I think it is awesome that you do guitars as well as amps. Up until now, I have only seen, or mainly seen amp videos. This channel is just a great place to go to and relax to some cool guitar and amp repair videos.
If you had bothered to scrape the finish under the bridge that thing might actually hold. Titebond doesn't work on lacquered finishes. Also, many guitars with bad neck angles have a big bend at the body, so if you just lower the bridge you will have to deal with high frets past the body joint.
I have a question that needs answered before I ruin a guitar. I have a Dorado classical guitar that has a backward bow on it where the neck. How would I go about fixing this? I know there is a risk of breaking it, so I was wondering what the easiest way to fix it would be with the lesser chance of ruining it? Any and all guidance is highly appreciated!!
You should have cleaned the bridge area on the guitar, to remove the finish, and clamped the bridge properly! Short-cuts like this do not work over time......This bridge will end up needing to be re-glued before too long.
Thank you for these very cool videos. Born in '50 and grew up in the 60's absolutely hooked on AM pop and British Invasion, and then around '69 listening to the first FM underground stations and the first album rock. So I really enjoy going back and looking at all of this classic gear.
I've never seen anyone remove the bridge pins BEFORE checking the action!! Removing the pins will cause the strings to loosen an they will be lower at 12th fret
Did you ever think of trying to plane down the bridgepiece a little also? You would need an electric planer and protection for your hands, but you could get it down a little lower that way, too, and I don't think you would sacrifice much strength.
just a wee thought to share have you tried swapping the saddle and top nut with bone or ivory it can really make a difference to the sound of a guitar acoustic and electric guitars.And ivory can be sourced from very old cutlery handles that you may find at local markets or garage sales usually destined for a land fill...
The Guitologist+ I always did the same and I know you mentioned this model doesn't really have a belly on the top, but with this model it already has screws so I don't know what it bolted too, but I would as a rule add a piece of strong hard wood across the bridges just under the top bridge and drilled holes where these already are and draw the body down, tune the strings and check the intonation on all strings. On this guitar the neck is the issue which I always adjust the truss rod and when you can't do it from the center area of the tuners like this model, you can find the adjustment inside the port hole and if you can't adjust the truss rod you should go with lighter gauge strings. I consider guitars with no way to adjust the truss rod, firewood... I also leave the strings off for one or two nights and add a support under the 12th fret and apply weight to the nut area and the body area on the neck and bow the neck back.
No Martin guitar came with an adjustable truss rod until 1985. That's some really pricey firewood. Really, Harmony guitars aren't fundamentally different from a Martin except for the ladder bracing and value, it's just much more likely the Martin has seen a luthier sometime in it's life. Just reset the neck and get on with it.
Nice tip on the string winder pin puller. Didn't ever notice that notch. I always used pliers like you do. Most of the older acoustics iv seen seem to have really high action, I have always stayed away from them, may have to try this process some time on a goodwill find. Thanks for sharing.
Why would you not clean off the area where the bridge sets, scrapping off the finish down to the wood so the bridge sits flush? Also to get a contact with wood not finish ? Seems a little short cutish to me maybe customer couldnt afford a real fix who knows
Virtually all Harmony made guitars are all solid wood. Right at the end of the company's manufacturing in Chicago some models had laminates in their bodies- back or sides. The first Harmony archtop f hole, the De Luxe from about 1933 used laminated sides and back but all the models afterwards were all solid wood. Most old Harmony guitars have a crack or two which is the provenance of solid wood- Kay pioneered laminates and arguably that made some sense if the top was still solid wood. Good old guitars- and some sound so good despite being relatively inexpensive, so repairing them is a good thing to do. People are now appreciating these guitars rather than disregarding and junking them.
Some Kay guitars from the late 30s and the 40s are all solid wood. However, most have a laminated body with either a solid top or a laminated top. In essence, the company made guitars that were often very similar but at very different price points. Ultimately, the company seemed to cater for the low end but still made some very good mid-range instruments- the Kay top-of-the range models. Some of these can sound really good.
Agreed. I've owned a zillion Kays. Usually they need lots of setup work to make right, but once they're right, they sound great. I have demonstrated a few on my channel. Search my channel for "Kay" and you'll see a few of their low to mid range acoustics.
