Harmony Explorer Copy

This was an Harmony Explorer copy...made around the mid-eighties I believe. I remember once seeing it in a Sears catalog.There's a pic at http://subdude.homepage.com/gtrb.JPG. It was an black Explorer copy with a red "pinstripe" going around the body.It had 3 hum pickups,22 frets,5 way selector switch(?),3 volume/tone knobs(?),and 3 or 4 mini-toggle switches that controlled the built in effects--I think they were for phase and something else and something else(?).There was a battery compartment for a 9v batt on the back--for the "effects" (which SUCKED btw).And it had a floyd-rose "type" tremolo--a REALLY poor copy at that. I leave question marks because I don't remember a whole hell of a lot about this guitar. My bass player at the time showed up at my door with it one day after some deal he made(?). I only had and played it for about 6 months or so before we ended up trading it for...I can't even remember what we got for it. Must not have been anything to remember.

At the time I was playing strictly metal/thrash.It sounded "OK". Not enough to make me want to play it on a regular basis. The pickups all sounded kinda flat--didn't matter what config you used. It did ok playing clean. But when I wanted to put a little crunch to it...it just didn't seem "right",lol.

This thing was HEAVY--I DO remember that! That was one of the reasons I didn't play it much...talk about a sore shoulder and a stiff neck! The guitar itself wasn't THAT poorly constructed--not bad actually. However, it WAS a Harmony sold out of a Sears catalog. Hardware-wise, it was pretty much all crap. Cheap tuners, cheap pots, cheap toggle switches, cheap tremolo, so on. The action was kinda low when I first played it and buzzed horribly. I tried adjusting it to alieve that...but then realized it was probably due more to the crappy fretwork. It appeared to be a pretty cool looking "heavy metal" guitar, with the whole black with red stripe thing. Too bad it played poorly and was the wrong kind of "HEAVY".

I never used it to play live. It was too heavy and didn't sound right to me. The hardware definitely would not last with any real amount of playing. Ditto for the finish. I didn't have it long enough to know how dependable it could be. ANY guitar can go to crap if you let it..I think this one would go sooner than most though.

Not an issue.

I've been playing for about 17 years. I NOW have an Ibanez EX370, an Ibanez X-series Destroyer, an Ibanez Rocket Roll 2 flying V,and a Les Paul copy(?) I just "restored". If it were stolen or lost I'd be pissed by the mere fact that something of mine was lost or stolen. But I wouldn't go looking for another one. It was too heavy and didn't sound that great. MAYBE if you replaced the pickups. This was a Harmony sold out of a sears catalog. But for a Harmony, it wasn't all that bad...I've played other Harmonys that were a LOT worse. And I've played other higher brands that played worse than it did too. If you find one cheap it MIGHT be worth it. But I wouldn't spend MY money on it.