There is a certain charm that exists in vintage catalog-style guitars that Sears and Montgomery Ward companies distributed. These guitars were branded with the Silvertone and Harmony names. Though these guitars were marketed and intended for beginning guitarists, pro guitarists have come to love the tone these unique instruments provide.

Sears (which was a department store catalogue) owned the name Silvertone but had companies manufacture guitars with the Silvertone name on them. Dan Electro made the most desirable guitars that bore the Silvertone Brand.

Silvertone guitars had tops and backs that were made from Masonite, which is also called pressed fiberboard. The internal frame was made using pine or poplar wood. This led to the guitar being light due to its materials, but also because the body was hollow.

Even within the discussion so far, you can already get the drift that these guitars have a unique sound quality, and we didn't even discuss the hardware or pickups yet.

Interestingly enough, not many builders have elaborated on these catalogue guitar designs over the years. There was Jerry Jones, who made an updated version of Silvertone and Dan Electro guitars, but kept the same look. But why no exploration into other ways to incorporate some of these catalogue guitars’ ingredients into other designs?

This is where Working Class Guitars comes in. Chris Anderson, who is an accomplished touring musician, started to make updated catalogue-inspired guitars. Chris and his wife, music collaborator Rebecca Haviland, have a collection of catalogue guitars. Rebecca favors their sound for their band Whiskey Heart.

Vintage Limitations

The issue with old catalogue guitars in modern times has to do with their build quality. They were cheap guitars. Because of this, the hardware isn’t as reliable as you need for professional use. And the intonation on some of these catalogue guitars can be hard to tame. Plus, many didn’t have truss rods, making it impossible to adjust the neck.

What do you do if you love the sound of Harmony and Silvertone guitars, but need tight intonation, a truss rod, reliable tuners, and better overall construction? You call Chris at Working Class Guitars.

Chris has solved all of these problems. Chris makes catalogue-inspired guitars that are not a collector’s item to hang on a wall. He makes guitars that are intended to be played night after night. He’s listened and worked alongside a lot of great guitar players. He’s worked on many catalog guitars that Rebecca owns and tried to make them more reliable.

Chris is also not afraid to mix and match concepts.

I used one of Chris’ guitars for a few weeks for some sessions and gigs. It was shaped like a Fender Telecaster but had a Masonite Body with a poplar frame. The color of the guitar was a lovely coral reef with a tortoise shell pickguard that was not the traditional Telecaster pickguard shape and cupcake knobs. He calls this model the “Dandy Style”.

All of the guitar bodies are made from scratch at Working Class Guitars. The bodies are cut, contoured, and routed by hand, which, if you’ve never built a guitar, is a lot of work. Chris also hand-finishes the guitars in nitro. Chris sources the necks but dresses the frets and goes over them with a fine-tooth comb. You will find that a lot of builders don’t cut their necks. Many try to hide that fact, but Chris is transparent.

“The bodies are cut, contoured, and routed by hand”

Chris uses high-quality hardware, such as vintage-style tuners, but with staggered posts. I had experienced staggered posts before Chris turned me onto them. Staggered posts are… well, staggered… The posts closest to the nut are lower than the ones further from the nut. This changes the break angle of the string and prevents string breakage. I don’t know how you feel, but this makes me want to upgrade the tuners on all my Fender guitars to staggered.

For this particular guitar, Chris used a Tele vintage style tele bridge with a slightly modern update where the area around the low strings is cut away to allow easier picking and palm muting.

I really liked Chris’ choice to put a Gemini Gold Foil pickups in the neck position. Harmony guitars used to come with gold foil pickups. I have them in my 1960 Harmony Stratotone, and they sound great. The problem with my Stratotone is that the tuning pegs are not easy to adjust, making it difficult to use on gigs. So, for the most part, my Harmony is just a studio guitar.

Chris put a Gemini Suprocaster pickup in the bridge. The Suprocaster idea came from the “Coodercaster” concept, which was Ry Cooder’s idea to use lap steel pickups in the bridge position of his Stratocasters. Lap steel pickups are hot! The Gemini Suprocaster pickups feature powerful ceramic magnets and offer a bell-like tone with a lot of sustain. It’s a great-sounding pickup that excelled at clean and dirty sounds.

The Silvertone guitars made by Dan Electro featured lipstick pickups. Lipstick pickups used surplus lipstick tubes to house the pickup. They also have quite a unique sound. Gemini pickups (which are my fav pickups) made some lipstick pickups for my Dan Electro reissue as I felt the stock pickups lacked a little.

Chris is open to mixing and matching. He knows what works and can offer suggestions on great pairings from his experience. However, he’s also open to modifications.

Sound

Ok, by now you'd like to know what they sound like. Well, they sound great! Although the coral tele looked like a tele, it didn’t sound like any tele I’ve used before. Because of the hollow body, there was “air” around the note. What was different about the air surrounding the note on the Working-Class Catalog Dandy-Style was that it felt more stable than on a catalogue guitar. Often on catalogue-style guitars, there is a bit of a feeling of instability in the bridge. There are times when it may even feel like the string is going to jump from the saddle (and sometimes it does!). The bridge on the coral tele fixed that issue.

There was a chimneyless to the coral Dandy-Style that in some ways was slightly reminiscent of a Rickenbacker. A traditional solid body telecaster has a very direct sound to it. A tele can be a bit of a close talker if ya know what I mean. The sound is straight right to your face. The body material and pickup selections of Chris’ catalog Tele added virtual space.

