most powerful tube amplifier made by Danelectro for Silvertone was the model 1485. This beast was rated at 120 watts RMS, and came with a cabinet that contained six ten inch speakers.
The cabinet was separate from the amplifier. With six speakers, there was no storage compartment for the amplifier head. This beast had all the features of the model 1484, but with a more powerful sound. The whole thing weighed in at 75 pounds and sold for $239.95.
From 1962 through 1965 Silvertone/Danelectro offered a unique amplifier in a guitar case that came with a guitar. The model 1448 featured a 3 watt amplifier in the guitars case with a six inch speaker. The guitar was a Silvertone single pickup model with a modified Strat shape. The price for the pair was only $67.95 cash.
Now this is not the first time Sears offered a guitar with an amplifier built into the case. In 1941 the Silvertone 2323 was in the catalog. It contained a low wattage amplifier with a six string lap steel. However this combo was not built by Danelectro, it was manufactured by Valco and sold for $29.95.
By 1964 Silvertone offered an improved amplifier/guitar combo. This was the model 1457. The power rating on this amp-in-case was still around 3 watts, but the speaker was eight inches, and an extra tube was add for the tremolo circuit. The guitar was the same design, but now with two pickups, and featured a red formica top with a unique pickguard. This combo would set you back $99.95.
In 1967 Silvertone introduced Solid-State amplifiers. I am not certain if these were made by Natthan Daniel's Danelectro, since Nat Daniel sold the company to MCA in 1966. However Silvertone was selling the model 1464 in 1967 and 1968. This two channel amp featured twin twelve inch Jensen special design speakers and was rated at 100 watts. It was priced at $185 USD.
The very similar looking model 1465 was introduced in 1966 and lasted through 1968. This solid state amplifier also boosted two channels, but was rated at 150 watts. The speaker cabinet contained six Jensen Special design speakers and weighed in at (ouch)! 91 pounds. Thankfully the cabinet came with casters. The cost at the time was $285 USD.
The final offering labeled as Danelctro was the solid state model 1463. This was a rather basic amplifier for bass guitar that pumped 35 solid state watts into a separate cabinet containing a single 15 inch speaker. It was featured in the 1968 summer catalog and lasted for only one year.
MCA owned Danelectro at this time. It's price tag was $119.95. Gone were the grey cloth coverings of the Dano tube amplifiers. This one was covered in a back vinyl material.
A few years earlier, in 1966, Silvertone offered this refrigerator sized bass amplifier; The Model 1466. This single channel amp cranked 150 RMS transistor watts into a separate cabinet containing six 10" Jensen special design speakers.
Shipping weight was 86 pounds. The 32" high cabinet was mounted on some very respectable casters. This amp was around through 1968. After that Danelectro closed up shop.
Taking a step back in time, Nat Daniels build some wonderful amplifiers and sold them under the Danelectro Brand Name throughout the 1950's and '60's. The 1951 amplifier that he built under the Maestro name already pictured was sold as the 10 watt Danelectro Leader.
By 1953 Danelectro offered the upgraded Challenger amplifier. This amp used a pair of 6V6 power tubes and pushed around 15 watts into a 15" speaker. This amp included a tremolo circuit.
The following year, 1954, Danelectro offered the first Twin Twelver amplifier. It had two pair of 6L6 GC tubes driving two 12" speakers. The cabinet housed an amplifier that was fitted in a diagonal fashion.
In the early 1963 Danelectro unveiled an updated version of their 60 watt Twin Twelve amplifier. It appears the top was removable. This two channel amp was powered by 4 6L6 GC tubes and included a tremolo circuit.
That same year a larger version known as the Twin 15 with two 15" speakers was offered. This model had also been offered in 1962 with a different chassis.
Around this same time Danelectro made the model DM-25, which was a two channel amplifier head on top of a speaker cabinet with a 12" speaker. Much like the Silvertone models, the amp unit could be stored in the speaker cabinet when not in use. No reverb, but this amp did include a tremolo circuit.
An unusual Danelectro amplifier that was available in 1965 was the 75 watt DS-50 model. This two channel amp included a tremolo circuit and reverb unit that was seated on top of a cabinet with three 10" speakers. The amp unit could be stored in the bottom of the speaker cabinet.