Have to disagree. Harmony branded guitars from the 30s-50s that’s probably accurate- but Stella was the student brand and pretty much all Kay, Stella, Silvertone, and some of the other catalog brands made by Harmony from the 50s on are plywood sides/backs and maybe a solid top. And if they were solid back/side it was a relatively poor quality wood made to look like something else. These were cheap instruments- great for what they were but starter-guitars nonetheless. Harmony acquired the Stella brand name in ‘39 and immediately deemed it the “student” line - pretty much all plywood instruments from that point on. I’ve never seen a solid back/side Stella. I could be wrong but I believe “Sovereign” were the “premium” Harmony brand - and those typically *are* solid wood guitars. Harmony manufactured under so many brand names - which themselves came and went from one catalog year to another it is almost impossible to track totally, and no doubt there are as many exceptions as there are rules - they made something like 10-12 million guitars from ‘45-‘75. Harmony was really the equivalent of today’s Asian production when you think about it with 8 out of every 10 guitars from that period having some connection to Harmony!
Thanks for yet another helpful set of instructions for those of us who still feel a tad intimidated at the prospect of tearing such things apart. BTW, spied the Crysalis label and immediately thought: "...Tull?"
+CommonGroundser Tull is way under appreciated. Glad you dug the video. Thanks for the comment. I'm trying to think who else was on Chrysalis... Fleetwood Mac?
+The Guitologist Couldn't think of any personally owned vinyl on that label that came to mind without looking it up. Just a weird memory trigger, seeing that label.
Could replace steel with carbon fiber or take steel rod out and glue it into slot clamp it so it works better also could put a better bridge on it or heat press the neck different ways fix warped neck on guitar. Sometimes get action lower from bridge.
Take a new axact knife and score around the bridge, Before removing.==it looks like the bridge is mounted on the finish== clean inside the scored section to bare wood before re gluing**DR KEL
I don't understand how you could not clamp the bridge after gluing or take measurements with the glue not cured? Why leave those bolts in the bridge for other than looks? Good job in doing the video . Thanks
Wow. Thanks for this easy fix. Even easier when the guitar as a tailpiece and a floating bridge. (Why didn't I think of that!?) Those old Harmony guitars had a decent sound if you had an iron grip. I don't.
Yes, the movable bridges are super easy. The parlor sized Stella guitars with fixed bridges are easy too. They usually only have two bolts and no glue holding the bridges on.
Hey Bread, I worked on a guitar just like that one you have there it had steel in the neck of some kind you feel it the neck felt heavy.Good video🎸🎸🎸👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😊
your harmony sounds a bit like my old harmony master `65 or `66 model arch top. a really thin soundso I tried flatwound strings which helps some but overall, they sound closer to a banjo than a guitar. lol
I figured out an easy way to get bridge pins out. Just take the string and push it down into the body cavity. This breaks the friction on the peg and it'll just fall right out.
Short of a neck reset, or taking the fretboard off and installing a carbon fiber rod, you probably won't have much luck. And both are prohibitively expensive in most cases.
Sorry Brad I normally am a raving fan but in this case the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. You have to drop the bridge 2x the amount you want to lower the 12th fret action. It needed at least 1/8” lower at the 12th to my eye - there was not 1/4” of bridge to shave. Sometimes what you can do to “reset” the neck on these old cheapies is take the back loose in the vicinity of the heel block and create pressure between the neck and heel block. This pulls the neck down dramatically- if the body is 4” thick a move of 1/32” would drop the 12th fret 4x- or about the 1/8” needed. Then you have back sticking out past the sides that has to be dealt with and if there is back binding you have to deal with that also - but I think this surgery is actually easier than pulling a bridge and it gives you enough wiggle room to get a decent action. I seriously doubt that Stella was solid back and sides - top yes - but they used plywood everywhere else- even the fingerboards are typically a veneer of rosewood on top of maple or birch/beech plywood. A traditional neck reset like you can do on a Martin is often-impossible bc there is no separate neck block- they’re either built like a classical guitar w the sides dadoed into the neck itself, or they’re a bolt-on neck with a mortise instead of a dovetail. If the former “slipping the back” is the only way to change the neck angle.
I would not use a heat lamp on a guitar. Dry heat and solid wood guitars really don't mix. You'd be asking for shrinkage and cracks doing that. Not sure what you mean by using a heat lamp and clamps in this case.
Ah. The neck on this one wasn't bowed. In the case of a bowed neck on one of these, I'd probably take the fretboard off and reshape the neck and reattach the board.
Nope, it'll have a dovetail too. Only acoustics I know of that don't are some 19th century guitars with splines joining neck and body, and bolt on necks.
