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NVOGD (New Very Old Guitar Day)


Jeff R

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Actually got it yesterday, but a day late don't matter around here ...

Wife and I went on a local pawn shop hop looking for turns and hidden jewels for my shop. Found this hanging in one of the seedier places not only priced right but with a 25 percent off on top of that. The wife, as overcome with the cool factor as myself, said let's get it for you for your upcoming birthday instead of the shop! Harmony H1215 Archtone.

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If you've been around old Harmony guitars, they typically say "with STEEL reinforced neck" on the head under the logo. This one doesn't say that because all indicators are when it was made, steel was dedicated to making battleships, tanks and aircraft. It's undated but everything points to mid-1940s. Also cool is it's completely birch construction. Soundboard is "line" painted to resemble spruce; sides, back and neck trunk (which is a massive "V" contour since there's no truss or reinforcement rods) are painted to resemble flamed maple and even the fingerboard painted to resemble rosewood. Binding is painted on.

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Sounds and plays GREAT. Very resonant, with cool snap yet a milky jazzy midrange. Great fingerpicking guitar. Low action up and down the neck with no evidence of it ever having or being in need of a neck reset. Not bad for a 70 plus years old catalog guitar.

My new guitar is also my oldest. It's literally as old and likely older than both my Dad and my Mom. Still freaking out a little on that one.

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Years ago, this guy I was working with tells me he found a Harmony guitar (the twin of the one in your photos) in his late father's attic and gives it to me to "set up."
I cleaned it up, restrung it, oiled up the tuning machines, etc.
It didn't need much to play really nicely, so I had it back to him in just a couple of days.

He takes it home and sets it in the corner, propped up against the wall.
A couple of days later, he tells me that his daughter knocked the guitar over and that it "exploded into toothpicks."

Sure wish I had seen that.

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Very cool!

 

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7 hours ago, Jeff R said:

Actually got it yesterday, but a day late don't matter around here ...

Wife and I went on a local pawn shop hop looking for turns and hidden jewels for my shop. Found this hanging in one of the seedier places not only priced right but with a 25 percent off on top of that. The wife, as overcome with the cool factor as myself, said let's get it for you for your upcoming birthday instead of the shop! Harmony H1215 Archtone.

... neck trunk ... is a massive "V" contour since there's no truss or reinforcement rods.

.... 

Sounds and plays GREAT. Very resonant, with cool snap yet a milky jazzy midrange. Great fingerpicking guitar. Low action up and down the neck with no evidence of it ever having or being in need of a neck reset. Not bad for a 70 plus years old catalog guitar.

I haven't played many of them, but I find those prewar unreinforced massive V-necks to have the most stable necks and action I've played.

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Wow very cool, congrats. Interesting how the entire thing is birch but made to look like other materials. The frets appear to have little wear as well. Massive bridge too, how does it intonate? Enjoy it.

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12 hours ago, Hfan said:

Wow very cool, congrats. Interesting how the entire thing is birch but made to look like other materials. The frets appear to have little wear as well. Massive bridge too, how does it intonate? Enjoy it.

Intonation is very tight for what it is. I used a clip-on tuner and moved the floating bridge to "on" on the "E" strings. The four others strings are also unbelievably close enough intonation-wise, and we didn't end up with the bridge all cock-eyed slanted doing it. That's a win.

Frets are divotless and seated well but kind of scratchy on the surface under the fingertips when you bend. It's due to fret leveling marks running parallel to the strings that were not polished out either from the factory or during a fret level at some point later in life. That's an easy unobtrusive fix and I can have them behaving like new modern frets under the fingers with about 30 minutes of elbow grease (abrasive polishing).

 

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 Look at that fretboard!   Can't ya just hear his neighbor teaching him how to play guitar?

 "There ya go! Theres really only 3 cords ya needs ta know.  If you wanna git fayncy you kin yooz this cord too"  Whats the fat string at the top for?  "That yer Marlboro holder.  ya kinda wedge it under the fat string above the thing that looks like Uncle Jimmy's teef."

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3 minutes ago, Caddie said:

 Look at that fretboard!   Can't ya just hear his neighbor teaching him how to play guitar?

 "There ya go! Theres really only 3 cords ya needs ta know.  If you wanna git fayncy you kin yooz this cord too"  Whats the fat string at the top for?  "That yer Marlboro holder.  ya kinda wedge it under the fat string above the thing that looks like Uncle Jimmy's teef."

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Jeffro, please do something about that nut.

Not Caddie - the nut on the guitar.

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