Strings for a vintage archtop?

[Benybrady]

Just picked up a vintage harmony archtop and not sure what strings. It's a 196o's model and I'm not to sure if these guitars can handle lights. Should I go for extra lights?

[RussMason]

It probably has a bracket at the bottom to hold the strings, as opposed to a conventional acoustic bridge with pins.

Lights should be just fine. I hope it works for you.

[Dr. Jazz]

These guitars were designed for volume. Don't be afraid of putting heavier strings on them. I generally use mediums.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jazz

These guitars were designed for volume. Don't be afraid of putting heavier strings on them. I generally use mediums.

Right. Even mediums are lighter than what those guitars would probably have been strung with when they were new.


whm

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

...Even mediums are lighter than what those guitars would probably have been strung with when they were new.

...and that's why there aren't too many decent ones left - neck geometry went south after a couple years on most of them...

[slide496]

The issue came up on SGGW woodshed and I think that there was a collector of vintage strings referred to in the thread - he said that he collected them and contrary to the popular belief the older strings sets in packages were lights. I use lights and extra lights on all my vintage parlors.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by slide496

...contrary to the popular belief the older string sets in packages were lights...

I've been playing since 1962 and I'd beg to differ on that point, for several reasons; while light-gauge strings (more on which later) were in fact available they were far from the standard, and perhaps the reason this individual has been able to find them in relative abundance. Back in the Big-Band era archtops were routinely strung with the heaviest strings available (it's been documented that Eddie Lang used an .076 mandocello string for his low E) for increased acoustic volume, and Epiphone would set up your brand-new guitar for either a wound or unwound B string as a regular production option; with regard to the latter, I'm just old enough to recall the local mom-&-pop music stores blowing wound-B sets out for 25-50 cents a pack, and when I started teaching back in the early-70's one of my students had a fresh new set on her Kay archtop (neck probably looks like a banana now). I recently had occasion to do a minor setup job for a local senior citizen, and his late-50's electric was strung with period-correct Black Diamond strings (with another untouched set in the case compartment); I've routinely used an .014-.060 set on my archtops for the last 35 years (so I know a little something about heavy strings) and without doing actual micrometer measurements I'd say that these were probably .015-.062 - in any event, unquestionably heavier than even a modern heavy-gauge set, and undoubtedly the reason Martin abandoned scalloped bracing back in the heyday of the archtop. With regard to light-gauge strings I used to use Gretsch Electromatic flats (the ones that came in the little round plastic container - still have a couple, BTW) and those spec'd at .013-.052 - in modern parlance, a medium top/light bottom set (a "regular" .014-.056 set was available at least until the end of Brooklyn production, and heavy-gauge until about 1961-62) - and before ~1972 a light-gauge acoustic set would run .012-.056 (a modern bluegrass set). Most of the folks who bought Harmonys back in the day didn't know about the "good stuff" that wouldn't turn your neck into a boomerang and/or yank your dovetail joint out by the roots - that was only to be had at what were then called "pro shops" (here in NYC we're talking Eddie Bell, Silver & Horland, Harry Newcorn, and the like - all long gone) - so they were strung with whatever the local music/record/department store had available (in most cases the aforementioned all-purpose nickel-wound Black Diamonds); small wonder I've seen far more Eisenhower/Kennedy-era Gibson L-48's/L-50's than Harmony Montclairs - and small wonder this guy has been able to find all the lighter-gauge sets that should have gone on these guitars...

[RobertForman]

I play with 13s / phosphor bronze on my archtops.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by RobertForman

I play with 13s / phosphor bronze on my archtops.

Me too - right behind me as I tap, a 1966 Harmony Monterey with D'addario Ej17s on a dead straight neck.

[Spook]

While I also play .013's, I have a modern truss rod in all my guitars pushing back on the tension. That and they are newer guitars without a lifetime of stress on them. Are some of the older archtops like a Harmony constructed to take the tension forever?

[RobertForman]

let's be honest that Harmony doesn't set the benchmark for vintage guitars. There are some cool ones that have survived, but they aren't like Gibson, Epiphone, D'Angelico, Vega even. the better guitars had truss rods even if the truss rod was not adjustable. if a Harmony from the 50s or 60s still survives in playable condition, great, play it, enjoy it.

[slide496]

@ Steve DeRosa I'm just passing on info as to what I read on this thread as to prewar and the sets.
I definitely could be wrong about string set up vintage archtops - if so my bad!

The thread is here:

http://theunofficialmartinguitarforu...3#.Uhe3EUqLp8F

[RobertForman]

If I had a vintage parlor guitar, and the word parlor is pretty ambiguous, let's say a small vintage guitar intended to be played in what we now commonly refer to as a living room, but yeah, put lights or even extra lights on those guitars, but that has nothing to do with archtop guitars which were developed in the big band era, needed to be big and loud and project and cut. quite the opposite of a parlor style guitar. not sure how we got from archtops to parlors, but that link with those vintage string packets, that's cool stuff, thanks.

[slide496]

My apologies for the distraction!

[RobertForman]

not necessary, but archtops require much more tension to move the top. and all of the good archtops that I am aware of have truss rods.