Harmony H46 stratotone prototype

[Wally]

Tnq! I supose it is a good thing that i didnt cut fretboard yet so i have room to play with lenght,if anyone can confirm exact scale lenght it will be fantastic.

The two Harmony necks I mentioned above have 12 1/16” from the nut end of the fretboard to the middle of the 12th fret….so, the scale is 24 1/8”…24.125”.
As I noted, the Meteor I had was a bit longer scale, iirc.…maybe 25”. I wish my memory was better.

 

[Unpossible]

Ive had a bunch of these guitars. 1 and 2 pickup models.
Hershey bar, speed bump, and gold foil pickups. All the dearmond ferrite pickups sound similar, but i liked the gold foil the best.
NOT to be confused with the Japanese gold foils.
There are pickup copies out there if you can't source originals.
I loved the looks and the low weight.
Never warmed up to the necks. Too skinny for me.
The original h45 was a neck through 25 inch scale and meaty. The one you are building is an h46.
It's a 24 or sometimes 24 1/4 inch scale. A lot of the harmony guitars from this era had the skinny necks. And were often rebranded silvertone, alden, etc.
I was told that the inspiration was the gibson byrdland neck which was super thin and skinny.
I believe it didn't taper much, or at all from bridge to nut.
Perhaps it was thought to be more "modern" so you could play faster and stretch for jazz chord shapes, or thought to be for young hands, Probably cheaper to make.
Please correct me if i am wrong, as the internet lives forever.
If you are making a replica, i would try an original one first to see if you like the neck.
I thought about having custom necks built for these, but expensive and i haven't gotten around to building necks, yet.
Eastwood makes replicas of these types of guitars but the necks are sort of a modern average neck size.
Because they are not arched, the bodies should be easy to build.

 

[pshupe]

Ive had a bunch of these guitars. 1 and 2 pickup models.
Hershey bar, speed bump, and gold foil pickups. All the dearmond ferrite pickups sound similar, but i liked the gold foil the best.
NOT to be confused with the Japanese gold foils.
There are pickup copies out there if you can't source originals.
I loved the looks and the low weight.
Never warmed up to the necks. Too skinny for me.
The original h45 was a neck through 25 inch scale and meaty. The one you are building is an h46.
It's a 24 or sometimes 24 1/4 inch scale. A lot of the harmony guitars from this era had the skinny necks. And were often rebranded silvertone, alden, etc.
I was told that the inspiration was the gibson byrdland neck which was super thin and skinny.
I believe it didn't taper much, or at all from bridge to nut.
Perhaps it was thought to be more "modern" so you could play faster and stretch for jazz chord shapes, or thought to be for young hands, Probably cheaper to make.
Please correct me if i am wrong, as the internet lives forever.
If you are making a replica, i would try an original one first to see if you like the neck.
I thought about having custom necks built for these, but expensive and i haven't gotten around to building necks, yet.
Eastwood makes replicas of these types of guitars but the necks are sort of a modern average neck size.
Because they are not arched, the bodies should be easy to build.

Interesting about the width of the board. My 62 Silvertone Jupiter 1423 is 1.75" at the nut and just under 2" at the end of the fret board. They have ebony bridges so I guess they could just align with the fret edges. I have not checked intonation on this guitar but I assume it will not intonate properly because the 12th fret distance is substantially shorter than the 2x to the bridge. I might measure the frets and see if it is close to a common scale.

Cheers Peter.

 

[Josip55]

Ive had a bunch of these guitars. 1 and 2 pickup models.
Hershey bar, speed bump, and gold foil pickups. All the dearmond ferrite pickups sound similar, but i liked the gold foil the best.
NOT to be confused with the Japanese gold foils.
There are pickup copies out there if you can't source originals.
I loved the looks and the low weight.
Never warmed up to the necks. Too skinny for me.
The original h45 was a neck through 25 inch scale and meaty. The one you are building is an h46.
It's a 24 or sometimes 24 1/4 inch scale. A lot of the harmony guitars from this era had the skinny necks. And were often rebranded silvertone, alden, etc.
I was told that the inspiration was the gibson byrdland neck which was super thin and skinny.
I believe it didn't taper much, or at all from bridge to nut.
Perhaps it was thought to be more "modern" so you could play faster and stretch for jazz chord shapes, or thought to be for young hands, Probably cheaper to make.
Please correct me if i am wrong, as the internet lives forever.
If you are making a replica, i would try an original one first to see if you like the neck.
I thought about having custom necks built for these, but expensive and i haven't gotten around to building necks, yet.
Eastwood makes replicas of these types of guitars but the necks are sort of a modern average neck size.
Because they are not arched, the bodies should be easy to build.

Tnq very much for your reply. I’ve choose to go with 24” so today was the day to cut fretboard fret slots.

