During the heyday of guitar manufacturing, Harmony Guitar Company produced many lower end archtop guitars that were like no other. The style and colors of their models were popular with the population of catalogue guitar buyers. More than just the very affordable price was the way they looked that could rival guitar makers like Fender, Martin and Gibson.
From the early 1940s to the early '70s, Harmony produced some pretty unique student type models and brands to compete with the bigger boys. Their unique line of archtop acoustic guitars competed with others on the market. By mass producing them, Harmony Guitar Company was able to provide something for everybody.
Harmony Sold Acoustic Archtop Guitars Under Different Brand Names
With the Archtone series, Harmony used the all birch hardwood construction, which was the common wood for the series. The H-1213, 14, 15 and H-1060 was also sold as the Alden Holiday, the Silvertone, the Sears & Roebuck, and the Tower Archtone archtop guitar. They were distributed by Sears and Roebuck and, like the Harmony Archtone, were made cheap with painted block fret markers, and brown mahogany shaded with oval hard maple fingerboard grained to resemble rosewood. They came with the standard celluloid guard plate, adjustable bridge, and nickel-plated tail piece.
The H214 came in blond and the H215 came top grained to resemble spruce. They cost $26.50 in 1951 and $51.50 in 1971. Similar archtops were the Barclay and the Catalina (1955-57) archtops that came in Charcoal grey and pink auditorium size with two tone colors; they featured gear type machine heads, bone nuts, and a lacquer type finish. The look was unique and the price was cheap at around 35 dollars. The H-1221 Catalina came in pacific and dawn blue, cool retro colors that are a rare find for a collector today. They were a little more expensive at $36.50 in 1957.
Vintage Harmony Acoustic Archtop Guitars Are Highly Sought After
The Vogue Model E (1937-1940 -- other years not verified) acoustic archtops were extra auditorium sized and came in black with a sunburst center spot. The Vogue H-1270 was also sold as Rex Royal in 1939. This very fancy guitar is reported to have different headstocks, mother of pearl dot markers and different colored pick guards by owners. The Master H-1439 was a Spanish playing guitar sold for about $15.00 made of all natural Mahogany and the Master H-945.
The Monterey H-6450 sold in 1971. The Monerey H-951 Colorama (1955-57) had a distinguished 5 golden bars on the front. The Leader (1938-72) that was red flame, faux flame and sold as an Alden, Barclay and Holiday, among others, was very popular and with 30 years of production. The Renown acoustic archtop produced in the late '30s until 1940 that came in four sizes had a trapeze style tailpiece all for 12.50. Some had the metal adjustable tailpiece and came in sunburst or tiger faux flame finish. The Broadway had numerous models and sizes, came with truss rods, and had simple parquetry bindings. The Ridgeway H-972 that was the pre-war model that had 3 different models was an ancestor of the Archtone H-1215 and sold for $11.00 in 1940.
On Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure
For 50 or 60 years, people shopped from catalogues for everything, even for archtop guitars, until most of these companies like Harmony disappeared, mass production was done overseas, and shopping malls and stores were built. Still, the unique designs of the Harmony archtop acoustic guitars, however inexpensive compared to Gibson and Martin vintage guitars, satisfied the masses in the days of yesterday. Today, with its collectable factor, they satisfy the treasure hunter in all of us.
Reference:
The Harmony Database
Harmony USA
Jim Galloway - Professional Musician/Published Songwriter for 30 yrs. With over 200 Articles in Recording/Music Buisness/ Resources/Vintage Instruments
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