I used the Working Class Dandy-Style in a variety of situations, from sessions to a gig. I was impressed with how well it worked with a backline amp. I played a gig at St. John the Divine in Harlem, honoring Philippe Petit, who is a French high wire performer best known for walking across the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

I was hired to back an artist. There were a variety of great performers who were part of the event, including Sting. These events move fast, with often minimal time for sound checking. The artist wanted me to play electric guitar for this duo performance. An electric guitar can sometimes sound thin when backing a vocalist in a pop setting.

I found the Working Class Dandy-Style to do an excellent job of meshing with the rented backline amp (a Vox AC15 amp) and giving me more body to the guitar when I used the neck gold foil pickup.

I’m often not a fan of using an electric guitar in pop duo settings unless it’s jazz or fingerstyle. But, I will say the Dandy changed my mind.

“I found the Working Class Dandy-Style to do an excellent job of meshing with the rented backline amp”

I also used the Dandy on a number of sessions with many types of amps, from a Marshall Plexi, Victoria Tweed, and Headstrong Lil King (Princeton style amp). It excelled in all situations. It even worked wonderfully with vintage fuzz circuits such as the Rush Pepbox, Seeker MK1, and Analog Man Sunface.

I threw a lot of sounds at the Dandy and was always satisfied with its unique qualities.

Twelve

I also tested out a Fender-style 12-string guitar Chris made. Jimmy Page used a Fender XII on Stairway to Heaven. Although Jimmy is often pictured playing the double neck Gibson SG, this was more out of practicality for playing the song live rather then re-creating the studio sound.

The double neck SG allowed Jimmy to change between the 12-string parts and the 6-string solo easily.

In the studio, though, the recording was the Fender XII. I’m a big fan of the Rickenbacker 12-string tone. In particular, the tones from the Beatles and Tom Petty. But, I must say that the Fender XII model is more playable. Rickenbacker necks are small, and it can feel cramped trying to finger chords. The string spacing is much more friendly on the Fender XII.

And I think the Fender XII may be more flexible in its tone. The Working Class XII was Lake Placid Blue with Novak Pickups. I was a little upset that I found it more fun to play than my Rickenbacker. Am I going to need another 12-string? We already have three! This is the problem with custom guitars. If you play a good one, you realize what you’re missing.

Chris used a vintage-style four-way selector with an in/out phase option. The wiring on a vintage Fender XII is:

1. Neck pickup only

2. Both pickups in parallel, in phase

3. Bridge pickup only

4. Both pickups in parallel, out of phase (sometimes this position is swapped with series wiring depending on year/production, but “parallel out of phase” is the standard documented in original Fender diagrams.

The bridge pickup on the Working Class XII is a Curtis Novak with Fat Wiring for a thicker tone. Sometimes the bridge pickup on vintage Fender XII can have an icepick quality. The fat wiring gives more body.

The Working Class XII paired well with more amps than my Rickenbacker 360/12. Personally, I don’t love the sound of a Rickenbacker with black panel Fender Amps. I know, I know, Roger McGuinn used a black panel Princeton with the Byrds. It’s just not my favorite combination.

The Working class XII sounded great with the Fender black panel circuit! It has more of a naturally compressed sound than the Rickenbackers, which is probably why I felt it paired better with that circuit.

The Fender XII isn’t as well known as the Rickenbacker, and not many people make copies of that model. I’m glad Working Class has brought it back to life and made a few minor tweaks to improve its performance.

Finish

Chris finishes all of his guitars with nitrocellulose lacquer, also referred to as nitro. All the original Fender and Gibson guitars were finished in nitro. Most modern guitars do not come with a nitro finish. Nitro is bad for the environment. In small amounts, it won’t present too much of an issue, but with a company that mass produces guitars, it could cause environmental problems.

Many modern guitars have a poly finish, which is a protective, glossy coating made from polyurethane or polyester resin. Poly finish is more durable than nitro. Nitro can check, scratch, or chip easily.

If you are a person who polishes your guitar daily and clocks every scratch or nick you have on your guitar, you’re going to prefer poly. It’s hard to keep a nitro guitar in perfect showroom quality if you play it regularly. I don’t mind scratches. The documents of use and experience. With that said, I don’t like when builders heavily relic a guitar. I want to earn the wear. I don’t mind some light wear-in from the builder so that it feels a little more worn in.

If you’re a person who doesn’t mind an aged look and wants an improvement on tone, then nitro is the way to go. Nitro finishes don’t suffocate the wood like poly finishes. I hear a difference. Some say there is no difference, and they may be telling the truth based on their hearing abilities. We don’t all hear the same. If you are a person with refined hearing, you will hear a difference in the resonance of the guitar.

The look and feel of a nitro finish is much nicer. Poly can feel like there is a layer of plastic between you and the wood. I have some 1990s Fender Stratocasters that I love, but I do wish they had a nitro finish. The plastic barrier bothers me.

Colors

Chris offers traditional nitro colors and sunbursts, but also provides some unique colors, such as coral reef, which I mentioned.

Conclusion

I’m a fan of Working-Class guitars not just because I’ve known Chris for a long time and have great respect for his musicianship. But he’s making thoughtful guitars at a price point that is accessible for working musicians. Which is where the name comes from. Usually, it would cost about $1K on top of the cost of a Working-Class guitar to get something of this quality with a nitro finish.

Working class guitars are making high-quality handmade instruments available to all musicians.

Contact Working Class Guitars

Working Class Guitars: Catalog Guitars with a Twist