1960s Harmony-made Silvertone 633 Jumbo Flattop Guitar




I've worked on a few of this same-model Harmony product before, but this is probably the earliest one I've done-up and it has the chunkier neck profile and more mid-'60s appointments compared to the later versions. It's also quite clean and came to me with a neck reset done already but other work needing to be buttoned-up.

These are basically sunburst, Sears Silvertone-branded versions of the venerable H1260. As such, they're fairly lightweight for their size, ladder-braced, and made from solid wood throughout. Tone-wise they're open, full, and warm with a woodier, punchier sound compared to something similar but with x-bracing. It's a sound that many folk, blues, and newer "old country" artists are coming to prefer these days as it's different-yet-familiar to other dreadnought-sized boxes.

Specs are: 25 1/8" scale length, 1 3/4" nut width, 1 1/2" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/4" spacing at the bridge, 16" lower bout, 12" upper bout, and 4 3/8" side depth at the endblock. The neck has a medium, C-shaped rear profile with a ~10" radius to the board. The frets are medium-small and have good life left. The truss rod works and the neck is straight. Action is spot-on 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret, strung with 54w-12 gauges.

Materials are: solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood bridge and fretboard. Everything on the guitar is all-original.

Condition issues: none, really -- the finish is in great shape, there are no cracks, and it just shows general age-wear throughout -- a little bit of finish weather-check and random minor nicks and scratches. However, the frets on the fretboard extension have been leveled a bit shallow due to the previous neck reset's not-quite-right shim job to the extension. It's a non-issue playability-wise, however.

Work included: a fret level/dress, reglue of the pickguard, mild compensation to the saddle, and a good setup and restring.








Interestingly, the original saddle is at its normal (low-ish) original height and all I had to do to adjustments down here was compensate the B-string area of the saddle.








Comments