 

[Josip55]

Interesting about the width of the board. My 62 Silvertone Jupiter 1423 is 1.75" at the nut and just under 2" at the end of the fret board. They have ebony bridges so I guess they could just align with the fret edges. I have not checked intonation on this guitar but I assume it will not intonate properly because the 12th fret distance is substantially shorter than the 2x to the bridge. I might measure the frets and see if it is close to a common scale.

Cheers Peter.

This is how it stands now with 24”

 

[Josip55]

Made some progress. Inlay fret dots and some staining on body. Made staining with some crayon powder,sand and repeat now it looks a bit rustic and i like it. Next on the list is fretting while i wait for pickups.

Cheers

 

[Peegoo]

VERY nice work!

 

[Wally]

Next on the list is fretting while i wait for pickups.

What pickups are you waiting for? Would these interest you?

 

[Josip55]

View attachment 959767
What pickups are you waiting for? Would these interest you?

Waiting for P90s.Ofcourse they would,but pricing of shipping from states is insane, i buyed 3oz truoil cost me 50$ to come to Croatia. What are those looks like gold foil one from
Mojo pickups?

 

[Wally]

Waiting for P90s.Ofcourse they would,but pricing of shipping from states is insane, i buyed 3oz truoil cost me 50$ to come to Croatia. What are those looks like gold foil one from
Mojo pickups?

No, these are original DeArmond pickups by Rowe Industries from a Harmony (Silvertone) Md. 1478.…the real deal. These pickups have ‘silver foil’ instead of ’gold foil’.
I did not notice your location.
Great work there.

 

[Josip55]

No, these are original DeArmond pickups by Rowe Industries from a Harmony (Silvertone) Md. 1478.…the real deal. These pickups have ‘silver foil’ instead of ’gold foil’.
I did not notice your location.
Great work there.

Beautiful, tnq anyways for suggesting them, I appreciate that

 

[Josip55]

So this is stage where I am now with the build. I fretted and beweled with 30* angle file. Neck and body recived 4 coats of tru oil. Still thinkig if i want glossy smooth finish or would it be interesting to grain to show tru. Anyways pretty pleased with reslut over all. Next on the list is applying decal on headatock. Since i never put it with tru oil it should be interesting.

Best regards to all of you
Note* i messed up side dots in higher frets didnt account depth of neck pocket,but oh well

 

[crazydave911]

I took the chuck off an old eggbeater drill,a 3" piece of piano wire the right diameter and a piece of althread in the chuck to make a drill for just such an occasion. The flexibility allows a wide drilling angle

 

[Josip55]

I took the chuck off an old eggbeater drill,a 3" piece of piano wire the right diameter and a piece of althread in the chuck to make a drill for just such an occasion. The flexibility allows a wide drilling angle

Smart move! Since this is bolt on neck didnt have that problems. I wanted to have dots in middle of line where fretboard meets neck if that make sense but didnt account on thicknes of heel and depth of neck pocket. It will be fine in the end but should’v think more ahead. Its all learning and i love it,learning from mistakes makes me think next time on these things

 

[crazydave911]

Smart move! Since this is bolt on neck didnt have that problems. I wanted to have dots in middle of line where fretboard meets neck if that make sense but didnt account on thicknes of heel and depth of neck pocket. It will be fine in the end but should’v think more ahead. Its all learning and i love it,learning from mistakes makes me think next time on these things

Been there done that

 

[Josip55]

Dont know is it posting here but ill try again!
So happy new yeaar everyone.
Past year was buisy due work and life, also built telecaster and explorer types for my friends si this soon became side project, but im on track again.

Decided to make scratchplate,bridge and tailpiece. Also installed tuners now i hope in next month it will be strung and playing, so im excited for that. Anyways give me your opinions good or bad on decisions i made with pickguard and bridge designes. Cheers!

 

[Josip55]

And it is done!

 

[Josip55]

Actually doesnt sound bad. Went with 500k pot for voulme,250k for tone with 0.42uf at volume. All grounded to bridge,(it has steel plate underneath). Action as it stands for now .05 at first 1,30ish at 12. Only problem i run into is that my voulme pot is kinda not good.i think its factory error or i pushed it harder when instaling knob so it kinda functions very good when i pull it a little if that makes sense. So when i replace it ill try to post some demo sounds here so you can hear it, yeah its still mdf so we cant expect graceful acoustic performances but in electric sense it really isnt that bad! Cheers folks

 

[Josip55]

If you all eant some more photos on detailes and my decisions i made through build process let me know,i love good advices!

 

[tintag27]

Sorry - I'm I'm a bit late joining in with this great thread - I have a 1960 Stratotone H47 Jupiter.
I was interested to check the scale length - interestingly it is exactly the same as Wally's measurements:
12 + 1/16" to 12th fret and 24 + 1/8th" to bridge saddle

Anyway - I can see you have finished the build! Great job what a super project!