1956 Harmony Stratotone H44

This guitar came along by way of an auction last week. It was quite a mess, reportedly coming from an estate sale and I would say was carrying a small-medium sized sample of soil from each year since production. I had a very pleasant day on Sunday disassembling it and cleaning it up. All the parts on this beauty are original which is getting a little hard to come by, especially the scratch plate which tends to crack/break. Since only some of these models have date stamps, the only means I have to age the instrument with any accuracy is the codes on the potentiometers. They are Centralab pot's, one was made during the 44th week of 1955, the other during the 44th week of 1956. This puts production of the guitar itself somewhere late in 1956, over 50 years ago!

Speaking of the vulnerability of plastic of this age, the strap button on the butt end of the guitar was broken, and the jack plate is AWOL. I can find a similar modern strap button without too much trouble, but I will need to fashion a new jack plate. Since that had broken, I suspect the jack itself had been pulled out of the guitar from time to time, and there were obvious poor repair attempts to the wiring at this point. Concerning the electronics, the end at the jack is the only thing that has been tampered with, the rest is all original. I've made some clean cuts there and soldered in and insulated some decent wire running out to the jack.

Everything works perfectly. There are no crackles, hums, buzzes when operating the pot's or the switch. It sounds great! These are becoming sought after more and more for blues playing, they just have that wonderful tone. The neck all the way the through to the strap button is one piece of wood, there are no joins, so this further lends to its tone and sustain. (The curved sides of the guitar are made from two other pieces of wood joined to the centre of the body. Some of these models are made from one single piece of wood, but this particular one is a three piece.)

A before and after shot for you:

Here are some shots I took during the clean up. You can click the slideshow to visit the full sized album.




Thanks to the very well presented Harmony Database site, here is the original catalog description:

[1957 catalog] SOLID BODY ELECTRICS MODEL H44 - "STRATOTONE" SPANISH GUITAR The thin-body easy-to-handle Spanish Electric that has become a national favorite. Light weight, designed in smooth cutaway style for easy fingering down to the last fret. Has responsive built-in pickup, with tone and volume controls. Special slide-switch permits quick change from bass emphasis used for rhythm playing, to treble emphasis for take-off or solo work. Rosewood fingerboard and bridge, compensatinq tailpiece. Beautifully finished in a lustrous copper-bronze coating. Length overall 36", width 10 5/8", length of scale 25 1/4". Plastic guitar strap included.H44 Guitar $75.00 - C44 Carrying Case, extra $8.50
Original price
1956 : $72.50 1957 : $75.00
Verified production year(s) : 1953-1957others years possible, not verified.

More pictures, history, comments about Harmony and this guitar can be found here:
http://harmony.demont.net/model.php?modele=H44





Added 1/27/08:
Someone has referenced my blogs on their eBay listing, what an honour!