Silvertone 1433, 30w, 15", all tubes

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 12 Sep 2005 9:27 am

I just snagged a 1960 tube Silvertone 1433 (http://cgi.ebay.com/1960-Silvertone-143 ... dZViewItem). It has two 6L6 power tubes and puts out 30 watts, maybe more with its two channels jumpered. With it's 15" Utah speaker, it is similar to a Fender Tweed Pro. It wont be here for about a week. Anyone know what I can expect from this? I have been looking for a small tube amp with a 15 to use for pedal steel with small acoustic jams where I am the only one amplified (except for maybe a bass, no drums). I tried a 35 watt Peavey Delta Blues with a 15, but it was too bright, and I could not get it mellowed out enough. Tweed Pros are going for over $2000, and so are way out of my price range. This Silvertone was made for jazz guitar, and also baritone guitar and even bass. So I'm hoping it will have a mellower tone, with a fuller bottom. If it doesn't work out for pedal steel, it may still be a good blues guitar amp. It has great reviews. These are going for around $300, and the restoration the seller did would probably cost me at least $200 from a local amp wizard, so I figured I got a reasonable price. Anybody out there have any experience with one of these. It sure looks cool.

[Post Edited: see review below] [This message was edited by David Doggett on 28 September 2005 at 08:20 AM.]

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 12 Sep 2005 3:08 pm

David.. I hope your situation is different, but I have had poor luck trying to get a clean sound from an old Silvertone.. had a couple of the 100 watters, and they break up FAST>.. Even faster than my various blackface Bassmans or Supers did.. GREAT amp for blues.. They crunch up sweet and warm.. lots of "tubey goodness' going on! To be fair, I always bought them cheap and never tried getting one all set up/upgraded etc to clean up the sound... The reverb is the WORST I have ever heard on any amp ever,, but they do have a nice "vintage" sound.. Still a decent bargain too... bob

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 13 Sep 2005 3:22 am

I owned one many, many years ago. It wasn't very good. In fact, an old Fender "Princeton" (about 15 watts) blew it out of the water on live gigs.

Might be okay for practice, though, as it did have the "mellow sound" you're looking for.[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 13 September 2005 at 05:49 PM.]

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 13 Sep 2005 6:13 am

Thanks for the opinions, guys. Most of the reviews (all by six-stringers) mention that it has a very full bottom and is very loud. They say it doesn't break up as early as other Silvertones, and that it starts breaking up when the volume is dialed beyond half-way. I figure if it plays clean up to half volume, and is a little more mellow than the Delta Blues, then it may serve for my purpose in the acoustic jams. The size and weight are right. It is 22" x 17 1/2 x 9 1/4, and weighs 38 lbs., which is the smallest and lightest amp I've ever heard of with a 15" speaker. If this turns out good, I'll make another post. To jumper the two channels I just run a guitar cord between an input jack for each channel, right?

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 13 Sep 2005 7:44 am

As I recall, the channels are out-of-phase, so jumpering wouldn't get you any more output (probably a little less), although it would get you some pretty "funky" sounds you couldn't get otherwise. Unless it's mint, that price ($300) sounds high, as there's very little demand for these "store-branded" amps (Silvertone, Trutone, and Airline).

Most of them were made by Harmony, Kay, or Danelectro, but they don't increase in value like the "name-brand" amps.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 13 Sep 2005 8:52 am

You'd be surprised, Donny. This particular amp is considered one of the best of the old Silvertone/Danelectros. $300 is the going rate for unrestored versions. Jack White and other rock stars sometimes play Silvertones and other old budget tubers. Some of the old cheap amps have novel sounds that young players find interesting. And part of the lure for these is that they are accessible in the $30 to $300 range, as opposed to the old Fenders, which are getting into the $3,000 range. And because of the nostalgia thing, a lot of stuff becomes valuable just because it is old, regardless of the fact that it is vastly inferior to modern gear.

The size, weight, potential tube tone, and cost make this a reasonable gamble for me, for this very specific purpose of acoustic jams. The other daydream I have for this purpose is to take a Vibrolux chassis and put it in a small custom cabinet with a 15" speaker. But even beat up silver face Vibroluxes are going for over a thousand, and then you'd have to add the cost of tuning up the amp, and the speaker and custom cabinet.

We'll see how this goes. At the worst I could end up with an interesting blues amp with some character. I started playing in bands around 1959 or '60, and these old budget amps were what most guys had then.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 13 Sep 2005 5:02 pm

David, this exact amp was my first "big" guitar amp. I played straight guitar through it in the '60s when I was playing rock, and only kept it for about 6 months. It may be okay for practice, on acoustic gigs, or if you mike it, IMHO. The amp will serve you well if you don't expect too much of it. I expected mine to keep up with a much smaller Fender amp. Frankly, it wouldn't.

I hope you like it, and I hope it does all you want, but keep in mind that e-bay always has many small tube amps in the $300 price range, many more desirable than this one.

I thought you posted to get opinions, and that's what I gave you.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 13 Sep 2005 6:45 pm

Expect a blues guitar amp. That is the main interest in these old Silvertone amps--cool factor and distortion.

I played a single 12 silvertone amp for years and made some good money with it for a 10 year old kid in a garage band in the very early sixties.

