Silvertone (4)

(The instrument above is a Silvertone Model 1421, dated 1962.  It is very similar to the Harmony Model H46 – (B0373, photo courtesy Mike and Mike’s Guitar Bar, Seattle)

Silvertone was the brand name used by Sears, Roebuck & Company for its line of sound equipment and music products from about 1915 to 1972.  Along with a number of other manufacturers, CMI/Harmony produced a range of instruments branded Silvertone for Sears Roebuck. DeArmond pickups were fitted in some of these instruments.mnt above is a Silvertone H44 Stratotone, 1954,

DeArmond also manufactured a number of attachable pickups branded Silvertone.  These assemblies used 1 or 2 plain chrome Hershey Bar pickups, riveted to a steel bracket that enabled the pickup(s) to slide along a bar.  This provided some tonal variation.  The assembly also incorporated volume and tone controllers for each pickup. The catalog numbers for these two items changed over the years.

D-grille pickup:

One pickup design, referred to as the ‘D-grille” (for diamond), comprises a bar pickup with several fixing options:  riveted to a pickguard, riveted to a metal bezel, woodscrew-fixed directly to an instrument’s body or through a hardwood bezel the same size as the pickup itself, manufactured in a range of heights.  The metal bezel was manufactured either flat, or with dimples in a variety of heights to suit the particular instrument.

The insert in the pickup’s  front face came in a silver or gold foil finish or less frequently, in a range of colors.