1960s Harmony H39 Hollywood Archtop Rubber-Bridge Bass Conversion

Overview: We do a lot of guitar-to-rubber-bridge-bass conversions over here and this one is one of the slickest, yet. It started-off as a Harmony Hollywood electric guitar and has the original, hottish, DeArmond pickup. The (originally stained-dark) fretboard is now natural maple with painted-on markers and has a fresh refret. The rest of the conversion is as normal (and detailed in the repairs section). There are some big advantages to the rubber-bridge mod when it comes to "pocket" (super-short-scale) basses. It improves the intonation (as the rubber lets it intonate on a straight line and also damps the vibration so they don't "wiggle" out of tune when plucking a not harder) and gives it more of an upright-style attack and round, bouncy sound. The guitar-scale neck also means that you can do all sorts of shifts you can't normally do on a long-scale or even normal short-scale bass.

Repairs included: Jose did a lot of great work on this guy. The whole board got a plane/level and then he repainted the position markers and refretted it with jumbo stock. It got a neck reset, new wiring harness, new bone nut, and then the conversion to rubber-bridge bass setup with a beautifully-made adjustable bridge, fresh tuners install at the headstock, new tailpiece, and other general work. It's playing spot-on and ready to go.

• Weight: 4 lbs 9 oz
• Scale length: 25 1/8"
• Nut width: 1 3/4"
• Neck shape: medium-deeper C
• Board radius: 7 1/4"
• Depth at first fret: 59/64"
• Depth at seventh fret: 1 1/32"
• Body width: 15 7/8"
• Body depth: 3 3/8"
• Body wood: solid birch (press-arched)
• Bridge: adjustable rubber-bridge (metal foot)
• Fretboard: maple
• Neck wood: poplar
• Pickups: 1x original DeArmond single coil
• Action height at 12th fret: 3/32" bass 1/16" treble (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 100w-40w or similar
• Truss rod: non-adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: modern jumbo/pyramid

Condition notes: There are plenty of small nicks, dings, scratches, and finish flaws throughout but it looks nice, overall. The original finish on the fretboard is gone and now it's the natural look of the maple board. It's been modified in all sorts of way -- tuners, bridge, tailpiece, etc. -- and has a fresh jack and volume/tone pots and cap. There are a few repaired seams. There's a small repaired hairline crack on the back-lower-bout.

It comes with: I have a chip case spare for it.

Consignor tag: SKEN