Harmony H70 Meteor

1960 single-cutaway hollow body: spruce top with maple back and sides. Two single coil dearmonds. Two volume, two tone controls; one three-way toggle. 20-fret neck with rosewood board and MOP inlays.

The dearmonds give it that kind of Gretsch-y sound allowing for a lot of applications, while not super-versatile. Neck p-up is warm, with a nice bouncy low end. Roll down the tone into jazz territory. The bridge pickup sounds tele-ish but without so much brash twang; I find it's easy to get that early Harrison kind of sound. Middle position has a good jangle tone.
Single coils are always a bit noisy, but these aren't too bad. Good for blues, jazz country, classic rock. I play some indie-type stuff, and using an eq pedal to push it into feedback through my Fender deluxe is really fun.

Bought used when was seventeen, and it needed some work. Had 9s on it, sounds much better now with elevens. The previous owner used it for slide, and I had to lower the action. It plays pretty darn well, but no matter how many times it gets set up, the upper fretboard remains difficult to play; I mean you can still do it, but your noodly shred stuff ain't happenin' here. The finish on the top is all checked and cracked, but the bottom retains a smooth, mirror-like sheen. Go figure. The guitar is light and comfortable, and the neck sits well in the hand without being too fat.
A previous owner cut open the back and secured the panel with tape as a homemade control cavity; this means I got it cheap. I hated that ugly blemish, though, at least until I discovered that repairs were cheaper with the easier access!

I have used this guitar live for years, and it has not let me down (i mean, always gig with a backup in case SOMETHING breaks...). It is nearly fifty years old and hollow, so sometimes I get nervous, but I'm not gonna go all Pete Townsend on this baby. That said, It has a very solid feel to it and I plan to keep using it until one of us drops. Or I win the lottery.

Harmony ain't Harmony no more.

Been playing since 13. Have played fenders and others, but for some reason I always come back to this one as my main guitar. It sounds so good and plays in such a way that I can write and play things that I otherwise would not think of. They're pretty expensive these days, but if you can afford it(or get a cosmetically imperfect one for cheap, as I did)you would do well to have one these beautiful old instruments in your hands.

Made in 1968 in the USA, ES-335 style double cutaway, bolt-on neck with binding and 3+3 headstock, two dearmond single-coil pickups that look like the humbuckers on the recent dearmond guild copies, trapeze tailpiece, hagstrom adjust-a-matic floating bridge, open tuners, binding on neck and body, three-way selector, two volumes, two tones, looks like the one in the harmony chapter in Tom Wheeler's "American Guitars" except no Bigsby. I think the body is made out of plywood with a veneer top, don't know what the neck is made out of . It's got the same features as most 335 style guitars, although some of the individual components (tuners) aren't as nice.

Chimey in that 60s Rick/Gretsch/Epiphone/Harmony hollowbody sort of way. Can also do a good faux jazz thing. Too much distortion and it feeds back, though. I was playing in a pop/folk duo with a female singer and I would just run the guitar through a floor effects processor and a direct box into the P.A. and it sounded great, especially after I began using heavier strings (.011s or .012s). If you've got an old guitar from the 60s and it doesn't sound good try using heavier strings, that's what they were made to be used with.

Action was good except that one of the higher frets was bent causing the strings to fret out. I don't know whether it was made like that or if it had been dropped against something. It would have been a simple matter to fix but i just never got around to it. I never played that far up the neck anyway. The action was also improved by heavier strings, lighter strings just didn't put enough relief in the neck. The finish was good, with a bit of flame visible through the sunburst. Instead of binding the f-holes had these funky plastic inserts. cool.

I had to get a new nut and I replaced the tuners with reproduction Klusons from an Epiphone Les Paul. This helped the tuning, along with the heavier strings. i gigged without a backup, just had extra strings, we were playing coffee houses for tips, real informal, so if a string broke (i don't remember if any ever did) we'd just take a break. Most people weren't paying that much attention anyway (I can hear the strains of CCR's "Lodi" about now. . .). Overall the thing was as old as me and probably in better shape than i was.

Never dealt with them. A friend of mine made the nut and I put on the tuners myself.

I've been playing about 17 years, mostly bass. My other guitars are a Yamaha acoustic, Baldwin Vibraslim and a MIJ Fender Jazzmaster. I also have five basses (I'm mostly a bass player). I really liked this guitar, but I sold it because I needed money for something or another (probably another guitar). It's one of those ones that sometime wish I still had.

Stamped F-66 meaning Fall of 1966.Laminated top single cutaway,three way toggle w/2 DeArmond Gold Indox p/u's.Floating bridge,2 white volume knobs and 2 white tone knobs.Sunburst finish has faded to almost Tobacco Burst over the years.

