Vintage Harmony Guitars - they have their charms but are they worth it?
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- Опубліковано 5 тра 2021
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Harmony guitars is a sponsor of this roadcase series, and Im a well known lover of their current modern guitars, but what do I think of these vintage examples of Harmony guitars?
Huge thanks to Moze guitars for hosting this video, if you see anything you like hit them up here: www.mozeguitars.com/
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I think most of those old "pristine" guitars on the low-budget end of things are the product of an owner who wanted a guitar but didn't have the commitment to learn to play, instead left in its chipboard case for decades in their closet, attic or basement
That's one story. I know a tiny shop that sells only these types of guitars and I've heard different stories about these types of things. Some of them come from attics, some of them are basically new old stock. These types of guitars became fairly unpopular during the sixties so some of them ended up getting shelved.
@@theothertonydutch Yeah, that's what I'd guess. A mix of unsold merchandise and closet guitars.
@@theothertonydutch ...yesterday's discards become today's treasures. It always interests me how old things become new or trendy again.
@@DavidHBurkart I would never discard my 3 pickup rocket No truss rod battered to hell but much loved
@@elephantsmemory3142 Heck no!!
The Harmony archtop acoustic is the first guitar I learned to play anything on in the early to mid 60s. I have four guitars now each in their own class, a Harmony archtop acoustic is one of them and still the most comfortable to play.
I'm a harmony guitar freak! Last count somewhere around 40 (some are Kay or silvertone kay) I absolutely love the tone those pickups get when running through a low watt old tube amp. I recently traded a Martin D-18 for a harmony H1265 and some say I'm crazy. The guy I made the trade with thought I was crazy. Maybe I am but I'm happy!
Love all my old Harmony guitars. Fun to see you trying some out
I think they both sounded good.
My first guitar was a Harmony acoustic from the Sears catalog. It was a beast to play, lol.
I picked up a 63 teisco Delray from next door neighbor who had it sitting in his closet for whole 50+ years,said he played it twice ....absolutely mint...$75,great guitar....sold it last year for $300....btw those dearmond-rowe pickups on those old harmony guitars are some of the best sounding pickups out there or the 3 goldfoil like that Teisco I had.
Hey from San Diego Ryan! I had a Harmony acoustic back in high school. Bought it for 25 bucks at a yard sale. It looked very similar to the sunburst one you have there- just violin brown and no electrics. It was a nice old guitar. I remember the bridge was fiddly- I had to shim it to get rid of string buzz but it sounded good to my ears.
I love these old guitars. I still have a Harmony Rebel (a Rickenbacker 330 style guitar, and a Kay K30, which is a Les Paul style one. I also have a '68 Silvertone hollowbody, but that's modded into a short scale bass for the time being.
I know this is an old video, but I wanted to say: of course these guitars have merit! Granted it may be very niche, but the Rocket has that early/ Garage Rock tone because that's like what all of the upstarts were playing and that acoustic with the DeArmond rhythm chief is the early Blues sound: kinda like what Muddy Waters was playing when he first got to Chicago. You can do more than that with these guitars, but if that's the sound you're going for, those are the ones to get, along with an old Silvertone amp. The acoustic would be okay for Jazz (especially if you lower the action), but I think Blues, Folk, Soft Rock, Bluegrass/Newgrass (maybe) would be where that puppy shines, and with the right setup the Rocket would be a great Rock (and every subgenre) machine.
I just played one of these at a local shop. It was pretty cool and had great tone and feel. I wanted to take it home.
I have a 'vintage' Harmony H815 Flying V. With a baseball bat neck, and crappy single coils (in a V) and worn down frets, and electronics barely work. But, this was my first guitar, I bought it back in 1985 for $40 from a discount store. I would love to say I still have it (I do) but that's a bit of a stretch of the truth. I had sold it when I got a better guitar, but over the last few years I was feeling nostalgic, and tracked it down, and probably overpaid for it to buy it back, but now I have my first guitar I learned on hanging on my wall, and it seems worth it for that. Other than the fact it badly needs frets, new pickups, electronics, and not even sure the neck can be setup right, it's great! Okay, just happy to have my first guitar back. :D
I had a guy contact me about a 1970 martin 12 string I was selling and he kept texting me questions about who I got it from. Just really weird questions. I was getting a weird vibe like maybe this had been stole from him. Dude got real defensive when I asked him "what's up with all these weird questions" That's when he told me he had sold it and wanted it back but he wasn't going to pay what I was asking. By this time I had put a lot of work into the guitar and was barely breaking even. I ended up blocking the guy and traded it for a Martin D-18 that I later traded for a Harmony H1265.
I would have gladly worked with this guy but he was such a asshole about it. I felt bad for him even. Glad you were able to get yours back. I'd love to have one myself.
