1967 Harmony H59 Rocket... Version 2

If you have followed this blog for a while you might remember my first Rocket (Rocket Version 1).  If you read through that post then you might have seen the comment by a guy about his Harmony Rocket.  Well, here it is!

This Harmony Rocket was built in 1967 in Chicago.  Harmony made this version of the Rocket from '66 to '67.  Sometime between '67 and '68 they discontinued the single cutaway and produced instead the double cutaway version which I am not a very big fan of.

I am a huge fan of the second incarnation of the gold foil pickups though.  Some call these "double mustache" pickups.  They are very similar to the gold foils except these have adjustable poles and aren't quite as hot.  I played this guitar back to back with my Harmony Bobkat (Gold Foils).  It seems like the Double Mustaches wouldn't give me all the tube saturated goodness that I have been getting out of the Gold Foils.  It still needs a bit more set up so I'll have to keep working on it.

Let's mention the elephant in the room, as it were.  This guitar is so clean that you might think someone sold me a reissue.  This is not a reissue.  This is the real deal down to the date stamp on the back of the pickups:

I was skeptical at first too.  The finish is shiny and shows no checking.  The frets are tarnished a bit but have almost no playing wear.  The only thing that was wrong with this guitar when I got it was that the rivets in the bridge pup were loose.  I tweaked them a bit and popped them back in and it is good to go now.  I might clean up the pots a bit when I get the chance.

One unique thing about these Harmony guitars is that the necks don't taper towards the headstock but are one uniform width the whole way.  If you are used to a Fender or Gibson neck then the first 3 frets might feel a bit wide and the 12th fret area might feel a bit skinny.  It really doesn't feel that different to my hands unless you have just put down another guitar.

My previous Rocket had a rather serious design flaw: no adjustable truss rod.  By 1965 Harmony realized that wouldn't fly any more especially with their weaker Poplar necks.  This one is lucky to have one but really doesn't need any adjustment.  In fact, I don't think any of the screws/nuts had been turned before I took the pickups off for cleaning.  Unfortunately there is really not a good way to tell if that is true until you try to turn the screws!

Here is Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes with her favorite guitar:  1966 Harmony Rocket H54/1.  It is very similar to the H59 except it has only two pickups and is the double cutaway version.  Have you heard the Shakes yet?  Go check them out.  Here is what Brittany says about her Harmony Rocket in an interview for innocentwords.com: 

"I have a '66 Harmony Rocket that I am in love with.  It's cherry red.  I play it out of a '66 Silvertone 1483 with an intact Jensen 12" speaker.  It can glitter, it can growl, it can rock, it can lull you to sleep.  So far, it's the perfect rig."

I have GOT to get me a Silvertone 1483.  I have been looking for a good 60s Silvertone amp for a while.  I think it is safe to say that Brittany is a fan of her rig.  What do you think about her tone?  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

On buying old, broken guitars before you can hear them

Most of the guitars that I buy are finds- as in they have been in a closet or under the bed for 30 years.  That means that they usually need a fair amount of repair like loose braces, neck sets, lifting bridges, etc.  When they need these kind of structural repairs I can't play them before buying.  I can't always hear how they will sound after being fixed up before I buy them.  It can be a bit of a gamble.  Here are a couple of those gambles.

This was probably the biggest gamble of all.  This is a 1943 Gibson J-45.  This has the fabled "banner" gracing the headstock that was only present during the war years.  I bought it from the grandson of the original owner.  The back braces, tone bars and finger braces were all loose.  The owner could not be convinced of this fact for some reason.  He had strings on it at full tension which caused the action to be very high.  I bought it anyway because I wanted a banner.

This was a GREAT bet.  I figured it would need a neck set but after the braces were glued tight the neck set was perfect.  It has almost factory saddle height.  The tone is warm, dry and very responsive.  You can feel the pluck of each string deep in your chest.  Suffice it to say they were right about the banners.

This 1955 Gibson J-50 was a recent gamble.  It was listed as a '54  and was about an hour and a half from Birmingham.  I could tell from the pictures that while the tuners were there the buttons were not.  I just happened to have bought an old Kay with period Klusons for next to nothing the week before!  When I got the guitar in my hands I could tell that the bridge had been shaved meaning that it probably needed a neck set.  I bought it anyway.

