- The Vintage Red Rocket - harmonydatabase
In the late 50's to the early 60’s, with the popularity of the Space Missions and Rock & Roll, the instrument developers at Harmony Guitar Company came up with The Rocket. The Harmony Rocket was a semi-hollow body, thin line guitar that captivated musicians in the 60’s and even now, collectors and musicians in the X generation of today. With the unique design of the . DeArmond pick ups that had a sound that was differant and Retro. These guitars were a cheap imitation of the Gibson ES 335 but still were unique in their own right.
The Harmony Guitar Company had other names for guitars that took advantage of the US Space Missions to the stars like The Meteor Line and their Stratatone, Mars, Mercury and Jupiter but the most famous was the Rocket.
Copy of The Gibson 335 Electric Guitar
The Rocket was vintage cool features with a single Cutaway thin, line with configurations like the gold DeArmonds single, double or triple pick ups. An Archtop body construction. They had the selector switch to use either pickups and could rock out. The necks were easy to move around with nice action for playing lead or rhythm. They boasted modern design and quality with a great price.
By 1971 the DeArmond pickups had individual adjusting poles under each guitar string to allow the player to balance the response. Harmony went on to add the vibrato tailpiece adding to the sound. By the end of the decade the Rocket could compete with other double cutaways with its rich polished cherry lacquer finish making for a beautiful instrument.
The Rocket 6 Guitar was a cross between the Fender and the Gibson which it was made to emulate both of these models. It used 6 on one side tuners with the DeArmond appointments & came in Red and Sunburst colors. The Rocket line ran from $125.00 to 175.00 and survived from its birth in 1959- late 60’s when Harmony stoped productions of this Electric guitar in 1967.
The Harmony Red Rocket with DeArmond Appointments
The Rocket guitars line of Guitars were some of the best entry level guitars ever produced. If they were set up properly, they were great sounding and easy to maneuver with great action. The H 53/1 had one single coil designed pickup. DeArmond designed the pickups for Harmony but Rowe Manufacturing was the company that actually built them. Kay and Kustom also used these electronics. Carl Perkins toured with Kustom Guitar that was equipped with the DeArmond/Rowe pickups. There models were H53 H53/1 H54 H54/1 H56 H56/1 H59 H59/1
These Harmony Rockets models are Classic example of Fine American Guitar Manufacturing and are highly collectable today with their own space in The Vintage Guitar Blue Book.
Reference
Rocket to the Stars - http://rothmans_guitars.tripod.com/rothguitar/id13.html
harmony.demont.net/pickups
Jim Galloway - Professional Musician/Published Songwriter for 30 yrs. With over 200 Articles in Recording/Music Buisness/ Resources/Vintage Instruments
