Brief History of Danelectro/Sear Silvertone
Before “Nathan Daniel” started the Danelectro company in 1947, he made amplifiers for Epiphone from 1934 to 1946. Epiphone wanted Daniel to make amps for them exclusively, but he preferred to stay independent. Instead he founded the Danelectro company in 1947 and started making amplifiers for Montgomery Ward. By 1948 Daniel expanded and became the exclusive guitar amplifier producer for Sears & Roebuck.
In the fall of 1954, Daniel started production of solidbody guitars for Sears, under the Silvertone name.
At the time, Danelectro sold about 85% of its products to Sears.
Also all Silvertones and Danelectro instruments were made entirely in the U.S.
In 1969 MCA closed the Danelectro plant. At this time, Dan Armstrong bought most of the remaining parts, and continued manufacturing Danelectros through Ampeg. These instruments had single cutaway bodies with one humbucking pickup (not lipstick tube pickups), and no brand name on the peghead. Apparently Ampeg was having problems with the production of the see-thru Dan Armstrong guitars. In the interium, Armstrong sold the remaining Danelectros through Ampeg until the Dan Armstrong guitars were fully available.
Peghead Shapes:
The illustration shows the different peghead shapes used on Danelectro, Silvertone and Coral models through much of their history.
