Sherwood Master Model 8422 Model Tube Amplifier, made by Danelectro (1949), made in New York, NY, Brown finish.
This beautifully preserved Sherwood Model 8422 dates from 1949 and was sold by catalog company Montgomery Ward. As with Silvertone, Sherwood was one of several house brands of products sometimes built by Danelectro, who at this time were just getting started as an independent company. Prior to that founder Nathan Daniel was primarily subcontracting electrical components to Epiphone in New York.
This particular amp was built when Daniel's company was located in Red Bank, NJ and before they'd discovered the uses of Homasote as cabinet material! The Master Model 8422 was near the top of the line, surpassed only by the 8423, which featured the addition of an 8" permanent magnet speaker in a slightly different cabinet design.
This Model 8422 is nearly identical to its Silvertone counterpart, the short-lived 1303, with the minor difference of an added speed control for the onboard tremolo effect, a feature Daniel pioneered. Featuring a rather unique and attractive cabinet design, covered in brown/tan leatherette with a tapered vertical speaker cutout braced with what looks like heater wire over a light woven grillcloth. The equally unique patterned metal rear control panel features three instrument inputs into a single channel with independent bass and treble controls, a volume control, as well as speed and intensity controls for the tremolo.
Two 6L6 tubes yield approximately 20-watts into a single 12" Rola field-coil speaker. The circuit is fairly unique, as with many Nathan Daniel creations, using the filament of the first preamp tube as a cathode resistor for the power tubes and running said 12SJ7 pentode pretty hot which makes for some fairly unique crunch when pushed, unlike many amps from that era.
Height is 19 in. (48.3 cm.), 15 1/2 in. (39.4 cm.) width, and 9 5/16 in. (23.7 cm.) in depth at deepest point.
Cosmetically, this Sherwood is in fabulous condition, especially for being around for now nearly 86 years! The brown/tan leatherette covering is nicely intact overall showing mostly only minor edge- and corner-wear. Grille cloth is very clean and intact, as is the metal rear control panel, remaining nicely unscathed. The handle appears to be an older replacement. The cabinet has four quizzical screw-holes on one of the sides that have been neatly patched.
Electrically, the amp is nicely original, save for the speaker, which is a period-correct Rola field-coil. Both the power and output transformers are made by Brooklyn-based Freed, the former bearing the code 13978. The amp has received our typical maintenance and servicing, including replacement of all electrolytic capacitors, a grounded 3-prong power cord, cleaning of all sockets, pots and jacks and power tubes biased to spec.
This is a fabulous sounding and rare specimen from the earliest Danelectro days, a fairly unique find in spectacular shape Overall Excellent Condition.
