Very nice job Jerry. Yes those old Harmonys did play very hard. Like you said, it probably plays easier now than it ever did. I'm just a hobbyist and now retired. I like restoring old guitars like you did here so your videos really help me learn. Thank you Jerry and congrats on a very nice job. Rich from NJ
Mr Rosa, just wanted to say as a self taught repairman that has learned as I go, mostly sticking to electrics your videos have been a treasure trove! Especially where acoustic instruments are concerned. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and knowledge!
Best Channel on RUclips 👌 I get so much inspiration from your videos & your authenticity is so refreshing. If you were running for President I'd vote for Rosa 🇺🇸
Wow! What a patient man! Great tutorial of a "natural" neck reset. Teapot Hi-Tek with caliper cool. No algorithms or incantations. This makes me think I can attempt a neck reset on my 1969 Harmony H165. Thanks a million.
Haha, Jerry you're killing me....."we're almost there" "we're near the finish" .."close to the end". You really do strive for the best work, even on an old Harmony. My first real guitar was a Silvertone so I have a fondness for Harmony products. When you finished I believe you produced one of the best set up Harmonys on the continent, a rare rebuild that is seldom done on these old inexpensive instruments. Thanks, was a pleasure to watch.
i am worn out from watching the neck reset, great job and a lovely sentimental story behind the guitar, love the song at the end, i am now confident about doing a neck reset on my old guitar, thank you
Lol @ the kid being a kid. At the beginning of the video, the actual grandchild appears in the window, then a picture of her appears at the end --cool! Great job restoring that guitar to playable condition. It sounds better than any Harmony flat top that I've ever heard.
Jerry, It looks like you were able to hit the neck angle with less than 100 test fits. I congratulate you sir. Your patience ,skills, and experience are much appreciated. You have shown me different ways and ideas that have helped me work easier, and smarter.Thank you for sharing your videos which are always great and entertaining. Kevin
Even tho you are the "repairer" and not the owner/player, the level of satisfaction of being able to bring instruments like that back to life must be enormously gratifying!
I remember teaching my self to play on a 1965 Harmony, and that one sounds, and plays so much better after what you've done. Great job Jerry. The older we get the less money means, and the more memories mean. Value is in the memory, Regards, Solomon
That looks to be a Harmony H162, which was the first guitar for a lot of guys of my generation. It was mine, $45 off the wall of Wright's Music in Yakima, Washington. Loved that thing. True about needing neck resets, but lots good about them. solid wood all the way around. They can sound really good, 50-60 years on. The sides and back are mahogany, and the sides were brittle: a lot of them have big cracks from getting knocked against the edge of a table or chair (or whatever). I have two of those waiting for some work. Fun to see this, Jerry.
Nice fix video Gerry. Marty Robins devil woman was one of my mothers favourite songs ever , she died in 1976. Thanks for the reminder.. love the song myself. cheers Rob.
That aged top tonewood looks like a old martin...You sure are patient and skilled. Thank God for your video and help. Great work.Wow I wasn't expecting such great singing and playing by a repairman.
I really enjoy your expertise, knowledge and skill in working with these various guitars. I've been a guitarist since I was 13 and am in my late 60s now. It's such a pleasure to see your woodworking skills and how you examine and sort out problems to bring these old guitars back to life. Very entertaining and enjoyable. Thanks for all your time and amazing craftsmanship.
For steaming, I use a $50 wallpaper steamer from Menards that I modified with the same kind of inflation needle. It plugs into the wall and takes about 15 minutes to heat up, it has a built in relief valve and I don't need a separate heat source. It's pretty convenient and it works really well.
Great to see another sentimental value guitar brought back to life. I am sure the family will enjoy it as much as I enjoy the Regal Wreck! Thanks for another great video.
Yes, I saw your note on the calipers. Glad you could use them. I also loved your description that the old Sillvertone guitars were like playing "barbed wire". That is a great description of my first guitar, which was a Silvertone. I suspect these "economy" guitars were built with a high action in mass production which would have minimized customer complaints about buzzing.
I have a 65 Harmony H22 bass. I used a .5 degree shim which changed the angle of the neck enough to give me much more adjusting room at the bridge and straigten the neck. I had to fix the truss rod first, then heat the neck and clamped it. Once I got the neck nice and straight (slight outward bow) I put the strings on, adjusted the bridge as low as possible then searched out all buzzing frets one by one and leveled them. First time trying all this but it all came together, and the bass has very low action, no buzz, and that woody string bass sound of the H22 from the 60's. It was fun doing it. I don't think I have your patience, though! Thanks for the video.
Great Job Jerry. I look at it as you're saving a piece of history. I just fixed an old Del Oro Cowboy guitar from 1942. i think the original catalog selling price was $8.98. They live to play again! Sometimes its fun just to see how good they can be fixed up... better than from the factory. Guys do it with cars too. they are taking old wrecks from junk yards and bringing them back. I think it cool!
Was Laughing at your Comments as U went along... That's Precise, Exacting, Tedious Work~But the Patient Lives to SING your Praises Once Again, DR. ROSA!!! ; )
I been following your videos for some time now thanks for showing and sharing some of the trade secrets has help me leaps and bounds on the small guitar repair I do at home
Great video, thank you! Thank you for sharing your work on these videos Jerry. I always enjoy watching, and look forward to each new one. Glad you got the old Harmony back playable!
to be able to create your own tools an them to work effective show how skilled a craftsman you are. you would probably would be an awesome teacher to teach young people the skill
I have an old Harmony that also isn't worth paying for a neck reset. This is making me think i should take a stab at doing it myself. Thanks, this was awesome!