It is a dovetail type mortise and tenon joint. There are several types of mortise and tenon joints. The dovetail type is the most common across acoustic guitars. Even cheap Kay and Harmony guitars used them, and every cheap import today will use them as well...unless they're bolt-on.
Ah! I'm not a luthier but I know something about joinery. In my minds eye a dovetail joint is totally different to a tenon joint. I was expecting the "tenon" to be splayed outward like a dovetail.
I think it is awesome that you do guitars as well as amps. Up until now, I have only seen, or mainly seen amp videos. This channel is just a great place to go to and relax to some cool guitar and amp repair videos.
If you had bothered to scrape the finish under the bridge that thing might actually hold. Titebond doesn't work on lacquered finishes. Also, many guitars with bad neck angles have a big bend at the body, so if you just lower the bridge you will have to deal with high frets past the body joint.
Do you still have that guitar? If you do. Is it for sale?
Hi Thomas. I do still have this one if you're interested. I ship with paypal.
The Guitologist How much are you asking?
$140
Lol you American dudes should really switch to metric 😂..its so much easier
I have this same model and year Stella Harmony..I purchased it when I 16 yrs old in 1973. Thanks for sharing the repairs.
I have a question that needs answered before I ruin a guitar. I have a Dorado classical guitar that has a backward bow on it where the neck. How would I go about fixing this? I know there is a risk of breaking it, so I was wondering what the easiest way to fix it would be with the lesser chance of ruining it? Any and all guidance is highly appreciated!!
You should have cleaned the bridge area on the guitar, to remove the finish, and clamped the bridge properly! Short-cuts like this do not work over time......This bridge will end up needing to be re-glued before too long.
Thank you for these very cool videos. Born in '50 and grew up in the 60's absolutely hooked on AM pop and British Invasion, and then around '69 listening to the first FM underground stations and the first album rock. So I really enjoy going back and looking at all of this classic gear.
The Guitologist ever do a neck reset? Ever work on kay and silver tones ever work on other harmony's
I've never seen anyone remove the bridge pins BEFORE checking the action!! Removing the pins will cause the strings to loosen an they will be lower at 12th fret
Did you ever think of trying to plane down the bridgepiece a little also? You would need an electric planer and protection for your hands, but you could get it down a little lower that way, too, and I don't think you would sacrifice much strength.
just a wee thought to share have you tried swapping the saddle and top nut with bone or ivory it can really make a difference to the sound of a guitar acoustic and electric guitars.And ivory can be sourced from very old cutlery handles that you may find at local markets or garage sales usually destined for a land fill...
Thanks for showing this fix. I have an older, inexpensive, Yamaha that has some belly up and this may be a good rescue.
YOU SHOULD do a show about your home stereo,sorry the TULLsilenced you,lol
watching this dude do math at the end is killing me
The Guitologist+ I always did the same and I know you mentioned this model doesn't really have a belly on the top, but with this model it already has screws so I don't know what it bolted too, but I would as a rule add a piece of strong hard wood across the bridges just under the top bridge and drilled holes where these already are and draw the body down, tune the strings and check the intonation on all strings. On this guitar the neck is the issue which I always adjust the truss rod and when you can't do it from the center area of the tuners like this model, you can find the adjustment inside the port hole and if you can't adjust the truss rod you should go with lighter gauge strings. I consider guitars with no way to adjust the truss rod, firewood... I also leave the strings off for one or two nights and add a support under the 12th fret and apply weight to the nut area and the body area on the neck and bow the neck back.
No Martin guitar came with an adjustable truss rod until 1985. That's some really pricey firewood. Really, Harmony guitars aren't fundamentally different from a Martin except for the ladder bracing and value, it's just much more likely the Martin has seen a luthier sometime in it's life. Just reset the neck and get on with it.
Nice tip on the string winder pin puller. Didn't ever notice that notch. I always used pliers like you do. Most of the older acoustics iv seen seem to have really high action, I have always stayed away from them, may have to try this process some time on a goodwill find. Thanks for sharing.
Do it right and carefully and you'll have a lifelong player.
