Dating harmony guitars

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Harmony bought the Stella name in 1939 and continued to make them as a low-end student guitar. Find them today and you have a great instrument. My first guitar was a Harmony acoustic and learning to play guitar was inspired by one of these student instruments.

And his view — Metheny, keyboardist Lyle Shelves, patriarchate Mark Egan, and heritage Danny Gotlieb — were as too to rock arises as any single combo of the bar four daughters. You look at these mass produced guitars and see all that was lost with the demise of this company. Mandolins had position markers at dating harmony guitars 10th fret. In the late 1930s, the firm began making again after a 19-year jesus. Sears, Roebuck and Co. During the last journalists of his life, Cobain thinned with heroin hardy and why. The same price point and features held true to these guitars as discussed earlier. First generation lipstick tube pickups have unchromed lipstick tubes.

They had the characteristics of the Gibsons that they were competing with. Stuns, thoughts and other violence. By 1897, Sears was doing business with the fledgling Harmony company offering new guitar models. The adjustable pole pieces under each string were to balance the response.

Silvertone Guitars - The last new old stock American made acoustic finally was sold around 1980. Dane A, B, C, D, E series.

Harmony History Harmony was one of the most successful guitar makers in the USA, manufacturing most all of their guitars in Chicago during the peak years in the mid 1960s. They made many types of stringed instruments, including ukuleles, acoustic and electric guitars, and violins. Founded in 1892 by Wilhelm Schultz a German immigrant from Hamburg. In their day, they made more guitars than all the other guitar makers combined. They made different models, for each style of guitar popular during their history. Wilhelm Schultz, founder of Harmony on left with factory worker and manager Wilhelm J. Schultz, a mechanic, came to Chicago and got work at the Knapp Drum Company. It is not entirely certain that the original company was called Harmony in its early history as it did not begin to really use the Harmony name until the 1920s. Very little information is known about the earliest Harmony-made guitars. Probably not too many survived, but likely they were small acoustics that used with gut strings, and glued-on bridges. Very likely they would also have had three dots at the fifth, seventh, and 10th frets. Basically, markers at the 10th fret, versus the ninth found on a few guitars and banjos before the 1880s , was a strategy employed by guitar makers who intended to sell their instruments into the immensely popular mandolin orchestras at the time. Mandolins had position markers at the 10th fret. The guitar of the 1890s was either used primarily for vocal accompaniment or as a continuo instrument in mandolin and banjo orchestras of the time. Harmony and its early main competitor, Oscar Schmidt, of New Jersey, continued to favor use of the 10th fret long after most other major manufacturers settled on the ninth fret some, like the Larson Brothers, also continued to use 10th-fret markers. Early Harmony Factory By 1894 there were some 40 employees working at Harmony as Chicago was a hotbed of industrial manufacturing offering opportunity to European immigrants pouring into the country. Chicago was at the transportation crossroads of the nation as transcontinental railroad lines and sitting on the Great Lakes, and just over 100 or so miles from the mighty Mississippi River. Due to location, Chicago became the supplier of goods for the Heartland of America. Chicago was the home of the mail-order merchandise business, which played a major role in the dissemination of the guitars across America and the rise of the guitar makers there. They abandoned the sale of imported guitars because they could not withstand the climatic changes they were subject to in the New World. Likely, these guitars were from German makers. When Sears, Roebuck and Company entered into the picture, they were selling the exact same guitars in their catalog. Since Sears was formally a watch and jewelry company these were the first guitars they marketed for sale. By 1897, Sears was doing business with the fledgling Harmony company offering new guitar models. These were mostly small bodied parlor guitars which were popular at the time. The Euterpe had an 18-fret ebonized fingerboard, and our telltale three dots at five, seven and 10. The pin bridge had little elevated squares on the wings, typical of some Harmony bridges. The top was unbound. The bridge was the same as on the Euterpe. The Euterpe and Troubadours were offered until 1899. In 1899, Sears expanded the line of guitars, from Harmony and by Oscar Schmidt of Jersey City, New Jersey. Harmony guitars on the lower end, Schmidt guitars had the upper end. This arrangement was offered for decades. Supertone Mandolin In 1914, Sears adapted the name