Refinishing - Harmony Acoustic circa early 1960s...

taypeng81

New member
so i was surfing ebay out of boredom/gas and i came across an interesting auction for a "vintage acoustic guitar" ending in a couple of hours. I took a look at the pics and the tortoise shell binding caught my eye. usually no one puts that type of binding on lower-end guitars...I thought someone else might have noticed that too. Anyway I put in a ridiculous bid, for fun/boredom/gas and not expecting to win it... woke up the next day checked my email and woah, i was the only bidder. I'm in trouble because i have to pay for it...shipping was about 10x the bid price. I went through with it and this is the pic of the guitar when i got it..

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some nutcase drilled an additional 6 holes. I did a little research and confirmed it..it seems this guitar is made by a now defunct company called Harmony, and by the general appearance and woods used, it is most likely a H162 model. Solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides. This guitar looks like it was refinished halfway and then abandoned..(i was soon to find out why)
There is no truss rod instead there is a steel rod in the neck like pre-war Martins. Neck looks straight though.

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I like the fretboard...doesn't look like regular indian rosewood.

The plan was to glue on a bridge. Leave the back as it is since there is a coat of lacquer. Sand the top and sides, re-finish. put on parts. How hard can that be?
 
woah sorry for the huge pics, im putting thumbnails from now on...
So the guitar went to Tymusic to have a bridge properly glued on. Without the correct clamps and tools to measure the scale length, there is tremendous potential to screw up if i tried to do it on my own. The very helpful guys at Ty did it within a week....glued it on nice and tight but one of the "extra" holes is peeking out from under the bridge. im just going to leave it as it..it doesnt bother me.



at this point, i did a little more research and confirmed it..these guitars were ladder-braced. thats not good. The majority of guitars are X-braced for good reasons...better tone and stability. Hope to hear how this guitar sounds when shes all done up.

onto step 2, sand and refinish top and sides. I opted to do a shellac finish which is very easy to do. shellac is widely available and can be applied using a brush or cloth. however, the shellac sold locally is amber in color as its unbleached. If anyone knows where to get clear shellac, pls let me know! without much hassle, i completed this step:



I also sprayednitro lacquer as a top coat because shellac isnt good against water.
As the guitar was hanging there, i was pondering if i should redo it because i didnt like the color...then i noticed a spot on the back which looked like brown paper had stuck on...this is when my troubles started...
 
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I peeled of the "brown paper" and realised it was actually a part of the old lacquer which did not bond to the wood for some reason. That portion came off and I was now staring at a gaping hole of bare wood. Now i know why this project was abandoned...the previous guy must have given up after seeing how much work went to waste because of this little spot.

On hindsight, i could have tried to slowly "melt in" nitro lacquer using thinner...that might have been less work. After accessing the situation, i thought it best to just sand everything...so i sanded...



decided to redo the top and shoot clear nitro instead..and so i sanded...



I started with 60 grit to remove whatever finish was on there, then 180 grit..400, and 600...
if you were wondering, i did try wiping off the finish with thinner or nail polish but it didnt remove much of the nitro finish. Acetone will work much better but its not sold off the shelf.

When I was satisfied with that the wood was smooth enough... i refinished the back and sides by wiping on shellac. I did about 10-15 coats, so it still retain a "matte" appearance. I setup my *ahem* so-called "spray booth"... sprayed clear nitro on the top:

 
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In our climate, i find that it is near impossible to get a wet coat without any hazing (trapping moisture under the wet coat causing a milky appearance). In the past when i do finishing, ill spray far from the body and build up the thickness with 'dry' coats. This took a very long to do, many dry coats to build up sufficient thickness...i had a headache from smelling all that solvent. Also for dry coats, the surface is very uneven, alot of sanding needs to be done to level the coat. And after sanding you're back to 30-50% of the thickness...

I used a different method this time round. I picked up a method from old furniture makers - after brushing on the final coat of lacquer, they'll mix 10% lacquer +90% thinner and gently brush on to level the coat and get a shiny appearance. I tried this method using a cloth soaked in thinner. It worked well to remove the hazing and level the lacquer. This will minimize the sanding i needed to do. The only drawback is if i applied to much pressure/not enough thinner i leave behind marks from the cloth as im wiping it.

anyhow this is how it looks... i've decided im too lazy to sand and buff it. I'm just going to leave it as it is..slightly uneven but shiny.


 
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all the tuners i tried at Tymusic couldnt fit the existing tuner holes...so i had to buy repro tuners from Stew Mac. While i was there i looked at the prices of their headstock overlay and thought why not? I had already put in this much effort, might as well put in a little more to spruce up the headstock. Ordered tuners and a piece of rosewood veneer.

Final step, rough cut rosewood veneer, glue onto headstock, clamp overnight, shape headstock sand thickness and finish. How hard can that be?

Everything went smoothly, rosewood was suprising easy to cut and sand...finally when it came to gluing... i clamped it onto the headstock and for some reason...the type of glue i used or my clamping pressure? the piece of veneer warped! I held the veneer in my hand and just wondered why do things always turn out harder than planned??