Nathan Daniel relocated to Hawaii after selling the brand name to MCA in 1966. This was an era when several large corporations ventured out of their league with aspirations of making a lot of money in the guitar industry. However the guitar boon was nearing an end.
In the 1990’s, Steve Ridinger purchased the rights to the Danelectro name and logo. He set up the Evets Corporation and set about renewing the name. As a kid Steve Ridinger began building a fuzz pedal that gained some popularity.
This eventually became the Foxx Tone Machine that included an octave up feature that was prized by many rock players.
In the late 1990's Ridinger acquired the Danelectro brand name. The first offering from the new company was a series of guitar effects pedals that sold for a budget price of $25 and up.
As Ridinger and his Evets Corporation partners traveled to NAMM shows and product demonstrations, the most asked question was regarding reviving the guitars line up.
The solution was to introduce a new guitar on an annual basis. Currently all guitars the company manufacturers are offered for sale. (Click link for line up and pricing).
Around 1998 Evets introduced several solid state guitar amplifiers that were manufactured in China. That year two amplifiers were made available. The first was The Danelectro Dirty 30.
The Danelectro was a solid state amplifier, manufactured in China, that sold for only $79 USD. At best when cranked, it was supposed to produce 30 watts of power, however at best it is rated at 10 loud watts.
It was a rather small and simple amp, but it was well built. And much like the Silvertone/Danelectro amps practice amps of old it came with a six inch speaker rated at "Tonally Awesome". The three controls were for Dirty/Sweet - Level - Tone. For a mere $79 USD, you could not go wrong.
That same year, Danelectro offered a 15 watt solid state amplifier called The Nifty 50. This was an upgraded amp, pumping 15 watts RMS of power into an eight inch speaker. The original retail price was $129 USD.
Once again this was made in China. The leatherette covered cabinet was very nice. The controls panel was an improvement offering the same Dirty/Sweet feature, and Level controls, but this time with adjustable bass, middle, and treble controls.
In 1998 Danelectro also offered a bass amplifier called The Nifty 70. It was a 15 watt amplifier that came with an eight inch woofer in a closed back cabinet.
All three of these amplifier were built in the style of 1950's Danelectro tube amplifiers, complete with a leatherette covering and speaker baffle of that era. I have to say, these are very nice amplifiers and are available in the used market for around $100 USD.
Controls included Volume, Bass, Mid, and Treble potentiometers, an input jack, and a headphone jack. This tiny bass amp came with a tiny price tag of $149.
Both of these tiny amplifiers shape was modeled after a 1960's Watkin's Dominator amplifier, built in the UK with a unique shape that ran 17 watts into two 10" speakers.
However The Hodad put out only around 1 and a half watts into two one inch speakers. This amplifier is no longer in production, but there are scads of them that are still available.
(By the way, a Hodad was a termed used by surfers to describe a non-surfer who hangs around the beach and pretends to by a surfer.)
The only amplifier that Danelectro offers at this time is called The Honeytone.N-10 Mini Amp. Once again it is a tiny amplifier with Volume, Tone, Drive controls, a pilot light, input jack, and a clip you can use on your belt. I was watching a nature show about whales recently and noticed the sonar apparatus was plugged into a Dano Honeytone amp.
This little plastic amplifier is widely available for around $25 to $35 USD and comes in a variety of colors. Despite looking like a toy, it does have a very nice sound.
Though the guitar line up is the Danelectro/Evets Corporation's main profit center, it is too bad that the amp market has declined. All that is left is this tiny plastic amplifier.
In 2022 a company called Jackson Audio partnered with the current owners of the Silvertone brand name to offer the Twin Twelve 1484 Pedal. The control panel features a design similar to the knobs and font found on a 1960's Silvertown (Danelectro) 1484 amplifier.
In the mid 1960's players were looking for a mostly clean tone, which the 1484 with its twin twelve inch speakers provided. The Jackson pedal is more of a drive, or overdrive pedal. While it is a nice addition to a players arsenal,
in my opinion it does not emulate the sound of a Danelectro built Silvertone 1484 Twin Twelve amplifier. However if you need a nice, chimey overdrive sound then you may consider this pedal.
With oversaturation in the industry, and the fact that most amplifiers being manufactured off shore, we can be thankful that some of these vintage Danelectro - Silvertone - Airline amplifiers are still available as used equipment.
