1950s Harmony H1303 Cutaway Archtop Guitar (Modded)

My friend Paul had a plan for this guitar. It's his "Bon Mots" special (as a joke for the French phrase bon mots and also for mother-of-toilet-seat, the slang term for the type of pearloid celluloid overlay this instrument now has on its board and headstock.

It started-off as a typical old Harmony -- needing a neck reset and fretwork to play decently. Paul wanted me to fit a truss rod, refret it, and install said pearloid, however. He actually hand-carried a giant roll of this yellow pearloid back from a visit to China, as I recall.

So, that's just what it got -- a neck reset, board pull and truss rod install, board plane, celluloid-wrapping, headstock-shape-alteration a refret, K&K pickup install, and setup-side joys. It was quite the job and I did it in parts a little over time.

A little part of my soul died when I covered-up the Brazilian rosewood fretboard and headstock veneer with pearloid but I think the end result is a guitar that's very cool and definitely individualistic. The alterations to the instrument mean it will likely get a lot of love over the rest of its life, too, as it doesn't have the warpy-neck flaws that many of these old Harmony products have when strung with "real" strings.

Aside from the alterations, the guitar is mostly original. I modified the bridge so that the adjusters work in the normal fashion (Harmony has the wheels push off the bottom of the bridge base as-made... so dumb...) and it's compensated now, too.