1920s Harmony Roy Smeck Vita Guitar

Shop friend Tessa took this guitar home after picking on it a bit at the store. These Roy Smeck Vita guitars are very rare and most of them play like garbage as they age. This one certainly did until Ancel completely overhauled it!

It's now a sweet, warm, fingerpicking-friendly, happy-go-lucky instrument. It has friggin seals for soundholes and an airplane for a bridge! Thank goodness people were still having fun when designing instruments back then, huh? It's also got an interesting, wide-pattern, x-bracing style under the top that gives it a tone very reminiscent of a period Martin 12-fret 0-18 or 00-18.

Anyhow, the repairs were a lot -- it got a lot of bracing reglues and seam repairs for starters. The fretboard had to come off (which meant the neck reset was easier to do) and it got a Martin-style, square-tube, non-adjustable truss rod install. After that the frets got a level/dress, the bridge got modified to fit the saddle in the correct location, it got a new saddle, and a good setup. Post-repairs it's playing spot-on and good to go.

The top is solid spruce and the back, sides, and neck are solid mahogany. It has outrageously-flamed Cuban mahogany (which Harmony shared with Regal at the time) on the back and sides, though. The fretboard is ebonized maple or pearwood but the bridge is rosewood. There's fancy, multi-ply binding used on the top and edge of the fretboard. While it's obviously been played-in throughout as regards wear and tear to the finish, it looks great.

These are so lightly-built that I only suggest 46w-10 gauges on them (just as I would on period Martins), though you could probably squeak by with 50w-11 if you needed to push it.