1950s Harmony H44 Stratotone Electric Guitar

This is the second H44 Stratotone that's been in the shop in recent memory and this one originally looked like the other one (which still had its metallic orange/copper finish) but was refinished, apparently, decades ago to natural. This guy was also brought-in for consignment but it sold in the shop before I could get this blog post done. I had to snap photos while the new owner was on his way out the door.

It needed the usual stuff -- a fret level/dress, additional ground wire sent to the tailpiece, compensation and modification of the bridge so it'd intonate correctly, and a modification of the pickup mount to let it be height-adjustable. These are all changes that bring the instrument into the modern age and thus make it useful to the average player -- and a lot easier on the ears.

This particular guitar has an outrageously-good-sounding DeArmond pickup -- it's balanced, hot, and has good treble response compared to what I usually expect from this pickup type. I was well-pleased.

As per the usual for this model, it's a one-pickup design but the controls are fit with a slider switch that engages/disengages the tone and volume pots so you can basically have it set for an "all guns blazing" output and a filtered one -- giving you the essence of a two-pickup guitar.

The necks on these are unlike the later bolt-on Harmony Stratotones as they're 1 3/4" at the nut, have a medium-soft-C shape to the neck rear, and a tapered shape like on Harmony acoustics (belling-out near the body joint) rather than the non-tapered shape of the bolt-on Harmony electrics.