Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

[matt99camero]

Found out it is a Harmony H15 Bobkat. Don't have any amps with me to see if the electronics work but I'm assuming they do, it hasn't been played in many, many years. I think it's a cool little guitar and want to clean it up and make it playable. I doubt it, but is it worth anything?

Here is a question, most of the strings still have pretty good tension on them. Is it safe to pull them all off so I can clean it up? I don't know how taking all the tension off an older neck might affect it.

here is the pic

 

[Diego]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

Don't know, but that's the coolest guitar I've seen in quite some time! :bigok:

 

[Mephis]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

Wow my uncle has a guitar identicle to that but it's called a "Holiday."

Has the same pickups and body shape with a similar headstock.

 

[StJimmy]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

It'll be fine to take all of the strings off and release the tension to clean it up. Those are cool little guitars. My first electric was a 1965 Bobkat H-14..the single pup model. I've still got one. They bring around $150-200.

 

[matt99camero]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

Wow my uncle has a guitar identicle to that but it's called a "Holiday."

Has the same pickups and body shape with a similar headstock.

Yeah, I read they also released the same guitar under the Holiday name.

 

[DesertRat]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

Those pickups are awesome! They were made by DeArmond I'm pretty sure. I have one on a '62 Harmony stratotone. Very twangy yet ballsy for old R'n'Roll, Jazz or Country.

 

[BigAlTheBird]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

It'll be fine to take all of the strings off and release the tension to clean it up. Those are cool little guitars. My first electric was a 1965 Bobkat H-14..the single pup model. I've still got one. They bring around $150-200.

I just wanted to say those pics made my night.

And yeah, it should be cool. By the way, that is just about the coolest guitar I've seen in a long time. I let out an audible 'wow' which I rarely do.

 

[Artie]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

Sweet! Here's an old Harmony ad that confirms the DeArmond pickups:

harmony

Unfortunately, I can't remember where I found this ad in order to give proper credit.

 

[cream123]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

I just wanted to say those pics made my night.

Ditto. I love the first one. The glasses........yes!

 

[mrturtle_91]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

That's a nice looking little guitar.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

That is a cool guitar. I have a Harmony H44 that my wife bought at a garage sale for 15$. I use it to play slide in Open A. Those cheesy pickups work wonders when you throw a slide on them. The thing to remember with most of these type of guitar is they have archtop style bridges so intonating them is a little tricky. Heres what I would recommen. When restringing the guitar put the 1 and 6 string on first. Tune them to pitch and then position the bridge to whereboth "E" strings are intonated..... then put the rest of the strings on. Good luck with it. Its pretty cool.

 

[StJimmy]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

Ditto. I love the first one. The glasses........yes!

Yeah, I had the Buddy Holly thing going back then. Here's a year or two later when I was in my surf phase. Dig those clip on shades!!

 

[cream123]

Re: Had a guitar given to me - 1964 Harmony

Yeah, I had the Buddy Holly thing going back then. Here's a year or two later when I was in my surf phase. Dig those clip on shades!!

clip on aviators??!?!?! That's amazing. I love it!