1940s Harmony-made SS Stewart 7006 Archtop Guitar

Mr. Paul picked this beauty of an old archtop up and sent it here for setup-side work. It got a refret in the end and this is often what pushes these old boxes past "cool" into "excellent" territory. The experience of original, low-mass Harmony frets is... ho-hum. It also let me level/dress minor neck inconsistencies off the top of the new, wide, tall frets.

While the soundclip doesn't truly reflect the bass-side presence of the guitar (my hand was in the way with that mic position), this box really does sound the business. It's got all that chop, bite, and attack you want from an archtop but also more smoothness on the top-end and a good, chunky rumble on the low. The owner and I are pretty sure it's a carved-top Harmony model, but we're not sure on that. It has many of the hallmarks of a carved-top model on the inside.

Repairs included: a refret with jumbo/pyramid stock, modification to the bridge (original Harmony bridges adjust backwards from most archtop bridges and I reversed this so it works like a normal one -- the wheels hold the bridge up from the bottom of the saddle rather than the other way around), cleaning, and setup.

Setup notes: it plays bang-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret, strung with 54w-12 gauges, and the neck is straight under tension.

Scale length: 25 1/8"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/4"

Body length: 20"

Lower bout width: 16 1/8"

Waist width: 9 1/8"

Upper bout width: 11 3/8"
Side depth at endpin: 3 1/4"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid maple

Bracing type: tonebar

Fretboard: ebonized pearwood/maple

Bridge: ebonized pearwood/maple, adjustable

Neck feel: medium-big V, ~10" board radius

Condition notes: the guitar is totally-original and in good order save new frets. There's a minor amount of (repaired) chip-out at the fretboard extension on the board and minor scratches throughout the body.

Who doesn't love tortoise headstock veneers?

The original tuners look great.