Teisco/Harmony/Whatever Body Project

[cheepaxes]

[cheepaxes]

[johnnyb]

[cheepaxes]

[johnnyb]

[Spud1950]

[cheepaxes]

I took the body home. The Harmony/Sivertone neck I had didn't fit it. A Japanese Teisco/Kay neck did, but that neck is in pretty bad shape, missing some wood in the heel and some binding on the side. So I got a Harmony neck off eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0300521947

...which is about equal to the body in ugliness. I haven't test fit it yet, but it looks just like the one in the pictures of Harmony guitars of this type.

I'll need a bridge for it. Dr. Steve said he had some that might fit, though I've been thinking of getting something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHROME-Electric-Gui ... 01010791QQ

A hardtail Strat-type bridge. That or I could get a compensated wraparound LP-type stop tail bridge. The Strat bridge would just require four screws to hold it in place, certainly easier than drilling holes for the studs on a stoptail bridge. I have to wonder whether the bridge saddles can be raised high enough on the Strat bridge though. I guess there's no way to know until I put the neck on and see how high the bridge needs to be.

Any thoughts?

...I mean, besides "instead of spending $100 on parts to make an ugly Frankenharmony why don't you just buy a whole guitar of the same type for $60 off eBay?"

-Scott

[cheepaxes]

Replying to myself... The Strat hardtail bridge is too wide. It's about 2" from E to (shining) E. The neck is only about 2" wide.

-Scott

[cheepaxes]

I found a tune-a-matic bridge in my box-o-parts. By turning some of the bridge saddles around I was able to get the E-to-E distance narrow enough for this guitar. After thinking about some solutions for a tailpiece I made one out of a piece of poplar. I drilled it for strings and screwed it down with six big old screws from Lowes.

Once the strings were on it I discovered one raised fret that caused the high E to buzz. I've had no luck in the past with tapping raised frests down and/or glueing them down in place. I took some sandpaper to it and it's playing more or less correctly now. I may also take down some high frets up around 15-17.

Despite my careful measurements, the spot where I installed the bridge seems to be too close to the nut. I also drilled the holes for the posts too deep into the body and they broke all the way through. Looks like two reasons to redrill those holes in new locations.

The instrument sounds kind of bright, acoustically.

I went into my box of pickups and started trying some of them out, just held in place and alligator clipped to an instrument cable plugged into a SS amp. I decided I kind of like the Tele neck pup in the neck position. I was getting an interesting sound from a cheapo Duncan-Designed P-90 in the "middle" position. There isn't actually a rout for a bridge pickup on this thing. I played with a gold foil DeArmond there. It didn't reall do anything for me, plus I'm not sure I want to dedicate 3 pickups to this monstrosity.

Here's a pic of the body with new tailpiece and neck pup:

http://www.scottmcknight.com/HARM1.JPG

-Scott

[cheepaxes]

The project goes on. I bought a pickguard off eBay. I still need to redrill holes for the bridge -- it's a little too close to the neck. The zero fret was pretty worn and made pinging sounds as the strings popped in and out of the grooves when bending strings. I sanded the zero fret down some and that has helped. I need to run a ground wire to the bridge. Given my wooden solution to the missing tailpiece, a wire to the tailpiece isn't an option.

Other than that it's pretty much to the point of being playable.

http://www.scottmcknight.com/HARMON1.JPG
http://www.scottmcknight.com/HARMON2.JPG

-Scott