BILL AND SUE-ON HILLMAN: A 50-YEAR MUSICAL ODYSSEY
www.hillmanweb.com/book
Presents
Hillman Guitar No. 1
Harmony Monterey Sunburst
Archtop Acoustic Guitar
hillmanweb.com/guitars/g01.html
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This was my first guitar. Actually it was my Dad's guitar. I believe he bought it at Ray Hamerton Music in Winnipeg in the early '50s. Hamerton's used to send out an annual catalogue of their musical instruments and supplies and I remember spending many hours poring over this. Even though my Mom and Dad had regular jam sessions throughout the '50s, he never really played it much, preferring to play the trumpet while my Mom played piano. I started taking piano lessons while in Grade V or VI but the whole process was largely one of drudgery. But I remember that I used to open the fibre case that housed the shiny archtop and marvelled at its beauty - the shape, the smell and the feel of it. I had been committed to the discipline of piano lesson, however -- and often fell under the wrath of my frustrated piano teacher when I showed up without having practiced the assigned lessons.THEN Elvis and Sun Records appeared on the scene. And Dad came home excited one day after hearing a song on the car radio that featured one of the few riffs he knew on guitar. The song turned out to be Johnny Cash's I Walk The Line, with the whole song made up around Luther Perkin's guitar runs between C, F and G. That was it. Boring scales and kiddie tunes on the piano didn't stand a chance when pitted against the exciting sounds of this new thing called rock 'n' roll - and especially the guitar sounds coming out of Memphis on Sun records. I was totally captivated. Countless hours were spent roaming the radio dial to pick up each week's new rockabilly and R&B barrage of hits that emanated from the Southland.
My Uncle Don, had played guitar with my Mom and their brother, Bill, in the family band -- The Campbell-Christie Orchestra -- back in the '30s. They were just young kids but they joined forces with a couple of neighbor buddies and played quite a number of dances at halls and barns around the area (guitar, piano, autoharp, trumpet, fiddle, accordian, etc.) When Uncle Don saw that I was more than a little obsessed with the instrument, he showed me a few more chords and how to play a few folk songs.
I soon found that mastering this instrument was no easy task. It was hard to tune and the strings were so high above the fretboard that I could barely press them down. My fingers soon became raw and blistered and often bled, but I persisted.
It was around this time that I got my first record player and LPs for Christmas. Previous to this all we had to play records on was a 78 rpm turntable plugged into our huge floor model Westinghouse radio. The first 78s I had bought for this old machine were a package of 50 Top Hits of the Day (by imitators) with three hits per side, and then a flood of REAL records: Elvis and the Blue Moon Boys, Fats Domino, Jack Scott, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, etc. But now with my new RCA multi-speed portable record player I could at last buy LPs and those cool 45s. I could also slow the records down to half speed so that I could figure out what Scotty Moore, Carl Perkins, Luther Perkins, Duane Eddy, Les Bennetts (Lonnie Donegan's skiffle group), Chet Atkins, et al, were actually doing on those great records.
With a little prompting from her grandson with the bleeding fingers, my Grandmother soon realized how important it was that her young boy should have an electric guitar: Enter the Sears black-with-gold fleck, Les Paul-shaped, Silvertone electric guitar. (Ironically made by Harmony)
Mom and sister, Bonnie. . . and guitars.
A few years later.
Ray Hamerton Catalogue
A few years later.
CAUGHT IN OUR SITE FROM VARIOUS
HARMONY TRIBUTE PAGES ON THE WEB
Main Reference: Rothman's Guitars Unofficial Harmony Guitar Homepage
The Harmony Company was founded by Wilhelm Schultz in 1892. Thus began the most successful American-made stringed instrument producer ever. By 1923, Harmony stated annual sales of 250,000 units. In 1930, annual sales were reported to be 500,000 units sold. The amount of instruments being produced by Harmony made up the largest percentage of stringed instruments being manufactured in the U.S. at that time, and Harmony made them all: guitars - archtops, flat-tops, electric Spanish, Hawaiian bodies, ukeleles, banjos, mandolins, violins and more. They continued to turn in impressive annual sales figures right up till the company was dissolved in approximately 1974. These are among the most popular inexpensive guitars ever built. Harmony stressed value while at the same time providing a player with a dependable, enjoyable instrument.In 1916, the Sears, Roebuck Company purchased Harmony and appointed Jay Kraus as vice-president. The following year Jay succeeded founder Wilhelm Schultz as president. Mr. Kraus remained president till 1968 when he died of a heart attack. Carles Rubovits, who had been with Harmony since 1935, took over as president, remaining in that position till the dissolution of the company. harmony instruments carried several brand names, Airline, Fender, Kay and Regal are a few of the more notable which Harmony bought rights to in the late thirties or early forties, but Silvertone offered by Sears is probably the most common.
Later in the '70s the Harmony name was sold to be used on oriental guitars.
A Promotional Quote from a Harmony Website
I use Harmony Guitars professionally. They give me a definite edge in developing my own unique sound. They have great electronics and their tone stands out from the "cookie cutter" crowd and the multitudes of copies. The DeArmond designed, Rowe Industries built pickups have "the" sound that everyone's been chasing for years! I often get asked by other professional players,'Why on Earth do you play a Harmony?' To that there is but one answer:They sound good!
HARMONY ARCHTOP GUITARS PRE 1945 ARCHTOP GUITARS
Harmony Archtops have always been favorites. These fine guitars were a standard offering in the Harmony lineup. Back in the earlier part of the 20th Century, Harmony offered two types of archtops, the violin type archtop with "f hole" design and an archtop that had a flat top style soundhole. They were constructed from hardwoods, with either mahogany or spruce tops depending on the model. Harmony offered these prewar models: Valencia, Patrician, De Luxe, Cremona, Auditorium, and Clipper models. Models such as the Cremona and the Patrician had several different models within the model name so the offering was extensive. Many of these guitars went overseas with the troops during WW2 and Korea. As these guitars were both inexpensive and extremely tough, many a Harmony was passed through the ranks of multitudes of our servicemen.
Technical Tip
Harmony Archtop guitars are starting to get up there in age. Wood, especially the thin wood used in guitars, dries out quickly. Dry thin wood tends to crack easily. Do not store your guitar near a heat source. It is a good plan to put a humidifier in its case. A water soaked sponge in a small plastic container with several small holes punched in the lid will do just fine. Replenish the water once a month. This will greatly reduce the risk of cracking.
