Harmony Review: Sears Silvertone version of the Harmony Monterey

History:

Purchase: My mother saw the guitar at a garage sale in North Bend,Oregon back in 1988.I purchased it a short time later.I was told by a man it dated from-according to him-1950.It has the large body with a single pickup.The top is genuine straight grain spruce top.The guitar played quite well.As of this writing,the top is in need of some much needed work repairi- ng cracks that have occurred in the course of seventeen years of ownership.I had to replace the phone jack as well as replacing the floating bridge which dissappeared some years back.The neck still seems to be in fa- ir shape in terms of intonation:I have no problems in terms of having to retune the strings from time to time.The electronics still work and the only other thing I had to do was to replace the machines as the old ones were mismatched when I bought the gui- tar.All in all,this is a good guitar and it is also my personal favorite.favolrite

What I Like About This Harmony Sears Silvertone version of the Harmony Monterey: The playability of it.I have small hands and I can make the simple barre chords with it.

What I Do NOT Like About The Harmony Sears Silvertone version of the Harmony Monterey: The phony use of slab cut maple which is then brushed with lacquer to make is look like flamed curly maple.I had an early f- ifties "Epitome Console" that had a faked straight grain spruce top which,as I fou- nd out,was a bitch to work with when the top cracked on it.That guitar was also da- ted from 1950:I saw a Vega archtop in a ba- ck issue of Guitar Player.

Harmony Sears Silvertone version of the Harmony Monterey Quality Rating: Standard-if that is the phrase you want to use-construction.There are two full length wooden strips that are on either side of t- he bridge.The single pickup is suspended via a clear,tortoise shell piece of plasti- c.The bridge currently on the guitar is an old,cheap "Tune-O-Matic" type which I had to rework as the original floating bridge went missing as I stated in the preceding paragraphs.The finish is quite good:the back of the guitar is still in nice shape although there is a new crack on the bottom of the guitar.The f-holes are of the three piece type s I had seen in several Harmony, Regal as well as this particular guitar

Review Summary: I refer to my Harmony Monterey guitar as my "Poor man's Charlie Christian" guitar.Like the Gibson ES-150 as it has the single bar pickup.When ran through my Fender Champ,it has a nice,mellow sound.What it is in need of is to have the original Harmony floating bridge put back on and when restrung,I need to have the strings leveled for my small hands. All in all,a good guitar which is one which I prefer to such other archtops such as the Aria "Herb Ellis" and the bottom of the line Harmonys which I have also owned at one time or another.

Rating of this Harmony product: 1

This Harmony Sears Silvertone version of the Harmony Monterey Acoustic Guitars Review Submitted By: Dan R. VanLandingham

Review Date: 2004-02-25