I'm very happy to be here. Pilgrim mentioned that he was selling a Harmony H22 for a very good price to forumites , and I could not resist. An old friend here in Halifax has an original H22 , and so I've had my eye out for one for some years. This once belonged to Dr Bassman. After seeing Pilgrim's post I quickly decided to speak up and get it. The transaction was simple , and straightforward , a joy. It was quickly underway , it arrived this afternoon. Perfectly intact , no signs of bumps on the box , or on the bass. I've done some minimal tweaking to set the action to suit my preferences , and it's pretty much there. I'm a simple thumper at heart , and I love short scale hollow body basses. This is perfect.
I'm feeling very thankful , and very happy. I'll be spinning the knobs.
Congrats! Lovely to see it remains in the "family"
Congratulations! Super cool bass.
I guess this is a legacy bass now, having belonged to three members here. It was a pleasure to make this deal, and it turned out not to be a problem in customs.
Delighted that it arrived in such good condition! Enjoy that lovely and unusual Harmony.
Goofing around
Serenading the poodle.
(https://i.postimg.cc/mkdXhG5r/IMG-2147.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Poodle
Quote from: Pilgrim on August 27, 2025, 11:34:09 AMI guess this is a legacy bass now, having belonged to three members here. It was a pleasure to make this deal, and it turned out not to be a problem in customs.
Delighted that it arrived in such good condition! Enjoy that lovely and unusual Harmony.
Pilgrim , if the time comes to sell this , it will be posted here , and for the same price. I will continue this legacy.
Quote from: morrow on August 27, 2025, 04:07:11 PMPilgrim , if the time comes to sell this , it will be posted here , and for the same price. I will continue this legacy.
That is a lovely idea! I salute you. :toast:
This brings joy to my heart!
Congratulations! I'm sure Bill would be pleased. As it happens one just came in at the House of Guitars where I work.
Quote from: godofthunder on September 23, 2025, 11:55:20 AMCongratulations! I'm sure Bill would be pleased. As it happens one just came in at the House of Guitars where I work.
Feel free to do a review!
Here's a little more ...
The H-22 Batwing bass first appeared in the 62 Harmony catalogue. They were not an expensive instrument. I've been able to compare my reissue to an original , the reissue is a much better build , with a set neck rather than the original 3 bolt. The later originals had a double cut body , like an EB-2 , and a four bolt neck plate. The H-22 was a fraction of the price of an EB-2. The reissue neck is a little beefier than the originals. I like it better. The reissue has a poly gloss finish , the originals were nitro , and most are pretty worn today. I like the reissue better , and my friend with the original did too.
I'm a thumper at heart , and love hollow bodied basses. I prefer short scales these days so this covers all that perfectly. This has a solid , fat , warm , old school thump. The baritone switch gives the upper mids a little boost. I find the neck comfortable , it's light , and balanced. I have no issue with the bound body. It does have a 60 cycle hum , just like the original. They did an excellent job of re-engineering the pickup. Hum and all. At home , at my practice level that is not an issue. But it's loud on a gig. I'm quite familiar with single coil hum and know how it's directional so I quickly found the quiet spot , but I had to turn away from the room. I've tried two noise gates. The first was an ISP Decimator X , it did not do it. Then I tried a Boss NS-2 noise suppressor. Better , but I don't think it's the perfect solution. So I'm still looking for a 60 cycle solution. I do not want to change the pickup. The Boss cuts it down to the point that it's not an issue on my regular gig. But it's not perfect. I usually use my big orange Gretsch 5123B , it's dead quiet.
My standard gig rig is a Bergantino HDN 112 cab , I usually run a Monique preamp into a little Jo Choui 500 watt power amp. I might try using a more powerful power amp next week to see if that cuts it down. I was using a Bergantino Forte to do that. I tend to push the Choui so running more power might do it. We'll see.
The Batwing was famously used by Muff Winwood in the Spencer Davis Band , and Ronnie Lane in the Faces. There were a number of later blues players like Larry Taylor and Keith Ferguson . Tal Wilkenfeld sometimes uses one now. They're quite a thing with blues and roots players. They once went cheap , but after the reissue the prices for originals skyrocketed. Today they have some demand. Warts and all.
The H22 was a strange thing. They used a wooden block to anchor the strings. Simple wooden floating bridge. Harmony simply put a short scale bass neck on their Rocket guitar body , and they had a bass. They stuck a gold foil pickup close to the neck. Designed to thump.
I love this bass. It's light , balanced , comfortable , sounds wonderfully thumpy and is a joy to play. It's still the first one I reach for at home. I just need to get that classic DeArmond hum under control.
And I'm very grateful to have this. I'd also love to see Scott do a review of one.
A stray thought...might it be worth pulling the pickup and adding a layer of aluminum foil on the backside in an attempt to shield the pickup? I've never tried it; I've read many ideas about shielding, but not that one.
It's got a metal plate on the back of the pickup.
(https://i.postimg.cc/PrtvkCX7/IMG-2745.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
Six poles? Essentially a guitar P90 under the cover or something like that.
Well the Harmony company just took their existing Rocket body and stuck a short scale neck on it back in the late 50's , and I think the company in Korea did a fairly accurate job of re-engineering the pickup on the reissue. The response of the pickup is even across the strings. No complaint there.
Good news ...
Last night I used a more powerful amp to power my tube preamp and the buzz was noticeably diminished. Quite tolerable. I had been using a little Jo Choui amp that was built for me by Jonathon Chouinard in Quebec. I had the gain and volume cranked for room volume and that's why the hum was so loud. Using my Forte amp as a power amp cut the noise down considerably. So if I'm taking the Batwing out to a gig I'll simply bring a more powerful amp. Nice to discover that last night.The buzz has never been an issue at home.
Brought the big orange Gretsch and the Batwing last night. The Gretsch sounded a bit better at room volume. Something about those TV Jones pickups and their placement. Very woody tone. But it was close , the Batwing was sounding great.
Last night did a gig in my favourite dive downtown , both guitarists had Harmonys. Well , one was badged as a Silvertone , but it was a big hollow body made by Harmony. The Stratotone had the loudest hum. No contest.The big hollow body Silvertone came in second , and the Batwing had the least hum on the bandstand. The guitar players were frequently dropping their volume in between songs but just as we'd start a song ... it was there. I was using the more powerful amp head behind the preamp. My hum with the Batwing wasn't that bad , but I was using that big orange hollow body Gretsch most of the time. That one is dead quiet.