War Era 1944 Harmony H1215 Archtone.

This thing is ultra cool. The wooden tailpiece was only used by Harmony during WWII when metal was reserved for the war effort. The original tuners are like none other I’ve seen either, with the gear peened onto the tuning post and no screw.

It came to me from the family of the original owner. Apparently Grandpa was seldom seen without his Harmony. This is evident by the worn fretboard and honest scars this beautiful thing has all over it. It hadn’t been out of its case in about 15 years and was just deteriorating from mildew and mould.

It is all original except obviously for the nut, and it needed some serious TLC. The action at the 12 fret was over 6mm high due to a loose neck.

Loose neck. Had been repaired with hide glue at some point in its life, but had come loose again.
Sides peeling away from the tail block.
Another angle of the neck pulling away. Also a large split in the side.
Original tuners, stamped with patent number.

The plan was to steam the neck joint and scrape off the old hide glue (the down side is that steam and old lacquer don’t go well together, often leaving bad white stains). I also used suction cups to force glue down into that side crack and fix it up. Glued and clamped the neck and tail block. Removed all the tuners and cleaned the components to get a good gear-to-gear contact. Cleaned off about 15 years of musty grime. And Voila ….. see the finished product below.

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  1. This was my first guitar! I still have and play it often. Great, no… Huge Sound from it’s 70+ year-old body! I had never known the age of the guitar until I noticed the wooden trapeze, learning it was a war production model. So glad I held on to it. I’ve enjoyed adding my history to it’s life!

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