Silvertone 1412 Revival

[Tiga]

I picked up a Silvertone 1412 a couple weeks ago. When I brought the 1412 home it was just covered in grime and I could barely get any sound out of it. Just about every screw or nut is stripped, corroded, or both. The tuners were mismatched and essentially non-functional. I spent some time removing the tuners and giving the whole guitar a good cleaning. Decades of grime - yuck.

Finally got the pickguard off by removing (or drilling out) the mismatched and stripped/corroded screws. I gave all the switches and pots a deoxit bath and did a little cleaning of the jack and it seems I'm getting signal out of both pickups - win! I have the pickup screws and the jack nut soaking in some penetrating oil so hopefully I can get those to turn as they are currently stuck. I'm looking to order a replacement vibrato but I noticed some of those screws are stripped - soaking them too. What a project!

I've noticed the two slider switches, although they seem to work, are very loose in their movement. They don't "click" like they do on my Jaguar. Any thoughts on this - is this typical with switches of this age? Can something be adjusted inside or should I think of new switches? The other thing I've noticed with these switches in there is a red wire that is connected to both of them (see pic). Although it doesn't look like this wire is soldered - but sandwiched between the switch plate and the pickguard? Any thoughts what this is for and is it needed? (was this to help with ground?) Also the white wire is soldered to the screw end - I'm not an expert in wiring but this doesn't seem right - Thoughts?

Thanks!

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[bodhi]

A slide switch might well wear out over time, enough so that the latching part doesn't really feel snug any more. They might work, but might f.e. not stay put properly... From what I can tell from the pictures, it doesn't look like they're anything particularly obscure or anything, so you could probably just get new replacements if needed.

Regarding the red wire, that doesn't have a function in this set up... The only reason I can think of would be to connect a ground to another area where it's not connected, but the switch body doesn't need to be grounded in the first place, won't be just based on some lug connected to a grounded wire, and the pickguard itself isn't conductive since it's plastic... With the white wire that might be the idea, but there's no real point. If you want to improve EMI resistance, the pickguard and the cavities should be shielded. Just grounding switch bodies while not doing other things doesn't have a meaningful impact.

[Tiga]

Good thoughts - looking at replacement switches now and when I replace I'll probably just eliminate these extra ground wires. Can always reinstall later.

[Tiga]

A little more progress. The bridge was a mess as it was so gunked up that most of the saddle adjustment screws would not turn. One of the screws was missing and replaced with a cotter pin (ugh). So I hit everything with some penetrating oil to get everything moving. Then removed the cotter pin and the rest of screws and wiped them down and soaked them and the saddles in vinegar for a day. They cleaned up pretty well. Found a replacement screw and everything is functioning again.

[Tiga]

The frets on this thing were all over the place. Working on getting them somewhat leveled and crowned.

[Tiga]

New tuners installed - Dopro brand from Amazon - only $22 but they are actually pretty good.

[Tiga]

Installed a new replacement vibrato arm tonight. Seems to be working well. The vibrato reminds me of a Jag/JM vibrato but with an even softer feel. Very little effort to get it moving - but I like it. Someone replaced the nut on this thing with a left handed nut installed backwards. I had a LP graphtech nut in my parts bin that I put in for now, but the string spacing is a little wide. Have a new nut on order. It's slowly coming together.

[Steadyriot.]

That's a nice project!
Good to see these rather unpopular guitars still getting some TLC.

[Tiga]

Thanks - it's actually becoming quite playable. Still a lot to do though.

[Pacreamer]

Nice! Love this style of Silvertone

[Tiga]

I like it too, kind of like a strat/mosrite morph. The body shape coupled with the beefy neck and shorter scale make it very comfortable to play.

[Tiga]

Got the new nut installed and it's an improvement. Some of the frets don't make it to the end of the fretboard so the narrower string spacing of the nut really helps. Next steps are to dowel each pickguard screw hole and redrill and install new screws. Also need to dismantle the switches and see if they are repairable or replaceable. The nut on the input jack is fused in place. I've been hitting it with penetrating oil but it's still not coming loose. The whole jack is turning. I'm going to try to heat it up with a soldering iron and see if it breaks free - need to be careful to not damage the pickguard. The jack is currently working so I'm a little tempted to just leave it. I also want to reverse the saddles on the bridge so the intonation screws face toward the neck.

I might also do some shielding. Then it's more cleaning and new knobs. (I'd love to replace the frets at some point). Whew.

I will say that the fretwork I did really improved the playability of the guitar. I like the chunky neck with the shorter scale and light weight. It's pretty cool actually.