Suits me to a tee.The sound is definitely very 60's.Stones,Kinks,Peter Green.They all used one at one time or another.You have to love that 60's hollowbody sound to really appreciate this instrument.The Kinks Dave Davies used a Meteor to record You Really Got Me.That should give you an idea on sound.

I bought this guitar off of EBay and it's now 36 years old.The Harmony Company of Chicago did a real nice job on these inexpensive guitars.The neck is kinda narrow for my hands but the more I play it the more I adjust to it.

Again,this guitar's been around for 36 years and it's held up this long.I don't use it as a flyswatter or croquet mallet so I'm sure it'll hold up under it's intended use.

The Harmony Company has been gone since the mid 70's.

I've been playing for 35 or more years.I also have a Gibson Les Paul Standard,Fender Stratocaster and various other acoustics and basses.I have owned dozens of Gibsons,Fenders,Ricks,and other top shelf guitars.This Harmony stacks up against any of them.If it were ever stolen I would track down the theif,peel his skin and roll him in salt.If you ever have the chance to try a Harmony;do it.You;ll be surprised at the quality.

US made 1964, hollowbody thinline. Mine's sunburst,and the finish is somewhat crackled and dented - as you'd expect for a 48 year old. Couldn't say what woods are used, but it's standard Harmony budget stuff. Chunky neck, moveable (too moveable!) bridge, two great dearmond pickups, rubbish open tuners (but original). we're not talking luxury, top-end of the market stuff here.. But that's not the point.It's got everything you need..

I play blues, and this guitar can't be beat. With heavy strings and put through a tube amp it sounds perfect. The pickups are rich but not heavy - maybe a little like P90s, and the resonance of the body helps - until feedback levels of volume are approached, when you have to be very careful. Wouldn't be much use for metal or glassy clear sounds, but just great for jazzy, clean or dirty blues. Intonation sometimes a bit difficult to maintain because of the bridge movement

Well, hey, it's long time since this left the factory, and it's obviously been well-used. I got it second-hand and I'm just surprised it's still going. Nothing noisy about it, and frets are good.

Well, it's lasted this long...

Harmony's long gone (but now the name is being revived again, after having been used for guitars made in Asia)

Been plaing a long time, and used to have one of these when I was a student. I also have a Gordon Smith, a Squier Tele, a Harmony 335 (Asian copy), a Crafter electro acoustic, and a couple of acoustics

I'd be sorry to lose this - it's got the right vibe and the right sound for what I play.Even for a budget guitar this is so good

U.S made in 1960. Thinline hollowbdy with one cutaway. Brown sunburst plywood body with two f-holes and missing the scratch plate.
It has two gold foil De Armond type single coil pick ups with a cream tone and volume control for each one. 3 way selector switch. It had a terrible homemade bridge on it when I got it so I had a new wooden one carved. It has 6 individual open tuners that never really go out of tune. The frets are a little worn but they don't bother me yet. The neck is bolted on and the Harmony Meteor logo (which is half missing) is made out of aluminium. I wouldn't say it has "tons of features" but it has all the features I need.

It suits the music I play perfectly. We do everything from 50's R&B, Louisiana blues and Rock n Roll to 60's Chicago Blues. I use it with a reissue Fender Vibroverb which seems to be a perfect match. When I first bought the guitar there was no earth wire for the strings. Just like the 50's Kay that I have. I just got a friend down at my local guitar shop to run a wire from the pickup to the tailpiece via the strap button. Hardly ever have trouble with feedback. Very rarely are the pickups noisy. (Only when playing in the vicinity of a tram). You can get awide range of sounds from bright and twangy to mellow and jazzy. Sounds great with both pickups about 3/4 the way up and the front pickups tone all the way down. I don't dislike anything about the guitar but it would probably be easier to use the selector switch if it was located on the bass side of the body instead of down near the cutaway.

I bought the guitar in 1998 or 1999 so I don't know how well it was set up at the factory. The pickups are non adjustable and the rear pick up was too far from the strings. They are mounted on a piece of wood so I just got some hard foam rubber and longer screws and propped it up. The guitar is fairly worn and scratched and the back of the neck is bare wood around the first 3 or 4 frets. Action is fairly low with no buzzes and tunes up very well considering it is a set wooden bridge.

I have a '58 Les Paul Special which I used constantly for about 7 years. My harmony is the only guitar I use for gigs now. It only breaks a string every 4 mths or so and actually I prefer the sound when it has older strings. The finish will wear of eventually I suppose. I've worn out a fair bit of the finish on the back of the neck in the few years I've had it. Strap buttons are solid. The top one is wooden and glued in and the back one is plastic and screwed in. I use it at every gig without a backup.

