Harmony

Nicolai Foss

Many, many guitarists have done their first strumming on some cheapo Harmony guitar. According to the Wiki on Harmony, “The company hit a peak in 1964-1965, selling 350,000 instruments, but low-end foreign competition led to the company’s demise 10 years later. Between 1945 and 1975, the Chicago firm had mass produced about ten million guitars.” Apparently, many people still harbor nostalgic feelings for the craptops of yesteryear, and here is a fancy website belonging to an Asian operation , “The Original Harmony Guitar Company, Inc.” (It is not transparent how old this producer is, but this indicates that it may be three decades old or more).

The company produces a series of replicas of the good old Harmony guitars, as well as a new series that does bear any particular resemblance to the vintage models (and some look quite decent, e.g., this one). The pricing policy is essentially the same as the old company, i.e., very low priced guitars.

Ah, and while we are at Harmony, here is “The Harmony Database.” Very informative! It was, for example, new to me that Harmony had produced for Gretsch.