Why would you not clean off the area where the bridge sets, scrapping off the finish down to the wood so the bridge sits flush? Also to get a contact with wood not finish ? Seems a little short cutish to me maybe customer couldnt afford a real fix who knows
Could heat press the neck or do a refret different ways fix it
Virtually all Harmony made guitars are all solid wood. Right at the end of the company's manufacturing in Chicago some models had laminates in their bodies- back or sides. The first Harmony archtop f hole, the De Luxe from about 1933 used laminated sides and back but all the models afterwards were all solid wood. Most old Harmony guitars have a crack or two which is the provenance of solid wood- Kay pioneered laminates and arguably that made some sense if the top was still solid wood. Good old guitars- and some sound so good despite being relatively inexpensive, so repairing them is a good thing to do. People are now appreciating these guitars rather than disregarding and junking them.
You are correct on the solid wood. Harmony is known for that. And Kay's use of laminates usually means their archtops survive crack free.
Some Kay guitars from the late 30s and the 40s are all solid wood. However, most have a laminated body with either a solid top or a laminated top. In essence, the company made guitars that were often very similar but at very different price points. Ultimately, the company seemed to cater for the low end but still made some very good mid-range instruments- the Kay top-of-the range models. Some of these can sound really good.
Agreed. I've owned a zillion Kays. Usually they need lots of setup work to make right, but once they're right, they sound great. I have demonstrated a few on my channel. Search my channel for "Kay" and you'll see a few of their low to mid range acoustics.
Here's one: ua-cam.com/video/kgO5nk0FE_M/v-deo.html
Have to disagree. Harmony branded guitars from the 30s-50s that’s probably accurate- but Stella was the student brand and pretty much all Kay, Stella, Silvertone, and some of the other catalog brands made by Harmony from the 50s on are plywood sides/backs and maybe a solid top. And if they were solid back/side it was a relatively poor quality wood made to look like something else. These were cheap instruments- great for what they were but starter-guitars nonetheless. Harmony acquired the Stella brand name in ‘39 and immediately deemed it the “student” line - pretty much all plywood instruments from that point on. I’ve never seen a solid back/side Stella. I could be wrong but I believe “Sovereign” were the “premium” Harmony brand - and those typically *are* solid wood guitars. Harmony manufactured under so many brand names - which themselves came and went from one catalog year to another it is almost impossible to track totally, and no doubt there are as many exceptions as there are rules - they made something like 10-12 million guitars from ‘45-‘75. Harmony was really the equivalent of today’s Asian production when you think about it with 8 out of every 10 guitars from that period having some connection to Harmony!
It would be nice to see more of these kind of videos from you! love the channel.
Thanks for yet another helpful set of instructions for those of us who still feel a tad intimidated at the prospect of tearing such things apart.
BTW, spied the Crysalis label and immediately thought: "...Tull?"
+CommonGroundser Tull is way under appreciated. Glad you dug the video. Thanks for the comment.
I'm trying to think who else was on Chrysalis... Fleetwood Mac?
+The Guitologist Couldn't think of any personally owned vinyl on that label that came to mind without looking it up. Just a weird memory trigger, seeing that label.
I guess branding really works.
Another I thought of later was UFO.
And Fleetwood Mac?
Copyright strike on that Jethro Tull, B
Could replace steel with carbon fiber or take steel rod out and glue it into slot clamp it so it works better also could put a better bridge on it or heat press the neck different ways fix warped neck on guitar. Sometimes get action lower from bridge.
Take a new axact knife and score around the bridge, Before removing.==it looks like the bridge is mounted on the finish== clean inside the scored section to bare wood before re gluing**DR KEL
This video was a terrific help. Thanks very much.
I don't understand how you could not clamp the bridge after gluing or take measurements with the glue not cured? Why leave those bolts in the bridge for other than looks? Good job in doing the video . Thanks
Any job worth doing is worth doing right. I would glued that bridge just like it was a high end Martin.
Sweet old Harmony
No way should you have put strings on it till glue was set. But I can see now this I would have never did this way.
Wow. Thanks for this easy fix. Even easier when the guitar as a tailpiece and a floating bridge. (Why didn't I think of that!?) Those old Harmony guitars had a decent sound if you had an iron grip. I don't.
Yes, the movable bridges are super easy. The parlor sized Stella guitars with fixed bridges are easy too. They usually only have two bolts and no glue holding the bridges on.
Why not heed the old adage about remaining silent as opposed to speaking and removing all doubt?
The Guitologist is it made out of Birch? most Stella's are made from Birch
Hey Bread, I worked on a guitar just like that one you have there it had steel in the neck of some kind you feel it the neck felt heavy.Good video🎸🎸🎸👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼😊
Thanks Steve!
The heels usually come loose on the Harmony's Most stella's are made from Birch.
