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Post by mitchfit on Apr 17, 2023 2:02:14 GMT
i have a Harmony Stella all mahogany model H165 that arrived nearly totaled out. first rejoined the splitting away neck and splitting away bridge. then installed a very high nut for slide use. the heavy gauge D'Addario EJ17 phosphor bronze strings sounded amazing on it, but proved more than it could hold up to in the long term as the sound board started dishing badly.
IIRC, slide496 has Harmony guit(s) also and speaks highly of them.
here is somebody else who likes Harmony mucho:
mitchfit
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Apr 17, 2023 8:33:13 GMT
Wouldn't say I'm obsessed but I do have a few from 1930s Harmony built parlours to a 1960s Stratotone Jupiter undergoing fixing at the moment.
Must admit I would like an H165 if I could find one at the proper price and condition in the UK.
Great fun guitars!
They're like European Hofners which are good'ns too.
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Post by slide496 on Apr 17, 2023 11:11:39 GMT
Although not obsessed really with the brand, It's true I have several Harmony stellas found on ebay about 10 years ago , the small body parlor size with 24.5 scale, 1.75 nut, floating bridge and ladder braced that I set up for slide with light 12 -53 . At that time I also got different brands of the smaller body parlors - kay and silvertone which I am favoring right now. They are all tuned up 1/2 - 1 step for tension. I am under 5ft 4in in height so these are relatively approaching dreadnaught size for me.
The Harmony stellas I have are birch and considered student models and while I have seen people play them non slide in a blues style, I don't.
All of mine I experimented with the material for the floating bridge and swapped that out, the original nut I kept and shimmed with edge binding - most of mine had top and side separation that I glued back with titebond and they have lasted through NY's dry winters surprisingly.
The main thing that made Harmony and the others them attractive to me for home use is the ladder bracing, but I have found that the bass is not as edgy or loud as an x-braced model in my hands. I don't think that the cheap acoustic models I favor are performer tools, but the archtop such as the Monterey, 1215, Cremona etc. and the electric line which includes the Harmony Stratotone, Rocket, Airline Bobkat with Dearmond goldfoil pickup, and Silvertone 1423 is a different story.
There used to be a huge database of many of the models Harmony made of both acoustic and electric, but that expired - I did manage to grab the top level which has the basic specs for many of the instruments if anyone is considering a model and wants info on it, welcome to IM me....
Harriet
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Apr 17, 2023 11:44:10 GMT
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Post by slide496 on Apr 17, 2023 13:03:15 GMT
Yes, I am glad to see it up in a modified form - the original had photos of the models and you could roll over, and when you clicked on the model you could get the specs and there was the pages that they were able to save in the archive with more photos and info. Here's two pix of the original page you could go to from the first one, and a pix of the roll over feature....I didn't see a way to access that in the archive   |
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Apr 17, 2023 17:01:46 GMT
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Post by slide496 on Apr 17, 2023 18:17:03 GMT
Great - you found it.  Harriet |
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Post by mitchfit on Apr 17, 2023 21:37:44 GMT
never owned or played any Harmony electrics with the "gold foil" PUP on them. wish that wasn't true. played a bud's Teisco with one mounted on it back in the late 1960's. could say it was cheaply made, but honestly that is more praise than it deserves. the gold foil PUP was a different story entirely. not sure of how it was designed/worked as nothing but the foil was visible through the sheet metal covering. this thing even made the early solid state Silvertone amp he had sound very good. at one point i tried yelling into the front of the PUP and my voice was amplified. then tried deadening all the strings first, and less volume resulted from amp. (?) would imagine they would be hard to control feedback with at much volume. guessing that as i never got to try it out. scroll down to "using gold foil pickups"... for good close-up photographs: reverb.com/news/its-not-all-teiscos-look-at-60s-japenese-guitar-makersmitchfit |
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Post by snakehips on Apr 17, 2023 22:27:07 GMT
Hi there ! I've owned a few Harmony guitars - but sold them as I didn't find them good enough at staying in tune. Here are the two I had, both with the "fabled" P13 pickups - the blonde one H-52, I think it was, having adjustable polepieces. Attachments:
