1960s Harmony-made Alden Tuxedo Stratotone Semihollow Electric Guitar

November 04, 2019

1960s Harmony-made Alden Tuxedo Stratotone Semihollow Electric Guitar

I've worked on lots of old Stratotones from this era -- 1 pickup, 2 pickup, and various colors and brandings. This is the first one that I said "woah, Nelly," to as soon as I plugged it in. Most of them are fun, funky, grungy, and cool. They get a good garage-rock sound when driven. This one, however, has a razor-like zap, punch, and bitey-ness to the pickup that surprised me. It's also hot as heck. I had to put my jack in the "low" input to keep it from driving the amp right out of the gate.

That's because -- as an eagle-eyed Instagrammer pointed out -- it's not an original pickup. It is a '60s pickup, but it's a Teisco-made (Japan) one. I confirmed that when I took it out of its housing for the second time and saw the two original tiny screwholes that would've mounted an original DeArmond straight to the body. It also has the 3-wire leads a usual Japanese pickup has (+/-/ground) In contrast to the DeArmond, this Teisco pickup is spring-loaded as well so the two screws on either side of it allow for height adjustment.

The owner/consignor of this guitar had also cut the tone-pot bypass switch out of the circuit and wired it a little weird under the hood. I corrected that back to original wiring spec and was happy with the tonal improvement and the utility of said switch. It allows you to preset a second, mellowed "tone" setting with the tone knob rolled-off as you see fit... and then go from that to "wide open" with the flip of the switch. It's great for setting yourself up a chordal/lead situation.

Anyhow, after I did my usual glorified setup work to this, the guitar plays like a gem and sounds fantastic as a roots-rock, garage-rock, or cowpoke-rockabilly little firestarter. Its short scale makes it fast on the fingers and the lightweight, semihollow design makes it friendly to the shoulders and gives it more of a fundamental sound.

Repairs included: some minor rewiring, a fret level/dress, side dots install (to replace white-out dots), compensation to the bridge and screw-down of the bridge to keep it secure, cleaning, and setup.

Setup notes: it plays perfectly with a straight neck and 1/16" action overall at the 12th fret. It's strung with 46w-10 gauges and is compensated at the bridge for plain-G (normal) stringing. The neck doesn't have an adjustable truss rod but it does have a set-in steel rod reinforcement.

Scale length: 24 1/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 1 15/16"

Body length: 17 5/8"

Lower bout width: 13 1/4"

Waist width: 8"

Upper bout width: 9 3/8"

Side depth at endpin: 2"

Top wood: ply birch

Back/sides wood: solid birch, pine centerblock

Neck wood: poplar

Fretboard: ebonized maple, bone nut

Bridge: ebonized maple, compensated

Neck feel: medium C-shape, ~10-12" board radius

Condition notes: it's very clean (though does show mild-light use-wear throughout) and all-original with the exception of the '60s Teisco pickup and an extra ground wire running to the tailpiece (both are good additions). The nut is bone which suggests that this might be a very late-'50s build rather than '60s, but I couldn't find a date stamp on it to be 100% sure.

It comes with: its original chip case -- a bit ratty but useful.