Dating Harmony Sovereign Guitars. I think we found a way to roughly or approximately date Harmony Sovereign guitars. The serial numbers do not provide dating information. Sometimes, a date stamp is visible on the back through the sound hole. This does give an indication of year (’F’irst or ’S’second year half). 2011-6-18 Here’s a ’60s Harmony Sovereign H1260 on the workbench. Vintage Harmony guitars have become a popular choice for collectors and often fetch high prices on auction sites. The H1260 was produced between 1958 – 1971. The Harmony Guitar Company became the largest producer in the U.S.
- For many of us who came of musical age in the 1960s, the Harmony Sovereign was our first 'good' guitar. I got my first Sovereign from the other guitar player in my first band who had acquired a Guild which back then seemed to be part of a natural progression on your way up to a Gibson or a Martin.
- What is the value of my harmony sovereign guitar? The serial number is in it but i cant find the year it was made or the value of it anywhere! Can anyone tell me the year and value! Serial # 6916H1203! And on a scale of one to ten its at least an 8 on its conditon! Everything seems to be original except the pick guard.
After a nice breakfast, we said goodbyes to our friends and the innskeeper. Before the ride back home, my wife and I made a stop in town to pick up souvenirs. While waiting for one of the small shoppes to open, we spent some time in a consignment shop. That's where I first saw her, cleverly leaning against an armless Victorian occasional chair. It was love at first sight, and at once I felt as if a greater reason for my trip to the southern Chesapeake area had been revealed.
I picked her up and looked her over, carefully checking out the features and overall condition of this old guitar. Her size, shape, coloring and construction details were all similar to that of the legendary pre-war OOO and OM Martin models. Her chunky ladder bracing and pinless bridge told me she was about 50 or more years old, and it was clear she had seen some use, abuse and neglect over the years. Although I wasn't entirely sure of what I had found, thoughts of making some minor repairs to transform an under-valued diamond-in-the-rough into a rare and playable vintage instrument raced through my mind. Except for a few character marks, dings, dents and some buckle rash, her finish was in great condition and she had no visible structural cracks or damage. Her neck had a bit too much relief to be playable, she had some top bulging behind the bridge, and there were signs of some slight neck/body joint separation. But, a truss rod cover on her headstock gave me some hope that a neck adjustment might be enough to bring her action down to something playable. I carefully tuned her well-worn strings, about three half steps down from concert pitch, just long enough to finger a few licks and some open chords.
Almost completely lost in her warm even tone, I realized I also had an audience, as I recognized the sultry/sweet southern accent of a mature woman's voice telling me my playing sounded 'real nice'. The woman identified herself as the store owner, offered to help me with anything I was interested in, and encouraged me to keep playing while she watched and listened. Recognizing she was interested in making a sale, I thanked her for the compliment and countered that this guitar would take a lot of work to truly be playable. The tag stated a firm but reasonable asking price, and the woman continued to appear less interested in making a sale than being serenaded. Considering my options, I decided to not let this one get away, and convinced myself, if nothing else, this guitar would make a great wall hanging. After the long ride home, I placed her on a wall hanger, letting her acclimate to the less humid air of the North Carolina Piedmont while I started looking into identifying the model and age of this mature beauty.
Harmony Sovereign Guitar 1960's
Thank god for the Internet! After doing some research, I realized what I had found is a Harmony H1203 'Western Special' Sovereign. A combination of solid tone woods and mass-production techniques gave Harmony instruments a practical blend of rich sound quality in an affordable price range. These instruments are part of a long list of guitars with similar tonal range referred to as 'blues boxes', commonly used by delta blues musicians that made popular music in the early to mid 1900's. Popular musicians since then have borrowed heavily from the delta blues style. Most notably, we find a lot of the delta blues in the blend of styles we commonly refer to as rock and roll. Rumor has it that Jimmy Page used a Harmony H1260 'Jumbo' Sovereign while recording 'Stairway to Heaven'. With lineage like that, I once again felt justified in my purchase of this old guitar.Figuring out the age of this old guitar was my next challenge. According to the information I found on the Harmony Database, she appears to have been built in the late 1950's or early 1960's. I have not found any date or model number stamps inside the sound box, but a date stamp on the top panel might exist, covered by a brace, end block or neck block. If so, I hope I will never need to disassemble her enough to find out her true age. Suffice to say, this old guitar appears to have been built no earlier than in 1956 and no later than in 1966. I moved on, looking into what it would take to repair this old guitar. I cleared off my work bench, laid out a clean towel, and took a good, long look at this old guitar.
Her action at the 14th fret was close to double what it should be.
I put a straight edge up to her neck and could see a huge amount of relief.
In this light it was also easier to see how much her top had deformed over the years.
Now that her woods had acclimated to the lower humidity, I could see separation at the heel of her neck joint.
Some of her back bracing appeared loose as well.
But, my biggest surprise came when I removed her cover plate, and found a broken truss rod.
Convinced that this old guitar needed much more repairs than what I could do myself, I brought her to the folks at Hanson and Crawford's in downtown Raleigh. This is a small shop that does repairs and custom work by appointment. Walking in to their basement unit entrance, I was greeted by the smell of freshly cut wood, glue and paint. The two owners were both working hard, and looked up briefly enough from what they were doing to ask if they could help me with something. After carefully looking over what I had brought, they politely said it would cost more than this old guitar was worth to make the necessary repairs. However, they took the time to come up with a laundry list of repairs and associated costs, and a grand total of just over $1,000.00.
Given that I had spent less than $100 to buy this old guitar, and that I could buy a good quality new or used instrument for $1,000, I did not entertain the option of paying someone to fix this one for very long. Seeing the reaction in my face, one of the owners confessed that he has owned a few Harmony guitars over the years and had repaired some in worse shape than this one was in, just for the fun of it. Then, he gave me some tips on how to do some of the work on this one on my own. Listening to his explanations, remembering some of what I had done building that classical guitar in the early 1980's, and thinking about some repair techniques I had come across recently on the Internet, I began to believe that I actually could do most of her repairs, if not all of them, on my own.
Here’s a ’60s Harmony Sovereign H1260 on the workbench.
Vintage Harmony guitars have become a popular choice for collectors and often fetch high prices on auction sites. The H1260 was produced between 1958 – 1971. Bill frisell guitar tab.
The Harmony Guitar Company became the largest producer in the U.S. They sold 250,000 pieces in 1923 and 500,000 in 1930, including various models of guitars, banjos, and mandolins. The company peaked between 1964 – 1965 selling 350,000 instruments, but low end foreign competition led to the company’s demise 10 years later. In the years from 1945 – 1975 the Chicago firm had mass produced about ten million guitars. More info on The Harmony Guitar Company here…
The Harmony Guitar Company ceased trading in 1975 and sold the Harmony name. The name is now used by an unrelated company based in Illinois that imports guitars from Asia. More info on vintage Harmony guitars at Harmony Database
* From Wikipedia
As previously stated these old 1260s are becoming collectors items and owners are forever looking for ways to bring out the best in them. This 1260 belongs to a regular customer and a frequent visitor to the workshop.
It originally came into the workshop to have a pin through bridge fitted. Whilst it’s on the workbench I had an opportunity to give it a thorough workbench assessment and I did’t like what I saw.
Harmony Sovereign Guitar F-70nf
It had a high playing action and on closer inspection I could see that the neck had been refitted. This had been badly done and left me with the impression that this old Sovereign had been the victim of abuse in the hands of an inexperience repairer.
There was a strange veneer line that ran the length of the neck under the fingerboard. It appeared to (have been) be a piece of Maple veneer, but why was it there? This didn’t look like Harmony spec. but it suggested that the fingerboard had been removed at some point in its life.
Click image to enlarge
After talking over the potential problems with its owner we came up with a plan to save this old jumbo.
A Renovation Plan
To remove the fingerboard from the neck and body
To remove the Maple veneer from the top of the neck.
To remove the neck from the body and reset at the appropriate angle for a good playing action.
The fingerboard was (to be) assessed after it has been removed to ascertain if it could be reused or replaced.
All binding around the fingerboard was to be renewed including the edge dots.
A small heat blanket was used to heat the fingerboard. For ease this was done in several stages.
With the fingerboard removed it was a simple job to steam and remove the neck.
More info about removing and resetting a guitar neck here…
The body, neck and fingerboard were set aside for a few days to dry out and settle.
The Fingerboard
Fortunately the fingerboard was removed cleanly and without damage. The frets were removed and the fingerboard cleaned up.
I took this opportunity to refret the fingerboard as this makes for a very easy job with the fingerboard removed from the neck.
The fingerboard was fretted and new bindings attached.
The Neck Reset
It’s clearly visible in the photo (below) that the dovetail is badly broken. This is quite common when a neck is removed. Generally speaking all the broken parts a gathered and pieced back together. However, in this instance there are no broken parts to be collected. This means that these parts were omitted on the last neck reset!
The dovetail end was cleaned up as best as is practical and the neck reset.
More on neck resets here…
The edge bindings were trimmed to size and the fingerboard reattached to the neck.
Why bother changing the bridge?
As previously mentioned owners are forever trying new ways to bring out the best tone in their Harmony guitars. A pin through bridge is an efficient way of enhancing the bass and mid range tones. This is partly due to the increased break angle of the strings from the saddle to the pin hole and partly due to the 90° angle of the string through the bridge and soundboard. Another beneficial factor is the direct contact of the string’s ball end with the internal bridge plate beneath the soundboard.
Making the Bridge
A purpose designed and made metal block was heated to approximately 400°F. The heat transference was enough to soften the glue holding the bridge.
The new bridge design was based approximately on the same shape and dimensions as the old bridge. The new bridge has an extended front to allow for correct saddle position and therefore accurate intonation.
The footprint of the old bridge was cleaned up and a soundboard patch installed. This ensures that the new bridge will stay stuck.
The new pin through bridge was fitted and glued into place.
The guitar was strung up and tested.
Some strings were choking around the 12th fret area. This was a bad sign and suggested that there was a slight hump in the fingerboard around this area. The only course of action was to defret the guitar and reshoot the fingerboard. This is unfortunate as this had already been refretted at the start of the restoration. However, my optimistic thinking was that it could work out fine and there was very little lost in doing the earlier refret when the fingerboard was loose.
Fingerboard Reshoot
The frets were removed and the guitar was prepared for the reshoot. This entailed using a jack plane and cabinet scrapers to smooth out the hump in the fingerboard.
Some of the inlays were lost.
With the slight hump removed new M.O.P dots were inlayed the fingerboard was refretted.
A new nut was made and fitted along with a new scratchplate.
The back of the neck was refinished to disguise a multitude of chips and breakouts around the binding area.
This short video clip shows the transition of this instrument through restoration.
Restoration has transformed this instrument
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Soundtrack: Aloha Uncle Lawrence by Jim Kimo West