Incoming Hollow Body, '66 Harmony H-22

[dadagoboi]

Keep those flats on there!!

I have flats on about 20 of my basses.  The difference is these have guitar ball ends on them  What looks like a tailpiece cover is the actual tailpiece.  Changing the strings would require modding it for bass ball ends.  I won't be doing that.

My fave SDG song


First time I heard it was on a jukebox in a black club.  No idea they were white .

[Pilgrim]

That old Harmony owns the thumpy/farty sound of hollowbody bass from those days. And he's playing with a thumb pick, one of the few clips I've seen showing that.

[dadagoboi]

That old Harmony owns the thumpy/farty sound of hollowbody bass from those days. And he's playing with a thumb pick, one of the few clips I've seen showing that.

Covers the EB-2/Rivoli Animals/Yardbirds sounds perfectly but has other useful tones.  Plus it's a lot more fun to play.  Weighs 6 lbs.

[Dave W]

Nice, that looks in top shape.

[ilan]

Wow. Love it.

[daan]

Cool! I love Semis, either a Hagstrom like that above or a Harmony H27 (EB2 shape, double cutaway) are "bucket list" basses for me. I'm not sure why I dig in-line headstocks on these so much, but the Gretsch hollows with the pointy in-line headstocks always struck me as weird.
I thought somebody a few years ago re-issued a bunch of Harmony designs, has anyone around here played one of those?

[dadagoboi]

I thought somebody a few years ago re-issued a bunch of Harmony designs, has anyone around here played one of those?

They RI'd the H-22.  Set neck and better tuners.  There's one on Ebay/Reverb for $400 shipped.

[Dave W]

I've heard that the reissues are okay but don't sound like the originals. Never seen one in person though.

[dadagoboi]

I've heard that the reissues are okay but don't sound like the originals. Never seen one in person though.

Well they don't come with 50 year old flats.  They're really shiny, though.

[patman]

The bass roars in the old SDG recordings...I remember being 16 or so and I bought a Stevie Winwood compilation for the Traffic tunes...also on it were the Spencer Davis tunes.

The SDG tunes sounded so much better to me...rhythm section locked in, and just sounding great.

[gearHed289]

Looks like a really fun bass!

[Dave W]

Well they don't come with 50 year old flats.  They're really shiny, though.

Here's one of the user reports I've seen that talks about the differences.
This bass resembles the original Harmony H22 only in the remotest sense - it kind of has the same body shape, and the pickup LOOKS the same as the original. I'd say it was more of a "tribute" than a "reisssue." The color of the finish, pickguard, knobs and layout look like the original... but that's about as far as it goes. Everything else is... different.

So apparently 50 year old flats aren't the only difference. Whatever, I'm happy for you that you got an original in great shape.

[chromium]

Nice bass, Carlo - congrats!

[dadagoboi]

Here's one of the user reports I've seen that talks about the differences.
This bass resembles the original Harmony H22 only in the remotest sense - it kind of has the same body shape, and the pickup LOOKS the same as the original. I'd say it was more of a "tribute" than a "reisssue." The color of the finish, pickguard, knobs and layout look like the original... but that's about as far as it goes. Everything else is... different.

So apparently 50 year old flats aren't the only difference. Whatever, I'm happy for you that you got an original in great shape.

Thanks for that review, Dave!  Did some minor disassembly yesterday.  The pickup is surface mount, 3/8" tall!  For some reason there's a factory route in the body under it, to let the sound in?  Magnets are very hot, much hotter than a Thunderbird.  I'm starting to really love the sound of P-90 style (wide and short) pups like this one and the DiMarzio in my B-301.

The guy complains about marred finish under the pick guard...it's the same on my bass and many other vintage ones I've seen.  That's what happens in a mass production environment.

The H-22 came with an original 1970 catalog.  The blurb on the back says "... Harmony produces more guitars than all other American dealers combined."  Doesn't mention most of them were Silvertones.

[steveonbass]

Beauty!

I love my H22.  Had to buy 4 of them to learn not to sell it.  Expensive lesson.