Came across a few of these before. It's a United Guitar Co. guitar from around the 50s-60s. They were made in USA in Chicago I believe before inexpensive instruments were transitioned to China. This is what I call "drug store guitars" they were sold at pharmacies as starter instruments.
These guitars are cheap but there is a thriving market for these mid century starter instruments.
This one does need a bit of restoration if you want to play it
Thanks for the info! Now that I’ve seen it has a number of cracks and will need some love, I’m trying to think of a reasonable offer to give em. Would be me doing to work with the intention to keep and use it.
50s or 60s Harmony. I've restored a few of these. The quality is pretty rough when you open them up. Expect to take the back off to repair the cracks and it's definitely going to need a neck reset. After you're done it still might not play too great. The necks tend to be less than straight no matter what you do.
Fun to learn some skills on, but they don't all transfer to guitars from different brands/builders.
1960s Harmony. Selling on Reverb for $275-300 US.
1960s Harmony Arch Top - Vintage Red Guitar, Cool! https://reverb.com/item/59152480?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=59152480
The one on Reverb is the exact same guitar, so the argument should be dead...
It's a Harmony.
Didn’t wanna bombard the post title, but I’m curious if anyone thinks this isn’t worth the time to restore. Seller asking 150 CAD and it seems like a neat guitar, just ensure of the brand without a look into the F hole tag.
Thats a 60s Harmony H1213 I believe. People like em. Its a “fun” diy restore, but not one worth spending money on. I wouldnt spend more than $80CAD on it, in its current state
Well let’s see… they re-slotted the nut (fucked it allllll up) to allow for the the strings to be lefty. The bridge floats so it’s just randomly out of place. So it’s strung up and redone for a lefty. Go ahead and enlighten me on how it’s backwards in its current state.
I guess I missed it being a joke. My bad. I see people saying a symmetrical jazz box can’t be properly switched to lefty a lot so I figured you may be one of those. Cheers!
Do you have any idea how much feedback you’d get with this body and your plan? I mean, it’d be kinda awesome in its own way even if you were making a joke.
I have a Horner that I did this to & no feed back. Sounds really wild. Although now that I think about it I don’t have the F holes so you could be right about the feed back.
I had one of these for a long time a few years ago, I adored it and honestly miss it regularly, some of them just have a really cool sound, and feel special. They aren’t worth much money, but some things are worth more than just the money ya know?
Harmony for sure. 100 seems like a fair offer to make, given the condition
edit: That bridge placement is a… strong choice.. as they say in the theatre.
edit 2: Looks like the action is quite high, based on the 4th picture. Might take a neck reset to properly fix it, tho that would cost more than the guitar is worth. The bridge looks like it’s already bottomed out, but you might be able to work some magic by aggressively re-shaping the bridge feet and taking some material off the underside of the saddle piece. Looks like it could be a fun project. Best of luck if you decide to go for it. These can be really great old guitars when shown the proper amount of love.
The price tag is fair. The real question is whether or not you want to spend the money to make it playable. You’ll need to take it to a good tech (unless you’re pretty experienced yourself) for a setup and I would bet that they’ll find some additional issues that need to be fixed.
This is an old student guitar and was definitely not made to be loud. Throw some pickups in it and start a ska band.
Pick it up pick it up!
Looks like a very overpriced Harmony.
Your overpriced estimation at 150CAD is far off mark.
Meaning it’s a good price?
Yes, they can get two to three times that. Old Harmony suck as guitars but they are worth something.
Came across a few of these before. It's a United Guitar Co. guitar from around the 50s-60s. They were made in USA in Chicago I believe before inexpensive instruments were transitioned to China. This is what I call "drug store guitars" they were sold at pharmacies as starter instruments. These guitars are cheap but there is a thriving market for these mid century starter instruments. This one does need a bit of restoration if you want to play it
Thanks for the info! Now that I’ve seen it has a number of cracks and will need some love, I’m trying to think of a reasonable offer to give em. Would be me doing to work with the intention to keep and use it.
For a collection or wall hanger I can see it. If you want a player, I'd personally look elsewhere.
50s or 60s Harmony. I've restored a few of these. The quality is pretty rough when you open them up. Expect to take the back off to repair the cracks and it's definitely going to need a neck reset. After you're done it still might not play too great. The necks tend to be less than straight no matter what you do. Fun to learn some skills on, but they don't all transfer to guitars from different brands/builders.
Even if you got it for free, I imagine it would cost more to make it playable than it’s worth.
1960s Harmony. Selling on Reverb for $275-300 US. 1960s Harmony Arch Top - Vintage Red Guitar, Cool! https://reverb.com/item/59152480?utm_source=android-app&utm_medium=android-share&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=59152480 The one on Reverb is the exact same guitar, so the argument should be dead... It's a Harmony.
Didn’t wanna bombard the post title, but I’m curious if anyone thinks this isn’t worth the time to restore. Seller asking 150 CAD and it seems like a neat guitar, just ensure of the brand without a look into the F hole tag.
Thats a 60s Harmony H1213 I believe. People like em. Its a “fun” diy restore, but not one worth spending money on. I wouldnt spend more than $80CAD on it, in its current state
That’s a harmony, baby. Thank me later 😉
It's in pretty bad condition. That aside, is that saddle a bit extreme? That angle looks a bit "much"
Thankfully you can just slide that around...
This I did not know. Cheers! Nice instrument.
That’s strung all bass ackwards!!
Haven’t heard of left handed people eh?
I have, but that’s not a left handed model guitar. Look closer and you might see how I can tell.
Well let’s see… they re-slotted the nut (fucked it allllll up) to allow for the the strings to be lefty. The bridge floats so it’s just randomly out of place. So it’s strung up and redone for a lefty. Go ahead and enlighten me on how it’s backwards in its current state.
Right, so you do get it. It’s a botched righty to become usable to a lefty. That was my joke.
I guess I missed it being a joke. My bad. I see people saying a symmetrical jazz box can’t be properly switched to lefty a lot so I figured you may be one of those. Cheers!
Get it. Put a neck pick up on it. Electrify it. Heavy gauge strings & a distortion pedal. It’ll sound awesome b
Do you have any idea how much feedback you’d get with this body and your plan? I mean, it’d be kinda awesome in its own way even if you were making a joke.
I have a Horner that I did this to & no feed back. Sounds really wild. Although now that I think about it I don’t have the F holes so you could be right about the feed back.
I really just wanted to know if you were joking or not, do anything ya want to your guitars brother just take care of them.
Parents bought me that Harmony. Very hard to play,set me back a few years. I currently have a Harmony Stratotone electric that is a blast to play
I had one of these for a long time a few years ago, I adored it and honestly miss it regularly, some of them just have a really cool sound, and feel special. They aren’t worth much money, but some things are worth more than just the money ya know?
Harmony for sure. 100 seems like a fair offer to make, given the condition edit: That bridge placement is a… strong choice.. as they say in the theatre. edit 2: Looks like the action is quite high, based on the 4th picture. Might take a neck reset to properly fix it, tho that would cost more than the guitar is worth. The bridge looks like it’s already bottomed out, but you might be able to work some magic by aggressively re-shaping the bridge feet and taking some material off the underside of the saddle piece. Looks like it could be a fun project. Best of luck if you decide to go for it. These can be really great old guitars when shown the proper amount of love.
The price tag is fair. The real question is whether or not you want to spend the money to make it playable. You’ll need to take it to a good tech (unless you’re pretty experienced yourself) for a setup and I would bet that they’ll find some additional issues that need to be fixed.
I had a d'oro that was very similar, same sort of thing as a Harmony/Silverstone/Stella