Harmony guitar reissues

[stevieboy]

Thans for all the reviews of the new Harmony guitars. I can't wait til they come out and we can get some reviews from people who have actually seen one.

[Oster]

Originally Posted by Zebulon Bluze

The old American made Harmony guitars were junk and I'm sure the new foreign made Harmony guitars will also be junk. I'm really surprised at all the nostalgia for poor quality stuff. I don't ever want to play a guitar with strings a half inch above the frets again. I had a Harmony, a Kay and a Teisco del Ray and I can still remember the pain.

Not sure what Harmonys you played but all the ones I owned/own have had very low action. That's about 5 guitars including a bass.

Any brand is going to have some bad guitars with high action - especially if its your first guitar and it's an especially bad example, broken or worse.

Keith Richards' early guitar with the Stones was a Harmony Meteor, as was Dave Davies with The Kinks. Jimmy Page used a Harmony acoustic on occasion with Led Zeppelin. I'm pretty sure I've seen Jimmy Vivino on Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien using an old Meteor as well. I'm nowhere in that echelon but I use them all the time and I never make excuses about my gear - it's either good or it isn't.

Anyway, the thing you hear most often about old Harmonys from people who played them is what a pleasant surprise they are. No they weren't Gibson or Gretsch level instruments but they weren't 'junk'.

I'm not so sure about the Teiscos though...

[cowboytwang]

I had a Harmony Stratatone years ago, it got ripped off about 20 years ago so now all I have is this video of me playing it.

[tbp0701]

Those seem cool. I'd really like to get my dad's Harmony in playing condition, but it needs a bit of work. A few years ago, I asked a couple luthiers about it, but they balked at doing it. One said he'd been burned by people who wanted a repair done on an instrument of sentimental value and had wound up stuck with it, so he doesn't work on old Harmonys and the like. At any rate, my dad's Harmony:



As for the stuff made in China, I'm surprised by how many books are even printed there these days. I'm also a bit concerned that sterile gauze bandages are now made there, but I digress.

[gtech]

I'm sure that if they decided to start selling Hamony guitars again, it is because they know there is a market for cheaper guitars. And it is now possible to build better guitars for a lower price than before because of the equipment available. The proof is the Jay Turser guitars for example. You get more for your money than with some more expensive guitars.

Another reason they would sell, IMHO is this

http://harmony.demont.net/model.php?id=258

http://www.broadwaymusicco.com/HARMONY.htm

http://members.aol.com/Rothguitar/Rothguita30.html

http://www.broadwaymusicco.com/harmony39.htm

etc...

[Telarkaster]

My very first guitar was a Harmony. It belonged to my mother, she bought it in the 1950s when she was living in Quebec city. An acoustic guitar with 5 nylon string and one steel string, the action was 2 inches off the fret board and unplayable past the the 3rd fret. After one guitar lesson I got a Yamaha classical guitar.

The very first electric guitar I ever held was a Harmony Les Paul copy, all wood, Studio style with no binding, much like Bob Marley's Gibson but 1/4 the price. I didn't see it on the new website...

[BrianD]

My first guitar was a hand-me-down Harmony Rocket from my cousin - along with a cool little Gretsch tube amp. As much as I regret my Mom selling them at a pre-eBay yard sale, it's mostly for sentimental reasons. I suspect the cost of vintage models is a motivation for the re-issues. And, the sentimental 40 and over crowd ( guys with more disposable income than teens-twenties ) will be the main customers. As long as the quality isn't absolutely horrible, there should be a willing and happy consumer base despite the irony of other Made In China guitars striving and/or achieving very playable and/or cosmetic quality while these would copy "authentically cheap" designed guitars. There will probably be some interesting reviews, being that an accurate copy would have to be "crappy."

[Oster]

Ronnie Lane used a Harmony bass with The Small Faces too.

It occured to me reading this thread that there are widely divergent defintions of 'crappy' (or similar word).

In Harmony's case - put it this way - if you like PRS guitars and 5-string basses, you won't see the value in an original Harmony at all.

Also, as far as China is concerned, yes pretty much everything is made there. A couple years ago, I went to Rome and - apart from the tourist stand trinkets - everything seemed to be made in Italy. That was so refreshing.

