Harmony Silhouette H19- Bridge Question

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jrowan
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Harmony Silhouette H19- Bridge Question

Post by jrowan » Tue Aug 07, 2018 6:24 pm

I've been having my eye on a Harmony Silhouette that's been up on Reverb for a spell for what seems like a decent price ($650 shipped, which seems a bit lower than what I've been seeing, especially given that these seem to sell for a decent amount in "project" state on eBay.) I've got a bonus coming up on Friday and I've really been enjoying some of the tones the guitar seems to be able to pull off.

Only thing that gives me pause is that the bridge has been replaced with a Gretsch Space Control bridge. I don't really care about the fact that it's not original, but I DO care about the fact that people seem to really really really hate that bridge. (Plus, I kinda like being able to intonate.) Since I'm probably going to want to replace the bridge with something else, I'm just trying to get a sense of what my readily-attainable options are.

I've been doing a decent bit of homework on these and doing searches in the usual places (here, TGP, that big Harmony page), but I'm having a hard time getting a sense of what might work as a drop-in replacement. I know that the narrow string spacing limits options, and that Rickenbacker-spaced bridges seem to be one pretty commonly recommended options for that reason, but I'm not sure if there are others. There are obviously the "replacement" bridges for Harmony guitars on Reverb/eBay, etc., but those seem to be made with other models in mind.

Basically, I really like a lot about this particular guitar (nice aesthetics, MUCH nicer tort than a lot of other examples, important stuff in good shape if description is accurate, etc.) and the price seems reasonable IF I don't wind up on some odyssey trying to find a new bridge and/or modify the guitar just to make something work. Otherwise, nothing's stopping me from just sitting and waiting for something similar to pop up.

Any comments from the knowledgeable folks on here would be appreciated- I've been spending a chunk of the day trying to dig up answers, but I figured it's better to just ask than it is to just guess and hope for the best. Thanks in advance.

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mgeek
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Re: Harmony Silhouette H19- Bridge Question

Post by mgeek » Thu Aug 09, 2018 12:16 am

a Rickenbacker style bridge won't work on that, it'd be much too high

The Silhouette is the one with the Hagstrom trem isn't it? May well be that they originally used a Hagstrom bridge too, and if so there's a site that sells nos spares from back in the day, they may well have some of these.

If not, the spacing of the mounting holes would be something to find out. Narrow spacing is a tricky one to navigate, been there before. If the intonation point for the bridge is bang on, some sort of compensated aluminium bridge could work out, and you'd get to cut the spacing yourself, so no issues with that.

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jrowan
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Re: Harmony Silhouette H19- Bridge Question

Post by jrowan » Thu Aug 09, 2018 8:35 am

Yeah, it's the Hagstrom, which also is not super easy to find- even the seller said that he'd been trying for "years". The trems definitely pop up on eBay, but the bridges less so.

The bridge appears to have a pretty standard post spacing, since there's a 2 29/32" bridge (Space Control) on there now, although I'm a little hesitant to assume this spec, since you can goose the width of the Space Control a bit.

From doing some research, it's looking like my best option would be a Schaller roller bridge (which a few people seem to have thrown on theirs and like), or getting an unslotted TOM bridge with the right post spacing and getting a luthier to cut the slots for a narrower string spacing. One of the guitarists from Dr. Dog uses one with a TOM, so it's obviously possible, although I'm not sure if there were any mods to the posts, etc. to make that happen.

Honestly, I'm kinda leaning towards "no" at this point for picking up this particular guitar, since I feel like this has at least a 50% chance of turning into a production, and I'm probably better off waiting for a whole one even if I pay a bit more money. It's a nice example and it's obviously been gone over very carefully by the seller, but I don't really need a project at this point.

I might sleep on it and make a lower offer since it's been sitting for a while, but we'll see how it goes.

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