@@RtCarolina So the neck is apart, straight and the only thing left to figure out is how to get the angle set just right for putting it back together. I trimmed very tiny bit off the so I can adjust the neck fit back on - I have some hardwood shims. How do I figure the best angle for putting it back without the strings on it? Ruler along fret tops to the bottom of the bridge? Thanks. I wanted to be sure before I do that.
@@davidunion . If it’s not too late, don’t forget to investigate the relief/levelness of the fingerboard as Jerry did here. You can also run dental floss or thick yarn on the outside string positions to mock up your string height progress.
@@FIGGY65 so the project stalled a bit. I pulled off the neck, made sure fingerboard is straight across (Clamped and held it that way for a long time just in case), then shimmed off some wood on the back of the neck so I can level the neck and the test fit is OK, i was just at the point of putting on a tiny bit of wood to tighten up the joint but i'm tyring to figure the exact point to level the neck without the string tension on it so it will be right with the tension. I figure the strings will pull it a bit, so I made a ruler to length and was going to run it across the fret tops to just under the bottom of the plastic insert in the bridge on top of the wood bridge, figuring when the strings are on and tensioned that might be just right for the top of the plastic bridge. Is that the right way? There is a truss rod which I already cleaned and loosened a turn or so with the neck straight so it's not turned all the way/overturned when I set the neck back. The harmony truss rods are not great. I don't have any way to 'measure' the tension with the strings on it, though I was thinking one option was to just make a first try, then put a string, test fit, and iterate. But until it's all glued down, it's going to be hard to know for sure :) Let me know if there is some other secret to getting that 'level with the strings tension' when the strings are not there. Dental floss seems sort of very low tension to compare with? I'm ok to waste some strings to test fit also. In the video he levels to the top of the bridge... I guess I can do that also but i'm not 100 percent sure I've heard both options in tutorials on line.
Well, I'm back for another viewing of your video sort of a refresher course one might say. I found an old parlor Flat top whose main body was in great condition for its age. Even the finish was in good condition, but sadly required a neck reset. I actually have two on the go here requiring a neck reset. One is a dove-tail connection, while the other is a multi-dowel connection. I got both apart clean as a whistle with very little damage done. The neck of the dovetail was bent in the same place as the one you are working on here. From the end of the fret board to the 12th. fret it was flat, then made a shape bend and rise upwards towards fret #1, much like the one you are working on. I decided I wanted to bend back the shorter end tail of the fret board to bring the full length back into a straight line, so what I did was found and old long 2 ft long wooden flowerpot made out of hard wood that was very strongly built, as well as very straight when looking down it's length. I laid the neck (fret side down), on the old flowerpot and placed a thin wide wooden block under the tail end of the neck of the fret board. I then placed a clamp on the shoe of the neck and clamped it downwards thus drawing the neck back down till the fretboard was again straight and flat. I tighten it down a wee bit harder till the tailend was bending backwards by a small amount of angle, and dampened the fret board just below the dovetail so the fret board would loose it's memory and settle back where it once was when the guitar was new thus flattening out the whole length of the neck. I kept it under tension for 3 days, re-dampening it every so often with a wee bit of water on my finger and allow it to dry. After 3 days under tension, I removed the neck and it was straight as an arrow. No more bend upward at the 12th. fret area. It's been 4 days since I removed the neck from the home-made flowerpot press and the neck has remained perfectly straight and flat. That's one way to flatten out a neck at any location where it might be bent.From this point on, I'll be doing the same thing you are doing to get this old guitar back in action again so the neck angle is more proper. There's no name on this guitar, but I have a feeling, I'm working on a Harmony as well. Thanks for the video you put together. I always enjoy watching and learning.
Beautiful work! In most cases, a guitar like that would be headed for the dumpster or the fire pit. You saved it and now it's making music (and more memories for the owner) again.
I love sentimental guitars stories... your video #186 is nice too, with the old National... my own story is of a C.F. Martin OO-18C that my Dad bought new in 1964 and gave to my Mom and she had and played it through the years, and some time back about 20 years ago she gave it to me and now I have and treasure it.
Very nice guitar fixing video. Jerry I think Marty Robbins is happily smiling hearing you singing one his famous songs. I really thought you will sing El Paso LOL. I have an old Yamaha FG-150 Red label that I'm planning of resetting the neck. Your video will help me to do it the way it should be done. Thank you for sharing it.
Jerry, let me tell you one thing. And I swear, this is true! Last night, i have dreamed of you! :D We met in a train somewhere in Germany and I recognized you. You walked over to me and we had a chat about my guitar issues. And you promised to make it all perferct again. :D And you know what? You definitely could! Unfortunately, this was just a dream and sending you my guitar (despite that it is an electric guitar anyway), would be way too expansive. Other than that, I will finally buy a new one soon, after almost 18 years. So... ;) Thank you again for all your videos! You've already saved a lot of my evenings. Just like this! Much love from Germany! Hope, you are doing well! Cheers, Markus.
My pal 60 years ago, Roy Wilkerson. was a baker by day and played Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith devotee. Roy knew ever one of Arthur's 109 boogie tunes on his great old Gretch acoustic guitar. Taught me chord progressions. Even chords I never used in Bluegrass
That looked just like my first guitar and yes it was like playing barbed wire. I out grew that old guitar when I started playing bar cords. You did an amazing job to get the action as low as you did. I am sure they will pass that guitar down to many generations.
