1930s Harmony Archtop Electrified Rubber Bridge Guitar Conversion

When this was new, it was a decent-spec Harmony-made archtop from the late '30s or early '40s. At some point a whole bunch of work was done to it -- a neck reset, refret, and total refinish job mixed in with some crack repairs. It arrived here that way but also with nylon strings on it. I mean -- why not?

The acoustic tone of some of these old Harmony archtops leaves a bit to be desired and that was more-or-less the case here. Its owner wanted us to sell it for him so I figured the best way about that was to repurpose it into something neat!

In this case, I asked Ancel to convert it over to a rubber bridge guitar -- electrified with an Alnico-magnet lipstick pickup. He made a Charlie Christian-looking surround for the pickup and fit it and wired it up as well. After that it got a new rosewood saddle with a rubber top, a light fret level/dress job, and setup work.

The result is a guitar that's cool enough that the owner decided to keep it instead! How about that?

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, wiring harness install, new saddle, setup, etc.

Weight: 4 lbs 6 oz

Scale length: 25 1/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Neck shape: medium V

Board radius: 12"

Body width: 15 1/2"

Body depth: 3 1/4"

Body wood: spruce over mahogany

Bridge: rosewood adjustable

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: mahogany

Pickups: 1x lipstick single coil

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 50w-11 w/wound G nickel-wound

Truss rod: non-adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Condition notes: it's been refinished and has had various work done to it in the past but it's in good health and stable. The pickup, wiring harness, knobs, jack, etc. are all recent additions, of course. It's missing its original pickguard but it did have an oddball one on it when it came in -- which we removed. The tuners and tailpiece are replacements.