Silvertone is a brand created and promoted by Sears for its line of consumer electronics and musical instruments from 1916 to 1972. The rights to the Silvertone brand were purchased by South Korean corporation Samick Music in 2001. Samick made new musical instruments under the Silvertone brand and relaunched some historic models. In 2020, RBI Music was appointed the exclusive worldwide distributor of the Silvertone brand. Musical instruments under the Silvertone name are electric and acoustic guitars, basses and ukuleles. History Beginnings The Silvertone brand was introduced by Sears in 1916 with the hand-cranked model 1 phonograph. Beginning in the 1920s, the brand was expanded to include Silvertone radios and again expanded in the 1930s to musical instruments, superseding the previously-used Oxford branding. In the early 1920s Sears began selling Silvertone radio tubes and batteries, although Silvertone radios decreased in popularity during late 1930s. During World War II, Sears introduced the Silvertone radio antenna for their radio receivers. Musical instruments Silvertone guitars became popular with novice musicians due to their low cost and wide availability in Sears stores and the Sears catalog. The Canadian band Chad Allan and The Silvertones (later The Guess Who) took its name from this line of instruments. Silvertone instruments and amplifiers were manufactured by various companies, including Danelectro, Valco, Harmony, Thomas, Kay and Teisco. The guitars, especially the 1960s models, are frequently prized by collectors today. Two of the best-known Silvertone offerings are the Danelectro-built Silvertone 1448 and 1449, made in the early to mid-1960s. The 1448 had a single lipstick pickup, while the 1449 was equipped with a two-pickup configuration, and was succeeded in 1964 by the 1457 model. These guitars' cases had a small built-in amplifier, and the guitars themselves had very short-scale 18-fret necks, which proved popular with beginners. Similarly the Silvertone 1484 "Twin Twelve" 60 Watt guitar amplifier, introduced in 1963 as an affordable beginner's amp, has gained a collectors' following, since artists like Jack White, Beck, Coldplay, and others have been known to use it. Sears also sold a number of non-stringed instruments under the Silvertone name, such as electronic organs and chord organs manufactured by the Thomas Organ Company, and harmonicas made by the Wm. Kratt Company. Samick rebrand Rights to the Silvertone brand were purchased by Samick Music Corporation in 2001. In 2013 Samick released the Silvertone Classic series, reissues of Silvertone electrics. The first two models released