A customer came in yesterday with a very old Harmony Archtop and a Gretsch pickguard. He would like some information on them, so it seems obvious to call upon Raz, Unique and Archtop Fan for clues
The Harmony.
I have identified it as a '50s or '60s Model 1213 Archtone like this:
The Harmony is not one of their high end or fancy name ones. They seem to go for between 150-250 USD on ebay depending on condition. Probably the equivalent grade as a Hofner Congress - but I imagine the Harmony would sound a hell of a lot nicer. The way to date Harmonys is to look inside the F hole for a stamp that looks like F-64 - which stands for Fall 1964. There's usually another stamp that has tthe serial and ends in the model number eg xxxxxxH1213. Double the ebay price and that's prob what it would fetch in NZ, maybe a bit more because we don't see many of them. It really depends on how it sounds and plays.
I put a guy onto you a while ago, Laurie Williams, who's a big fan of those Harmony jazz boxes. He may even be interested in buying it.
The Gretsch Broadkaster comes from the wilderness years of Gretsch which the Gretsch snobs like to call the days of the Baldwin butchers. That said the Broadkaster was one of the few new models they introduced in the 70s and one of the only ones to have a stop tailpiece. They're supposed to be quite nice gats. PJ Harvey plays one. Fairly rare but not particularly sought after. It's still a US made Gretsch though.
at a guess i'd say probably worth around $1500 -$2000 NZ depending on condition.
One thing as well Ash. The Broadkaster has Supertron pickups, the hottest version of the Filtertron that Gretsch put out when they manufactured in the US, they only put them on a few models and they're supposed to sound rather nice.
Hi Raz, finally got around to checking this forum out. (Laurie from the Harmony forum)
Just for info, the F in the date stamp stands for first shift and the S second. There was a guy Edmatts posting on the Harmony forum earlier this year who worked in the Harmony factory late sixties who provided a lot of info but he has gone now. Reckoned the second (night) shift were heavy drinkers so watch out for those S guitars.
I would also confirm what Raz has posted, the 1213 is a low end archtop, though all solid wood (birch) and a good one will sound reasonable set up well. prices as indicated.
so watch out for those S guitars.