Silvertone "Atomic" Parlor Acoustic Guitar w/ Goldfoil Pickup & Rubber Bridge (1960s, Natural)

THE NASHVILLE RUBBER BRIDGE SOUND: We don't care how they do it in California! 

If you follow my shop at all, you know I have been making the electrified parlors for a while. A while back I started getting repeated (and I mean REPEATED) asks for set ups with rubber bridges. At first I was like "wtf, how would anyone do that?" After some careful research and development, I finally cracked that nut! I now have rubber bridges of my own design.

As you might notice, my design differs from the "Old Style" or "West Coast" rubber bridges. This is on purpose. My first draft of the design was much closer to the Reuben Cox bridge (btw, Reuben, if you read this, big fan of your work and no hard feelings, I hope) but, I was having issues getting that style of bridge to intonate, and honestly, I wanted my design to be it's entirely own thing and it's own unique sound. So, I came up with this design of my own that uses a wooden core saddle to create an intonation point and mimic the shape of the original wooden bridge this guitar would have had. The result is a tone that is still bouncy and "bongish," but not quuuuite as muted as the LA bridge design. You can hear a sample on my Instagram in the Story Archives: @jacksguitarcheology

SIDE NOTE: Contact me if you are looking to just buy a rubber bridge. I am working out tailor made, a la carte bridges.

For sale here is the classic parlor guitar: a Stella. This one was made in the late 1960s, and it is in astounding players condition -- the action is remarkably low for a guitar of this age. This one would have been "Silvertone" branded and bears the "Atomic" Silvertone logo.

The goldfoil addition is a little pet project of mine, I have made probably over a hundred of these at this point. I found these goldfoil pickups online and have been adding them to parlor guitars that still play great. The goldfoil simply clip mounts in the sound hole, and then I added a jack plate on the bottom and wired in a simple volume control. I have been controlling the tone of mine with my pedal board, but they sound pretty good unaffected. Very clear and shimmery. I have sold many of these things, and I keep making them because people seem to love them!

Other than that, all I had to do was reseal the neck joint, shine it up, set the action and change the strings. The tone is wonderfully full and the action is, again, insanely low for a guitar of this age. Plays really comfortably. I really can't think of a single issue or downside. This is a fun example of my electrified parlor -- really digging the rubber bridge sound!

As always I oiled the board, changed the strings, polished the finish and tweaked the set up. This guitar was pictured with traditional bronze strings, but has since been strung up with light gauged flatwounds. These old girls were not meant to handle large amounts of string tension, so getting light gauge strings on your first string change is CRUCIAL. I recommend .10-.50.

As with all of my pre-1980 acoustic guitars without adjustable truss rods, this guitar is being sold "as is" regardless of condition. (See my shop policies for more information.) Comes with a gig bag, and I pack my guitars up tight and insure every package for the full purchase amount.

If you want a good example of what my rubber bridge guitar sounds like, check out the "Rubber Bridge" story archive on my Instagram: @jacksguitarcheology

Got questions? Shoot me a message, I love nerding out with other gearheads!