mosritian_101's Music Gear Setup

The original vintage Silvertone H604 was built by Harmony Guitars in Chicago or the Chicago Area, and it was a beginner's acoustic at the time, but don't let "Harmony" or "beginner's acoustic" fool you; this was before Harmony were sold and became a name for imports. If you can get one in good shape, it could be a nice guitar.

See, the "Silvertone" name was originally a name that Sears used when they wanted to re-brand items for their store. "Silvertone" isn't a name exclusive to guitars, Sears also put it on Radios, and probably other things, too. In this case, Sears re-branded a guitar built by Harmony.

Guitar and Neck Specs:

24" Scale Length 1 Piece Saddle made out of Fretwire Tailpiece Screwed Down to Guitar Body (it may also be glued on, but I'm not sure.)

Neck Width:

1.735" at Nut, 1.940" at 5th fret, 2.073 at 9th fret, 2.165" at 12th Fret

Neck Depth:

0.950" just behind 1st fret, 0.968 just behind 5th, 1.017 just behind 9th. (Neck Heel Curve starts around this point.)

Other Considerations:

It has no adjustable truss rod, and there's some fret buzz, mostly around and after the 12th fret for the lower 3 strings. The fretboard is either stained to make it look darker, or it's "Ebonized." If it's Ebonized, then it's a bit trickier to refret the guitar without damaging the fretboard.

I don't have any complaints about the narrow fretwire, which is somewhere in the Mandolin fretwire width category. The fretwire height is 0.035" tall.

The tuner holes on my H604 do not have any place for Tuner Bushings, which may cause a few tuning issues. It's easily remedied if you put new tuners with bushings on, unless you want to keep it as original as possible (maybe just to keep in the spirit of the 50s - 60s?)

Guitar Tone:

The body is only about 3 1/4" or 3 3/8" deep, so it's not a very deep bodied Acoustic and it'll have some sound of a smaller guitar. However, since the saddle is a 1 piece Fretwire saddle, it has a bit more treble to it unlike what you'd hear coming from a wooden saddle. I'm not very sure about how to describe comparing tonewood in Acoustics, but I have no complaints about this nice little guitar.

Possible Issues:

1: When I got my 65, its original tuners were replaced. The original tuners might have had plastic knobs on them which could have deteriorated. If you have tuners with knobs that start crumbling on you, you can still buy plastic knobs to melt onto the tuner shafts; check StewMac for it.

2: The Nut Slots were a bit too high when I got it, so I lowered the slots (I have the tools for this; a fret height measuring tool, feeler gauges, and files for the nut slots.)

3: If you're talking about a Vintage Silvertone H604 instead of one of the reissues (which I cannot comment on now,) then the Vintage ones can possibly have their fretboard a bit warped high up on the neck, at the fretboard extension. This is the case with mine, but I don't normally play high up on the neck anyhow.

4: Again on how the Fretboard is Stained or Ebonized (see the "Other Concerns" section above:) This can make a Refret a bit more complicated on this type of guitar than it might for a guitar that has a Rosewood Fretboard.

5: When the original vintage H604 models were built, light string gauges weren't really an option even for Electric Guitars, let alone Acoustic Guitars. This means that vintage examples may have more chances of neck issues, if they were abused.

6: Although I didn't investigate this, I've occasionally heard of someone who owns a vintage H604 and is asking for another Bridge / Tailpiece to install on theirs. I have to wonder why this happened; did the guitar have a thick set of .13s on it for years, and then did the original tailpiece break? Maybe not. Maybe a kid just removed the tailpiece for whatever reason, and lost it.