Nice looking amp.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 14 Sep 2005 5:07 am

Thanks, Donny and Bill. Donny, your opinion is exactly what I wanted. So far you are the only one with real experience with this exact model. Like you and Bob, I don't remember old Sears Silvertone products as being very good. But occassionally they had something that was decent for the money, almost by luck. The 1433 has rave reviews, and the specs just fit the niche I wanted, so I thought I'd take a gamble. Supposedly the 1432, the little brother of this one, with a 12" speaker, is sought out by bues harp players for its tone. The 1433 (same as the Danelectro Challenger) was meant as a jazz amp, and I can imagine it didn't compare well with the small Fenders of the same period for rock'n'roll. Those small Fenders really have cajones. The leader of my rockabilly band plays a Gretsch through a Tweed Deluxe. Of course he dimes it, and that little sucker is very loud for him. He also runs an Echoplex in front of it, and that boosts it some. I had to get a Super Twin Reverb to keep up on pedal steel. All I want this Silvertone to do is to play reasonably clean up to half its volume, and to have good bottom and a mellow tone. That should do for my acoustic jams. I don't have any expectations or need for it for actual gigs. I'll report back how it works out.

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 14 Sep 2005 4:08 pm

Good luck Dave.. It will sound great.. warm and sweet... It should be ok for what you plan to use it for... I guess I was thinking you wanted to push it a little harder than you stated.. low volume should be fine... bob

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 14 Sep 2005 4:41 pm

I had one of these in the shop about 8-9 years ago. It was a cool amp - I could have had it cheap, but I sold it.

The one we had was more comparable to a Supro Thunderbolt than a Tweed Pro, but that was reputedly the sound of Jimmy Page on the first two Zeppelin albums - Tele + Supro Thunderbolt, a very good sound. I've owned a few Thunderbolts over the years, made by Valco. Tremendous for screaming slide guitar.

This might be cool for lap steel or a more retro Western Swing sound. I doubt this would be clean enough sounding to get my regular pedal steel sound at any volume - these amps are voiced with a lot more midrange. No reverb, just tremelo, but I never cared for the the reverb on Dano/Silvertone/Supro etc., anyway.

Now one thing that might be different on this one - it's apparently been completely restored. I have sometimes found that doing a restoration with modern parts really cleans up the sound. Not everybody likes that, but I do. Also, if it's way too dirty sounding, it's possible to go inside and tweak the tone controls, add some negative feedback, etc., to cut some of that midrange back and clean the sound up.

These amps sure do look cool, and always are cool for blues guitar, that's for sure. Enjoy.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 28 Sep 2005 8:07 am

Well, I finally got this amp in my hands. To review, it is 38 lbs., has a 15" speaker, uses two 6L6GCs for power, has tremolo, no reverb, and separate instrument (3 input jacks) and vocal channels (one input jack). The instrument channel has a bass and treble tone control; the vocal channel has a single tone control. It seems like it is putting out about 20 watts.

As predicted by others above, it is a fantastic little blues guitar amp, and would be great for blues harp. It would be a great lap steel amp for vintage tone. I can see why Donny was not happy with is as a guitar rock'n'roll amp in the '60s. It has very soft crunch, breaks up at half volume, and just doesn't have the cajones of the Fender Tweeds of the the same era.

For pedal steel, it is not very loud, but I think it will do for me as a small, lightweight tube amp for acoustic rehearsals and jams, where I am the only one amplified, and there is no PA, which is what I bought it for. It is really fun to play. With my Zum uni, Truetone pickup, and Hilton pedal, I get my best sound with the volume all the way up, bass all the way up, and treble at about 8 o'clock (between zero and the first of 6 dots)). (For reference, I set my Dual Showman with 15" speaker at bass 3, mid, 8, treble 3, bright off; and I set a Peavey NV 400 with bass at 2 o'clock, mid at 12 o'clock, and treble at 10 o'clock.) At low volume it has a very warm and harmonious tubey sound, almost like playing with chorus. When you get down on the volume pedal for blues or rock, it has great sounding distortion that is sensitive to the touch. The 15" Utah speaker is what really makes it work for steel. Even though it is quiet, it has a fat-bottom, mellow sound, that I can never get from small amps with 12" speakers. It gives me the lowest strings on my uni with no earlier breakup than the mids and highs. I bridged the two channels, which gives it slight volume boost, but not much.

I like it much better than my Peavey Delta Blues, which is louder, but much bigger and heavier, and too bright and harsh. This Silvertone is just much more warm and mellow, and the distortion is much sweeter. I also like it better than my Music Man RD112. The MM is about the same size, but much heavier (the Silvertone is 22"x17"x10"). The MM is 100 watts, which is more than I need for a small amp. But the MM combination of solid state preamp and 12" speaker just sounds harder and colder.

I think this Silvertone will work great for my acoustic rehearsals and jams. But someday I still want to pursue my ultimate small tube amp project - to build a custom cabinet for a silver-face Vibrolux chassis with a 15" speaker.[This message was edited by David Doggett on 28 September 2005 at 12:00 PM.]

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 28 Sep 2005 8:14 am

I forgot to mention, this amp has new orange drop caps and other parts and tubes replaced where needed. It has the original Silvertone power tubes. The amp has a noticeable hiss whenever a signal comes through. I'm looking for suggestions on what causes that, and how to eliminate it. But I will submit a separate post on that.