c.1935 Harmony Mahogany O-size Tenor Guitar

September 02, 2010

c.1935 Harmony Mahogany O-size Tenor Guitar

Here's a beaut! This one was in for repairs for a customer: work included regluing all the back braces, regluing the whole back, installing a new bridge plate (this one is rosewood), installing a new bridge, new nut, a fret dress, installing some vintage geared pegs to replace the original friction pegs, cleaning, and setup.

After all that? This bird does SING!

It's warm, focused, resonant, responsive, and purty loud, too. Overall the ideal tenor... and ladder braced to boot giving it plenty of drive. This seems to have been Harmony's take on the all-mahogany Martin O-17T, in terms of material and style... as it's got a longish 13" wide body with fairly deep sides.

Did I mention the curl and flame that adorns the top profusely?

MOP dots, unbound "ebonized" maple board.

My customer supplied me with this replacement rosewood bridge, to which I've added a period-style fret saddle. Action height is perfect -- just a little under 1/8" at the 12th fret. Quick player. It's tuned to GDAE an octave below mandolin at the moment, which really makes use of the larger body.

Peculiar label.

Back is just as pretty. This guitar was covered in paint specks, grime, and scuffs before cleaning.

Customer-supplied nifty 1920s/30s Grover geared "pancake" pegs... really helps in tuning this fellow. Great ivoroid buttons, too.

Ah, and there's the Harmony label affixed to the rear of the headstock. When I installed these tuners I underdrilled the holes and painstakingly then filed them to the proper size. I find that this eliminates any worries about splitting the headstock with a big old drill bit, which can frighten me on older instruments like this with pretty thin headstocks.

When I reglued the back, I overlapped the edge a bit to pull the neck back into a proper set angle, then trimmed the edges, sanded, and put a thin layer of finish to protect the edge wood. This worked wonders, as the joint was perfectly tight.