N/A

If this guitar was stolen or lost I would definately try to get another one like it.

Probably made in the USA in 1962, has laminated top, two D'Armond pickups, tone and volume on each, three way selector switch. Very nice maple neck, good truss rod. This one's been refinished - it came to me sunburst, I refinished it natural way back. Has a Gibson 335 bridge and I replaced the tuners with some off a broken Epiphone.

I play big-band stuff (Basie, Miller, that sort of thing) and trad Jazz. The sound is perfect. Using an old Carlsboro bass amp and a 1 x 15 cab it's got a sound like an old acoustic archtop but without the hard work!

Don't knoiw what these were like new, I got mine in 1976 and immediately pulled it apart to sort out any little problems and to refinish it. I was then a guitar repairer, so it was a normal thing to do! Nowadays it's the best action I've played - ever and it stays in tune week in, week out.

I play it live regularly, and never have a backup. Mind you, most jazz players I know only have one instrument! It'll probably last me out.

Never had any dealings with Harmony.

I've been playing this guitar for many years. I also paly banjo and an old acoustic Japanese guitar that still sounds good against my pal's Gibson. I couldn't replace it.

Same or similar as previously described, only mine is left-handed. Made in Chicago in 1964, with a shorter scale 20 fret neck which bolts on. The frets are narrow and high. The fretboard looks to be rosewood but seems "softer." Mine has the tortise guard, big creme tone and volume knobs and a black toggle knob. the body is obviously plywood done in sunburst. Tuners and bridge are as described--open cheapies and rosewood. It has two D'armond pickups, also with the S shaped gold foil. It's a thinline, single cutaway guitar that resembles a Gibson Byrdland.

I bought this guitar A) because it was left handed, B) because it was on consignment and I got it for a good price, and C) because it's the guitar that launched the careers of a couple of my favorite Brits: Keith Richards and Peter Green. I play blues and I bought this guitar to help fill the stable. I works quit well and has a unique sound thanks to the characteristics mentioned above. It's similar to a P90 sound with less nasality. I've used it out quite successfully, controlling the feedback by where I stand in relation to the amp. It makes for a great slide guitar and I would guess 60s Rock n Roll guitar. I have used it through various Fender amplifiers in the 40-60 watt category. Again, I've alway successfully controlled the feedback because I like using hollow guitars for blues so I learned how to do it.

When I bought it, it was already 30+ years old and was setup with big jazz flatwounds. I've done nothing but change strings and track down a buzz in the wiring. It came with a nice ding on top--angry wife? It came with a whole history I'll never know, but that's the beauty of buying an older guitar. It plays beautifully. The neck is smallish and narrow.

I've gigged with this guitar as a #2 or alternate. The tuners are original and I keep thinking they are going but I slap a new set of strings on the beast and away I go. Come back several month's later and it's still in tune! The hardware and finish arestill going strong, so I'm not worried. The strat buttons are plastic, still originals and still working fine. I can and do depend on this baby. I only take other guitars for different sounds.

Well, the Harmony of this era is long gone.

I've been playing about 26 years. I own a nice collection of Gibsons, Fenders, and other odd balls. I love the vintage vibe, the way it plays, and it's unique sound. I'd probably NEVER find another one if it were stolen, but I would try.

This is a U.S.-made thinline hollow-body single-cutaway guitar made in about 1960 (I'm not sure how to make sense of the serial numbering). It has two gold-foil DeArmond single-coil pickups, each with its own white plastic volume and tone control, and a three-way selector. The finish is a dark sunburst, and the elevated pick-guard is black-on-white plastic. The tuners are open, the nut is a white composite and the 20-fret fingerboard is rosewood (or something similar-looking) with large rectangular inlays. The frets are fairly narrow, and the wooden(!) bridge is a height-adjustable harmonically compensated unit that looks like it shouldn't work -- but it does. A trapezoidal tailpiece completes the layout.

I play rock, and this guitar is great for conjuring up the vintage and rockabilly-type sounds I like. I generally play it through a Peavey Transtube amp, using the amp's onboard clean/distortion channel switching, along with a Boss CS3 compressor, Electro Harmonix Small Stone phase shifter, DOD digital delay and various chorus pedals when needed. This Harmony can produce a wide range of sounds, from edgy, cutting treble to rich, fat jazz-blues chords, just by switching between pickups and kicking in different effects and amp channels. At moderately loud playing levels, it produces sweet, controllable feedback that's a real joy to work with. At high stage volumes, however, this guitar is hopeless -- it just howls. It's unusable.