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Post by snakehips on Apr 17, 2023 22:40:00 GMT
And back in 2019, I had a gig at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Fest, backing (on piano & organ, and one tune on National guitar) Marcus Bonfanti, an English guitar player of some note as an artist himself, and also as a newer member of the band Ten Years After. He travelled up to Edinburgh for the gig with his 3-pickup Harmony Rocket. I got asked if I'd loan him one of my Nationals, as he wanted to play Muddy Waters' "Can't Be Satisfied". Then a change of plan - John Bruce (Blues'n'Trouble, Safehouse), the other lead guitarist for the gig, would play slide on the tune. It ended up with me playing my National for that tune in the end ! That was a blast ! Marcus certainly seems to love his Harmony Rocket though. Some pics from the rehearsal & gig : |
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Post by slide496 on Apr 18, 2023 19:59:06 GMT
never owned or played any Harmony electrics with the "gold foil" PUP on them. wish that wasn't true. played a bud's Teisco with one mounted on it back in the late 1960's. could say it was cheaply made, but honestly that is more praise than it deserves. the gold foil PUP was a different story entirely. not sure of how it was designed/worked as nothing but the foil was visible through the sheet metal covering. this thing even made the early solid state Silvertone amp he had sound very good. at one point i tried yelling into the front of the PUP and my voice was amplified. then tried deadening all the strings first, and less volume resulted from amp. (?) would imagine they would be hard to control feedback with at much volume. guessing that as i never got to try it out. scroll down to "using gold foil pickups"... for good close-up photographs: reverb.com/news/its-not-all-teiscos-look-at-60s-japenese-guitar-makersmitchfit I have 2 Harmony made Airline Bobkats with goldfoil pickups and they sound good to my ear when I improvised and put together slide guitar tests that tended to uses notes and phrases that sounded good with the pickup/amp combination but when I went over to playing actual songs I didn't find the same results. Mine need a hum debugger. Lollar pickups has a blog on the history of them here |
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Post by mitchfit on Apr 18, 2023 20:21:43 GMT
checked into DeArmond gold foils. from: www.musicradar.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-dearmond-gold-foil-pickups..."At times referred to in the catalogues of yesteryear as Golden Tone pickups, the colloquial term ‘gold foil’ is more commonly applied, due to the metalcoloured protective/decorative plastic shim so often seen on their covers. However, as pickup consultant Curtis Novak explains, this term is not exclusive to pickups of this particular appearance."... ..."Gold foil is a broad term relating to some of the covers, but the interesting thing is, having dissected thousands of them, the only consistent part I’ve seen on any type of gold foil is the cover itself. Some of them might use an alnico magnet, while the next one could be a rubberised magnet, so it’s really hard for people to buy a vintage gold foil, as you never know what’s going to be inside it."... almost a standard magnetic pickup? to my thinking, this creates more questions than it answers about the microphonic traits that i experienced. the only possible variable i can think of that would explain it would be if the "foil" in the plastic were made of iron/steel or another ferrous alloy. really don't understand, really don't know, mitchfit |
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Post by mitchfit on Apr 18, 2023 22:52:37 GMT
FROM: www.snathanieladams.com/2020/03/identifying-and-dating-harmony-guitars.htmlcompany history from inception in 1892 1892 William J. F. Schultz forms the Harmony Company with a capital stock of $25,000 Employed four workers [2] 1904 Harmony Co establishes their factory at 1750 N. Lawndale Avenue [2] 1916 Sears-Roebuck & Co purchases The Harmony Company [3] 1917 Capital stock increased to $100,000 Employed 125 people 70,000 instruments were being produced per year [2] 1940 Under talks of unionization, Sears-Roebuck sells the Harmony Company to former Harmony president Jay Kraus and work ceases on December 21st, 1940 [3] 1941 The Harmony Company spends 6 months moving to 3631-3633 South Racine Avenue 1954 Harmony purchases the trademarks and brands of the defunct Regal Musical Instrument Company [1] Regal guitars were sold exclusively through Fender Sales Inc 1962 The Harmony Company moves to 4600 S. Kolin Ave [2] 1977 The Harmony Company is liquidated and all of the tools, materials, in-progress instruments, and trademarks were sold at auction there is much other info included about model identification and build specs. mitchfit |
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