I totally understand the motivation behind working on an otherwise lower end guitar because of sentimental reasons. I'm currently working on my late dad's Kay Speed Demon guitar to make it playable. The neck was incredibly forward bowed, so I sent it away to a guy who specializes in that repair. I think my dad would love it that I finally got this guitar he picked up in a pawn shop in the early sixties to play and sound good.
Time Lapse works best over several hours. If you go back, and watch the Time Lapse portion at 1/4 (.25) speed, you can see some of the things you did. The 4x (or 8x) speed seems to work better. One of my favorite Marty Robbins tunes! Great video!
I have an old Harmony from the 80's, and found out pretty quick there's no playing bar chords the action is so high'. Since it was cheap, I plan on following your video instructions, it is just what I was looking for. If I get results half as good as yours it will be worthwhile. Great video.
I love old Harmonys, especially when I can pick them up cheaply--getting harder to do that these days. Fun to work on, and decent old woods--solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides, not plywood. I have one of these H162s that I re-braced (replaced ladder braces with x-braces) added a truss rod, refretted and converted it to a bolt-on neck. Steamed it off with a $4 Goodwill espresso machine. Yeah, a lot of work for a "cheap" guitar, but fun and turned out very nicely. I'd recommend it to anyone!
I learned on a Harmony 6. It was my college roommate's in 1966. For $50, you weren't getting a Martin, but it was a quite competent guitar, and you could do a lot worse for more money at the time. A year or so later I bought my first guitar - a Harmony 12. In 1971 I was lucky enough to get a deal on a year-old, used Guild F-512. I still have both of them. Guess which one I never play any more? Fred
I love the Old Guitars. Maybe someday when I have the extra funds to send my 1957 Harmony Broadway Archtop to you to do some work on I'll do just that. I got it from an old friend years ago & want to get it more playable. Probably a neck reset & fret work. I really enjoy your videos & have just about seen them all. Keep doing what you're doing. Thanks
I think they're pretty good guitars. Gibson is pretty much lore. Harmony will get the job done. Reminds me of the Silvertone guitars built by Nathan Daniel. Extraordinary sound and wonderful to play, but looked like shit and had no cachet. Session musicians used them in the studio but couldn't bring them on stage because they were sold at Sears. Ha! That's kind of like the Harmony story.
this was a great class room on a neck set. awesome results. im working on a silvertone mandolin right now, it was a 10 dollar flea market find, needs a lot of tlc, it's more of a learning tool then anything, i should recorded it but i'm still camera sky.
Jerry you say heres a guitar not worth fixin and you fix it anyway! What a guy!. That was a pretty good Marty! I once had a Stella that was not nearly as good as this one, and thtats the one I learned my first song on. Johnny B Goode. Thankz
a lot of work on this ole gal! those lines across the fretboard are on almost every Harmony guitar from the tools used too make them, I've seen that a lot. good work brother!
Great videos Jerry it has showed and taught me things that have broke my heart. I had asked questions before making a purchase but was not givin the correct answers and your videos have proven my gut instincts right. What an expensive mistake i made or should l say an expensive education l recieved. rw
Great job Jerry another great success / no doubt those folks were thrilled I sure would have been to get gramps' guitar back better than it had ever been. There's a big resurgence of harmony/Silverstone thanks to young bands like Alabama Shakes who actually use that stuff. So it may be worth more than any of us would expect.
The Harmony neck joint issues are basically because they glued them without cleaning stain and lacquer overspray that covered the inside of the dovetail on the neck block. The rest of the guitars usually stay glued together pretty well. Anyway great video and even though they are not valuable they are a fun brand to work on ande cheap to grab a USA made vintage.
I read how some guys use vary strong tea to stain new spruce in repair work, so you can see the new wood, I tried it in my old B-25 Gibson. It worked great.
At about the 35:30 time mark you show us how little material comes off to make a big difference in neck angle. Is there a reason you didn't you use the "draw the sand paper through"method to remove such small amounts of material?
That method definitely works and I do that sometimes but generally only when I'm fitting something other than a neck. I've been doing this a very long time and have a good feel for how I take the wood off the neck. The Sandpaper method is generally just too slow when you have to remove wood off the heel of a neck because that's end Grain and it's very hard.
I have an H162 that I paid about $40 for thirty years ago. Needed a neck reset and I figured it was cheap enough for me to tinker with and learn. Just looked on eBay and people are now asking as much as $600 for the same guitar!!
Jerry, Check out what Bauxendale Guitars is doing with these Harmony and Kay guitars. When reworked, they sound great. It isn't cheap work, but he uses it as a teaching tool as well with customers paying to rebuild these guitars and learn some lutherie. Pretty neat. I have played two of these and they are as good as any vintage Gibson ( better in many cases).
I had a gibson that i did this to. The plastic pick guards shrink and bow the top and break the glue joint on the brace. Wen I got the pick guard flattened out and re glued you could see that it was smaller.
Why isn't it worth fixing? The top is solid red spruce. Back and sides are solid Honduran mahogany. Some of these have a solid one piece mahogany neck as well. Fretboard is Brazilian rosewood. Good luck finding those woods today. Especially the back which is a single quartersawn piece 15" wide. Not two book matched pieces like inferior Martin's of the same time period. Personally I would have taken off the back, replaced the bracing with X bracing and talked the family into a new bridge for better intonation. Old Harmony guitars are the best kept secret in vintage guitars. Hide glue and shellac.
