Brand: SS Stewart
Instrument Categories: Electric, Guitars, SOLD, Solidbody
Here’s a fun bit of history – an SS Stewart Model 44 solidbody electric guitar in metallic Gold finish, from 1955!
SS Stewart was founded in 1878 in Pittsburgh, and became a prominent banjo builder. Stewart died in 1898, and in 1904 his sons sold the company to B&J (Bugellsein & Jacobson). As the markets changed, the company shifted its focus to guitars and other instruments and contracted much of the building work to CMI (Chicago Musical Instruments). CMI also built Harmony, Kay, Silvertone, and Supertone instruments amongst many other smaller brands. Consequently there was a great amount of overlap amongst these brands.
This SS Stewart Model 44 was built around 1955 and is very much like the Harmony StratoTone, which had the same finish. It is a set-neck, single-cutaway, single-pickup design with the body and neck of Alder or Poplar, and Brazilian Rosewood – an extremely common material at the time – for the fingerboard and bridge. The single, single-coil pickup is paired with a volume and tone control plus a tone switch functioning rather like the original Fender Esquire. The neck has a full profile and a long scale of 25.78 inches. As was common at the time, the SS Stewart logo is stenciled to the headstock.
This example is in good working order, and has some non-original parts. The original Rosewood bridge has been replaced with an Aluminum bridge by Bigsby, and the tuners are recent National NRP branded strip tuners with black buttons, likely a significant improvement over the originals. It plays well, and the pickup sounds great.
A Levys gig bag is included with this SS Stewart Model 44.
- Model: Model 44
- Year: 1955 | Approximate year
- Finish Metallic Gold
- Class: Vintage
- Serial Number: N/A, built by Harmony / CMI in Chicago around 1955
- Country of Origin: USA
- Condition: Good
- Date Posted: 20/05/2022
- This instrument has been sold
- Consignment Item
- Including Gig Bag case
- Instrument Weight: 5.676lbs 2.58kg
- Scale Length: 25.78in 655mm
- Nut Width: 1.777in 45.16mm
