1969 Harmony H1270 Jumbo 12 String Guitar

February 13, 2016

1969 Harmony H1270 Jumbo 12 String Guitar

Just like the '67 H1270 I just posted, this guitar is a huge-sounding, rumbling beast. It's had the same work done, too, including a neck reset, fret level/dress, new fully-compensated bridge, cleaning, and a good setup. It plays on-the-dot at 1/16" DGBE and 3/32" EA at the 12th fret, has a good, easy feel, and tremendous punch and carrying power.

As I stated in the last writeup, this is as close as it gets to the boom and thump of a 20s-style Stella 12 with a tailpiece setup. It simply sounds enormous. Part of the reason is the big, wide 16" body and dreadnought-depth sides. The other part is a lightweight, ladder-braced top and 12-fret positioning of the bridge. It's entirely in the sweet-spot for "big sound" generation.

The top is solid spruce, the back, sides, and neck are solid mahogany, and the board and bridge are rosewood. This is all-original, too, save for my new bridge (the original is stowed in the chip case).

The top and back are crack-free, though there's a bit of finish-rubbing with the grain on the top lower bout's treble side.

Rosewood headstock veneer and a wide 2" nut. The scale length is a longer 25 1/4" which is why I tune these down a step D-to-D for safety's sake. Still, the truss works fine and the neck is nice and straight. It's strung with standard 47w-10 12-string "lights."

The frets are all basically full-height and in good order. Note the typical Harmony machine-lining in the rosewood from whatever piece of equipment they used to radius the boards with.

The neck profile is a big D shape but that means the string spread is wide enough that chords ring-out true rather than muffled by one's fingertips mashing other strings. I find it a comfy neck to play compared to, say, a Martin D12-20 of the same period (which cramp my hands a little more).

The original pickguard came glued-down just fine (they're usually warping-up).

My new rosewood bridge is compensated for each string individually -- so if you're an open-tuner and like to capo a lot, this will make your ears very, very, very happy.

Compared to the '67 I just worked on, this tailpiece is higher-quality.

Here's that rubbing at the lower-bout treble edge of the top. It doesn't seem to be cracked, but it is worn. Even if it was a real crack, it runs right over the kerfing under the top so it's a non-issue.