Nature's Harmony Guitars are doing just that right now. These old Harmony's are the same quality woods used by Martin and Gibson and have the same vintage aging and are tone monsters with the ladder bracing but with the X-bracing they come to life. The one in this video is a Harmony H-162 that has solid Mahogany back and sides with solid spruce top - The H-165 has the same dimensions as the H-162 except that it has the solid Mahogany top. Beautiful rich tones.
I agree with a lot of what you said, except for the inferior Martins part. There are a couple times in Martin's history when they had some issues, like bad bridge placement, but on the whole most vintage Martins will be superior to a Harmony, even a solid wood one like the one in this video. Now as far as some of the newer cheaper Martins made in Mexico, or made of composite materials, that's a different story. And I'm a huge fan of Kay, Harmony, and Stella guitars, if you know what to look for you can find fantastic sounding guitars for cheap prices. The best sounding cheap vintage acoustics I've ever found are old Hofner and Framus guitars.
I bought a custom build Harmony Classical Guitar No. 1 for $40.00 yesterday at a goodwill store. It looks very old, it was very dusty and looked like it haven't played in years. To my surprise it was still in tune. What can I use to shine it up?
Cool. So, I have an acoustic/electric Ibanez guitar. I bought it from Guitar Center and the action was kind of high, so I adjusted the truss rod and it began buzzing all over the place. I inspected the saddle and it is not only some sort of plastic, but it was also shaved on the bottom. I pretty sure that's why I can't get the action any lower than what it came with. I don't see where anything else is wrong with it, but you're the man with plan when it comes to these things. LOL
William Lee thank you for watching. The truss rod is there only to take under bow out of the neck it doesn't change the angle of the strings to the neck. So if it's buzzing after you adjust the truss rod, more than likely there's over bow in the neck now. That's just a thought. Good luck.
Just curious, Is there enough room in the socket for the extra depth or did you have to take a corresponding amount off of the face of the tail also to get it to sit flush?
I am SO hooked on your videos now, and have been picking up a lot of tricks and tips here and there. My only concern is when you demonstrate the sound of the "new" guitar, but your singing over the quality. Kinda makes it hard to concentrate on your craftsmanship if your singing over it. Just a thought...
Very nice job Jerry. Yes those old Harmonys did play very hard. Like you said, it probably plays easier now than it ever did. I'm just a hobbyist and now retired. I like restoring old guitars like you did here so your videos really help me learn. Thank you Jerry and congrats on a very nice job. Rich from NJ
Richard Marino thank you for watching.
Mr Rosa, just wanted to say as a self taught repairman that has learned as I go, mostly sticking to electrics your videos have been a treasure trove! Especially where acoustic instruments are concerned. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and knowledge!
+Jason Robinson you are welcome. Thank you so much for watching.
Grandpa would've been 100% satisfied with it now Rest His Soul. You've done a great job for his family.
Gil Lamb thank you very much.
Best Channel on RUclips 👌 I get so much inspiration from your videos & your authenticity is so refreshing. If you were running for President I'd vote for Rosa 🇺🇸
My h165 needs the same im am going to try the hippy reset first, I've already planned the bridge. Trying everything but taking the neck off.
Wow! What a patient man! Great tutorial of a "natural" neck reset. Teapot Hi-Tek with caliper cool. No algorithms or incantations. This makes me think I can attempt a neck reset on my 1969 Harmony H165. Thanks a million.
My H6659 could be used to slice boiled eggs! Definitely a candidate for a neck reset! It has a nice sound though.
Haha, Jerry you're killing me....."we're almost there" "we're near the finish" .."close to the end". You really do strive for the best work, even on an old Harmony. My first real guitar was a Silvertone so I have a fondness for Harmony products. When you finished I believe you produced one of the best set up Harmonys on the continent, a rare rebuild that is seldom done on these old inexpensive instruments. Thanks, was a pleasure to watch.
stebly7 you are welcome. Thank you very much for watching.
i am worn out from watching the neck reset, great job and a lovely sentimental story behind the guitar, love the song at the end, i am now confident about doing a neck reset on my old guitar, thank you
Lol @ the kid being a kid. At the beginning of the video, the actual grandchild appears in the window, then a picture of her appears at the end --cool! Great job restoring that guitar to playable condition. It sounds better than any Harmony flat top that I've ever heard.
Nella Yema thank you very much.
Jerry, It looks like you were able to hit the neck angle with less than 100 test fits. I congratulate you sir. Your patience ,skills, and experience are much appreciated. You have shown me different ways and ideas that have helped me work easier, and smarter.Thank you for sharing your videos which are always great and entertaining.
Kevin
Judy and Kevin Lynch you are welcome. Thank you very much for watching.
Even tho you are the "repairer" and not the owner/player, the level of satisfaction of being able to bring instruments like that back to life must be enormously gratifying!
ozmid40scouple yes it is. Thank you very much for watching.
I remember teaching my self to play on a 1965 Harmony, and that one sounds, and plays so much better after what you've done. Great job Jerry. The older we get the less money means, and the more memories mean. Value is in the memory, Regards, Solomon
Life After Work thank you.
