Friday, April 18, 2014

1960's Harmony Master Acoustic Archtop Guitar


Here we have a 1960's Harmony Master archtop guitar.  This is a good example of  a mass produced instrument by harmony.  The painted on headstock logo as well as the painted on fret markers are just a couple of the cost cutting methods used .

Not only were they cutting cost with the paint but with the process as well.  You can see that they weren't that concerned with creating perfect boxes for the fret markers as the paint shadowing and spill out is pretty evident.
They must have had a better stencil for the logo as there is no bleed.  These guitars and the building process are such a curiosity, which is why I love them.  You would think it would have been a lot easier to master the block paint on the fretboard than it would have to ornament the headstock nicely. I would have loved to been there in the factory to see how things operated in their effort of mass production.  Harmony was outproducing everybody back in the day, making millions of guitars.  As wonderful as it would be to see a craftsman work individually on an instrument, it would also be pretty cool to see how Harmony, Kay and Regal mass produced their instruments.

This guitar is a pretty spunky player and a bit of a survivor as she is in pretty good shape for her age.  It's tough to find these lower grade instruments in good shape.  I wonder if they were thought of as being somewhat disposable because of their lower price point and people just didn't have any incentive to take care of them.  A friend of mine said it all when he said "once you get used to it, it's a lot of fun to play.  If you are used to the sound of your dreadnaught, than this guitars feel and tone might take some getting used to. Once you dig into it, it is a bunch of fun to play.  I keep a Kay or Harmony archtop with a 17" lower bout on my wish list as that bigger lower bout would probably round out and balance the tone a bit better.  Plus the ones from the 40's are really sharp looking guitars.

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