1960s Harmony Rubber-Bridge Parlor Guitar

Above: electric clip

Above: acoustic clip

This is a funky old Harmony parlor guitar from the '60s -- probably a Stella 949 or similar -- that was stripped and refinished natural at one point. It's solid birch throughout the body, ladder-braced, has some longer cracks in the back (repaired), and had its seams glued incorrectly at one point, though I've trimmed the overhang problems down. It's quirky, for sure.

After solving all of the structural problems, I also went-about converting this into a "rubber-bridge" electrified guitar, per the desires of so many cool kids these days. I fit a single-blade-style single-coil pickup, wiring harness with volume and tone, and Switchcraft jack down on the side. The knobs are deep-red-brown vintage-style Dakaware stuff. I modified the original bridge to both be height-adjustable (via thumbwheels like an archtop) and also fit with a big piece of rubber-foam-stuff as the "saddle." This is the "rubber bridge" thing -- it gives the whole instrument a muted, marimba-like, ukulele-like vibe that you can hear all over newish "indie" records by all sorts of well-known folk.

These small-body, cheap, tailpiece-loaded "parlor" guitars are the usual weapon of choice for conversion because they get the sound and they also look neat and they also recycle otherwise "ok" guitars into something fun.

Repairs included: neck reset, fret level/dress, side dots install, wiring harness and pickup install, replacement ('60s, Swedish?) tuners, replacement (bone) nut, saddle and bridge mod to "rubber bridge" setup, adjustments, etc...

Body wood: solid birch

Bridge: ebonized maple w/rubber saddle

Fretboard: maple

Neck wood: poplar

Pickups: 1x blade-style (CC-look) single coil

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 50w, 38w, 28w, 20w, 16, 12 (custom set, nickel-wound)

Neck shape: medium C/V

Board radius: flat

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: low/smaller

Scale length: 24 1/8"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

Body width: 13"

Body depth: 3 3/4"

Weight: 3 lbs 11 oz

Condition notes: as mentioned above -- refinished, non-orginal tuners, modded bridge/saddle, added electronics, longer (repaired) back cracks, slightly-mucked (repaired) seam creep/mismatch, replacement nut, etc... it's funky but worthy.