That looks to be a Harmony H162, which was the first guitar for a lot of guys of my generation. It was mine, $45 off the wall of Wright's Music in Yakima, Washington. Loved that thing. True about needing neck resets, but lots good about them. solid wood all the way around. They can sound really good, 50-60 years on. The sides and back are mahogany, and the sides were brittle: a lot of them have big cracks from getting knocked against the edge of a table or chair (or whatever). I have two of those waiting for some work. Fun to see this, Jerry.
Nice fix video Gerry. Marty Robins devil woman was one of my mothers favourite songs ever , she died in 1976. Thanks for the reminder.. love the song myself. cheers Rob.
Another great repair. Sounds great too. Grandpa is happy wherever he is God Rest His Soul.
Great job Jerry and a lovely cameo appearance from your granddaughter Bless you both ❤👍
springy 2112 thank you very much.
That aged top tonewood looks like a old martin...You sure are patient and skilled. Thank God for your video and help.
Great work.Wow I wasn't expecting such great singing and playing by a repairman.
I really enjoy your expertise, knowledge and skill in working with these various guitars. I've been a guitarist since I was 13 and am in my late 60s now. It's such a pleasure to see your woodworking skills and how you examine and sort out problems to bring these old guitars back to life. Very entertaining and enjoyable. Thanks for all your time and amazing craftsmanship.
For steaming, I use a $50 wallpaper steamer from Menards that I modified with the same kind of inflation needle. It plugs into the wall and takes about 15 minutes to heat up, it has a built in relief valve and I don't need a separate heat source. It's pretty convenient and it works really well.
I came back to see your singing many times, it's great.
i like watching you restore these old instruments i saw people playing as a kid in the 1950s and 1960s.
Great to see another sentimental value guitar brought back to life. I am sure the family will enjoy it as much as I enjoy the Regal Wreck! Thanks for another great video.
Tom Doran thank you Tom. I suppose you saw my little note thanking you for the calipers.
Yes, I saw your note on the calipers. Glad you could use them. I also loved your description that the old Sillvertone guitars were like playing "barbed wire". That is a great description of my first guitar, which was a Silvertone. I suspect these "economy" guitars were built with a high action in mass production which would have minimized customer complaints about buzzing.
Tom Doran probably so. Thanks again.
I have a 65 Harmony H22 bass. I used a .5 degree shim which changed the angle of the neck enough to give me much more adjusting room at the bridge and straigten the neck. I had to fix the truss rod first, then heat the neck and clamped it. Once I got the neck nice and straight (slight outward bow) I put the strings on, adjusted the bridge as low as possible then searched out all buzzing frets one by one and leveled them. First time trying all this but it all came together, and the bass has very low action, no buzz, and that woody string bass sound of the H22 from the 60's. It was fun doing it. I don't think I have your patience, though!
Thanks for the video.
Great Job Jerry. I look at it as you're saving a piece of history. I just fixed an old Del Oro Cowboy guitar from 1942. i think the original catalog selling price was $8.98. They live to play again! Sometimes its fun just to see how good they can be fixed up... better than from the factory. Guys do it with cars too. they are taking old wrecks from junk yards and bringing them back. I think it cool!
LarWolkan it is cool. Thank you very much for watching.
That guitar sounds incredible. Exactly what its supposed to sound like. Nice work Jerry!
Was Laughing at your Comments as U went along...
That's Precise, Exacting, Tedious Work~But the Patient Lives to SING your Praises Once Again, DR. ROSA!!!
; )
chickengnawer thank you very much.
I been following your videos for some time now thanks for showing and sharing some of the trade secrets has help me leaps and bounds on the small guitar repair I do at home
Jerry, enjoy watching, you can fix almost anything. If I lived closer and not down under, I'd ask you to have a look at my old Washburn D12N.
These old ladder-braced Harmony guitars sound awesome to me. Nice video.
Great video, thank you! Thank you for sharing your work on these videos Jerry. I always enjoy watching, and look forward to each new one. Glad you got the old Harmony back playable!
Kent Owens thank you very much.
to be able to create your own tools an them to work effective show how skilled a craftsman you are. you would probably would be an awesome teacher to teach young people the skill
As soon as you began devil woman I started singing along used to listen the marty Robbins all the time as a kid thanks for that.
I have an old Harmony that also isn't worth paying for a neck reset. This is making me think i should take a stab at doing it myself. Thanks, this was awesome!
I just did my Harmony, GO FOR IT! Jerry gave me the knowledge and courage. Thank you Mr. Rosa.
@@RtCarolina So the neck is apart, straight and the only thing left to figure out is how to get the angle set just right for putting it back together. I trimmed very tiny bit off the so I can adjust the neck fit back on - I have some hardwood shims. How do I figure the best angle for putting it back without the strings on it? Ruler along fret tops to the bottom of the bridge? Thanks. I wanted to be sure before I do that.
@@davidunion . If it’s not too late, don’t forget to investigate the relief/levelness of the fingerboard as Jerry did here. You can also run dental floss or thick yarn on the outside string positions to mock up your string height progress.
@@FIGGY65 so the project stalled a bit. I pulled off the neck, made sure fingerboard is straight across (Clamped and held it that way for a long time just in case), then shimmed off some wood on the back of the neck so I can level the neck and the test fit is OK, i was just at the point of putting on a tiny bit of wood to tighten up the joint but i'm tyring to figure the exact point to level the neck without the string tension on it so it will be right with the tension. I figure the strings will pull it a bit, so I made a ruler to length and was going to run it across the fret tops to just under the bottom of the plastic insert in the bridge on top of the wood bridge, figuring when the strings are on and tensioned that might be just right for the top of the plastic bridge. Is that the right way? There is a truss rod which I already cleaned and loosened a turn or so with the neck straight so it's not turned all the way/overturned when I set the neck back. The harmony truss rods are not great. I don't have any way to 'measure' the tension with the strings on it, though I was thinking one option was to just make a first try, then put a string, test fit, and iterate. But until it's all glued down, it's going to be hard to know for sure :)
Let me know if there is some other secret to getting that 'level with the strings tension' when the strings are not there.
