Sears. Late 80’s I remember reading the Average household in the US had an Average balance on their Sears credit card of $600. Average. Nationwide. Now. Nope.
Very nice sounds great! Mojo for sure. I never knew about the Led Zepplin connection very cool. I just purchased a rather rare 1980 Harmony sovereign H600? Wow! Not too different than this one, but unique in its own way. Made in korea and i found out they were actually the first guitars produced off the line in their Samick factory..? The H600 has the same headstock shape as yours but closed back tuners. The tuners look kinda like grovers too surprisingly. The guitar body wow, highly flamed maple top, back and sides! Not a vaneer either through and through. That kinda blew me away. Strange to even see woods like maple on an acoustic of this type. No mahogany or sitka spruce. (Tag inside the sound hole says "made from carefully selected and dried woods"). Dark rosewood fretboard and adjustable bridge. Possibly even a brazilian rosewood but im not a 100% about that. But quite dark for rosewood almost ebony dark. Nice pearloid or possibly even mother of pearl snowflake inlays. Nice touch too i think. Neck needed a slight truss rod adjustment and guitar a full setup but, it sat in the case for years according to the original owner. Got it on the cheap too and i'm tickled so far! X bracing like on yours, but still sounds pretty good. I was also surprised with the nice binding throughout and the prefect fret ends, smooth sailing! Not cheap feeling. Theirs not really alot about the H600 on the internet either.? One sold 8 years ago through reverb.com for around $500. That one was excellent to near mint condition just like mine is but a little more of a flamed maple top than on mine. I digress. Growing up as a teen playing guitar in the 90's Harmony acoustics and even their electrics in general were just an affordable almost cheap made guitars. I never thought they were all that great, but after seeing alot of these older versions and listening to them and playing one i'm pretty impressed! Of course the older ones do have more mojo but this 1980 korean made version is quite nice. Go Harmony!! Since the 1890's! If anyone else can give any input about the H600 i would love to hear?.. Sorry i wrote a book.. Lol its just an interesting subject and the research is kinda fun too! So is bringing an old guitar back to life! Thanks for the video sir! Rock on!
The harmony H1260 has a white bound mahogany originally. Someone has replaced the neck with a grand concert (OM/000) poplar neck, you can see the heel of the neck falls short at the bottom and more likened to the depth of grand concert. Great sounding guitar.
Well. The heel was missing the back "plate" anyway, and was rough wood, so it might have been deeper at some point. But, the neck had definitely been reset at some earlier time, there were remnants of some shims, and evidence of more than one kind of glue in the joint, so I can believe it could’ve come from another guitar, maybe a 1203.
@@brianmcfarland4745 The neck on this one was actually replaced with a neck from a Harmony H158 or H159. These are all birch jumbo models that were made by Harmony…….the same size as the 1260’s. You can tell by the headstock logo, lack of an adjustable TR and lack of double position markers at the fifth and 12th fret. These also came with ebonized fretboards as opposed to the rosewood board tha came on the 1260. Good sounding guitar….nice job..
This was the first one of these I had done, and it’s funny, now it’s obvious to me, lol. No "Sovereign" on the headstock, no binding, no Truss rod, like you said. I’ve done 3-4 since then, including an Airline version and all of them had all of those traits. Finishing up a 165 and a 1203 right now. The Hog 165 has the similar "Steel Reinforced neck", while the 1203 has the right attributes for it. TH-cam University, lol
The H158/H159 is a pretty cool model. Possibly the largest all-solid-birch guitar in existence. You can usually get them reasonably priced (when they come up)……don’t think I’ve ever seen one x-brace converted. Would be an interesting project…. The Airline 1260’s are very nice….I think only built for a couple years in the very early 60’s……at the same time Harmony was using the Harmony “block logo” instead of the “script logo” (that started in around ‘62). Good luck with your projects!
I've been thinking lately that my ideal acoustic would have a thick neck with wide nut width and slightly shorter scale length. I've also been eye balling x braced Harmonys. I didn't realize until recently that these Harmonys have exactly the necks and scale length that I want. Hearing this it sounds like the scale length is a perfect middle ground between "Martin" and "Gibson"
I’ve X braced a couple 1260’s, working on another one right now using torrified Sitka from Stu Mac. The bracing boards tapped together have Very Good musical qualities! Have you ever used it? Ed
I haven’t, but thanks for the idea. I had a source of some Sitka from a guy here in Maine that had bought a bunch of top pairs from Martin back in the 80’s, still had the packing slip to show me. I bought all 10 sets from him, I’m down to 4 sets left. It’s been really nice in everything I’ve used it for, naturally aged sitting in his house for almost 40 years!
Man you do great at making those Harmony’s sound so good. Is that x bracing that makes them sound so awesome? Have a good one, and keep up the good work.
This one has already sold,but I have two others listed at the moment. Both are OM sized models, one Mahogany one and another Spruce one. Check out my Reverb page. Thanks reverb.com/shop/brians-gear-locker-914?
![อยู่คนเดียวกับเขา - ส้ม มารี (Zom Marie) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gq1cWAIQDLg/mqdefault.jpg)
Sears. Late 80’s I remember reading the Average household in the US had an Average balance on their Sears credit card of $600. Average. Nationwide. Now. Nope.
I'd take the Harmony over the Martin any day. It never ceases to amaze me what people will pay for a name on the headstock.
Lord or lord the Harmony sounds sooo good
Thank you much for this comparison and history. Great demo.
Very nice sounds great! Mojo for sure. I never knew about the Led Zepplin connection very cool. I just purchased a rather rare 1980 Harmony sovereign H600? Wow! Not too different than this one, but unique in its own way. Made in korea and i found out they were actually the first guitars produced off the line in their Samick factory..? The H600 has the same headstock shape as yours but closed back tuners. The tuners look kinda like grovers too surprisingly. The guitar body wow, highly flamed maple top, back and sides! Not a vaneer either through and through. That kinda blew me away. Strange to even see woods like maple on an acoustic of this type. No mahogany or sitka spruce. (Tag inside the sound hole says "made from carefully selected and dried woods"). Dark rosewood fretboard and adjustable bridge. Possibly even a brazilian rosewood but im not a 100% about that. But quite dark for rosewood almost ebony dark. Nice pearloid or possibly even mother of pearl snowflake inlays. Nice touch too i think. Neck needed a slight truss rod adjustment and guitar a full setup but, it sat in the case for years according to the original owner. Got it on the cheap too and i'm tickled so far! X bracing like on yours, but still sounds pretty good. I was also surprised with the nice binding throughout and the prefect fret ends, smooth sailing! Not cheap feeling. Theirs not really alot about the H600 on the internet either.? One sold 8 years ago through reverb.com for around $500. That one was excellent to near mint condition just like mine is but a little more of a flamed maple top than on mine. I digress. Growing up as a teen playing guitar in the 90's Harmony acoustics and even their electrics in general were just an affordable almost cheap made guitars. I never thought they were all that great, but after seeing alot of these older versions and listening to them and playing one i'm pretty impressed! Of course the older ones do have more mojo but this 1980 korean made version is quite nice. Go Harmony!! Since the 1890's! If anyone else can give any input about the H600 i would love to hear?.. Sorry i wrote a book.. Lol its just an interesting subject and the research is kinda fun too! So is bringing an old guitar back to life! Thanks for the video sir! Rock on!
Nice. The x bracing very much changes the tone. Pete Townsend used h-1260 too
The harmony H1260 has a white bound mahogany originally. Someone has replaced the neck with a grand concert (OM/000) poplar neck, you can see the heel of the neck falls short at the bottom and more likened to the depth of grand concert. Great sounding guitar.
Well. The heel was missing the back "plate" anyway, and was rough wood, so it might have been deeper at some point. But, the neck had definitely been reset at some earlier time, there were remnants of some shims, and evidence of more than one kind of glue in the joint, so I can believe it could’ve come from another guitar, maybe a 1203.
@@brianmcfarland4745 The neck on this one was actually replaced with a neck from a Harmony H158 or H159. These are all birch jumbo models that were made by Harmony…….the same size as the 1260’s. You can tell by the headstock logo, lack of an adjustable TR and lack of double position markers at the fifth and 12th fret. These also came with ebonized fretboards as opposed to the rosewood board tha came on the 1260. Good sounding guitar….nice job..
Sorry….double position markers on the SEVENTH and 12th frets that is……
This was the first one of these I had done, and it’s funny, now it’s obvious to me, lol. No "Sovereign" on the headstock, no binding, no Truss rod, like you said. I’ve done 3-4 since then, including an Airline version and all of them had all of those traits. Finishing up a 165 and a 1203 right now. The Hog 165 has the similar "Steel Reinforced neck", while the 1203 has the right attributes for it.
TH-cam University, lol
The H158/H159 is a pretty cool model. Possibly the largest all-solid-birch guitar in existence. You can usually get them reasonably priced (when they come up)……don’t think I’ve ever seen one x-brace converted. Would be an interesting project…. The Airline 1260’s are very nice….I think only built for a couple years in the very early 60’s……at the same time Harmony was using the Harmony “block logo” instead of the “script logo” (that started in around ‘62). Good luck with your projects!
I've been thinking lately that my ideal acoustic would have a thick neck with wide nut width and slightly shorter scale length. I've also been eye balling x braced Harmonys. I didn't realize until recently that these Harmonys have exactly the necks and scale length that I want. Hearing this it sounds like the scale length is a perfect middle ground between "Martin" and "Gibson"
I’ve X braced a couple 1260’s, working on another one right now using torrified Sitka from Stu Mac. The bracing boards tapped together have Very Good musical qualities! Have you ever used it?
Ed
I haven’t, but thanks for the idea. I had a source of some Sitka from a guy here in Maine that had bought a bunch of top pairs from Martin back in the 80’s, still had the packing slip to show me. I bought all 10 sets from him, I’m down to 4 sets left. It’s been really nice in everything I’ve used it for, naturally aged sitting in his house for almost 40 years!
Man you do great at making those Harmony’s sound so good. Is that x bracing that makes them sound so awesome? Have a good one, and keep up the good work.
Are you looking to sell this?
This one has already sold,but I have two others listed at the moment. Both are OM sized models, one Mahogany one and another Spruce one. Check out my Reverb page. Thanks
reverb.com/shop/brians-gear-locker-914?