I started on a jazzbox. I dig them a lot
I have had a bobcat, a h75 and h22 bass ( the last 2 found at car boot sales here in west wales) and all reaaly cool , the bass in particular was great
Those look like they are in Amazing condition. Wow! ...and they sound great.
The first ever electric guitar I ever saw in person (instead of a picture of one) was a Harmony Rocket around 1962.
My '56 H65 cutaway with P13 pickup is dead straight the best playing guitar I have, and I have a couple old gretsches ('64 Tennie and "69 Corsair), '79 Gibson Les Paul Pro, and a Larrivee. They all gather dust while I play the H65 and a '62 Silvertone 367/61909 modded with an after market pickup and a gretsch roller bridge.
Yeah Moze Guitars....Awesome!!
Dude, I'm feeling that tone of the 2nd harmony. Has a nice George Bensonish, Carlos Santanay tone. Sweet review brother.
🙌🏻🎸🎶
yeah i went on ebay to shop for those pickups as I was editing this video, lol.
@@60CycleHumcast they're really smooth sounding.
Funny, I've owned variation's of both of these. My Rocket just had the neck pickup, and the other one - mine was just an acoustic, but I uninvasively put an old Kay pickup at the neck position like that one.
I hav a few vintage Harmony guitars. Their neck pup's are really wonderful, sweet and mellow but capable of a huge growl when overdriven.
My first electric was a Harmony Rocket H53, I still have it. Bought it for $70 from a pawn shop when I was in college in 1994.
Yes, they were sold in department stores, but so was everything else. Dedicated music stores were rare and department stores were everywhere, made more accessible via catalogs.
Yes, the Rocket was $100 in 1967, but, with inflation, that's almost $800 in 2021 money. So, yeah, that guitar was a significant chunk of change. Plus, it was made in Chicago.
The tone of the non-cutaway model with the HM-2 would be awesome as a double tracked rhythm sound.
Love those pickup awsome tone.
I have my dad's Harmony H59 Rocket and case and my granpa's Silvertone archtop black (658). I play dad's thru his Alamo twin ten tube amp 1959.
I still want one of these types of bad boys.
Roadcase is my favourite case!
Every time I see one of your videos, I want to buy guitars!
I got the jazz box H1215 and I put a pick guard on it and a K and K pickup now im thinking about the changing to this DeArmond pickup. Sound is an Acquired taste.
The 2nd guitar you played was the first guitar I ever owned and learned how to play on.
My grandpa left me a 1951 Harmony h50 . Can anyone help me out and tell me what would be a good setup for this old jazz box as far as what amp etc
I wonder if the Pawn shop near me still has the one like the second one you played. It was priced at $450.
"Piles and Piles of PRS's"! Dude, I can only dream about that one and even at that, I'm not sure I can afford that dream!
Too much fun!!
I love the H45 Stratotones, I hope I can have one someday... maybe if Eastwood releases a model like the H44s xD
Those dearmonds sound gooooood
Damn, that was great. I'll take them, any chance they come left-handed?
I like the one with the Dearmond Rhythm Chief 1000 more!
My first electric bass was a Harmony that came from JCPenney catalog (I think). It wasn't great, but it did the job until I could afford a used Fender P Bass. The P Bass was light years better.
That rocket is pretty cool.
Those are very nice examples for what they are, but way too pricey for what they are. I really like the Rocket, but $899 is nuts!
Maybe but it is a guitar shop. You would never get that much selling it on your front porch
@@translateslowly Not really when you consider it has original DeArmond pickups, which are prized by guitar collectors and afficianados
How much is a harmony h54o3s
My whole thing with vintage silvertone and harmony etc. Is they didnt know what they had. They were competing on the market and had some amazing guitars. Not to knock the big boys ofcourse but like ya know, what could have been.....
Harmony/DeArmond Moustache or Scroll Gold~Foils, OMG! the sound!
In general do these old harmony guitars stay in tune or are they unreliable like the airline?
I have two and they hold tune great with pretty good intonation. ❤
"Are Harmony guitars good?"
Brought to you by Harmony Guitars
I think recording the video that includes the room sound is important to hear how a guitar sounds. It seems like you have the mic directly on the amp so
One doesn't get the natural resonance in the room
I was in a guitar shop, not a recording studio. it is what it is.
I love the look and sound of 'jazz boxes' but I don't play jazz. Still want one, though. I have a problem 😉
You can play all kinds of things on a ‘jazz box’.
@@powbobs Thank you. Now I just need the money 😄
I just bought that Rocket from those guys.
👍👍 cool video my friend ☺️
I liked just because of the John Barry and Henry Mancini riffs!
I dig that rocket.
i own a sort of clone of an old harmony, i reckon mine is possibly 60's maybe 70's
What is it called?? It was probably made by Harmony for someone else
Dude, these days, that Rocket is priced to sell! Wow.
