Tags: 1448, 60's, amp in case, beck, blues, chicago, danelectro, electric, guitar, lipstick pickup, masonite, nathan daniel, rare, recording, sears, sears and roebuck, silvertone, sixties, slide, sparkle, vintage, vinyl sidewalls

This beast is a 4-octave range, dolphin-nosed Silvertone 1444 U1 bass. This one is a 1961 model (I think) because of the lined pickguard.

It’s in mint condition. Super fast playing. You can solo away to your hearts content on this one. Comes with the original hardcase!

The 1444 was the first 4-string bass offered by Sears and was the longest running member of the 4-member Silvertone bass family that started out with the rare, and ahead of its time, 1373 6-string “Baritone” bass in 1958.

Feautures a Dano style U1 body and the famous Dano bridge and the Dano skate key tuner system.

This one sounds really cool, real twangy honky sounding and especially cool with a nice load of ratty distortion.

Tags: 1373 6-string “Baritone” bass, 1444, 4 octave range, 4-string, 60's, bass, blues, chicago, danelectro, dano u1 body, dolphin-nosed, electric, guitar, lipstick pickup, long scale, masonite, nathan daniel, original hardcase, rare, recording, sears, sears and roebuck, silvertone, sixties, skate key tuner, super long-scale, vintage, vinyl sidewalls

This is the guitar that started it all for me. It was the first vintage guitar I ever bought after being the proud minder of a Silvertone Twin Twelve (possibly the greatest sounding guitar amp ever made) for a friend of mine. After hearing that I was convinced this was the way to go so I hunted down a U1.

And I found this little mutant, which was put together by some other slide guitar loving friends of mine in Woodstock Atlanta Georgia. I think this is a modded ’59  as it has the top mounted jack out, and the Georgia lads handmade tele-style bridge and pickguard for her and also added the phat studio style control knobs.

Amazing sounding short scale lipstick tube pickup glory…

The Silvertone 1304 Wishbook model was the only model offered from the Sears & Roebuck “Wish Book” Catalog. This odd changeling was only available for 3 years between 1958 and 1960, with each yearly model having a few subtle differences like a top or side mounted jack, a circular cut-out or metal back panel or a straight or sweep cutaway.

All were a mid-positioned single lipstick (just like the classic 1448), but this was a unique pickup placement for the U1 series family, only available on these models.

This guitar has a coke-bottle headstock, loads of player wear on the neck, plenty of nicks and scratches, a circular back panel cut-out, and a straight cutaway unlike the 1960 version.

Tags: 1304, 50's, 60's, blues, chicago, coke-bottle headstock, danelectro, electric, fifties, guitar, lipstick pickup, masonite, mid-positioned lipstick pickup, nathan daniel, rare, recording, sears, sears and roebuck, silvertone, sixties, slide, u1 body, vintage, vinyl sidewalls