Anyone know about the Harmony H-19 Silhouette De Luxe Double 1965?

[NateD81]

Anyone have any experience with this guitar?

Found one on my local CL:

https://ventura.craigslist.org/msg/d/ve ... 01540.html

Not sure if they’re cool guitars, or if $450 is even reasonable assuming the guitar is in decent shape given it’s age.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[Bert Camenbert]

That's the simpler Holiday version, not the Deluxe. The Deluxe version has a Hagstrom vibrato and bridge.
Check this link.

I own a very beaten 1966 with the Hagstrom vibrato. I love the pickups: they're quite loud and raw. The neck on these is quite big and it doesn't taper much, it takes some getting used to, so you may not like it. The tuners on mine were fragile and wouldn't keep tune, so I replaced them with modern gotohs. I had to enlarge the tuner holes to do so.

I bought mine for 100 bucks, but it was 15 years ago. I think if the guitar is in good shape, $450 is an ok price, but not a deal, so you could offer a bit less. I might be wrong though, the price on these has being going up lately. You should really try it out before committing to buy.

[Con-Tiki!]

i've owned a bunch of harmonys and silvertones, and supros...
they sound cool, they look cool, but they sometimes put up a fight.
450 is maybe a lot of $ to spend on a novelty guitar. (unless you have cash to throw around, i usually don't).

If you're into the idea of owning one, and you can get that one for less $, it might be fun.
I think that's the St Vincent model, which is kinda cool.
very lovely...

[mgeek]

I set up one of the ones St Vincent is holding in that pic for a friend (no, it's not the same model), and my only complaint was that it was short scale. I think the one on craigslist is longer? I think that had a flat fretboard, and the frets were a bit square/tiny, but nothing that couldn't have been fixed with a bit of a set up.

Perhaps being in the UK I'm more impressed by them cos they haven't been ubiquitous, but I feel like with a bit of tinkering, and a proper bridge they are really decent guitars. That said, I'm impressed by the ubiquitous 60s guitars we have here

I guess if the dude could be talked down a bit from 450 that'd be cool, but that's around the price of a nicer chinese squier, so it's not a total joke

[Mechanical Birds]

They’re really cool guitars but I wouldn’t want any of the versions that don’t have the Hagstrom Tremar on them. I’d offer him $250 because that’s a pretty significant dealbreaker, and this one doesn’t have the trem arm to boot.

[Maggieo]

They’re really cool guitars but I wouldn’t want any of the versions that don’t have the Hagstrom Tremar on them. I’d offer him $250 because that’s a pretty significant dealbreaker, and this one doesn’t have the trem arm to boot.

That sounds about right to me.

The pickups are pretty amazing on all models of that body.

[Mechanical Birds]

i've owned a bunch of harmonys and silvertones, and supros...
they sound cool, they look cool, but they sometimes put up a fight.
450 is maybe a lot of $ to spend on a novelty guitar. (unless you have cash to throw around, i usually don't).

If you're into the idea of owning one, and you can get that one for less $, it might be fun.
I think that's the St Vincent model, which is kinda cool.
very lovely...

Similar body shape and also pick guard shape but pretty different otherwise. The Saint Vincent one is called the Bobcat I believe?

I spend time at least once a week looking for a Silhouette but people are insane with pricing. These guitars were essentially toys and poeople want to with a straight face ask for a thousand dollars in exchange for one. Granted, they’re the only non-Fender guitar I’ve ever seen that used similar tortoise shell guards, and that’s cool, but not a thousand dollars cool. I’d pay $400 for one with the Hagstrom that had good frets and a working truss Rod. Feels like any more than that should be pushing it.

[Con-Tiki!]

in my defense, i was distracted by annie, and didn't go back to the original link to compare.

[jthomas]

I know these guitars. The Annie Vincent guitar IS a Bobkat. The OP's guitar is one of several H19 variants (i.e., angled moustache pickups with non-Hagstrom tremolo). I have not seen one with this combination, but it certainly could have come from the factory like that.

I played a similar one (probably a 1967 model) back in high school in the late 60s. A couple of years ago I bought one with kleenex box pickups (silver foils). It is the best sounding of my several guitars. I find the table-leg style neck to be really great.

Your guitar seems to have all the knobs with is good. The tremolo arm is missing, which is bad. $400 plus shipping would (IMO) plus shipping would be a fair price. (Maybe $425 or so) One in mint shape might pull in something north of $700 to $800. They were more expensive 3 to 5 years ago, but the prices have settled down a bit. They almost all have shrinking pickguards with the screws pulling out. These guitars were made without a wire between the input ground and the bridge, so you either have to drill a hole and wire that in or put up with some extra hum or keep a finger on the grounded pickup casing. Alternately, you can use a little wire with 2 alligator clips for a quick fix, like I did.

[mgeek]

These guitars were essentially toys and people want to with a straight face ask for a thousand dollars in exchange for one.

Oh gotta disagree that they are toys.

Of course a thousand dollars is crazy, but loads of people use these in a pro capacity, and I'm sure at one time or another everything apart from high end Gibson and Fenders have been dismissed as 'just some toy' by someone or other. I'm all for guitars with quirks. When you get down to it, these are..what, mahogany bodies with good pickups on them? Everything else- frets, action. nut. bridge is negotiable.

[Mechanical Birds]

No I mean they were literally sold as toys and Saint Vincent or the guy from Drive Like Jehu using one doesn’t make it a better-crafted or more-rugged thing, it just means she or they like what it does, whatever that specific thing may be. I didn’t say they were pieces of shit or anything, but they’re small, were made cheaply, and are a definite tier below what any more-commonly-used Fender/Gibson guitar would be.

Specifically the h-19 is one of my favorite looking guitars and I’d love to get to own one some day but that seems more and more unlikely by the day since people with a straight face are asking a thousand dollars or more for a guitar that’s worth maybe $400. It’s obnoxious but hey maybe I’ll get lucky some day on Craigslist or something.

[mgeek]

No I mean they were literally sold as toys .

Oh, i didn't know that, thought they were sold as guitars.

[Bert Camenbert]

No I mean they were literally sold as toys and Saint Vincent or the guy from Drive Like Jesus using one doesn’t make it a better-crafted or more-rugged thing, it just means she or they like what it does, whatever that specific thing may be.

The name of the band is Drive Like Jehu and the guy's name is Rick Froberg. I don't agree with your generalization. Sure, these guitars are quirky but, compared to a lot of the cheaper guitars made in the sixties, most Harmony guitars are pretty good instruments. The H-19 with the tremar (the Hagstrom tremolo) was the top of the line solid body Harmony at the time, and they are, in my opinion, solid guitars. However, I agree that they aren't worth $1000, but that's mainly because one can get a lot of guitar for that money these days.

[Mechanical Birds]

Jesus was a typo that I didn’t catch and I still stand by my original post. They’re small, made-for-children guitars from department stores from a time when America had a lot of department stores. Again I love this guitar and think it looks rad but I wouldn’t even say it should sit on the same shelf as a Mustang, let alone a Jazzmaster or Stratocaster or Telecaster.

To each their own I guess

[Mechanical Birds]

No I mean they were literally sold as toys .

Oh, i didn't know that, thought they were sold as guitars.

Would you view a First Act in the same light as an actual Stratocaster? Come on you know what I meant. It’s not like Sears had a guitar center section of the store - these guitars were sold right next to the GI Joes and Barbies and board games, etc.