1957 Harmony H44 Stratotone Electric Guitar
These old Stratotones, with their neck-through, poplar-body design, are just plain old cool guitars. I didn't get a chance to do a video for this one, but I do have videos of a couple others -- click here and click here to see/hear those two.
This is a local customer's instrument and I can't remember for sure but I'm fairly certain I saw this one for sale online somewhere at some point. I remember seeing "Talking Guitar" scrawled on one of these before but I might just be nutty. The twist is that the name -- "Jonnie's?" -- in that tag is missing.
It needed the usual stuff -- a heavy-handed level/dress of the frets, compensation and adjustments to the bridge, a ground wire drilled-for and added to the tailpiece, and setup-side work. I've taken to adding a couple of screws to add extra downpressure at the tailpiece by bolting it down to the top. It helps with the very-low break angle these instruments have from the factory and the annoying overtones and rattles that can add to these guitars.
Anyhow, this one turned-out just as good as these can get -- it plays quick and easy, has a charmingly-burred kind-of voice, and sounds excellent when given some drive. There's a reason the blues guys are into these.
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