Dead Mint '65 Silvertone 1482 - Poor man's Tweed Deluxe

  • Thread starter Thread starter Riffraff
  • Start date Start date
Riffraff

Riffraff

Active member
This summer I was on the hunt for a Deluxe Reverb. I was searching Craigslist night & day hoping to see one come up. I just missed a silver face version nearby selling for a ridiculously low $200. I spotted it right away but the seller didn't list a phone number. I emailed immediately but someone else still managed to beat me to the punch. I was on fire trying to find another and began constantly searching. My persistance paid off, one morning I came across a listing for a Silvertone 1482. Lucky for me it was listed in the electronics section so it was missed by all the vintage amp hounds. I wasn't familiar with the model but had heard that the old tube Silvertone amps had some major mojo. I did a quick search to find out what it was and discovered that it was Danelectro's take on a '50s Tweed Deluxe...dual 6V6 powered, 15 watt, tube rectified with a tube driven tremolo. It seemed to be basically the same thing that I was looking for so I contacted the seller. He told me he had found it while cleaning out the home of a relative that had passed away. He said it was in a spare bedroom that was used as a storage area. He said he grabbed a box thinking he could use it to pack and found the amp inside it. I told him I was very interested and would be by in the morning to see it. What I found when I got there was even more than I hoped for.

This is the box he was talking about.

Silvertonebox.jpg

boxlabel.jpg


How often do you see a vintage piece of equipment in it's original packaging? I never have up until this point.
The amp looks like new. I have to keep reminding myself it's 46 years old.

1482front.jpg

Goingin.jpg


Point to point wired......

DSCN2363.jpg


....with pride, I wonder where "JB" is today.

Signatures.jpg


Fresh Silvertone labeled RCAs throughout

RCAtubes.jpg


It sounds just as good as it looks too. Here are some clips of it.







The amp basically sat in it's original box for the last 46 years. It's definitely not something you find very often. The TV style box is so different and cool looking and the amp sounds amazing. It's dead quiet and as punchy and alive sounding as a brand new amp. It's the perfect little backseat jam amp. It's got two channels too. That last clip was with them jumpered....crazy huh? I’ve got to say, I'm REALLY enjoying it.
 
nice score! hard to believe it was still in the original box. when i first started playing my friend's dad had a 1484. we tried to blow it up. it had four inputs.. so we put a jack in every one and cranked it all the way up. :D never even phased the amp. congrats! :thumbsup:
 
$375. I was going to try to offer him a little less than his asking price but couldn't contain the grin on my face when I plugged into it. All negotiating went right out the window from that point on. Besides I'm pretty sure I could easily double my money on it if not more. It's like it was in a time capsule.
 
amazing find, in a ridiculously awesome condition, grats, looks great too

did it make this kind of sound on opening the box? =)

 
What a great score...it looks brand new! I had a similarly nice (not quite as clean as this, but near mint) Silvertone 1484 (Twin Twelve) back in the 90's that sounded great except for the reverb, which sounded like something from a 50's sci-fi flick. I ultimately sold it in '06 to a studio in CA that "had to have it", but I wish that I'd kept it...great little amps.
 
Awesome score...... Just the NOS tubes are probably worth near $375.

I probably wouldn't mess with the Electrolytic caps, but I would put on a 3 prong power cord and remove the death cap....
 
Clean or crunchy this thing rocks. I'm very happy with it.

 
What a cool find! That original box is the icing on the cake. Congrats on a sweet purchase.
 
Yeah I think so too. I bought it to do a little country duty which it does nicely.



But it turns out it's pretty good at all those little amp rock tones too. I love it's on the edge of break up tones. It's got great touch sensitivity.

 
The Silvertone sounds great. Are all the clips of the amps natural gain or are you using a pedal in a few? However you are doing it, I love the distortion and crunch tones, they sound great.... :)
 
My brother has 2 Silvertones - great frickin amps! Nice score, that is a super rare find!

BTW if any amp tech reads this - one of my brother's Silvertones died and needs repair. Local tech couldn't figure it out so looking for someone who knows these things well for a repair. PM please.
 
jaybird":3slrv0of said:
My brother has 2 Silvertones - great frickin amps! Nice score, that is a super rare find!

BTW if any amp tech reads this - one of my brother's Silvertones died and needs repair. Local tech couldn't figure it out so looking for someone who knows these things well for a repair. PM please.
Click to expand...

Not sure where you are located, but I have had good experience with Skip Simmons repairing my Masco. Silvertones are in his list of amps he has repaired. http://www.skipsimmonsamps.com/benchnotes.html
 
blackba":3lv106de said:
The Silvertone sounds great. Are all the clips of the amps natural gain or are you using a pedal in a few? However you are doing it, I love the distortion and crunch tones, they sound great.... :)
Click to expand...

I just used a M108 EQ to brighten it's naturally dark tone on the clean clips, used a SD1 set clean with it's volume up on the Foo Fighters and Aerosmith clips and used the compressor side of a Route 66 set as a clean boost on the Voodoo clip. I pretty much always run my OD pedals with their volume cranked up high and their gain on zero or just a hair above so they push the amp for more tube gain instead of adding pedal gain. The 1482 actually has a lot of gain when you crank it like a Tweed Deluxe since that's basically what it is but I only had the amp around 4 on most of these. It's got 46 year old electrolytics in it and I was a little nervous about pushing too hard. The only one I ran it higher on was the jumpered & boosted clip. It has amazing 6V6 crunch when you boost it. I tried all kinds of stuff with it and it loves pedals. I got a few fuzz clips and even a clip using a modded MT2 thats more like an aggressive OD pedal than the nasty nasal sounding distortion it is in it's stock form. It actually sounds pretty cool pushing this amp. I've never really liked it with anything else.

Here are a few. Excuse the background noise on the beginning of first two. It's not the amp it's the fan in an electric heater that I should have turned off before recording the clip. :bash:



Here are a few fuzz clips. The first one has real nice lead tone kicking in from 1:10 to 1:50 on the vid. The second is a SD1 stacked with a Musket into the 1482 for classic Sabbath tone. I used an Ibanez RG520QSB for this one and the humbuckers give a completely different tone with the fuzz. This clip would sound huge with a bass filling in the bottom.





This amp has got a lot to offer in the tone department and can cover a lot of sonic landscape with just a few pedals. It's a great little jam and recording amp.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top