Harmony D823

I'm not sure when this was made, but I know it was made in Taiwan. It has 22 very, very small frets, and has a very small amount of features. The body looks like a strat, but stripped down and without any type of tremolo. It has 3 poorly made pickups, each with their own tone/volume knob. In my case (the guitar was rented, btw) the third pickup has broke and didn't work. The other two sounded almost identical, except one's base was slightly lower than the others. The knobs aren't labeled and a really confusing and difficult for the beginning guitarist to attempt to figure out what the do. Also, the strap knobs were very lose and poorly constructed, causing the strap to fall off during play, and for me to almost brake the guitar. And a simple drop would probabley brake it too. I'm not sure what it's made from, but the body is a hollowed-out plastic and the neck is a very weak flimsy faux wood. Even the slightet bump or knick caused the paint to chip off. As the the socket for the amp wire, it was very loose and malfunctioned from time to time, causeing the amp to stutter needlessly. No accessories were included.

The sound is moderatly decent unplugged. However, plug it into an amp and it sounds terrible. I'm 14, and as such have a large musical intrest and play a large amount of different songs. The guitar can play some simple Punk-Pop songs (Like Blink-182) O.K. But when you attempt to play something heavier, or more rock oriented, the guitar sounds horrible. Even non-drop tuned music like The Offspring can hardly be played on this guitar. When drop tuned, it whines and squeals and creates just a loud static noise when played. If you try to play something more techno-ish and rhytmatic like Eminem, the guitar just creates high-pitched squeals or dull thumps. It has a fairly decent range, but can't play anything other than standard tuning without distortion without sounding like crap.

The guitar itself has no glowing flaws. Besides the fact that it feels cheap, the body itself is in decent condition. However, the pickups are on loose and and wobble. Also, one pickup switch is bent the opposite way, and the knobs have a tendency to come off easily.

This guitar will not last long. In the 7 months I've had it, paint has chipped off, straps have fallen off and the sound quality has changed drastically for the worse. I wouldn't depend on this guitar in front of a group at all. Even as a backup, it would frighten me to use it.

Never contacted them.

Well, I've been playing since December of '99 (it's July of '00 now) and it ws a decent guitar to learn on. If you buy this guitar thinking it would make a good addition to your guitar lineup, you are completly wrong. If you're on a budget and would like a guitar that you can actually play and it sounds good, pick up one of the Ibanez value series. They will last you much longer and can withstand a prolonged performance (I now own one of them) Avoid this guitar unless you are just beginning to learn how to play.