Eat Your Hearts Out!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zaphod B
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Zaphod B

Zaphod B

Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
Lookee what I dragged out of the closet! :D

What you see here is an early 1960's Harmony Stratotone. It was my first electric guitar, bought new for my tone-deaf older brother and handed down to me. I've had it in my posession ever since.

Single pickup, which appears to be a single-coil. A three-position switch with RHYTHM, TREBLE, and BASS positions. A volume control and tone control that seems to just be a top-end attenuator. The bridge is a free-floating wooden affair. You adjust the intonation by just pushing the bridge around on the body until it sounds about right. The bridge is height-adjustable, something not to be taken for granted on a guitar of this quality.

It has a completely hollow body, but no f-holes. It's very lightweight.

I plugged it in for the first time in over 30 years last night. It has a surprisingly nice tone - a warm single-coil sound. It doesn't play worth a crap, as a few of the fretboard inlays, which must be made out of some kind of celluloid, have actually cupped and the edges are sticking up a bit. :eek: But they can be sanded smooth. In the meantime, it just might make a mean slide guitar!
 

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That's one of the nicest Harmony's I've seen.

Too bad about the inlays. :(
 
Why, thanks. :)

It's actually in pretty good shape. No big nicks, just normal wear from having been handled for a few years. Maybe the old dog has some tricks left, who knows?
 
A friend had an old Silvertone years back with the same body shape and similar layout to your Harmony. I recall it had a club like neck and pretty high action, hmm, maybe all those were meant to be used for slide guitars after all .....
 
Is that pickup strangely similar to a Teisco, or is my imagination running amuck? :confused:
 
I don't know...

I have a couple of close-ups of the pickup, but I won't have time to re-size & post them until tomorrow night.
 
VERY cool sir. A little elbow greese and I bet it would be very usable. I just refinished my Dad's 1949 Harmony Montery. I'm toying with the idea of putting a P-90 up by the neck. This guitar doesn't play half bad at all.
 
Inlays aside, how's that neck lookin' after more than 30 years with tension on the strings...? I'm assuming that 30 years ago it wasn't a consideration to loosen or remove them (who sticks a guitar in the closet with the intention of leaving it there forever?)...

My dad has a beautiful f-hole archtop built in the 19-tens, no name or logo, handed down from family member to family member, still has the original set of strings on it...Of course the neck is now the equivalent of rocking-chair rails...But it looks really neat hanging on the wall...

Eric
 
Actually, the neck is looking very good. Very straight on the upper-string side, a very slight roller coaster on the lower string side. Nothing that would seriously inhibit a decent action. It's not bowed in either direction.
 
Here's a close-up of the pickup. (Sorry about the grime. :o )

Anyone recognize it?
 

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Poking around on the net, I find that this is a DeArmond "Golden Tone" pickup. It was used on other Harmony models as well.
 
Further research reveals that this is a Model H47 Statotone Mercury. These were manufactured (in the USA!) between 1958 and 1965.

More info is available at the following link, for those who are interested:

http://harmony.demont.net/modele.php?id=107

I noted that one of the images on the above site shows the same fingerboard inlay cupping phenomenon as my guitar, although mine is not as severe.
 
That is an awesome axe sir! Looks in pretty good shape and if the neck is fine, you're in!
I'm jealous.... :D
 
Do y'all think I should try to file the pearloid inlays flush, or pop them out and re-glue them?
 
jmho, but I would try reglueing them. If it doen't work, you can still file.

my 2c....


oh, and if gets to be too much of a hassle, I could take that bothersome thing off your hands... :)
 
So are the three positions on that switch chop, blend and purée? :D

Nice axe, man!
 
Zaphod B said:
Poking around on the net, I find that this is a DeArmond "Golden Tone" pickup. It was used on other Harmony models as well.

Cool looking pickup. DeArmond always had a great sense of pickup design.
 
Thanks for the props, guys. It's cleaning up nicely.

The electronics need some TLC as well. That three-position switch (chop, blend, & puree :D ) is stiff and noisy, and the pots are also noisy. Guess I'll head to Radio Shack for some contact cleaner.
 
Dogbreath said:
jmho, but I would try reglueing them. If it doen't work, you can still file.
my 2c....
oh, and if gets to be too much of a hassle, I could take that bothersome thing off your hands... :)
OK I'll see if I can pop out the two worst ones.

DB, I'll let you know! :p
 
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