That looked like JB weld under that brace -DR KEL
heck ya, saw tull several times back in the `70s ian always had top notch players in the band so the live shows were always magical.
Rockets and sovereigns are worth doing neck resets there higher end Harmony's
How do I steam off the neck? This glue on mine is CRAZY set. Just a regular Stella, but she wants to be a cigar box with humbuckers and a Strat neck.
Edit: this is Christoffer Nelson - didn't realise my roomie was logged in :)
Ahh, no way! I use the same Technics SLDL5 record player. Good stuff!
your harmony sounds a bit like my old harmony master `65 or `66 model arch top. a really thin soundso I tried flatwound strings which helps some but overall, they sound closer to a banjo than a guitar. lol
+August Lyons It's no X-braced Dreadnought, but sweet, intimate tone,great for close micing and fingerpicking. Would sound excellent recorded.
I figured out an easy way to get bridge pins out. Just take the string and push it down into the body cavity. This breaks the friction on the peg and it'll just fall right out.
Depends. Does work sometimes but not always.
I have an H940 (almost identical) and I was wondering how I could go about straightening the steel reinforced neck.
Short of a neck reset, or taking the fretboard off and installing a carbon fiber rod, you probably won't have much luck. And both are prohibitively expensive in most cases.
jesus brad, your addition at the end?
Sorry Brad I normally am a raving fan but in this case the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. You have to drop the bridge 2x the amount you want to lower the 12th fret action. It needed at least 1/8” lower at the 12th to my eye - there was not 1/4” of bridge to shave. Sometimes what you can do to “reset” the neck on these old cheapies is take the back loose in the vicinity of the heel block and create pressure between the neck and heel block. This pulls the neck down dramatically- if the body is 4” thick a move of 1/32” would drop the 12th fret 4x- or about the 1/8” needed. Then you have back sticking out past the sides that has to be dealt with and if there is back binding you have to deal with that also - but I think this surgery is actually easier than pulling a bridge and it gives you enough wiggle room to get a decent action. I seriously doubt that Stella was solid back and sides - top yes - but they used plywood everywhere else- even the fingerboards are typically a veneer of rosewood on top of maple or birch/beech plywood. A traditional neck reset like you can do on a Martin is often-impossible bc there is no separate neck block- they’re either built like a classical guitar w the sides dadoed into the neck itself, or they’re a bolt-on neck with a mortise instead of a dovetail. If the former “slipping the back” is the only way to change the neck angle.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing and yes it WAS riveting! lol
That is what I did on my 1969 Yamaha 12 .
U make money doin this?
Aqualung! One of my favs!
Beard has to gooooooo lol
Haphazard!
Squirrel!
Bravo !
The Guitologist you could use a heat lamp and wood and clamps to help bow lower action
I would not use a heat lamp on a guitar. Dry heat and solid wood guitars really don't mix. You'd be asking for shrinkage and cracks doing that. Not sure what you mean by using a heat lamp and clamps in this case.
put lamp on ceiling only above finger board that is clamped with wood
I saw a luthier fix a bow on a Harmony that way
Ah. The neck on this one wasn't bowed. In the case of a bowed neck on one of these, I'd probably take the fretboard off and reshape the neck and reattach the board.
Is it really that likely to have a dovetail joint? I thought it was mostly Martin high end models that had that.
Nope, it'll have a dovetail too. Only acoustics I know of that don't are some 19th century guitars with splines joining neck and body, and bolt on necks.
Even Martin wallet friendly made in Mexico acoustics only have a Mortice and Tenon. I've never seen a cheap brand guitar with a dovetail.
It is a dovetail type mortise and tenon joint. There are several types of mortise and tenon joints. The dovetail type is the most common across acoustic guitars. Even cheap Kay and Harmony guitars used them, and every cheap import today will use them as well...unless they're bolt-on.
Here's a typical Harmony neck removal video showing the dovetail mortise and tenon joint: ua-cam.com/video/ZSb5Tqjn6ts/v-deo.html
Ah! I'm not a luthier but I know something about joinery. In my minds eye a dovetail joint is totally different to a tenon joint. I was expecting the "tenon" to be splayed outward like a dovetail.
Shouldn't you have put glue on both surfaces?? On the guitar and the bridge!!
Even applying just glue on the one surface, there is still excess that came out. I'm certain the bond is good.
would not have hurt to change the strings and maybe clean the frets ?
That was done too, just didn't show it in this video. Wasn't the focus.
Please tell me you're gonna clean that fret board ??!!!