1962 Harmony H59 Rocket (3-Pickup) Hollowbody Electric Guitar

A local customer owns this guitar and has had it since new. He would've been 17 at the time! He's kept it in great shape through the years and it only needed glorified setup work -- a fret level/dress, cleaning, compensation at the bridge, and setup -- to get it performing beautifully.

I didn't have time to snag a clip, but the DeArmond goldfoil pickups on these are basically outrageous. They're wound hot and have a sizzly, biting tone to them. Played clean they sound like a strong, '60s, garage-band, bright tone. Add a bit of drive and whoosh, that's where it's at. These bloom right away into a rocketship of grrrrrrr.

The only unoriginal part on this is the pickguard he made for it. It's made from the wall of a '60s plastic case (which held phone-to-phone transfer/redirection equipment) from one of his workplaces. The case was damaged and so it was being discarded and he used the molded plastic from the side to make a pickguard.

Normal Harmony specs are found on this one's neck -- 24 1/8" scale length, 1 3/4" nut with, ~10" board radius, and a medium-fat-C neck profile.

The bone nut (like on this one) disappeared on these pretty fast as these were made into the later-'60s

I added side dots while I was at it.

Note the notches I added to the bridge to give better compensation for each string. I've set it up with 10s and it's compensated for a modern (unwound) G string.

That's some playwear on that poplar neck!