Those are very nice Model 1443s you have there. Are there any stories behind them?
Sorry for the off topic but here's the stories of mine...
My parts in a box 1444 had been disassembled, the neck had been de-fretted, narrowed and the finish and nut had been removed. All the smaller parts were there in the box except there was no Silvertone logo. After I got it home I put under my workbench in the basement and pretty much forgot about it for a few decades. A few years ago I decided to fix it.
I took the neck to a local shop and had frets glued in but not leveled or finished since I can to that myself. While the frets were was being installed, I assembled the rest of the parts and ordered Ping Kluson replica tuners to replace the horrible skate key tuners and a Dano Pro bridge with adjustable saddles. I also assembled the body.
I picked up the fretted neck and leveled the frets and finished the fret ends. I made a new nut from aluminum bar stock from Home Depot, replaced the horrible "skate key" tuners with the Kluson copies and installed a recent Danelectro Pro bridge with adjustable saddles. Done and done. It looks a bit worn and aged but it plays and sounds great with the nylon tapes I installed.
I have an accumulation of three Silvertone Model 1444 basses. One is mint-ish in its case another is "player" grade in its case and the resurrected parts in a box bass.
The "player grade" has some chips, is missing pickguard and logo and somebody gouged the area around the jack for a reason yet to be determined. I installed a wider washer under the jack to prevent further damage and more recently replaced the OEM bridge with an RI stick bridge. This was the one I've played frequently for decades.
I brought out the mint-ish one several times over the years for some shows at a small local art museum but it's mostly been resting in its case. The manager of the art museum asked if he could use it as part of an locally made instruments exhibit but it never happened.
None of them are worth all that much but my favorite player is the modded "parts in a box" resurrection edition.
For a long time I've had a 3-inline neck screw 1444 body with the original pickup, bridge screws and replaced controls, jack and strap buttons but no bridge or control cover. Maybe someday I'll come across a neck for it and get that playing again. Weird thing is I have no memory of how I got it.