From what I have read, this was a lower-end guitar when it was made. It certainly lacks any "luxury" touches, and most of the hardware has a flimsy look. But it is blessed with superb action -- fast and low. When I first bought it, it had some wiring problems that caused a fair bit of hum -- the previous owner had grounded the pots to the tailpiece with a chunk of old E-string, and that seemed to keep it quiet. I had it rewired, though, and now it is quiet. The key to keeping it in tune and sounding good is to use a wound G-string. I stock up on the lightest wound strings I can find, then buy regular 10-gauge string sets and swap in the wound G. Anybody wanna buy about a hundred 0.17 non-wound strings? The guitar's finish has been bashed around a lot over the years. It has plenty of nicks and scratches, but still looks great from eight feet away.

I have used this guitar on many gigs, and it has rarely given me trouble. The only caution is that it becomes uncontrollable in high-volume situations. For small rooms and casual settings, it can't be beat. I've used it often with no backup, and will continue to do so.

I've never had a reason to try to track down whatever company is the descendant or current incarnation of the original manufacturer. I've had the guitar repaired by a competent guitar technician and it turned out well.

I've been playing guitar for about 30 years, and I've owned this guitar for 20. My other guitars include a 1978 Peavey T-60 solid-body and a 1974 Rickenbacker 4001 bass, along with various acoustics. I'd have to say the Harmony is my favourite guitar -- a day rarely goes by that I don't pick it up. I love its sound, the neck feel and action, and the overall vintage vibe, along with the fact that I paid so little for it! If I lost it, I'd keep an eye out for another, but I'd never buy one without playing it first -- cheap instruments vary so much from unit to unit, you've got to make sure an individual guitar is "one of the good ones" before laying down any cash.

This guitar was made in Chicago, USA, in September 1960 (indicated by the S-60 stamp viewed through the f-hole). It is made of a formed laminate (I don't know what kind of wood). It's like a 335 but with only one cut-away, thin-hollowbody. It has a tortoise shell pick-guard, trapezoid tailpiece and a rosewood height-adjustable bridge.It has two DeArmond/rowe single-coil pick-ups, the kind with the gold foil on top covered with an S shaped chrome cover to hold it together. There is a volume and tone control for each pick-up, and a three-way toggle switch on the lower bout(below the cut-away). three-bolt(on) neck with rectangular mother-of-pearl inlays. Harmony Meteor is on the head stock, but not decaled, it's an aluminium? die cut glued on. The tuners are very crappy open geared chrome. The scale is 24.25". the finish is two tone orange sunburst.

The sounds this thing gets are relatively good. The clean tone is exceptional, and the variety between the pick-ups very versatile. The neck PU gets a beautiful jazz tone , the middle position is kinda jangly, and the bridge PU is a good twang. It's not easy to get a good distorted tone from it though. It kinda mushes out, but after some experimentation using two overdrive pedals in line (a DOD overdrive plus and a Pro Co. Brat) into DOD digital delay then a 1968 Fender Bronco-Amp. I've managed to get a good solid crunch without too much noise or breakup. ( I use the Brat as overdrive, and then run it through the DOD to round out the sound,giving it a bit more highs and a little more boost). The single coils are a little noisy, but that's what you get.. i love the feedback it gets (controllable) even at low volumes you can get beautiful harmonious feedback without squealing.

This thing is 40 years old and it probably hasn't ever been set-up. When i got it I adjusted the bridge height and the truss rod and now it's good as new. The pick-ups are 100% NON-adjustable. Each pick-up sits atop a piece of 5/16" thick rosewood that screw into the top. the only way to lower the PUs is to shave down the rosewood, which is not something I want to do to a guitar that may be worth money some day!,despite the fact that the PUs are a little too close to the strings. Over all the fit&finish is good. There is no separation anywhere, and the lacquer has a nice crackle to it. I changed the tuners to Ping Deluxes (a la vintage fender), without having to do any drilling. It actually stays in tune now!

This guitar is as solid as any 40year old guitar. If i would use it for a show i would change the strap buttons for strap locks, but that's about it.

N/A

I have a feeling this guitar was sitting in someone's basement for a very long time. This may have prevented it from abuse, neglect and overall wear. I don't really have any complaints apart from the crap tuners it came with, but there was a $20 solution to that.I may try to carve out some new PU blocks, thinner than the ones that are on it, so i can preserve the originals. What else can you get these days for $200 anyways? This guitar is a poor man's Gibson hollowbody.