Dental floss seems sort of very low tension to compare with? I'm ok to waste some strings to test fit also.
In the video he levels to the top of the bridge... I guess I can do that also but i'm not 100 percent sure I've heard both options in tutorials on line.
As always, great job, Jerry.
Three cheers for a reborn harmony AND Mary!!!!!
amit newton Thank you.
Well, I'm back for another viewing of your video sort of a refresher course one might say. I found an old parlor Flat top whose main body was in great condition for its age. Even the finish was in good condition, but sadly required a neck reset. I actually have two on the go here requiring a neck reset. One is a dove-tail connection, while the other is a multi-dowel connection. I got both apart clean as a whistle with very little damage done. The neck of the dovetail was bent in the same place as the one you are working on here. From the end of the fret board to the 12th. fret it was flat, then made a shape bend and rise upwards towards fret #1, much like the one you are working on. I decided I wanted to bend back the shorter end tail of the fret board to bring the full length back into a straight line, so what I did was found and old long 2 ft long wooden flowerpot made out of hard wood that was very strongly built, as well as very straight when looking down it's length. I laid the neck (fret side down), on the old flowerpot and placed a thin wide wooden block under the tail end of the neck of the fret board. I then placed a clamp on the shoe of the neck and clamped it downwards thus drawing the neck back down till the fretboard was again straight and flat. I tighten it down a wee bit harder till the tailend was bending backwards by a small amount of angle, and dampened the fret board just below the dovetail so the fret board would loose it's memory and settle back where it once was when the guitar was new thus flattening out the whole length of the neck. I kept it under tension for 3 days, re-dampening it every so often with a wee bit of water on my finger and allow it to dry. After 3 days under tension, I removed the neck and it was straight as an arrow. No more bend upward at the 12th. fret area. It's been 4 days since I removed the neck from the home-made flowerpot press and the neck has remained perfectly straight and flat. That's one way to flatten out a neck at any location where it might be bent.From this point on, I'll be doing the same thing you are doing to get this old guitar back in action again so the neck angle is more proper. There's no name on this guitar, but I have a feeling, I'm working on a Harmony as well. Thanks for the video you put together. I always enjoy watching and learning.
Goodness Jerry, I'm amazed that you have that guitar playing that good and sounding so nice. You opened that can of magic again, very nice job!
Buddy Martin thank you.
Great video, ! I’m currently rebuilding a 1938 Harmony Monterey (H950) . Got my hands full as it was in pieces when I bought it.
Beautiful work! In most cases, a guitar like that would be headed for the dumpster or the fire pit. You saved it and now it's making music (and more memories for the owner) again.
I love sentimental guitars stories... your video #186 is nice too, with the old National... my own story is of a C.F. Martin OO-18C that my Dad bought new in 1964 and gave to my Mom and she had and played it through the years, and some time back about 20 years ago she gave it to me and now I have and treasure it.
+Terry McKean it's really nice to have hand me down guitars. Thank you very much for watching.
Right on.... you're welcome... thanks for sharing.
Very nice guitar fixing video. Jerry I think Marty Robbins is happily smiling hearing you singing one his famous songs. I really thought you will sing El Paso LOL. I have an old Yamaha FG-150 Red label that I'm planning of resetting the neck. Your video will help me to do it the way it should be done. Thank you for sharing it.
Jerry, let me tell you one thing. And I swear, this is true! Last night, i have dreamed of you! :D
We met in a train somewhere in Germany and I recognized you. You walked over to me and we had a chat about my guitar issues. And you promised to make it all perferct again. :D
And you know what? You definitely could!
Unfortunately, this was just a dream and sending you my guitar (despite that it is an electric guitar anyway), would be way too expansive. Other than that, I will finally buy a new one soon, after almost 18 years. So... ;)
Thank you again for all your videos! You've already saved a lot of my evenings. Just like this! Much love from Germany! Hope, you are doing well! Cheers, Markus.
Thank you very much.
I love watching you do your magic,I've watched all your videos at least twice,
michaeladam caira very kind of you to say thank you very much.
My pal 60 years ago, Roy Wilkerson. was a baker by day and played Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith devotee. Roy knew ever one of Arthur's 109
boogie tunes on his great old Gretch acoustic guitar. Taught me chord progressions. Even chords I never used in Bluegrass
That looked just like my first guitar and yes it was like playing barbed wire. I out grew that old guitar when I started playing bar cords. You did an amazing job to get the action as low as you did. I am sure they will pass that guitar down to many generations.
Vader1957 thank you very much.
I totally understand the motivation behind working on an otherwise lower end guitar because of sentimental reasons. I'm currently working on my late dad's Kay Speed Demon guitar to make it playable. The neck was incredibly forward bowed, so I sent it away to a guy who specializes in that repair. I think my dad would love it that I finally got this guitar he picked up in a pawn shop in the early sixties to play and sound good.
Jkautsky thank you for watching. Good luck with your repair.
