1930s Harmony-made Archtop Guitar

Overview: There's no branding on this guitar but it has features (scale length, build style, neck style and headstock shape, etc.) that clearly mark it as a Harmony product from around 1935 or so. What's interesting about it is that the body shape is not the usual, more figure-8-looking, Harmony archtop shape. This one has a body outline closer to that of their 000-size flattop guitars from the time and, as such, the waist is a little wider and the shoulders squarer.

It has a good, punchy, midsy sound that's -- at the same time -- relaxed and with a woody quality that makes it a satisfying chord-chucker but also a pretty decent lead machine, too. It's got the Kalamazoo-style aesthetic with bare-bones styling and trim. The painted-on fretboard markers, for example, are long, long gone from playwear and just their ghosts remain.

Repairs included: I reset the neck, reglued a couple seams, repaired a hairline crack to the treble f-hole, cleaned it up, leveled and dressed the frets, modified its bridge to operate the thumbwheels in normal fashion (Harmony products often have the posts glued into the saddle portion of the bridge), and set it up. It's playing bang-on and ready to go.

• Weight: 3 lbs 11 oz
• Scale length: 25 1/8"
• Nut width: 1 3/4"
• Neck shape: deep V
• Board radius: flat
• Depth at first fret: .99"
• Depth at seventh fret: 1.14"
• Body width: 15"
• Body depth: 3 1/2"
• Top wood: solid spruce (press-arched)
• Back & sides wood: solid birch (press-arched back)
• Bracing type: tonebar
• Bridge: adjustable
• Fretboard: ebonized maple or similar
• Neck wood: poplar
• Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 54w-12 lights
• Truss rod: non-adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: lower/narrower

Condition notes: There is a repaired crack (tiny) at the treble f-hole. There's a ton of wear throughout the body and neck -- scratches and scuffs here and there everywhere, playwear to the back of the neck that has leeched it mostly-free of tint in the finish, and the fretboard markers are almost entirely gone. It's completely original throughout, though, which is nice. I added side dots and I filled the nut slots and recut them at more-precise/evenly-spaced locations.

It comes with: Sorry, no case.

Consignor tag: NILS