In my dad's generation if you needed a job, there was a chair factory or candy manufacturer you could find work in. Nowadadys here in Toronto, all those old industrial buildings are lofts for people who apparently own magic money trees. Furthermore, if you want a blue collar job, you need a University degree! Ridiculous.

Nostalgia is a big part of my mindset, informing much of my musical choices and my basic day-to-day outlook. Guitars are a very potent symbol to me and they are part of that nostalgic world, or should be.

Chinese Harmonys have a place in the world and I'm sure people are going to love them which, of course, is only a positive thing. Younger people have inherited a different world from the older generation and that's the way it has always been. At 38, I'm no longer 'young' in that sense but I'm not old either. I am nostalgic for the old world of the '50s and '60s that was still in place when I was a little kid in the '70s.

To me, old Harmonys are very nostalgic instruments - again not near the quality of Gibson and Gretsch - but very serviceable rock and roll (and before) instruments that capitalized on the first big guitar boom.

I don't think the resissues will capture the essence of why I love Harmony. They will be cleaner, better made guitars - I'm sure of it - but I'm also willing to bet that they won't smell like an old department store, have big old date stamps inside the F-holes and all over the other little details about these guitars so many people love.

That's as clearly and as concisely as I can put it.

[Telarkaster]

Originally Posted by Oster

That's as clearly and as concisely as I can put it.

Wow, that was an amazing post Oster! Well said, you nailed my sentiments exactly.

[ghosttour]

I wonder why they aren't reissuing the H-77 and H-78? I've always wanted one of these.

[tonewoods]

"Ronnie Lane used a Harmony bass with The Small Faces too."

That H22 is my favorite recording bass, bar none. It does everything a Hofner is supposed to do, but better....

The pickup is just amazing. I wonder if they were able to cop the sound of that DeArmond on the re-issues...?

Hope so....

[Reno Sepulveda]

Skunk approved

[Caffeine Patrol]

So anybody know what these are retailing for? My internet snooping hasn't turned up a price list. The close-up photo of the Rocket on the Harmony website looks disheartening, though. From a distance, at least, the reissues look pretty cool; be interested to hear how the pickups sound.

[boris bubbanov]

I can still hear those lousy pickups, even today. Yecch. Horrible sound. No wonder even the drummer told me to turn down. Which I did.


Bubbanov

[SixString821]

hey whats the deal with the amps?? are they tube or SS? they actually look like they could be a good deal if so.

[voided3]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that the re-issues are all SET NECK instead of bolt on like the originals. That really stood out to me as a big difference.

[Oster]

Originally Posted by voided3

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that the re-issues are all SET NECK instead of bolt on like the originals. That really stood out to me as a big difference.

Not that you were suggesting as such voided3 but I don't agree with set-neck = quality at all (I'm a Tele guy after all). The RIs may be set neck but so are ho-hum Les Paul copies and a zillion or so uninspiring acoustic guitars too.

I loved the staggered 3-bolt design of the old Harmonys. And I'll say it again: Best pickups ever.

[kingnimrod]

Originally Posted by ghosttour

I wonder why they aren't reissuing the H-77 and H-78? I've always wanted one of these.

I found my pristine vintage H-78 on craigslist a couple of years ago - guy had received it as a birthday gift, then promptly broke his hand and stuck it under the bed for 40 years...

[Larry F]

Any Stella survivors here?

[Dan German]

Originally Posted by Larry F

Any Stella survivors here?

My first guitar was a Stella 3/4 size bought for $75 from a music store in Tulsa. I learned to play on that wretched little thing, and eventually replaced it with a Harmony Sovereign (cedar top) because my guitar teacher had one. Time marched on, the Sovereign got stolen, I moved to Canada and abandoned the Stella in my mother's basement. Then one day I'm standing in Sled Dog Music and I see my old Stella, with the same sticker I put on the back 25 years ago, hanging on a rack. $75. I didn't even argue the price because of the symmetry. Besides, John had that thing almost playable and he threw in a cardboard case! I still use it for camping.

[tonewoods]

Has anyone actually seen an H22 reissue...??

Love to hear about it if "yes"...