GAS Harmony Guitars

Subject: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 02:41 PM

I have recently suffered from a bout of GAS (Guitar Acquistion Syndrome). Fortunatly my wife has cured me by banning the use of e-bay.
However I did aquire two old Harmonys. One a H6659 made about 1973 of birch and a little worse for ware. It has a thinish tone but a wonderful action. The other was billed as 60s vintage American guitar with a split neck joint. This I soon repaired.
It was quoted as a H6850S. Not listed on the Harmony site. The clue to its origin was on the label. Made in Korea! A little research seems to indicate it was made in 1978 by Hondo and fitted with an American built DiMarzio pickup. (unknown by the seller!)
It proved to be the better guitar with a rich tone. The action is high, due to the neck repair, but it is a great slide guitar and the electrics make a wonderful dirty sound. All for £10!
Any Harmony news and views welcome and if you have an old Sovereign you want rid of think of me but don't tell my wife

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 11:54 AM

few years ago i bought a brand new £30 quid Chinese made Harmony 'Singing Cowboy' repro..

This is a genuine vintage model:

http://harmony.demont.net/model.php?id=702


mine is a very low grade copy..

just white paint stencil artwork..
appalling unfinished fretwork,
cheap nasty plastic adjustable floating archtop bridge,
worst quality tuning pegs..
no truss rod,
the entire body, neck, and fretboard sprayed with a thin layer
of easily scratched matt black paint..
it can just about hold tuning and intonation..

but despite all..
it looks great for punk folk
and has a good loud brash bright tone..


i'll probably screw a neck mounted jazz humbucker to it
and hope it feeds back like a wailing bastard when i crank my amp up

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: GUEST,Phil Cooper on sig-o's computer
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 05:02 PM

I bought a harmony for $65.00 in 1971. Harmony's were either real good, or real bad. I happened to get a good one, I thought. Used it for a couple years.

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 18 Sep 08 - 05:22 PM

Harmony guitars are all crap, period.

They are ladder braced, the only saving grace is that they have solid tops, (as opposed to laminated tops )

They could be made into decent instruments by removing the tops and replacing the bracing, but who is going to do that ?

Also, the necks feel like they were made for Neanderthals. Again, they could be thinned down by a competent luthier, but why bother ?

Sorry, but I have played a lot of Harmonys and I don't go for all the current goo-ga about them.

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: cooperman
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 03:42 AM

I've got a '65 Sovereign.
I agree about the ladder bracing and the neck but the tone from this guitar, maybe accidentally, is to die for.
Maybe i'm biased cos I love early Led Zep acoustic songs on which this guitar featured.

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: alex s
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 07:24 AM

I don't agree with the negative comments - I have a '63 12-string which sounds great. It was good enough for Pete Townshend..........

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 01:06 PM

Which was the model that "young" Johnny Silvo used to play? ... sunburst finish with double pick guards.
Ray

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 03:09 PM

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 03:15 PM

Sorry I lost my message!
I agree with many of the comments and with little or no quality control it is a toss up if the guitar is any good or not. But the thing about Sovereigns, Yamaha FG180s, Eko Rangers and the like is nostalgia. I have a Martin, an Alvalon and a Ovation but thay have not lived. Although the Harmony sounds crap and is battered I can identify with it as it's just like me!

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: Terry McDonald
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 03:26 PM

I was intrigued/surprised to see half sized guitars with the Harmony label being sold in Nashville last year at (I think) $65 each. Half an hour later I saw a couple of lads busking and one of them was playing one of the aforementioned Harmonys (Harmonies?). It sounded pretty respectable to me and I still don't know why I didn't buy one for one of the grandchildren!

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 04:32 PM

...with little or no quality control it is a toss up if the guitar is any good or not....


You are bang on the money there, Warwick. I know I made a bit of a sweeping generalisation, but there certainly are some low end brand names which occasionally throw up a beauty.

I wouldn't be caught dead playing a Seagull, normally, but a friend of mine has one which sounds absolutely magnificent. I'm not saying I would trade my Martin or Bourgeois for it, but I would love to have it nonetheless.

However, I haven't yet come across a Harmony which got my hormones hopping ...

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: PoppaGator
Date: 19 Sep 08 - 05:17 PM

G.A.S. is truly a sickness.

I'm amazed that people pay good money for more guitars than they can play, even when we're talking about high-quality instruments.

I'm even more amazed at the compusion to add new specimens to a collection by buying mediocre-to-lousy instruments whose thick necks make them difficult to play!

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: GUEST,Warwick Slade
Date: 21 Sep 08 - 07:15 AM

Wine collectors buy wine they do not drink
Stamp collectors buy stamps but do not post letters
People collect things foe various reasons but usually it is because they like them and they give them pleasure
Loosen up PoppaGator GAS is no more sick than writing opinions on a screen to people you do not know or collection used phone cards.
(I lied about the used phone cards)

ps Don't laugh at collectors with thick necks, we can't help getting old

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: Mooh
Date: 21 Sep 08 - 08:23 AM

They weren't all ladder braced, many of the later dreads had variations of X bracing, and some of those with solid tops could be made to sound okay. Beyond that, most others were slag. I happen to have a later Sovereign ply top which I bought at a pawn shop while on vacation far from home. It made a dandy lapsteel for a while, but now hangs in my workshop awaiting a new bridge. There's no comparison to the variety of good guitars I flatter myself with, so the Sovereign is ignored.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: GAS Harmony Guitars
From: PoppaGator
Date: 21 Sep 08 - 04:37 PM

"Loosen up PoppaGator GAS is no more sick than writing opinions on a screen to people you do not know ..."

Touche, my friend.

I'm not really all that uptight about this topic & don't feel the need to loosen up. Just a difference of opinion.

"ps Don't laugh at collectors with thick necks, we can't help getting old"

I've found that, as I get older, my neck is getting scrawnier, not thicker. Now, waist,? that's another story...