Rare Guitars: 1960s Harmony H75

We regularly share vintage instruments with you from our friends at Gardiner Houlgate Guitar Auctions in Corsham, but while the celebrity guitars such as George Harrison’s Maton Mastersound MS500 grab the headlines, there’s no end of affordable old pieces on offer, and plenty of bargains to be had.

This 1960s Harmony H75 – which fetched £700 at a recent Gardiner Houlgate auction – is one such example.

Manufactured in Chicago in the early 1960s, this thinline hollowbody is very similar to one favoured by Black Keys star Dan Auerbach, and bristles with a trio of sought-after DeArmond Gold Foil pickups. Harmony’s classification system worked as follows: the H75 featured a brown sunburst finish and a ‘harp’ tailpiece, while the H76 came with a Bigsby. The H77 had the ‘harp’ tailpiece and a red sunburst finish, while the red-burst
H78 was fitted with a Bigsby. The understandably rarer H79 was a 12-string model.

Our H75 features the usual embarrassment of switches and knobs, and while one pot shaft is damaged and the original tortoiseshell cellulose pickguard has been replaced with a clear-plastic alternative, this is still a very vibey beast, as our demo on proves.

Watch it here:

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