1962 Harmony Rocket Hollowbody Electric Guitar

Update 2022: this is back here as a trade-in, so I've updated the post with new pics, new video, and adjustments to the text where necessary...

I'm a fan of Harmony Rockets. They handle like nothing else, really. One would expect them to be Gretsch-y or Gibson-y, being slim hollowbodies with a rather "long" body shape. They don't, though. The necks have a short scale and are medium thickness with no taper. Combined with the usual Harmony-style DeArmond pickups that tend towards kerrangy, aggressive, and midsy-bright, they're much more rocky than rockabilly or jazzy.

This '62 has a cool, sunburst finish over its ply-maple body. It's not a color combo you see as often on these as compared to the red they usually come in.

This one's all done-up, now, and playing bang-on, but its neck pickup is a replacement "goldfoil" mini-humbucker with an alnico magnet. It plays nice with the bridge pickup, looks good on the instrument, and sounds excellent.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, replacement pickup install, much cleaning, and setup-side work.

Body wood: ply maple

Bridge: ebonized maple, adjustable (original but compensated for 3-wound, 3-plain)

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: poplar

Pickups: 1x modern alnico mini-humbucker, 1x original DeArmond goldfoil single-coil

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast)

String gauges: 46w-10 lights

Neck shape: medium C

Board radius: 10"

Truss rod: non-adjustable

Neck relief: hair of relief overall

Fret style: medium-low

Scale length: 24 1/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Body width: 15 7/8"

Body depth: 2" + arching

Weight: 6 lbs 2 oz

Condition notes: it looks good overall, though does show scratching and wear and tear throughout. The pickguard has a small hairline crack near the mount. The neck pickup is replaced but fits-in. The tuners are original but no the best (as usual). I added side dots at some point. Thee's blem along the edges of the neck near frets 1-5 where the fretboard was, presumably, reglued in the past. The neck also had mild relief to it (really typical for an old Harmony neck) which I've adjusted-out for the most part via leveling/dressing the frets. I do not suggest strings that are any heavier than what's on it, though. The strap button at the tailpiece is unoriginal and the tailpiece mounting screws are, too. Oh, and the nut's a replacement, too.

It comes with: sorry, no case.