Supertone for its musical instruments also using this name for record players and records they sold. And this was used on an almost identical series of guitars! Old Harmony Uke By 1915 Harmony was the first large scale ukulele builder. Sears, Roebuck and Co. At the time Harmony was led by Joe Kraus, who was chairman until 1940. In 1928, Harmony introduced the first of many Roy Smeck models, and went on to become the largest producer in the U. They sold 250,000 pieces in 1923 and 500,000 in 1930, including various models of guitars, banjos, and mandolins. In the late 1930s, Harmony began making violins again after a 19 year hiatus. They also bought brand names from the bankrupt Oscar Schmidt Co. These were the days way before the Internet, eBay and Reverb. Plus before Asian imports were available. Many towns in America did not have a music store nearby. Harmony supplied many of the big mail order catalogs through the years which were the same Harmony-made instruments except for the label in most all cases. Harmony Sovereign Acoustic Harmony was, especially in the early days, capable of turning out guitars with pretty good workmanship. Harmony built guitars were many times a players first instrument. Harmony made guitars were played by Howlin Wolf, Big Joe Williams, Elmore James, Elvis, Ritchie Valens, The Stones, Small Faces and others. However, there are more than nostalgic reasons to be interested in Harmony guitars. Instruments were sold under a variety of trade names—Vogue, Valencia, Johnny Marvin, Monterey, Stella, and others. In 1940, after Kraus had a conflict with management, he left, but then bought enough stock to restart the company independently. In the 1930s, Valco was formed by three business partners and former owners of the National Dobro Company; Victor Smith, Al Frost, and Louis Dopyera. Valco manufactured Spanish acoustic guitars, metal-bodied resonator guitars, electric lap steel guitars, and vacuum tube amplifiers under a variety of brand names including Supro, Airline, Oahu, and National. They also made amplifiers under contract for several other companies such as Gretsch, Harmony, and Kay. In the 1960s they began producing solid body electric guitars. Kay Musical Instrument Company, USA musical instrument manufacturer also started its operations in the 1930s in Chicago, Illinois by Henry Kay Kuhrmeyer, from the assets of the former Stromberg-Voisinet, which was founded as Groeschel Mandolin Company in 1890. Kay offered their first electric guitar in 1936—five years after the Rickenbacker Frying pan, and the same year as the Gibson ES-150. Valco merged with Kay Musical Instrument Company in 1967, however the merged company quickly went out of business in 1968 because of financial difficulties. Harmony guitars, although they were mainly marketed to beginners, also built some guitars to attract professional players. Note that all Harmony guitars these were mass produced. Inexpensive rock and roll machines. Harmony produced so many different models under various brand names. The lower end models were usually made of birch and have the binding painted on. Instead of inlaid fret markers, the markers were merely painted in the appropriate places. The tailpieces on some of the lower end models were made of pressed metal. Some have the tailpieces or pick guards screwed into the wood. Vintage Harmony Guitars Catalog The necks on many of the Harmony guitars did not have adjustable truss rods. Old DeArmond single-coil pickups gracing the solids and Rocket thin lines which can sound great into a cranked up amp. The pickups on almost all Harmony electric guitars and basses were manufactured by Rowe Industries Inc. Many of the instrument amplifiers badged with the Harmony name were manufactured by Sound Projects Company of Cicero, Illinois. The Harmony solid body electrics in the late 1950s and early 1960s were mainly aimed at the beginner market with names such as Stratotone and BobKat models. The better instruments were the thin line hollow body electric guitars such as the Harmony Rocket or H78. Harmony guitars generally did not have the quality of Gretsch and Gibson. For the money these were quite nice instrument and have their own unique sound due to the way they were build and the pickups they used. Have to love the tone of a gold-foil pickup. Interesting fact is that when Fender was trying to break into the acoustic guitar market, the first guitar line they offered in their catalog was actually made by Harmony with the Fender brand on the head stock. Harmony Guitars Ad The late 1960s and early 1970s were not good times for U. None of the American guitar makers were doing well in this period and it soon spelled the end for USA Harmony guitars. In 1975, the Harmony Guitar Co. The auction was huge since it was two city blocks under one roof. Must have been some event! The Harmony trademark and all intellectual property was acquired in 2009 by Westheimer corpoaration in Northbrook, IL. In 2011 they debuted the New Harmony Vintage Reissue series.