Scott Baxendale takes these apart, rebuilds them, and makes them sing. Good wood.
It's worth watching for your fantastic renditions. Fabulous Jerry thank you.
Time Lapse works best over several hours. If you go back, and watch the Time Lapse portion at 1/4 (.25) speed, you can see some of the things you did. The 4x (or 8x) speed seems to work better. One of my favorite Marty Robbins tunes! Great video!
Kickinpony.66 thanks. I should have practiced with the time lapse before.
I have an old Harmony from the 80's, and found out pretty quick there's no playing bar chords the action is so high'. Since it was cheap, I plan on following your video instructions, it is just what I was looking for. If I get results half as good as yours it will be worthwhile. Great video.
I love old Harmonys, especially when I can pick them up cheaply--getting harder to do that these days. Fun to work on, and decent old woods--solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides, not plywood. I have one of these H162s that I re-braced (replaced ladder braces with x-braces) added a truss rod, refretted and converted it to a bolt-on neck. Steamed it off with a $4 Goodwill espresso machine. Yeah, a lot of work for a "cheap" guitar, but fun and turned out very nicely. I'd recommend it to anyone!
Once again Jerry,excellent work!
Ian Ward thank you very much.
I learned on a Harmony 6. It was my college roommate's in 1966. For $50, you weren't getting a Martin, but it was a quite competent guitar, and you could do a lot worse for more money at the time.
A year or so later I bought my first guitar - a Harmony 12. In 1971 I was lucky enough to get a deal on a year-old, used Guild F-512.
I still have both of them. Guess which one I never play any more?
Fred
I love the Old Guitars. Maybe someday when I have the extra funds to send my 1957 Harmony Broadway Archtop to you to do some work on I'll do just that. I got it from an old friend years ago & want to get it more playable. Probably a neck reset & fret work. I really enjoy your videos & have just about seen them all. Keep doing what you're doing. Thanks
Thank you my friend.
It is said that Harmony had superior neck joints compared to Gibson. Good job on this oldie.
I think they're pretty good guitars. Gibson is pretty much lore. Harmony will get the job done. Reminds me of the Silvertone guitars built by Nathan Daniel.
Extraordinary sound and wonderful to play, but looked like shit and had no cachet. Session musicians used them in the studio but couldn't bring them on stage because they were sold at Sears. Ha! That's kind of like the Harmony story.
this was a great class room on a neck set. awesome results. im working on a silvertone mandolin right now, it was a 10 dollar flea market find, needs a lot of tlc, it's more of a learning tool then anything, i should recorded it but i'm still camera sky.
Marty Robbins ! yes sir you got him down pat, But still have your own charm to it. So beautiful.
Tele Man65 thank you very much.
Jerry you say heres a guitar not worth fixin and you fix it anyway! What a guy!. That was a pretty good Marty! I once had a Stella that was not nearly as good as this one, and thtats the one I learned my first song on. Johnny B Goode. Thankz
I get attached to old cheap guitars. The older the better. If you love them then they ARE worth fixing!
very nice watching you step by step getting that neck playable your the best !!! really you are thanks so much for all your valuable info
Jerry just love how you appreciate sentiment (your the best)
Excellent video, and neck reset... Well done.
Love your rendition of Marty Robbins' Devil Woman.
❤
jerry,another great fix,you ,my friend are 1 of a kind,
michaeladam caira thank you.
You sure did a fine job on that old guitar, it sounds pretty nice!
Jeff Grier thank you very much.
Another great job, them old harmonys are hard to beat I've played some of the old ones with the f holes that the action was pretty good on.
a lot of work on this ole gal! those lines across the fretboard are on almost every Harmony guitar from the tools used too make them, I've seen that a lot. good work brother!
Randy Schartiger thank you very much Randy.
Great videos Jerry it has showed and taught me things that have broke my heart.
I had asked questions before making a purchase but was not givin the correct answers and your videos have proven my gut instincts right.
What an expensive mistake i made or should l say an expensive education l recieved.
rw
Love the song Jerry 👏👏👏great work👍🇬🇧
a true master at his craft .... always enjoying your videos :)
OUTSTANDING Mr. ROSA sounds pretty dog gone good. Nice work
Great job Jerry another great success / no doubt those folks were thrilled I sure would have been to get gramps' guitar back better than it had ever been. There's a big resurgence of harmony/Silverstone thanks to young bands like Alabama Shakes who actually use that stuff. So it may be worth more than any of us would expect.
Tioga Fretworks you may be right. Thank you very much for watching.
That was a lot of work and you make it look soo easy. Thanks for sharing.
The Harmony neck joint issues are basically because they glued them without cleaning stain and lacquer overspray that covered the inside of the dovetail on the neck block. The rest of the guitars usually stay glued together pretty well. Anyway great video and even though they are not valuable they are a fun brand to work on ande cheap to grab a USA made vintage.
I love it. Customer is going to be so happy with it. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Good job. This one Looks and sounds good now. My first guitar was a Harmony just like this one. Played “like barbed wire”. 😊
Thank you very much.
You sure know guitars and you sing and play real good too!
John Boyle thank you very kindly my friend.
Always liked that song thanks and for the video as well Jerry 👍👏👏👏👏👏
Yeah I can feel ya frustration we are basically doing the same repair on a framus guitar lol but we know you'll get it thanks for sharing Jerry.
Creative Clamping
Fantastic job. Thank you. Cheers
I read how some guys use vary strong tea to stain new spruce in repair work, so you can see the new wood, I tried it in my old B-25 Gibson. It worked great.
man, you are totally worth the money. Awsome.
