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Harmony Sears Silvertone version of the Harmony Monterey Reviews  1 / 5 based on 1 reviewsMy 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
The playability of it.I have small hands and
I can make the simple barre chords with it.
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.
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
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. Dan R. VanLandingham rated this unit on 2004-02-25.
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