Dating a Silvertone 1352/H61

[Robert Thompson]

Hi -  My GF just bought a killer Silvertone 1352. If I understand correctly, this was made by Harmony for Sears and is the same as the Harmony branded H61. It also seems these were discontinued in 1959, but I'm not sure. This has a 'speedbump' P13 pickup with a red colored pickup mounting ring. According to the seller this dates it earlier than examples with a black pickup mounting ring. But check out the photo of the serial#, it appears to be 3664H61. I interpret this to mean "An H61 model built in the 36th week of 1964". Which makes no sense if these were discontinued in '59.  Also, examples of this model I've seen online from 58 and 59 have the blockier Silvertone script on the headstock without the cool line graphic underneath. The 3rd digit of the serial# can kinda sorta be read as a 5 with some of the ink missing, which would make this a '54 and make sense, but really it looks like a 6. Anyone know how to date this definitively? Thanks!!

[Randy Holmes]

There should be a date stamp inside, too. It'll be in the form of F-XX or S-XX with XX being the year, and F or S meaning First or Second half of the year. The 3664 is the Harmony serialized number.

The logo on yours one dates it earlier, as the last 1352 models had the 'thick script' logo as well as the tortoise pickup ring.Some examples of the 'deco logo' variation also have the tortoise pickup ring. Probably transitional as they moved from one logo style to another.

 

Here are some catalog listings, the first is the first appearance in late 1952:

And the last in Spring/Summer 1959:

The logo style  illustration changed over in Fall/Winter '58 catalog.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Robert Thompson]

Wow Randy yes that helps a ton thanks!! I will look for the date stamp. I had read somewhere the date was encoded in that four digit string, really good to know that is incorrect. And thanks for the cool catalog pages. Are the catalogs around online somewhere?

Rob