zombywoof Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Hallelujah Brothers and Sisters. I knew if I hung around long enough something like this was going to happen. Nothing to do with a Gibson but I have seen you guys bring up Martins and even, God forbid, Taylors. I just got one of my Harmony Sovereigns back from the shop. This is the one on which I repaired the headstock. I decided to send it off. It came back transformed. It now sports a 1940s Martin style X bracing, a pin bridge made in the exact footprint of the original pinless bridge, and a maple bridge plate replacing the short spruce one. Even though my headstock repair was judged solid, the neck was still in really rough shape so I went and had another Sovereign neck which they had in stock (re-fretted and re-bound) slapped on. The sound. This guitar would make a vintage Martin D-18 run for cover. Well, actually not. What the conversion did is to amplify the guitar's voice. It is a resonance releaser as somebody I know put it. It unleashes that dry snap you hear in an old mahogany and spruce guitar. Just a light brush of the strings brings the guitar to life. The bass is deep enough to make any bluegrass player (which I am not) smile with delight. And I am now harmonic rich. Not exactly sure if I needed overtones but it is nice to have them. Here she be still toting test strings during the setup. Say what you will but I think this is as pretty a back and neck than I have seen on any J-45. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneS Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Really enjoy following your saga and am psyched that you've been rewarded for your keen intuition and judgment. Would now that we could hear it! Nice going- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j45nick Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Pretty cool, I must say. Turbocharged Harmony. Sort of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted December 11, 2017 Author Share Posted December 11, 2017 Really enjoy following your saga and am psyched that you've been rewarded for your keen intuition and judgment. Would now that we could hear it! Nice going- If I recall correctly you own a Kalamazoo that had already been through a brace-ectomy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 . Glad to see your efforts have been rewarded. . B) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnneS Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 If I recall correctly you own a Kalamazoo that had already been through a brace-ectomy. Yup. Of course, I don't know what it sounded like (or what condition it was in) as a ladder, but I love what I've got now. So upon a sleepless night of perusing the internet, someone talked about playing your guitar while facing a hard-surface corner to best hear its voice. The person noted that you can position yourself to find the sweet spot of any acoustic that way but that it's especially revealing for small-bodied guitars because you can actually get pretty close in. (Maybe it's called corner loading? I was bleary!) I tried it with the Kal-and it was kinda cool. There is a distinct sweet spot, and the effect isn't amplification or reverb; it's more like a focusing of sound. Quite lovely, really. Go ahead, corner load this puppy and report back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted December 11, 2017 Share Posted December 11, 2017 Fun stuff! So there's an adjustable truss rod under that cover? What year was this one built? And btw, congrats on a very cool fix !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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