Silenced Fred Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Ok, so not because of Jack White, but because of Dan Auerbach, I have been looking for a Harmony like his. prices are off the wall on these guitars that nobody wanted when they were brand new, but now everyone wants em. What gives? I mean, seriously? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff-7 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Which one? He uses 3 different models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Cause you can get tones out of them you cant get out of other guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MojoRedFoot Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Can't say I feel the same way. But what makes them crappy? Cheap wood? sh!tty wiring? I would not say Harmony guitars are necessarily crappy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 same reason you want one - because old guitars are cool anf make you feel cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantha Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I'm guessing everyone wants one for the same reason you want one.. which is creating a demand and driving up the price? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff-7 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Well because they are old and the company went down the tubes makes it a limited commodity, and the with White and Auerbach being so popular a lot of people want the equipment they use to emulate them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 Can't say I feel the same way. But what makes them crappy? Cheap wood? sh!tty wiring? I would not say Harmony guitars are necessarily crappy People with Airlines, Silvertones, Harmony, etc wanted a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul, now, people are paying more for a Silvertone, Airline, Harmony, than a new Strat or LP. I don't get it. I saw the Harmony I wanted (3 pickups with the bigsby) for 2 grand on eBay :blink: Excuse me, but I could almost get a guitar built for that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff-7 Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 People with Airlines, Silvertones, Harmony, etc wanted a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul, now, people are paying more for a Silvertone, Airline, Harmony, than a new Strat or LP. I don't get it. I saw the Harmony I wanted (3 pickups with the bigsby) for 2 grand on eBay :blink: Excuse me, but I could almost get a guitar built for that Rocket I assume? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MojoRedFoot Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 People with Airlines, Silvertones, Harmony, etc wanted a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul, now, people are paying more for a Silvertone, Airline, Harmony, than a new Strat or LP. I don't get it. I saw the Harmony I wanted (3 pickups with the bigsby) for 2 grand on eBay :blink: Excuse me, but I could almost get a guitar built for that Holy poop! Time to cash in on my old Egmund!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 Holy poop! Time to cash in on my old Egmund!! For 2 grand, I can get almost anything I want (guitar, then give to a mod to clean it up, what pickups i want, bigsby, etc) i was appalled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ksdaddy Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I like old crappy guitars and you will see several on my site. I had a guitar shop in the 80s. One day a friend stopped by with a gift. It was a Holiday electric. They were made by Kay (I guess... all Chicago guitars seem to overlap a lot) and were made in any number of pickup configurations and levels of quality, from a satin finished single pickup model right up to the Harmony Jupiter or whatever it was, with bound neck and block inlays. Anyway, the style was used all through the 60s. This one particular POS had sat in the snowbank all winter and had cat poop on the headstock. He bought it at a yard sale for 25 cents. I stripped it, painted it black, put a new set of tuners and knobs/pots on it and MAN, it was just so goinky and great! Instant John Lee Hooker. I've had others like it, including a NOS Kay from 1964 that I bought in 1986 with the tags still on it ($79.95). Lost that and a "Brian Adams Summer of '69" Silvertone in a swap deal in '91. I bought another one this afternoon. As you will see, it probably should have been tossed, but I plan to leave it exactly as-is. No stripper or sandpaper.... maybe a clearcoat though. I already have a new (Chinese) Artec pickup that is almost exactly like the original and I will make a clear plexiglass pickguard for it so none of the 'artwork' will be obscured. Also it will be cool to see the pots and wiring through the plexiglass. I've got a brand new set of Ping tuners and I will likely refret it if I can do it without disturbing the paint. Yes I am insane. Hippie kay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diego the guy Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 you think my stellas worth some mulla ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrktwn Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Ok, so not because of Jack White, but because of Dan Auerbach, I have been looking for a Harmony like his. prices are off the wall on these guitars that nobody wanted when they were brand new, but now everyone wants em. What gives? I mean, seriously? Sorry little brother, its the same phenomenon that made an old/older Les Paul so expensive.It is kind of infuriating. Its how I feel about things like Norlin era Gibsons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I've had some old Harmony guitars when they were new - or mostly new. <grin> Some were pretty decent, some not. One early-mid '50s archtop was excellent except for, IMHO, the ax-handle neck; then again, most 50s guitars had necks I don't care much for. But then figure this: I think the Harmonies were built kinda like the old DC-3 - overengineered to make up for components of questionable quality. The wood problem got worse in the 60s when everybody was buying guitars and some of the stuff was incredibly horribly made of worse wood. I swear some were made of orange crates. Nowadays? Yeah, "cool" is a reason to have about any kind of guitar, I guess. I was that way well into my 30s. Oh, the 1960s Stella 12-strings made by Harmony were inexpensive in terms of the marketplace and didn't sound all that bad. They just looked horrid and were a bit overbuilt for strength. They also still played rather well, so more than a few folks I know, including me, simply refinished them and put on light strings. The necks were a bit thick, but so were a lot of 50s guitars, so... m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon S. Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I love old department store guitars. I've got an early 60's Silvertone "Amp in Case" model that's a blast to play(and sounds pretty good). I used to have one of the Kay Value Leader guitars. It sounded real junky(the good kind of junky), but only stayed in tune for a few seconds. The only guitar i've ever seen that the tuners were so shot that you could actually watch them turn back after you tune up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freak show Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I wouldn't pay the prices they're asking for these old department store guitars either. Total BS... Have you checked out the re-issues from Eastwood? They're pretty nice IMO. And one can find them cheap on eBay. BTW: I didn't realize that White plays a Harmony. Which one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Versatile Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 We live in a sanitised digital era I remember when nice vinyl lp's and cassettes gave way To not so nice glassy CD's with 'perfect' noiseless reproduction Dangerous valve amps became nasty transistor amps Thankfully only for a short period The retro 60's etc thing has firmly taken hold Sometimes plywood sounds better than solid Excuse the random thought (think ES175) The old 'needs must' days were character forming..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 The lede guitar player in my first rock/jazz band had one of those old silvertone "in case" amps! Ah, the memories. But in 1962, expectations were not to knock down ceiling tiles with amp volume, either. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silenced Fred Posted September 21, 2010 Author Share Posted September 21, 2010 I wouldn't pay the prices they're asking for these old department store guitars either. Total BS... Have you checked out the re-issues from Eastwood? They're pretty nice IMO. And one can find them cheap on eBay. BTW: I didn't realize that White plays a Harmony. Which one? I should rephrase this: I don't believe White plays a Harmony, but because I'm the token Jack White fanboy, I don't want old guitars because of him, but rather Dan Auerbach. Sorry for the confusion. i haven't listened to the White Stripes in at least a month now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyK Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Patricians and Sovereigns can be worth a few hundred dollars. This was Harmony's top of the line arch top and flat tops. Stellas and the like... not so much. They are worth more than comparable guitars of like quality, not made by Harmony, because of nostalgia value. Most folks my age started off on a Harmony because that is all they or their folks could afford. Most folks played them because through the 60's, fully half of the guitars in the world were made by Harmony. Harmony electrics or hollow body electrics are, in my opinion, sky high. They are like a '57 Chevy. When they were sold new, they were bought by folks who couldn't afford a better car. My Dad had a '57 Chevy BelAir. I asked if he wish he had kept it. He said, for a few seconds once he kicked himself for getting rid of it, but then he remembered, it was a piece of crap and was glad the dealership didn't charge him extra to take it in on trade. Now-a-days, folks who wouldn't stoop to buying a Chevy clamber to buy them. Like an old Harmony guitar, they were'nt anything special when new, but 50 years later? They are just cool, especially if you can play them. Most, if found in unaltered condition, lo these 50 years later, are not playable. If they are playable, someone has upgraded them to playable. I have also played old Harmony's that sound as good or better than most 'high end' guitars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Tommy... I had a Harmony archtop that, as far as I can tell, had original Grovers. The headstock fleur de lis was half broken out, but... what the heck. The rest was in fine condition. Early to mid 50s, as I said earlier. Single pickup on the neck, wooden knobs, etc. It was played in country rock band trio gigs (guitar, bass, drummer) for several years and worked exceptionally well with 9-42 strings whether I played a lead or a heavy "beat on the strings" rhythm. The neck... well, it was thick. But so were others of the era. It was straight, good frets, etc. Actually I was playing that as my preferred instrument even though I had several that by all accounts were significantly "better" guitars. The reason was the versatility of the sound, really, along with general playability for what I was doing. By the late '70s I really didn't care much whether somebody thought it was a "crap guitar." Nowadays, naaah, I'd probably use a Dot. But I'll add that I'd gone through a number of other guitars including a Gretsch I regret and, as I said, I had technically four "much better" guitars that I preferred for other styles of playing. This just "worked" for the trio. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Ok, so not because of Jack White, but because of Dan Auerbach, I have been looking for a Harmony like his. prices are off the wall on these guitars that nobody wanted when they were brand new, but now everyone wants em. What gives? I mean, seriously? I have an old early '60s Harmony. Here's the deal with it. It's mahogany, it's cedar, and it's fret board is Brazilian Rosewood. Unfortunately it's in a state of disrepair. Fortunately, it's got a nice piece of brazilian rosewood I can use at a later time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daveinspain Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 Why are antiques worth a lot of money? Because they were made many years ago and are no longer in production except for some copies... Only so many were made. More people want them than there are to be had. Prices go up, less people want them at higher prices supply and demand level out. Everyone is happy except the guys who can no longer afford them. In a nut shell. Apply that to guitars... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MojoRedFoot Posted September 21, 2010 Share Posted September 21, 2010 I love old department store guitars. I've got an early 60's Silvertone "Amp in Case" model that's a blast to play(and sounds pretty good). I used to have one of the Kay Value Leader guitars. It sounded real junky(the good kind of junky), but only stayed in tune for a few seconds. The only guitar i've ever seen that the tuners were so shot that you could actually watch them turn back after you tune up... I've got a 1930s Supertone A Style mandolin my great grandfather bought at a Sears & Roebuck (sp). Not for sale but has nostalgia and sounds great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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