My Harmony's

[MilwMark]

Yeah. I know the title is not grammatical.

I’ve been paring slowly down. Owner of my local shop loves old Harmony electrics and acoustics. He sings the virtues of the all solid wood / truss rod Harmonies. He does neck resets and the other work needed to have them playing and sounding great for another 50 years. Then sells them for a comparative song.

Here are mine - my only acoustics - though I’ll grab another if one floats through his shop.

One all solid mahogany body. The other solid Sitka top and solid maple back and sides. They play and sound great. They sit perfectly with vocals. They record exceptionally well.

They seem to have displaced and ended the rotating cast of Martin, Gibson and a few others. All great, but not quite right for me until these.

 

[jimdgreat1]

Nice guitars. I'd pick up a Harmony if one was for sale locally.

 

[haggardfan1]

Wow. Love those, especially the mahogany one.

I learned to play on an old Harmony archtop. I'm fond of the brand.

 

[zombywoof]

Cool. Looks to be early-1970s H165 and H167. So built just a few years before full production ended. I am pretty sure though the body wood on the H167 is birch rather than maple.

I have been playing Harmonys since the early-1960s. And yeah, I still keep a few around.

Three Sovereign H1260s (late-1950s to late-1960s). The oldest block letter logo guitar remains stock while the other two have undergone some modifications.


1942 H165. This is what your all-mahogany guitar once looked like - rounded figure 8 body with a big fat V neck. Oddly, these were initially marketed as Stellas. Harmony also offered a 12 fret slothead version of these though 1943.


1956 H40. Essentially a Sovereign H1203 with a Gibson P13 pickup mounted underneath the fingerboard extension.




Ca. 1940 Stella. Not built by Harmony but a re-badged leftover Oscar Schmidt-made guitar Harmony acquired when they purchased the OS company in 1939.

 

[zombywoof]

Also a couple of 1930s Supertones - a guitar and a mandolin. Prior to 1939 Sears owned Harmony and Supertone was the house brand before Silvertone.

 

[bottlenecker]

Yeah. I know the title is not grammatical.

I’ve been paring slowly down. Owner of my local shop loves old Harmony electrics and acoustics. He sings the virtues of the all solid wood / truss rod Harmonies. He does neck resets and the other work needed to have them playing and sounding great for another 50 years. Then sells them for a comparative song.

Here are mine - my only acoustics - though I’ll grab another if one floats through his shop.
View attachment 999905
One all solid mahogany body. The other solid Sitka top and solid maple back and sides. They play and sound great. They sit perfectly with vocals. They record exceptionally well.

They seem to have displaced and ended the rotating cast of Martin, Gibson and a few others. All great, but not quite right for me until these.

These are great! I love my H165. I just saw an H167 like yours with the mustache and 6inline on craigslist and was pining for it, but budget is tapped right now.

 

[bottlenecker]

Cool. Looks to be early-1970s H165 and H167. So built just a few years before full production ended. I am pretty sure though the body wood on the H167 is birch rather than maple.

I have been playing Harmonys since the early-1960s. And yeah, I still keep a few around.

Three Sovereign H1260s (late-1950s to late-1960s). The oldest block letter logo guitar remains stock while the other two have undergone some modifications.


1942 H165. This is what your all-mahogany guitar once looked like - rounded figure 8 body with a big fat V neck. Oddly, these were initially marketed as Stellas. Harmony also offered a 12 fret slothead version of these though 1943.


1956 H40. Essentially a Sovereign H1203 with a Gibson P13 pickup mounted underneath the fingerboard extension.




Ca. 1940 Stella. Not built by Harmony but a re-badged leftover Oscar Schmidt-made guitar Harmony acquired when they purchased the OS company in 1939.

I think I need an H40. That's got to be amazing through a good amp.

 

[sloppychops]

Yeah. I know the title is not grammatical.

I’ve been paring slowly down. Owner of my local shop loves old Harmony electrics and acoustics. He sings the virtues of the all solid wood / truss rod Harmonies. He does neck resets and the other work needed to have them playing and sounding great for another 50 years. Then sells them for a comparative song.

Here are mine - my only acoustics - though I’ll grab another if one floats through his shop.
View attachment 999905
One all solid mahogany body. The other solid Sitka top and solid maple back and sides. They play and sound great. They sit perfectly with vocals. They record exceptionally well.

They seem to have displaced and ended the rotating cast of Martin, Gibson and a few others. All great, but not quite right for me until these.

What shop are you referencing? I love old Harmony guitars (and the new ones), and I'm in MKE area, too.

 

[zombywoof]

I think I need an H40. That's got to be amazing through a good amp.

What many do not seem to get is that Harmony never manufactured electronics. So amps, pickups, and such were all contracted for.

The H40 "Uno-tone" though is a hard guitar to find. They were available only from 1954 to 1957. In 1958 they were replaced by the H55 which had a longer run into the early-1970s. At some point Harmony switched to a DeArmond pickup.