“It can get downright vicious.” We review the Silvertone 1446 semihollow and find a mid-priced steal that’s more than a handsome rocker

Although the original Silvertone 1446 hollowbody electric was born in the early 1960s, these days you’ll often hear the instrument referred to as “the Chris Isaak guitar.” That’s on account of the fact that the retro crooner cradled one in publicity photos around the same time his moody “Wicked Game” became a huge radio hit in 1990. (Incidentally, the tune’s lilting guitar lines were played by lead guitarist James Calvin Wilsey on a Fender Stratocaster.)

Regardless of your familiarity with (or affinity for) Isaak, old Harmony and Silvertone guitars have long been a more accessible entry point to the vintage guitar market than more prominent names, partially because they feature construction details some players, rightly or not, consider cost-cutting compromises. For example, Silvertones typically had three-bolt neck joints rather than the set-neck construction found on more expensive Gibson and Gretsch instruments of the era.

The latter was true of the original Silvertone 1446, which was built by the Chicago-based Harmony Guitar Company and sold in Sears catalogs and department stores, yet it was still considered a top-of-the-line instrument. Beyond its swanky looks — including distinctive hexagonal pickup surrounds and diamond-shaped selector plate — the vintage 1446 also boasted characterful mini humbuckers designed by Gibson pickup pioneer Seth Lover, creator of the legendary PAF (Patent Applied For) humbuckers in highly sought-after Les Pauls and SGs.

The Silvertone brand has changed hands a few times, most recently in 2020, when Texas-based RBI Music bought rights from Korean manufacturer Samick. With the launch of the 1446 seen here, RBI offers a modernized instrument that mates iconic visuals of yore with set-neck construction and a semi-hollow rather than a hollow body.

In place of the 24-inch-scale original’s wood bridge mounted to a “floating” wood foot, the 24 3/4-inch-scale reissue has a center-block-anchored, Tune-o-matic-type bridge with roller saddles meant to offer more stable tuning and smoother action with the Bigsby B70 vibrato. (Trapeze-tailpiece versions are also available in Gloss Black and Tobacco Sunburst.)

The pickups feature sharp-looking brushed-steel covers and surrounds that look pretty much identical to the originals. At the other end of the 12-inch-radius rosewood fretboard, Waverly-style open-gear tuners look equally elegant. The instrument streets for $999 sans case and is made in China.

RBI says the Alnico 5 magnet mini-humbuckers were designed by Trev Wilkinson and are “exacting era-specific recreations inspired by the rare original P19 pickups.” To my ear, they sound hotter than one would expect from a vintage guitar from the early ’60s. Particularly the bridge pickup.

Plugged in to an edge-of-breakup vintage Supro-style combo amp, in addition to silver-panel Fender combos, our test 1446 proved surprisingly toothsome and plenty bright with the treble pickup soloed and full-up. Pushed to varying degrees with a J. Rockett Archer and a Catalinbread Skewer treble booster, it can get downright vicious. Not metal vicious by any means, but certainly more ripping than some might anticipate from the guitar’s sophisticated old-school looks.

Even so, notes remained clear and well defined. What’s more, backing off the bridge pickup’s volume knob a quarter of the way and dialing the tone back perhaps two-thirds availed a balance of bite and responsiveness that felt more in keeping with the model’s sonic roots.

The neck pickup sounds a bit more polished, but still clear and assertive. Capable of both muscular corpulence and chimey detail, the neck ’bucker had me working knobs less, too. Either soloed or in tandem with the bridge pickup, it yielded a range of vibes from jazzy to soulful/rootsy and chukka-chukka reggae-ready. In fact, brighter bridge-pickup settings were quite useful in expanding the range of dual-pickup tones, even into quasi-Strat-like territories.

For funsies, I compared the 1446 to both my recent-make Gretsch Broadkaster (a semi-hollowbody with Filter’Tron-style pickups) and a Guild X-175 Manhattan hollowbody with authentic old Franz-style “soapbar” pickups. The R pickups out-muscled both. And, of course, the 1446 handled high volumes much better than the Guild — even with a bunch of Auralex foam stuffed inside it.

Conclusion

I’ve long been interested in original Silvertone 1446s, but have never had the opportunity to play one. However, with the plethora of construction departures on this new iteration, it’s safe to say an A/B test with a vintage specimen would be an apples-to-oranges aural affair. Watching videos of original 1446s, one immediately discerns a sense of hollow earthiness that is no doubt inextricably linked to its bolt-on neck design, among other things.

The new 1446, with its set neck and center block — which spans the entire length of the body, splitting it into two smaller sound chambers rather than a large one — was clearly intended to be a handsome rocker. And that it is.

But it’s also much, much more than that. Vintage nitpickery aside, it constitutes a fantastic alternative to the usual semi-hollowbody options — especially at this price point. At $999 street, it is a mid-priced steal, on par in every way and then some with competing options from Gretsch, Guild, Ibanez, Epiphone and others.

SPECIFICATIONS

CONTACT silvertoneguitars.com

PRICE $999 street

BODY Arched maple-laminate semi-hollowbody with center block,

PICKUPS Wilkinson R-Series mini humbuckers

SCALE 24 3/4"

NECK Soft C-shaped mahogany with 12"-radius rosewood fretboard and pearloid block inlays and 20 Silvertone “Easy Feel” ball-end frets

CONTROLS Two Volume and two tone knobs with vintage-style “cupcake” knobs, 3-way pickup selector

HARDWARE Bigsby B70 vibrato, Tune-o-matic-style bridge with roller saddles, single-ply cream pickguard, chrome hardware

FINISH Gloss Black

ASSEMBLED China

PRO Nice setup with smooth, comfortable frets. Versatile, quality pickups by Trev Wilkinson. Modernized center-block and set-neck construction facilitate high-volume friendliness and more sustain than a vintage 1446

CON Departures from original hollowbody and bolt-on construction make this more of a visual tribute than a bona fide reissue. Vibrato bar slightly loose