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[Christopher K.]

I bought a Supertone Milano PA on Ebay (couldn't resist the price!). I'll post more pics when it arrives and I crack it open. There's also a white one currently available from another seller.  

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=280593249995&si=hSF%252BZUwwhO6EUDkLvmdDJjhZefA%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

I was under the impression that Supertone was a Sears & Roebuck brand, and that Sears sourced their Supertone stuff from various factories including Hohner. Last year I nearly won the auction of a Supertone 'Milano' diatonic that had all the right Hohner markings but the name. This PA intrigued me: the cabinet resembles a Hohner Carmen or something similar, and it has Hohner-looking bellows, but the grille looks more like things I've from seen from Klingenthal. I'm guessing 1960s.

I can't wait till it gets here, frozen and everything. Has anyone ever bought a Supertone PA?  

[Don Roberts]

Interesting looking box, more like Italian made, but earlier than 50's I'd say. Well if nothing else it will make a conversation piece.

[RGF]

Not positive, but I think the Sears-branded ones carried the name "Silvertone".

Bob

[Bill Young]

. . . I'm guessing 1960s.

Not likely as late as that. Looks pre-WW2 (1939).

[Theo]

I think the same as Bill about age,  most definitely 30's styling.

[HallelujahAl]

CP that looks great! And at a great price too - I'm inclined to agree with Bill, it looks at least 60 years old. If ever you fancy flogging it on let me know will you  
AL

[NeilA]

What a great looking box - love the grille.

[Christopher K.]

I thought the grille and the cabinet style looked old, too, but the font of the logo looked too contemporary compared to the other Supertones I've looked at so far and I figured it could be more recent. If it's from the 30s or 40s then contemporary is what they were going for!

UPS said it should be here Wednesday -- I bought it with my Christmas money from work. They gave everyone $40 with the condition that whatever you buy with it has to be "unwrapped" at the Christmas party next week. That should be a hoot. 

[Don Roberts]

I saw another "supertone" advertized on craigslist described as German made so I was prolly wrong about it being Italian made. There was supposed to be a photo with the offer but didn't come up.
Would be interesting to see if it resembled yours
The idea of opening at work is a good one.

[Christopher K.]

Just arrived today, I'll try to post some photos this weekend.

I asked the seller if it had all the reeds because in the description of the auction, there was no mention of them. He told me it had all the reeds and it played fine, but just needed some tuning.  I found the bass reeds are clattering around inside the bellows! They're all accounted for, though.

Looks every bit the Hohner. It needs all the expected refurb. work, and the casework is in excellent cosmetic condition. I'm really happy about it. The two sets of reeds are on O-marked plates. Soundboard is metal. Keys all work and none are sunken. The pallets lift uniformly high but not nearly as high as they do on a typical diatonic. Before dissecting it I played a bit on the treble side and the reeds sounded terrific.

[Christopher K.]

Still haven't taken any decent photos, but I will.  

I did find some photos of Hess Piano accordions which have identical cabinets, bellows and grilles so I'm not so sure this is a Hohner product. Particularly, the "wings" at the end of the keyboard look different to me than the Hohner Carmen models from this era but they are identical to those made by Hess. Sears was sourcing their other instruments from a variety of companies at that time.

I don't have much information regarding the fate of the Hess company. I know it existed in Klingenthal and built all sorts of things - radios, accordions, harmonicas, guitars - but that's where my info stops.

At any rate, seems like Hess was using gold bellows tape and orange bellows papers before Hohner made them standard features.