Guitar sounds great! Well done sir!
At about the 35:30 time mark you show us how little material comes off to make a big difference in neck angle. Is there a reason you didn't you use the "draw the sand paper through"method to remove such small amounts of material?
That method definitely works and I do that sometimes but generally only when I'm fitting something other than a neck. I've been doing this a very long time and have a good feel for how I take the wood off the neck. The Sandpaper method is generally just too slow when you have to remove wood off the heel of a neck because that's end Grain and it's very hard.
Saved another one. Good job.
EasyEddy thank you.
Watched the whole vid. So great!
And it sounds really great!
I have an H162 that I paid about $40 for thirty years ago. Needed a neck reset and I figured it was cheap enough for me to tinker with and learn. Just looked on eBay and people are now asking as much as $600 for the same guitar!!
Jerry, Check out what Bauxendale Guitars is doing with these Harmony and Kay guitars. When reworked, they sound great. It isn't cheap work, but he uses it as a teaching tool as well with customers paying to rebuild these guitars and learn some lutherie. Pretty neat. I have played two of these and they are as good as any vintage Gibson ( better in many cases).
Thanks for the note. I'll look into it.
This is a good one. Well done. Sounds good.
Lol, don't look now but your granddaughter's mugging for the camera in the window.😂
Boudreau Guitars she was video bombing me wasn't she. LOL thanks for watching.
Might have been a girlfan - he's a famous musician.
I gave you a thumbs up for Devil Woman. Nice.
Great fix.. and I enjoyed your performance ! :)
I had a gibson that i did this to. The plastic pick guards shrink and bow the top and break the glue joint on the brace. Wen I got the pick guard flattened out and re glued you could see that it was smaller.
+Dave Stambaugh yes it's quite common for the pic garbage to shrink and cause cracks in the top. Thanks for watching
I like your carbon paper way of fitting a joint, another way I have done that is by buring a candle and letting suet get on the part I am fitting.
Corndog thank you for watching I've done that also.
Why isn't it worth fixing? The top is solid red spruce. Back and sides are solid Honduran mahogany. Some of these have a solid one piece mahogany neck as well. Fretboard is Brazilian rosewood. Good luck finding those woods today. Especially the back which is a single quartersawn piece 15" wide. Not two book matched pieces like inferior Martin's of the same time period. Personally I would have taken off the back, replaced the bracing with X bracing and talked the family into a new bridge for better intonation. Old Harmony guitars are the best kept secret in vintage guitars. Hide glue and shellac.
Nature's Harmony Guitars are doing just that right now. These old Harmony's are the same quality woods used by Martin and Gibson and have the same vintage aging and are tone monsters with the ladder bracing but with the X-bracing they come to life. The one in this video is a Harmony H-162 that has solid Mahogany back and sides with solid spruce top - The H-165 has the same dimensions as the H-162 except that it has the solid Mahogany top. Beautiful rich tones.
I agree with a lot of what you said, except for the inferior Martins part. There are a couple times in Martin's history when they had some issues, like bad bridge placement, but on the whole most vintage Martins will be superior to a Harmony, even a solid wood one like the one in this video. Now as far as some of the newer cheaper Martins made in Mexico, or made of composite materials, that's a different story. And I'm a huge fan of Kay, Harmony, and Stella guitars, if you know what to look for you can find fantastic sounding guitars for cheap prices. The best sounding cheap vintage acoustics I've ever found are old Hofner and Framus guitars.
I bought a custom build Harmony Classical Guitar No. 1 for $40.00 yesterday at a goodwill store. It looks very old, it was very dusty and looked like it haven't played in years. To my surprise it was still in tune. What can I use to shine it up?
It's hard to say what would work best on it. There's so many different finishes and stuff you almost have to experiment.
@@RosaStringWorks Thank you Sir!!
One of your (grand)kinds really wanted to be in the movie.
Hello, Jerry. Great content as always. I was just wondering how to go about getting a possible price-range from you on a set-up for my guitars.
William Lee I charge $60 per hour. Parts and shipping of course are extra. I'm fairly fast most things only take a few hours at most.
Cool. So, I have an acoustic/electric Ibanez guitar. I bought it from Guitar Center and the action was kind of high, so I adjusted the truss rod and it began buzzing all over the place. I inspected the saddle and it is not only some sort of plastic, but it was also shaved on the bottom. I pretty sure that's why I can't get the action any lower than what it came with. I don't see where anything else is wrong with it, but you're the man with plan when it comes to these things. LOL
William Lee thank you for watching. The truss rod is there only to take under bow out of the neck it doesn't change the angle of the strings to the neck. So if it's buzzing after you adjust the truss rod, more than likely there's over bow in the neck now. That's just a thought. Good luck.
that looks like the first guitar I ever owned wow nice
I'm sure the repair was worth a lot more than the guitar
but great job
DriveShaft Drew thank you.
Just curious, Is there enough room in the socket for the extra depth or did you have to take a corresponding amount off of the face of the tail also to get it to sit flush?
TgWags69 there was room. thanks for watching.
I am SO hooked on your videos now, and have been picking up a lot of tricks and tips here and there. My only concern is when you demonstrate the sound of the "new" guitar, but your singing over the quality. Kinda makes it hard to concentrate on your craftsmanship if your singing over it. Just a thought...
Thanks for looking.
Man what a great video!!!