Quote:
Originally Posted by zombywoof
Harmony did not make a "plywood" guitar until just before they closed up shop in the 1970s. While it may have been birch, every Harmony up to that point was built with solid woods. While most Harmonys were fashioned with pressed wood top plates, you can find carved top models if you know what you are looking for.
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Those old pressed solid-top Harmony archtops make quite good roots/early acoustic blues guitars - not as refined as a Gibson L-50 or Epiphone Zenith (or even its modern-day counterpart Godin 5th Avenue) but loads of punch and volume -
if you can find one where the neck/dovetail joint hasn't gone south. As beginner/budget instruments too many of them were subjected to the ravages of the old New Brunswick (NJ) Black Diamond strings - standard fare when you walked into your local mom-&-pop music store/record shop/hardware store/drugstore and asked for "a set of strings"; you've got to hope for one of those "under-the-bed" specials that was bought in the late-50s/early-60s, played maybe a half-dozen times, and then put away when Junior lost interest - and after six decades those are becoming increasingly rare. If you're after the same visual/sonic vibe with none of the hassles of an old instrument, grab a Godin 5th Avenue acoustic or Loar LH-300, set it up with Martin Monel 13's, and play to your heart's content...
