1960s Harmony Stella H927 Electrified Rubber Bridge Parlor Guitar

The H927 and H929 models of "Stella" parlor guitar made by Harmony were student-level classics back in the day. This one has a too-faded date stamp but it's probably from the early '60s judging by its hardware. It's solid birch throughout the body, has a poplar neck, and an ebonized junk-wood fretboard and bridge.

Of course, these days we're often doing rubber-bridge mods to these little flattops as it gives them a new lease on life and that's just what's happened here. It plays bang-on after work and has a nice, thuddy, percussive sound that fits easily into any sort of mix and, if you're so inclined, sounds really cool when played fingerstyle as you get a sort-of "marimba-like" tone from it. We use pretty damped-sounding rubber in-shop as that's the sound we're chasing -- very low sustain and more of a "plunk" rather than the "thwank" sound some of the other rubber-bridge-mod shops are doing.

It's got simple wiring -- just a master volume knob and a jack. We use nickel wound-G stringing as standard on these (like a set of 11s with wound G) but plain G will intonate just the same if you prefer that. The rubber intonates like a classsical guitar's saddle (on a straight line with the leading edge "at" the scale) with steel strings.

Repairs included: a neck reset, replacement back braces, fret level/dress, seam repairs, hairline crack repair (top), pickup and wiring harness fitting, rubber bridge conversion, setup, etc.

• Weight: 3 lbs 15 oz
• Scale length: 24 1/8"
• Nut width: 1 3/4"
• Neck shape: medium-full C/D
• Board radius: flat
• Body width: 13 1/8"
• Body depth: 3 5/8"
• Body wood: birch
• Bridge: rubber
• Fretboard: ebonized maple or similar
• Neck wood: poplar
• Pickups: 1x Strat-style single coil magnetic
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 46w-10 with wound G
• Truss rod: non-adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: medium-low

Condition notes: this poor fella arrived not too bad looking but with a lot of structural repairs needing doing. Ancel worked on it bit by bit while doing other repairs and it's now healthy, hearty, and stable. There's a big top hairline crack that's been cleated and filled, various side/back seam repairs done, the neck got reset, it now has side dots where it didn't before, and of course it's had its soundhole cut to fit a pickup.  There's scratching and scuffing and minor usewear/playwear throughout but overall it's a happy critter. The back braces are all thin-ply replacements.

It comes with: sorry, no case.

Consignor tag: A26