Harmony Archtop
I bought a Harmony archtop guitar made in 1945 on ebay for about $200. I knew I had to have it on first sight. What really had me sold was the wooden tailpiece used because of metal rationing during the war.
Upon arrival, I was quite pleased with the tone and condition of the guitar. Buying guitars on ebay is a real slippery slope, especially with these old cheapo guitars – you never know what the thing will sound like and what kind of repairs the thing will need, but hearing the tone of the guitar was enough to know it was a keeper.
There were a couple couple issues I noticed right away. The neck heel joint was starting to come loose from the body, causing the neck angle to be too far forward. Ideally, this would be a candidate for a neck reset, but I wasn’t about to put a $500 repair into a $200 guitar. So instead, I decided to drive a two inch long wood screw through the neck heel into the neck block inside the guitar, pulling the joint tight again. And I disguised the repair by putting in a strap button in as well, which is actually super handy – no more futzing around with shoestrings.
The action is still a little high, plus I have it strung up 13’s, so it is not the easiest guitar to play, but does allow for some really aggressive picking.
You can hear it as the lead guitar on this track I produced for Erin Farrell.
