A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

At an estate sale with my daughter this morning and spot this old rough Harmony H-162 for sale. My daughter picks it up and starts playing it and says "Dad - I love this". People around us started commenting on how nice she sounded and I figured for $60 is was worth taking a shot and seeing what we can do with it.

From what I can tell it's a mid-60's to early 70's model, folk body shape, all solid wood with mahogany back and sides and either spruce or cedar on the top. I'm honestly not sure if it's spruce or cedar so if any of you can tell that would be great. It looks to be a well played instrument for sure with nicks, scratches, chips, and some broken binding on the front and back. The tuners seem questionable and I'm hoping they just need some cleaning and lubricating. The neck is made of poplar and VERY chunky and looks to be 25 in scale with a 1.75 nut width (will verify). Good thing is the neck appears to be perfectly straight and since this is one of the later years of this model it has a truss rod.

The nut appears to be plastic (not sure ) and is chipped in a few areas but appears functional. The frets show some wear and they are oxidized a bit but I need to assess them more to see if a level/crown is needed. The bridge saddle may be plastic too and appears to be as low as it can go. The action overall is good and ever so slightly on the high side. I would imagine at some point in the future a neck reset may be in order.

From the little I've seen on the web folks who get these sorted out really enjoy their sound. I have to admit with the old rusty nasty strings and all the guitar sounds pretty nice. My daughter just played a song from Margo and the Nuclear So-and-So's and I was impressed how it sounded and meshed with her voice. She's smitten with it and thinks all the scars on it give it mojo - and she may not be wrong. I'm hoping I can clean it up and enhance it's playability.

If anyone knows any more about these or has any tips it would be greatly appreciated. Have a great day all! Oh and here's some pics.

Cool find! I see what you mean about the top. Usually cedar's wide grain is more obvious, but if this one is cedar, its grain varies a lot. Still there are areas that look cedar-ish, so hard to say. I wouldn't think twice about that nut, I'd make a new one for it.

Nice old guitar.
I had a Harmony of some jazz model, it was a hollow body w/ f-clefs, must have been from the 60s as it was "old" in the 80's. I sold it to a friend and someone broke into his basement city appartment window and stole it. ( freakin cities)
I liked that guitar. Congrats on yours!

Great score. Exactly like the one I bought a couple weeks ago. The H-162 is a diamond in the rough.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2840&p=37421&hilit=harmony#p37421

Thanks TMC - I must have completely missed this post of yours. Yes same guitar but yours looks to be in much better shape. When I look at your top I think cedar (looks more similar to the top on my Seagull S6), but I'm not sure. Mine is same way - can't tell what it is - not exactly like other spruce tops I've seen but not completely like by S6 either. Then again it's older wood probably harvested in the USA - so who knows LOL. Any issues with your tuners? Did you have to do any work on them?

toomanycats wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:55 pm Great score. Exactly like the one I bought a couple weeks ago. The H-162 is a diamond in the rough.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2840&p=37421&hilit=harmony#p37421

Tiga wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 5:27 pm Thanks TMC - I must have completely missed this post of yours. Yes same guitar but yours looks to be in much better shape. When I look at your top I think cedar (looks more similar to the top on my Seagull S6), but I'm not sure. Mine is same way - can't tell what it is - not exactly like other spruce tops I've seen but not completely like by S6 either. Then again it's older wood probably harvested in the USA - so who knows LOL. Any issues with your tuners? Did you have to do any work on them?

toomanycats wrote: ↑Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:55 pm Great score. Exactly like the one I bought a couple weeks ago. The H-162 is a diamond in the rough.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2840&p=37421&hilit=harmony#p37421

Whoever was the previous owner of my H-162 put new strings on it. The bridge looks too pristine to be original, and the replacement is set up for ideal action and playability. Given these tweaks, I suppose it's not far fetched to imagine they might have lubricated the tuners as well. In any case, they work perfectly fine.

Over the weekend I got some 3-in-1 oil on the tuners and let it soak in for a few hours. That seemed to do the trick and they are all functioning well now. I got the old strings off and gave the whole guitar a good wipedown. I put a lot of elbow grease into the fretboard. Upon a closer inspection the frets were actually in pretty decent shape - just dirty and oxidized. So I taped off the fretboard and got them polished - the look great now.

The strings I removed were 13's, but since the guitar is so old and the action was beginning to creep up I decided to step it down to 11's. Before I put the strings on I hit the fretboard with some lemon oil and now that brazilian rosewood looks awesome! What a nice fretboard.

With the new strings on I see two current problems - first is there is a slight back bow on the neck - and it looks like the truss rod is backed off as far as it will go. However it doesn't seem to affect the playability and there is no buzzing - although I wonder if the action could be lowered would it buzz lower down on the neck - makes me wonder if that's why they had heavier strings on it.

2nd problem is the nut -B and E string are too low and getting a little sitar on the B string. Seemed to be less noticeable with the old strings. I think a replacement is in order. All in all it's coming along great as it's a surprisingly nice playing and sounding guitar and my daughter is happy LOL.