I had recently changed a picture on Facebook to a Silvertone Apocalypse and Vic had asked me to talk about these guitars a little bit. I have a total of 5 different Silvertone Guitars in my collection and it is fair to say that the ones that I have either are or started out as very inexpensive guitars. I have an old 1960's Silvertone Acoustic Guitar that I got from my brother that was my 1st guitar that I essentially destroyed as a teenager trying to modify it and make it play more like an electric guitar LOL

I also have a Sovereign Pro. This I think could be a very nice guitar whenever I get around to having the frets leveled so that I can get the action set to it's full potential and perhaps put a hotter pick up in the bridge position. It doesn't suck but the one that I have has never been worked on by my luthier to make it as good as it can be. This model is a neck through model and the neck has a reasonably nice shape and feel. The inlays are a cheap pearloid but they are smooth and don't feel bad.



I have 1 Apocalypse Special Custom and 1 Apocalypse Pro
These guitars are real easy on the eyes and the one on the left side of the picture below has an interesting history. At least to me It started life as one of those entry level and much less expensive Black and Red Specials with the dot inlayed fret board but was heavily modified by a luthier in Oregon called Kamn Guitars that specializes in custom glass mirrored body inlayed work. BTW this particular guitar has a "C Shaped" bolt on neck. So to start with the fret board was replaced with an Ebony Board with Abalone and Mother of Pearl Combo inlays similar to what Paul has on some of his higher end guitars. The top of the guitars body was routed out and then real glass mirror was inlayed into the top of the guitars body. Kamn Guitars does very nice custom work if anybody is into this type of stuff.
http://www.kamnguitars.com/

This guitar is heavy with all the glass mirror on it and it plays OK but is not my favorite but looks superb in person.

The Apocalypse on the right side is a standard higher end factory model and I like the way this guitar feels and plays. This guitar is much lighter because the Silvertone Factory installs plastic mirror on these models. The plastic mirror unfortunately wears however and over time develops blemishes and doesn't look near as good as the real glass mirror.




and 1 Monarch

This guitar was a limited production and I've read that only 3 or 400 were made if that is true. This model is a bolt on neck Les Paul variation guitar that evolved into the Washburn Preacher Guitar Paul Stanley played on his Live To Win Tour. I would normally turn my nose up at the thought of a bolt on neck Les Paul but this is a surprisingly good little and inexpensive guitar. Out of the box I fiddled with the action and was able to get the strings very low without any buzz so the frets were pretty level straight from the factory which is rare for an inexpensive guitar. I really like this guitar and think that it was a huge value for what I paid for it.

In general my experience with the Silvertone's have been mixed but I think that for those that are willing to put some work into them they can be real nice guitars for not a lot of money. The key thing to this is having a relationship with a luthier that you trust to work on your guitars without charging you an arm and a leg.



Kev

Thanks Kev, I hear you on having a good luthier on standby as I am pretty particular when it comes to the action on my playing guitars, so I'm used to having guitars worked on to achieve this.

I didn't know that The Preacher was based on a Silverstone guitar, is that correct? Paul had a guitar like this in the mid 90's, before the reunion took place? Was that a Washburn Preacher?

Real mirror inlays is pretty kick ass, I like that the plastic ones are lighter, but it sucks they wear badly, that's not very cool.

You know that is funny that you mention that and I believe that you are correct. Rick Schobel provided a video for one of the songs off Revenge that would have been in the mid 1990's that showed him playing a Washburn Preacher.

IMO - This was a one off guitar at the time and wasn't produced as run until Silvertone made either 50 of them or 400 depending on who you believe? Washburn officially started making this guitar in various levels of quality in 2007.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?m ... emID=84715

From Wiki:

Notable instruments
Ibanez PS10 and Destroyer (late 1970s and early 1980s, Mid 1990s)
Washburn Signature Models (Mid-late 1990s and present)
Silvertone Signature Models (Mid-2000s)
BC Rich Guitars (1980s and Early 1990s)
Gibson Flying V(mid 1970s),
Gibson Explorer(late 1970s)
Randall Amplifiers (1990s – 2010)
Engl Amplifiers (Since 2010)

The video was "Domino" from Revenge. That was probably made in 1992.
There was also a magazine called "Guitar School" that had an article about kiss where Paul was holding the Ibanez version of this guitar.

btw,according to Ed Roman, Paul stanley's own silvertone used on stage was ghostbuilt by a luthier:

http://www.edroman.com/detail_sheets/si ... _d289.html

Rick, Ibanez made a Monarch as well? Wow.

I'm learning a lot here

Great Post Kev and again awesome Guitar collection. Love the stories that go with each of these instruments
Thanks for sharing !

Indeed. Great post!

I have the set neck Silvertone Apocalypse in the black and red, i like it...its a keeper.

i like - way better than a tommy Thayer les paul spaceman

Very nice collection !

Beauty Kiss Trooper!