To fix this problem, i wet the veneer, placed it between a wet cloth and put it under an iron (on full temp). After allowing it to sizzle for about 5 mins, the veneer was pliable (still warped). I placed it between two pcs of scrap wood and put weight on it in the hope that'll straighten.... my efforts did correct the warping to some extent...after some sanding i bought more clamps... glue onto the headstock. Clamped, finish with nitro..and voila!



if you were wondering, the two holes were my attempt to drill tuner holes using a handdrill. After two holes, it became apparent this was a job not to be attempted without a drill press.

It is now with Tymusic to install the parts and do the final setup. Thanks for reading my story...hope you liked it. Hope to post a good conclusion when i collect it back from tymusic.
 
no love for DIY? lol..

here she is..the finished product. Tymusic did a great job with the setup. It was a real pleasure to work with them.
She sounds surprisingly good..i was expecting some disappointment when i learnt the top was ladder-braced. Its bright and loud and has that "folk-guitar", "Robert johnson" type of sound but still full sounding. Sadly without a truss rod, the action is too high from the 12th fret onwards!! im playing in Eb or D tuning with a capo...

Here she is with my taylor..

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cheers
 
you should send the guitar connection. the 2 ways to counter acoustic guitars with no truss rod is...

1) Heat the neck.

2) Plain down the fretboard.

sigh, if only the neck were bolt on. would be so much easier to deal with ;)
Let's hope the problem gets solved at 1) .
 
you should send the guitar connection. the 2 ways to counter acoustic guitars with no truss rod is...

1) Heat the neck.

2) Plain down the fretboard.

sigh, if only the neck were bolt on. would be so much easier to deal with ;)
Let's hope the problem gets solved at 1) .

i had the heat treatment done on another guitar before, not at GC. imo it didn't really achieve much. the correct solution is to do a neck reset. remove the neck, increase the angle where it joins but adjusting the dovetail joint. glue back so as to increase the relief in the neck..that is a job for a trained luthier so i think there are not many in sg who can do it and hence you wont hear anyone suggesting it.

i also had hands-on exp with "heat treatment" on my warped veneer btw haha...if a piece of wood is bent, its bent. you need constant pressure to keep it straight even after heat treatment... my 2cts la.

planing down the neck might not fix the problem... because you are taking word off the fretboard and reducing the stiffness of the neck. the neck will bend again.

not to rag on your suggestion, nothing against GC too, but if you got that method from them, i think it might work but it is not a good method.

so.. im leaving it as it is for now...if it gets worst then see how la.
 
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I sent an old MIJ Epiphone for repair to Kelvin many years ago and for my case, the action at the higher frets were near impossible to play. Those 2 suggestions were the ones I got but of course, these kind of things depends case by case. I did not fix it in the end because like what you said, heating will not solve the problem completely & the moment I heard the charges for option 2, sold the guitar ASAP & rather cheap too.

I'm no guitar repairman & this is a forum so take every suggestion with a pinch of salt. I'm suggesting by experience. Understand where you are coming from no worries. Sounds like a very scary job to undertake already.

You can let him have a look, no charge for that. He might offer you another suggestion with explanation.
 
relinquish - no worries i knew you were trying to help with your suggestion :) just sharing what I know/learnt with this forum...i tend to take info from certain guitar shops with a pinch of salt because some of these guys are not luthiers...they are salespersons.

empty71 - thanks for the endorsement :D I know i can send this guitar to you if i want to do a neck reset but i don't think the guitar itself justifies the cost... i have a friend who operates an X-ray, he can confirm where the reinforcement rod is. So I was thinking of an alternative fix:

1. Rout a channel on the back of the neck and expose the end of the rod near the headstock
2. Remove the rod and replace with a thicker, rectangular slab of steel
3. Plug the channel with hardwood, walnut...ebony?

I think this will stiffen neck considerably but will this work? do you foresee any problems with this? the fretboard looks like brazilian rosewood (valuable stuff) so im thinking of fixing methods that do not involve removing the fretboard.
 
Wow!!! Any chance of sending some guitars for X-ray?

Any idea how much is the neck relief? Any idea on the dimensions of the existing rod? Action measurements at the 12th fret please :)

Removing the existing rod and replacing with a stiffer rod may not help with the action as you may end up tearing up wood in the truss rod channel.

The fretboard is indeed Brazilian RW.
 
how many guitars? i think if im x-raying mine, should not be an issue to x-ray another one or two.

I dont have exact measurements now, the guitar is in D or Eb tuning. the nut and saddle is next to nothing. The action at 12 fret is 1cm or slightly more...i remember the height at the 12th fret is almost the height of the bridge. so i didnt consider shaving down the bridge
 
how many guitars? i think if im x-raying mine, should not be an issue to x-ray another one or two.

I dont have exact measurements now, the guitar is in D or Eb tuning. the nut and saddle is next to nothing. The action at 12 fret is 1cm or slightly more...i remember the height at the 12th fret is almost the height of the bridge. so i didnt consider shaving down the bridge

Just asking about x-raying the guitars. WIll most probably be 2-3 guitars but no biggie :)

1cm at the 12th fret is ridiculously high action!!! Sounds like a neck reset is in order.
 
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