This is a very special guitar and probably the best gamble of all.  I took it straight to my local shop where my friend Keith works.  We put the extra set of Klusons on and strung it up.  As he was winding the strings I could hear that familiar hollow thump typical of the round shoulder Gibsons.  At full tension we immediately knew that this was not just an average 50s Gibson.  It was loud, nuanced, responsive and most of all LOUD.  I'm talking bluegrass loud.  We couldn't hear each other talking over the rumbling E chord.  Then we took it into the acoustic room to compare it to some new guitars.  We soon realized that this was guitar of myth and that it could never leave our circle of pickers.

This is a 60s Silvertone (Harmony Sovereign), I can't remember the Silvertone number designation.  I bought it from a different local shop needing a neck set.  When they got it in the called me because they knew I love the American made solid wood guitars.  They just said it was a Silvertone.  When I walked in I immediately recognized the distinctive bean shape and pinless bridge as a rebranded Sovereign.  I was ecstatic.  They thought I was crazy for buying a hard case for it.

The neck set was easy because the dovetail had already shifted in the joint.  I strung it up and started strummed some cowboy chords and fell head first in love with Sovereigns.  The J-45s sat in their cases for a few days while I became acquainted with it.  It had the rumble of a J-45 but sounded more bluesy- no, boxy.  This was probably a result of the ladder bracing.  Sometimes I just want to strum my favorite chord progression and belt out the lyrics.  This guitar was just about perfect for that.  It had the magic and can be had for less than $500.  Don't be fooled by the price, this is a professional instrument.  I sold it to a big time session player in Nashville.  It is a safe bet to say that you have heard him play.

It is a special feeling to strum an old guitar for the first time.  It is even more exhilarating when you have a bunch of time and money invested in it!  Maybe I have just gotten lucky but I have never had a bust- yet.   If you find one of these for a good deal then don't be afraid.  Take the plunge.

TVG

A Semi-Rarity: The 1966 Epiphone Wilshire (USA!)

Vintage guitars often come with a trade off: the "good ones" got played- hard.  As a result they have lots of character.  I don't mind character- in fact I love it.  I like seeing some scratches in the top of a guitar or the wear marks on the side of the neck from 60 years of first position chords.  Every once in a while however I will come across one that is clean.  This Wilshire, my friends, is CLEAN.

 

In 1957, Gibson bought a financially failing company that had been their long time competitor.  The Epiphone brand was known for very fine instruments like banjos, archtop electrics and acoustic guitars.  The competition was especially fierce in the large body electric archtop market.  Gibson would come out with a big jazz box and a month later Epiphone would come out with a slightly bigger or more fancy one.  Epiphone manufactured out of New York until about 1953 manufacturing moved to Philadelphia (although the labels still said New York!).  The failing company was at odds with its employees and the name was eventually bought along with a bunch of parts by Gibson.

Gibson began manufacturing Epiphone guitars first with leftover parts and continued by introducing their own Epiphone models.  This was a move by Gibson to get more guitars in stores.  Retailers didn't want 10 Gibson SGs but didn't really have a problem buying 5 SGs and 5 Epiphone Wilshires.  The USA Epiphones were made right along sides of the Gibsons in the factory at 225 Parsons Street, Kalamazoo, MI.  These are very high quality instruments!  The quality of the instruments bearing the Epiphone brand didn't drop to the current level until that unfortunate time in the 70s when the new owners of the Gibson brand (Norlin) shipped all production over seas to Japan.

The Epiphone Wilshire was a bit of a rare model until the its reissue this past year (made in China- sadface).  It has always had a small Mahogany body and neck but had two different editions.  The first was introduced in 1959 with a 3+3 headstock and P-90 pickups.  The second version appeared in mid-1962 that had a funky "batwing"style headstock and two mini humbuckers.  Mine is the second version with the silky smooth mini hums.

I absolutely love these guitars.  They have the coolest 60s styling with quality ingredients to boot.  The mini humbuckers are very versatile and can take you from Guns and Roses to Neo-classical jazz in a real hurry.  The neck joins at the very last fret so the player has full advantage of the fretboard.  Unfortunately the "Vibrola" was a source of frustration for most players so the trem arm is usually taken off and lost.

This is my second mid 60s Epiphone Wilshire.  My first one had seen some playing time and the finish showed it.  It was still original (but was missing the trem arm of course).  I eventually sold it but still had my love of Wilshires.  When I saw the ad for this one I couldn't believe it.  The seller was the original owner and the finish looked like it had just rolled off the assembly line.  I asked him when and by whom it was refinished.  He said that it hadn't been refinished.  Well, I have heard that before.  I always take that kind of thing with a grain of salt.