It annoys me how close you get the guitar in your hand to the one on the stand… but I like your channel
I really want an old archtop acoustic (or one with a piezo) so I have an excuse for the perfect opportunity to learn Django Reinhardt-style, gypsy jazzy. So I can record the soundtrack to my self-produced quirky, comedy-of-errors indie film.
great, cant wait for the prices to spike because of this
I like them
Already over-priced, just went up. Yea they sound good, yea they were good guitars. I had a cheap flat-top in the 90s for a while. Beautiful tone mostly cause it was solid wood instead of ply like a lot of competitors. Made in the 50s or 60s, was a real survivor. Have had several archtops, all were nice. A couple of Silvertones made by either Harmony or Kay, one National. One gem with no name on it still in my possession. The current Silvertone has a gold-foul in the neck position, the no-name is getting a P90.
Nothing rocks like a Harmony.
what about a stella? lol
7:59 You think that neck’s thick n’ chunky, try a Monterey. It’s weird knowing which ‘60s Harmony archtop neck I prefer.
I like the rocket I prefer the second guitar
Just off the cuff, the second guitar sounds way more appealing to me.
I met a woman who got a divorce settlement, bought a 6k Martin with beautiful inlay, couldn't play and was just storing it. I played it for about 15 minutes, and good gawd, it was nice. I didn't see her again. What a waste.
My first guitar was a Harmony (from Sears decades ago). When my friend gave me his Fender to play I literally got pissed at my cheap parents for getting me the crappy Harmony
Parents don’t know what a good guitar is. Also kids start and stop hobbies all the time so who knows if it’s worth the investment. I get it.
Tal Wilkenfeld only has a couple 6 string guitars.
A Harmony is one of them.
Im really dissapointed you didnt let us hear ether of them unplugged.
Let's hear how they do feedback....
Keith Richards of Rolling Stones played that guitar is why I nagged Grandmother to buy it.
Come on, there must be some better fuzz settings available.
Kal Marks does very loud and very dirty things with their old Harmony Rockets.
My husband has three guitars. He doesn't know how to play, so there they sit in their cases.. I don't play them. He's got a garbage Glarry Strat copy, an Ibanez AF75 and a Epi Les Paul Custom Pro silverburst.
What do you play? Just curious. Wish I had an epi silverburst at my disposal. I have no LP in my life.
Well, instead of paying for a thousand or a million dollar Gibson guitar! I would rather have any of these harmony guitars!
I have a Harmony H75 plays better than my Ric and 335.
They are nice for what they are but they will always be a flea market guitar worth $200, even in 100 years; and that is part of their charm.
The description is not the place to hang up your bling sling.
***Noodles for 10 minutes*** "how do yall think that sounds?
Like shit, play something musical. Your reviews are good, but I cant sit through 10 minutes of you playing three notes and stopping.
ADD.
ADD. He doesn't play guitar, he wears them like jewelry.
Get someone who can play a guitar.
Are you volunteering?
I'm always deeply suspicious of pristine 'vintage' guitars - they're fake unless proven otherwise. Yhere is a certain youtuber who , very regularly, finds 60,70 yr old gibsons and fenders 'one of the cleanest I saw' - er, yeah.
would someone fake an old harmony though? both of those were listed under a grand. I could totally see that with vintage gibsons, fenders, etc. though. Theres a small army of luthiers out there that specialize in making vintage style relics, whats to stop them from faking vintage guitars and trying to sell them for big bucks?
I've got about 15 Harmonys laying around. Outside the Stratotone lines, the hollowbodies with rectangular fret markers generally have a much better neck. The big-box H-50's often had Gibson P-13 pickups in them (look them up, you'll see the same pickup as on many 40's/50's era Gibson lap steels... these are the predecessors to the P-90. The ES-like H-75/6/7/8's are one of my favorite (I've had 4) and the DeArmond pickups on those tend to have a little higher resistance than the one's on Stratotones, Meteors or Rockets. In the Stratotone line, I prefer the H-49, for all it's cool bling and nicer neck. And of course there is the venerable H-44, which looks like a nutritionally starved LP and has a neck that the AAA Mudhens would approve of.
If you really want to know more about Harmonys, there's a website called HarmonyGuysBoard.net which has some very knowledgeable folks on it. I"ve been there for about 15 years (rjones652), and there are some folks who've been repairing garage-sale finds for decades.
If you want, I can send you some pics of my instruments.
I started with a h1260, in late 50s, soon went to a stratotone. Currently, have 3 rockets, a h48 stratotone, 4 acoustics.
Yo! dude the Harmony Hollywood is just what I'm looking for! I'm going to get one on Reverb. Word tuh yah.Caise I'm tripping on mushrooms. If you can dig!?$"
Well... I've got a house-full of old Harmony guitars... Just love them...