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A friend who found out that I was building a guitar asked me to look at an old guitar her father had owned. The back had come off and she asked if it was repairable.

The guitar is a harmony archtop that I guess is about 50 years old. It appears to be a lower end instrument - that is my guess as I know nothing about Harmony guitars. It has a "De Armond Guitar Mike" pickup that to me looks like someone cut out a hole and added after the fact. I appears to be plywood with a painted black fingerboard and painted on binding. There is no model name or number, but it has Harmony painted in gold on the headstock with a musical note in red in the center of the headstock.

The rims do not fit the back at this point. Ideally it needs to be in a mold to get the correct shape before re-gluing. The top seems like it is about to pop off as well. So I think if you were to repair it, you would probably need to remove the top which means remove the neck as well.

Other issues:
- the strings that are on the guitar look to be about 50 years old as well. I realize that I can add new strings, but I would be worried that it would fly apart if I tried to get the strings to tension.

- the Wire coming out of the pickup is worn and frayed. So this would probably need to be repaired before plugging up.

I planned to post pics, but am having trouble right now. Any advice would be appreciated. the way I see things, if she wants to keep it as an ornament, I might be able to glue the back on. If she wants to play it, she will need to go to a professional and the cost to repair it may be higher than the value of the guitar. If anyone wants to give me a ball park estimate for the cost of re-gluing the front and back that would be great.

Thanks, Greg

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Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

Greg,

Check out this website for info on harmony guitars.

http://harmony.demont.net/faq.php

I got lent a Harmony archtop by a friend...it was her late father's. There should be a couple of serial numbers inside the guitar if you peer through the F holes.

Cheers Martin

Martin. Thanks. That site helps. This is a model 1215 which is listed as a lower end archtop. I was wrong about the plywood, this site says solid birch, but all the decorations are painted.

Greg

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Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

I have seen some old acoustic guitars where all decorations like binding and rosette were either painted on or decals. I am just wondering with all the trouble to mask and spray the binding it would have been much easier to just route a channel and install plastic binding. Labor must have been cheap back then.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Hmmm, cant really tell too much without seeing it in person/picture, but if you are up for it, it is pretty common on older guitars and mandolins where the back has shrunk and no longer fits the sides to reglue the back/top and then rout and add binding to cover the misalignment. Gibson made a whole bunch of A style mandolins with bound tops but no binding on the back, and a pretty good percentage of them have bound backs today. The harmony is probably not really worth the trouble, but if you are up for a challenge, including lots of touchup, adding binding is one way.

The other way is maybe even a little bit more tricky- violins often get this treatment as they age- the sides are loosened from the tailblock, and trimmed shorter, so that when they are brought together at the butt the back once again fits in side the outline. This one is much less common for guitars, and is not recommended.

Or the other other way, is to just glue it together and slap some fresh strings on it. Not pretty, but more in line with the value of this guitar.

You generally cant do too much to force the sides back once the back has shrunk and no longer fits the outline, add tension by forcing the sides, and you are just encouraging cracks in the future.

Tai Fu- these older cheap guitars literally had painted on bindings, someone just went around the outline with a paintbrush.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Jordan, Thanks for your reply. I think you are probably correct about the back shrinking. I had not thought of that.

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Greg Hatcher
North Carolina