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LISTING UPDATE - Restoration to be Completed Listing - fully restored price to be confirmed & on request - meantime, showing photos of this guitar prior to restoration, as it came to me.
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More details to be added as restoration proceeds.
Stock Number: VTG1567.
Superb classic Harmony Archtop Acoustic Guitar, one of the two first models in the Broadway range, and the "Family" of Harmony archtops, commencing in the mid/late 1930s, including also the Cremona, Master and Monterey models.
Model: Broadway H955: Indicated by Harmony Guitars Database to be the earlier form of the Broadway, along with the H961, commenced in 1940 and the forerunner of the long produced, more basically styled H954 Broadway, much more commonly seen.
Date: Usual Harmony ink date stamp of S-45, indicates production in one of the 1945 production runs, during the "wartime" production period of wooden tailpiece equipped guitars, during metal shortages, and towards the end of the production period for the H955, before the H954 was commenced.
Construction: All Solid Woods, Birch Top, Back & Sides. Top grained to resemble Spruce, with Checkered Marquetry around body top. Back & sides have faux-flame finish to resemble Maple.
Scale Length: 25 1/4"/642mm. Nut Width: ! 3/4"/44.5mm. "Auditorium" Size 15 3/4" Body.
On completion of restoration this will be a fully playable archtop guitars with the character that can only come from a true vintage guitar.
More details to be added as restoration proceeds.
Guitar appears to be all original, including original wooden tailpiece.
Currently awaiting available workshop time in order to commence restoration work. Immediately obvious is the need for displaced top and back bindings around the body waste. Further investigation is required, jointly with the first class professional luthier I work with to determine the exact extent of work required, which may include opening up the back by taking the back of for access to complete repairs.
More details will be added when possible....meantime can confirm that original Kluson "Wartime" 3-on-a-plate tuners, based on their 1943 Patent design, will be replaced with a set of StewMac "Golden Age" Restoration Tuners with Scallop-end, Relic nickel, cream knobs (currently on order), which have the same plate design/footprint, and therefore a drop-in replacement, with the dedicated bushings....giving modern tuning precision, whilst maintaining vintage fittings style
On completion we will be looking for a good action at 12th. fret, at around 2.5mm./3mm.
I will fit temporary string set initially for set-up purposes, prior to fitting new set to choice, or default option of Martin bronze Light/12 or Retro Monel 12s.
No case included, but I can offer a choice of vintage covered pressed fibreboard case...not original to the guitar, probably later '50s/'60s type, but similar to the type supplied with these guitars when new. Not exactly what we would regard as a fitted case now, naturally with some wear & tear commensurate with age, and offering limited protection to the guitar, or I should be able to supply an industry standard modern hardshell case, Hiscox Liteflite or PRO-11, at modest additional cost.
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**** YOUTUBE ****
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Embedded clip entitled ""Harmony Broadway H955 1940's [LAST GUITAR]" by lastguitarcom, as the only demo so far located fo this rare model.
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