When I showed up to look at the guitar I still couldn't believe it hadn't been refinished.  We met outside of a Waffle House so I couldn't really take the pickguard off to check.  It looked "right" so I went ahead and bought it.  I took the pickguard off but the wires kind of stuck.  I looked closely to see what was going on.  Yes, the wires were stuck in the lacquer.  I carefully peeled them away to find that I was the first one to ever take the PG off.  This was clearly the original finish.  There was even a little bit of router dust in the electronics cavity.  That was a cool moment but I totally regretted it after!  I knew I had to take the pg off to verify the originality of the finish and electronics but I wish that it had still "never been taken off."  Oh well.

There is no checking on this guitar.  NONE.  It looks like it was made recently.  This thing is as real as it gets.  There are a couple of nicks around the guitar (about 3).  That is all. The original owner was not keen on the original set of tuners so he had them changed to mini Schallers.  He also lost the tremolo arm.  Other than that, this is the way it came from Kalamazoo.  One thing that is weird is that the gold Epiphone silk screen logo was done once, painted over, and done again slightly more centered.  Must have been a new guy at the silk screen booth that day.

The seller said he went into the shop in '67 to buy a Gibson SG.  He saw this one up on the wall and bought it instead.  Good call.  I don't think he played it very much because it has hardly any fret wear or wear on the back of the neck.  It is an absolute joy to play I hope you get a chance to play one of these oddities sometime too.

I took this guitar to the Nashville guitar show and another dealer was interested in it.  He took it over to an amplifier and played it for a while.  When he came back he told me that the pickups were wire out of phase!  That was news to me but I wouldn't have noticed it because I stick mainly to the neck pickup.  I took it out this morning and messed around with it and found that he was probably right.  One other thing I found interesting is that the bridge pup is rotated 180 degrees from where it "should" be.  I asked the original owner why he swapped it and he said that he didn't.  That is the way that it came from the factory.

Peter Green's 1959 Gibson Les Paul was made this same way in that his pickups are wired out of phase as well.  Apparently it is more common than originally thought but most people probably didn't notice it.  Maybe they just played on the neck pickup too...

TVG

Harmony Bobkat Video Blog

I picked up this Harmony Bobkat a couple of days ago.  I didn't feel like writing tonight but I wanted to get the word out about these so I made a quick video about it.  Check it out, comment, disagree, like it, share it.... participate.

I just wanted to show that while I could be playing much more expensive and technically "better" guitars, instead I am playing this one.  You don't have to pay 3 grand to get a solid vintage guitar.  Price does not translate into quality, playability or tone.  The price of a vintage guitar is only the result of supply and demand.  Most of the time the demand for a guitar and its overall tone/quality go hand in hand but there are always exceptions.  I believe this is one of them.

This girl is tearin' up this Bobkat!  Good stuff!

Email Guitar- Look what we have here!

I got an email from a reader with a couple of pictures attached.  Needless to say, I was pumped.

It's a Silvertone 1446!  It is always a great day when you find an old guitar in a closet, under the bed, wherever it was left years ago and forgotten.  This one seems to be original except for the decal pinstripes on the headstock.  I think they are cool but I would probably still attempt to remove them if I felt comfortable with it.  It even has the original case and seems to be in good shape.  

Damian sent these in to my email (tvguit@gmail.com) and said he had an amp with it too.  Way to go Damian!  Maybe he will send in some pictures of the amp?? Are you reading this Damian?  Don't leave us hangin' man!

My Vintage Guitar and Gear Wishlist.... and why I think these things are cool

There are always weird guitars and gear that I see and hope to run into one day.  Recently it has been a Harmony made Silvertone and a brand new amp from Fender.  More on that one later.

The Silvertone 1446l has been popping up on my radar just about everywhere.  These things are American made by Harmony in Chicago from 1962 until 1967.  They featured a Bigsby Vibrato, a hollow body of laminated maple (even though the ads said Spruce top and back!) and the very illusive Seth Lover designed, stagger-poled mini-humbuckers.  I have never held one of these in my hands but supposedly these pickups screamed with higher output and thick silky humbucker tone.  This one is often refferred to as the Chris Isaak model but I believe that Dan Aurbach of the Black Keys is a fan as well.  Do you have one for sale?? Contact me!

And now, for something completely different: The Fender Pawn Shop Series' Greta.  These things are a bit "gimicky" but they are just so damn cute.  It is a two watt (tube), table top radio style guitar (and iPod) amplifier.  It features one 12ax7 preamp tube and one 12 at7 power tube and breaks up faster than your "high school sweetheart" friends.  The 4"speaker has a bit of a hard time keeping up with the output but plugged in to a cabinet this thing is an apartment ready blues machine.

