H162 Harmony Acoustic

This little gem was produced in the mid 1960's. With mahogany back and sides, and very nicely aged spruce top, it has a sweet tone.



I am not a luthier, but I do what I can to preserve and enhance the "aged". Aside from a solid all over cleaning on this one, I cleaned the fret-fretboard joints with a toothbrush, dressed the frets with steel wool, and completely dismantled the tuners, so I could oil the gears, and polish the string posts with steel wool.
I've included some photo's in this album to compare this to the Premier acoustic I have. You'll notice the Premier has a floating bridge with a trapeze tail piece, where the Harmony has a solid bridge. With this in mind, the top on the H162 is remarkably straight. This fixed bridge lends to a more solid and woody tone. Where the Premier has a trapeze tail, it has a slight tinny ring to it, but the all-mahogany body makes up somewhat for this (there is no escaping the brass tail however, it can definately be heard in all aspects of playing.)
What disappointed me with this H162 is the poorly presented fretboard. This is from the factory. It is ROUGH sanded. For hillbilly chords, this is a lovely unit, with a very nice tone. For more fluid paying and incorporating some lead, this fretboard is UNfriendly.
It's a sweet little thing, and you have to agree it looks LOVELY, but it was and is a cheapie, and despite the growing popularity in this model and the H165 (all mahogany from Harmony), it remains a cheapie in my regard. I would LOVE to refret this, and properly finish the fretboard, or perhaps even just replace the fretboard with new wood. There is night and day difference between this and the Premier fretboard. Although there is the tonal difference, I prefer to sit down with the Premier to play.