Silvertone Guitar and amp model 200G

I'll have to keep this one short and sweet because I have to admit I don't remember much about them. One weekend I went to my favorite Sunday swap meet and came across this '60s Silvertone guitar and matching amp. I was actually kind of excited because I thought that maybe the guitar would sound kind of cool and it would become a very interesting guitar for recording or maybe a few songs at a gig. I figured the amp sucked and I was right, but when you come across a set that has been together for that many years you can't break them up. I think that should be a cardinal rule of guitar collecting. So, I forked over the money for both, which I don't remember how much I paid. Since I never take more than $100 to the swap meet I know it was under $100 and I seem to remember it being somewhere around $40 or $50 for both.

I got them home and they both needed a good cleaning. The guitar was missing a couple of knobs but worked just fine and sounded okay. I seem to remember that the action was pretty decent and the amp did work fine. I was right about it sucking though. The sound was terrible. I think we forget about how good the quality of our cheap instruments tends to be these days. If you bought a "student model" or inexpensive brand back in the '60s or '70s you were most likely getting a pretty inferior instrument. And the amps were downright awful for the most part...unless you consider a silverface Vibro Champ a student amp. But if you are talking about a solid state Sears Silvertone 200G, you are talking crap. Think about how truly usable a Squier P-Bass is these days. Or a Jay Turser Strat-style guitar.

I bought my daughter a Squier Affinity Strat for $75 NEW (with a gig bag) and it just plain doesn't suck when it comes down to it.

It's obviously not my choice for guitar of the year and it doesn't have any "vibe," but if you got to a gig and had no choice but to play it, you could survive just fine. Anyway, back to the real story here...the Silvertone. I quickly realized that it was just a guitar to put on eBay and make a little money with. I paired it up and, true to my own rules, sold the guitar and amp as a pair. I have no idea what I sold them for, but I do remember being quite pleased with the outcome. So, the moral of this story is: Sears is not a guitar store.