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What is this old acoustic guitar?


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I bought it a few years ago at 2nd hand shop and recently had it set up for playing slide. The luthier said he thought it was a Harmony. I can't find an exact match with any of the pictures I've found on the net, and the numbers printed in it don't correlate with the serial numbers I've managed to search. It is similar to a few I found on the web but no exact matches or even similar numbers. Someone said it could be from a time when lots of similar guitar parts (including Gibson) were distributed to many different companies.

Any ideas out there? https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sb83usxhe7pmrng/AAD1-_STkmZHboVAQrtBGAJIa?dl=0

Thanks,

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This guitar is either a Harmony, or Kay, both Chicago guitar manufactures. Many times it's it's very difficult to differentiate between guitars built by these two companies.

 

Not only did they build instruments labelled with their own names, but also built guitars branded for the big department stores of the day such as "Silvertone" for Sears, and "Airline" for Montgomery Ward (and many others). They would also build guitars for each other, to meet contract demands and delivery schedules.

 

Having seen, and worked on, many of these Chicago built instruments over the years, I have found the designs and construction to be of very good quality, but where they saved money was in materials. For instance, where a Gibson neck would be made of mahogany or maple, theirs were made of poplar. Where Gibson would use solid woods for their acoustic bodies, Harmony and Kay would use plywood. Logos and inlays were always silk-screens or appliques, and nuts, bindings, TRC's and pickguards were made for the "finest" plastics.

 

During the post-war years (40's - mid 60's), Chicago was the guitar building capitol of the world, and was producing (and selling) MANY MANY times more "economy" instruments than the big names. During this time Chicago was also home to a few of the big name guitar hardware manufactures, as the Midwest was a central location to make and supply hardware to the Chicago companies, another mfg in Kalamazoo, and others on the east coast.

 

As these two companies, in their heyday, were far bigger than Gibson, I doubt that Gibson was supplying anything in the way of parts and materials to these "competitors", and would more likely (but also improbable) be the other way around.

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