1920s Harmony-made Decalcomania Hawaiian Parlor Guitar

This pretty old parlor is one in a long line of decal-bedecked Harmony-made flattops intended, from the factory, for Hawaiian (raised-string, lap-slide style) play. I usually convert these over to "Spanish" style, but a 1/32" or so warp in the neck convinced me to simply restore it to factory-original as a Hawaiian. That included replacing a split original bridge with a vintage straight-saddle one, a neck reset, and some seam repairs as well as a new tall bone nut and replacement tuners.

The tone is, as it should be, delicious and wide-open. I often think that these guitars sound "in their element" when played as they were meant to be (Hawaiian style) as the bar-and-fingerpicks method really brings out a ton of volume, punch, and sustain despite the small body size.

The top is solid spruce and ladder-braced. It's very, very lightly-built and so while I have this in open E tuning (EBEG#BE) the strings are relatively light for its 24 1/8" (short) scale length. I have it strung 50w, 36w, 26w, 18w, 16, 12 for even tension around the same as a set of 11s at those pitches.

I put a big old bone nut on there for stability. The tuners are replacements (50s units) but they more-or-less look the part of the 20s tuners that're no longer with the guitar.

Note that there's a small "line" just below the nut on the fretboard. That was for the factory-installed metal nut extender that's so, so common to find on these.

The neck is poplar and the fretboard is stained maple. The frets are brass. Stained maple boards tend to get a little mealy, brittle, and also tend to get hairline cracks up and down their length. This is mostly due to the "ebonizing" stain. The dots look like clay or celluloid.

Nice purfling, huh? This guitar is bound on the top, back, and soundhole edges. Originally all that purfling would've been bright yellows, oranges, browns, and greens. It's mostly muted, now, but still looks handsome.

The bridge is a replacement from my parts-bin (probably off a Regal) but it is period. I used one that was just a hair larger than the original one to cover up a bit of a messy old reglue job in the past and also reinforce the top area. The wood pins and endpin, however, are all original.

The cool island-scene decals are, of course, the highlight of the instrument.

The back and sides are solid birch. Note that there are no cracks on the guitar's body save some very small tiny hairline cracks right at the widest part of the lower bout's edges. They're over kerfing and so pose no structural concern.

The neck has been reset both with glue and a couple extra internally-installed bolt/screws.

The side decals are awesome, too!