Notice the "VU" meter?  It is a total gimmick and I love it.  VU stands for "Volume Unit" with the green section indicating clean tones and the red indicating distorted.  The meter is backlit with a small blue LED that is really just fun to look at.  The knob on the left is gain and the one on the right is tone.  

The coolest part about this little amp is what is on the back:

From left to right: Guitar, Aux In, Line Out, 8 ohm Ext. out, Switch, Power Input

Fender made this amp very versatile with all the ins and outs.  With the 4" speaker there isn't much headroom before the speaker farts out.  Which is why they added the 8 ohm extension out.  This thing sounds really good through a 4 12" cabinet.  It has a little more headroom but still has a nice, thick tube crunch.   If you are looking for a sparkly clean tone then you should probably look somewhere else.

But what if you have a larger amplifier that you like but can't play at the volume you want at home?  Enter the Greta, once again.  It has a Line Out that you could run a 1/4" cable directly into that amp's input.  Just use it like a distortion pedal.

But what if you are a trendy hipster with a turntable and feel like your warm, analog signal path is being ruined by your solid state stereo?  Enter the Fender Greta's Auxiliary 1/8" input.  Plug your turntable into this little guy for analog tone that lets your recent Grizzly Bear or Bon Iver vinyl sound like it should, I guess.  Or just plug in your iPod (digital music through an analog amplifier?).  I actually have not experimented with this feature of the Greta although I would love to.  My wife and I listen to a wifi radio (Logitec Squeezebox) every morning and I would be very interested to hear how it sounds through the Greta.  Do you play your iPod through your Greta?  Comment and let me know what you think about it.

1964 Fender Duo-Sonic

Welcome to the True Vintage Guitar Blog.  My goal with this blog is to create content about the interesting guitars, instruments and other things that I find.  I am not a dealer or really even a collector, just a guy that likes old stuff.


My first post is dedicated to a 1964 Fender Duo-Sonic.  I was drawn to this instrument because of the funky styling, interesting transition features and eventually the unique tone that all the pickup combinations can produce.  But first, a few pictures.

I know what you are thinking, "Hey, that is a Duo-Sonic II!"  You would be correct, sort of.  This instrument would be considered just barely in the transitional period between the two models and also barely in the transition to the Fender take over by CBS in 1965.  It has all the features of the Duo-Sonic II such as the 24" scale length, thick tortoise shell guard and the metal plate under the jack and knobs.  The only thing making it a Duo-Sonic is the name on the headstock:

Either way, it is a heck of a little blues guitar but versatile as well.  It has two single coil pickups with two, 3 way slide selectors.  The middle position on both is "off" for that individual pickup.  If both switches are up or down you get both pickups on and in "phase".  If the two switches are opposites (up down or down up) you get a funky, plucky out-of-phase tone that I believe is hum canceling as well.  I won't lie, the out-of-phase setting is not always useful.  It is thin, plucky and very "nuanced."  Every once in a while the stars will align and  that weird out of phase tone is exactly what I need or was looking for.  You will have to decide for yourself whether it is useful to you or not.  Let me know what you think, I welcome your feedback!

Here are some features that are indicative of the transition (buy out) of Fender to CBS.  First, the less desirable veneer fingerboard:

Not as easy to see as I thought but this is the later style Rosewood fingerboard that was apparently easier and cheaper than the "slab" fingerboard.  Basically it is a thin rosewood veneer instead of a big fat hunk of Rosewood sitting on top of the Maple neck.  I think the difference in tone is subjective and you probably have your own opinion about it.  It is just cosmetic to me.

And here are the earlier style "clay dots":

Again, purely cosmetic but I really like the way they look.  

A couple of more pictures:

The Nitrocellulose has worn almost completely off the neck.

I really dig this styling. Absolutely iconic Fender but still unique.

And here is a couple of pictures of the neck pocket and guts (please excuse the poor phone camera quality):

August 1964

Check out that original color!

Hope you enjoyed a look at this old Fender.

Disclaimer:  I am not the definitive source for this information.  I have gathered it from a couple of years of being in to this stuff.  It may not all be correct and if it isn't, I would appreciate you letting me know.  Keep it positive though, please.  Also, my experience tends to lend itself more towards the vintage Gibson acoustic side, so I am pretty much a newb at this Fender stuff.

In addition, here is a funny little video of me the other day at Homewood Music playing the Didgeridoo with Bob Tedrow.  Turns out his Didg was tuned to B and so was this little diddy: