That’s Levon Helm with Elvis Costello and his Harmony Silvertone H-1446. Also Hubert Sumilin and Jimmy ViVino
Smashwords Edition, License Notesebook is licensed for personal enjoyment only this
ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author
According to Webster’s Dictionary, Americana refers to artifacts related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Harmony Company played a vital role when the Cultural and Industrial revolutions took place in the last 100 years. Now with the re-birth and re-discovery of American pop culture mainly in Australia, Asia and Europe, Harmony guitars with their cool-retro looks have made a comeback for collectors and players of vintage Blues & Rock ‘n’ Roll on a budget. After all, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Harmony Guitar America’s Guitar
By
Jim Galloway
Copyright Jim Galloway 2011
Published At Smashwords
Table of Contents
Chapters
I-The Early Years of Harmony Guitar
II–The Harmony Archtop
III-The Harmony Flattop Guitar
IV-The Harmony Electric Guitar –The Birth Of The Pickup
V—Harmony Stringed Instruments & Amplifiers.
VI-Selling and Buying Harmony On EBay
VII- Closing Note from the Author
VIII- Dating and Identifying Your Vintage Harmony Guitar
The
Early Years of Harmony Guitar.
In 1892 Wilhelm J. F. Shultz purchased the top floor of the Edison building in Chicago. He had four employees and began production on two guitars. By 1894 he had over 40 employees and settled in a 30,000 square ft. plant at 1738-1754 North Lawndale Avenue. By 1915 Harmony Guitars had over a quarter million dollars in annual sales and 125 employees.
They accounted for half the guitars built in the USA every year. They also became the world’s first large scale manufacturer of Ukuleles. In 1916 Sears & Roebuck Company acquired Harmony to take over the ukulele production. When WW1 severed the industries German wood source, Harmony became America’s only large scale violin manufacturer along with making other popular musical instruments.
Harmony Company Timeline-Catalogue Sales Reach Millions
Sears and Roebuck would acquired Harmony in order to capitalize on the growing interest of another popular instrument, the Guitar. The company also made instruments like Mandolins and Tenor Banjos, and later even Amplifiers. By 1923, Harmony had an annual production rate of over a quarter of a million instruments. In 1926 Jack Kraus succeeded Wilhelm Shultz as President of the Company and along with Fred Gretsch and Hank Kuhrmeyer of Kay Guitars became the early Captains of the great Chicago Guitar Manufactures. They produced Vintage Hollowbody Guitars, Jumbo Archtops & Silvertone model Guitars.
In 1928 Harmony introduced its first Roy Smeck Vita series guitar. The sound hole was shaped like a seal. By 1930 they introduced the Grand Concert and Hawaiian models and within a year claimed production of an awesome 500,000 instruments. In March of 1931 the Vagabond line was produced then the Cremona professional guitar appeared. These guitars were Harmony’s most respected Archtop models. They were considered “high-end “guitars.
In 1937 Harmony bought several brand name guitars from the bankrupt luthier Oscar Schmidt, including the Stella and the Sovereign. These instruments would become the most popular of Harmony guitars. During this period Harmony increased its line with the Harmony Valencia, Monterey, Parlor and 3/4 sizes and more. In the 40's, Harmony began using Spruce, Mahogany and other finer woods in Flattop and Archtop construction. The Harmony Stella model that was made of birch, flooded the guitar market, along with the student grade Hollowbody Archtop. People bought them because they were cheap and very playable.
The Stella is normally the easiest one to find today. It was made from birch, a durable hardwood and because of the huge amount that were manufactured, they survived the years. Stella guitars were inexpensive, but represented cool retro examples of our countries early Industrial art. Stella guitars came in different sizes like a 3/4 size and a Parlor size making the models easy to identify.
By 1941, with new president J.T Higgins, Harmony produced about 130,000 acoustic and electric Guitars out of the 250,000 guitars made in America. Up until the earlier 60’s, growth continued and Harmony purchased a 132,000 square ft. facility. The company now had over 600 employees. It was around this time that imported instruments started to take over the guitar market alongside the Martin, Gretsch and Gibson guitars which were considered the "High End" most respected American made guitars. After nearly a century of manufacturing guitars and other stringed instruments, Harmony ceased operation in 1975. The Harmony name was sold in the 70’s to be used on Asian guitars. Then, similar to the way it started, Harmony re-appeared in the mid-eighties and 90’s selling Fender and Gibson copies to JC Penny stores. In 2003 Harmony Company was established again and reissued classic models like the popular Rocket, Sovereign and the Stella with others to be released in the future. The Harmony Guitar Company; America’s Guitar Company was reborn.
After
years on top, Harmony
guitars popularity started to fade. Musicians who played Harmony
archtops in the early days, switched over to more expensive better
quality, American made models. These models like Gibson and Martin
are still on top. Most musicians play them today. They also fill
the appetite of the guitar collectors with more money who demand more
quality and who buy vintage guitars for investments. The Harmony
guitar allows the modest income earner to be able to enjoy the art of
vintage guitar collecting without the same price tag of the big boys.
They still play a Martin or a Taylor but collect Harmony guitars. I
know, because that’s what I do. I don’t have $100,000 to invest
in a Les Paul or a D’Aquisto to hang on the wall or jam with. Most
people I know don’t.
According to the experts, Vintage guitar prices won’t continue to rise like they have in the last 10 or 15 years anyway. They can’t. Bluebook prices are starting to show that. Collecting Vintage Harmony guitars is different. Harmony Co. has an unknown amount of brands and thousands of models that make it an exciting, more practical hobby for collectors of Americana, who are looking for some nostalgia and a little profit too. The sources are barns, flea markets or Grandma’s attic and places like EBay for a platform to buy and sell on. If you know what to look for, you can to be successful too.
Now that America has
grown-up, baby-boomers yearn for the pleasure of touching something
from their childhood or from the past. Harmony guitars represent all
that was good in the youth of this country, like classic cars or
comic books and baseball card collections. Blues, Country and
Folk music along with post WW11 Elvis
and rock n’ roll
are an American phenomena that are symbols of our country called
Americana. They act as bookmarks in the chapters of the story. From
the beginning through the end of the Industrial Revolution and over
the past 100 years, Harmony guitars helped tell that story. Americans
were very good at mass producing items for the whole world to use. We
were the leaders in Popular Culture and now more than ever all over
the globe people celebrate and are starting to enjoy what we have had
for years.
One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure
50 or 60 years ago people shopped from catalogues for everything, even for guitars. Then most of these companies that were born at the start of the last century, like Harmony, disappeared and mass production was done overseas and shopping malls and stores were built. The great Industrial Revolution was over. Still the unique designs of the Harmony archtop, flattop acoustic and electric guitars, however inexpensive, compared to Gibson and Martin guitars satisfied the masses in the days of yesterday. Maybe they were the right price or the only game in town. Still millions were sold. Today, with its collectability factor, Harmony guitars satisfy the treasure hunter in all of us and give us a look back to the past, our past. From B. B. King to Hank Williams, America’s first guitar was a Harmony.
Harmony Musical Instruments Continues Today
Eventually the Harmony Guitar Company's huge inventory of stringed instruments and amps were bought by a conglomerate and the factory equipment with its assets was sold at auction to satisfy creditors. Today Harmony Guitar is owned by Charlie Subecz. Realizing the growing interest in Harmony guitars of yesterday, he launched a series of re-issues from the 50’s and the 60’s like the Harmony Red Rocket and the Bobcat guitar along with the Richie Valens Classic. Harmony Guitar. The company continues today to produce quality guitars, being sold through the JC Penney Stores and other music outlets.
Vintage Harmony's acoustic, electric guitars, hollowbody, solidbody guitars, amps and other musical equipment made by the company are now considered collectable all around the world. The demand is evident in Australia, Europe and Asia with musicians and collectors alike. The Harmony guitar became a symbol of the cultural changes of the last century. Pop Music and its development played the biggest part of the change worldwide. Take a look at some bands on MySpace who play Country music or the Rockabilly clubs in Tokyo and France. There are bands that are playing what’s categorized as Americana genre, playing in China or in other countries like Vietnam or Hong Kong. The world seems to follow our lead in everything we drive, listen and play to, even watch at the movies. It just takes a little while for the rest of the countries to catch up.