________________________________________________________ *** VINTAGE & TRADITIONAL GUITARS *** - NEW LISTING! - 10​​/​​06​​/​​2025. _________________________________________________________ ACOUSTIC BLUES, JAZZ & SWING VINTAGE ARCHTOP - HARMONY MONTEREY H950 1940s​/​50s CHICAGO, USA, MAPLE​/​BIRCH - Professional Custom Restoration​/​Partial Rebuild, including Professionally made & fitted Replacement Arched Top & replacement StewMac Golden Age Restoration tuners - completed & available now! ______________________________________________________ Stock Number: VTG1402. *** In addition to the following description notes, further background information and restoration details can be found on my Vintage & Traditional Guitars website, page A11. *** Superb classic Harmony Archtop Acoustic Guitar, the most popular model from the long-produced Monterey range, originating from around 1937 through to the early '70s, and the "Family" of Harmony archtops, again commencing in the late 1930s, including the Broadway, Master and Cremona models. *** Model: Monterey H950: Indicated by Harmony Guitars Database to have been in production for probably the longest period of any Harmony model, from 1938 to 1972....almost the whole length of the period in which the any Monterey models appeared. Visual records of the hands into which these guitars made their way include those of Elvis! *** Date: Usual Harmony ink date stamp is not visible on this guitar, but I believe that the the headstock name decal style was in use on Monterey models during the second half of the 1940s, into the 1950s....indeed the archived Harmony Guitars Database shows photos of this style headstock attributed to Monterey H950s dating from 1944 to 1957. *** Construction: Original Solid Birch to the Back & Sides. Professionally made Replacement Top fitted is made from 3-ply Maple, therefore with very similar appearance and sound characteristics (in The USA sellers frequently refer to Birch built guitars as Maple!)....see Condition section below! *** Scale Length: 25 1​/​4"​/​642mm. Nut Width: 1 3​/​4"​/​44.5mm. *** Completion restoration of this fully playable archtop guitar with the character that can only come from a true vintage guitar. *** Original 1940s​/​1950s archtop, brought back to life with new professionally purpose-made Maple arched top to replace the original which had damage cracking, beyond repair, and the restoration of a standard Harmony wooden floating bridge from original parts, in place of the metal tune-a-matic it came with. *** SEE "VERIFICATION REPORT" BELOW FOR DETAILS OF THE PROFESIONAL RESTORATION​/​PARTIAL REBUILD WHICH HAS BEEN COMPLETED! *** No case included, but I may offer a choice of vintage covered pressed fibreboard case...not original to the guitar, probably later '50s​/​'60s type, but similar to the type supplied with these guitars when new. Not exactly what we would regard as a fitted case now, naturally with some wear & tear commensurate with age, and offering limited protection to the guitar, or I should be able to supply an industry standard modern hardshell case, Hiscox Liteflite or PRO-11, at modest additional cost. *** Courtesy of the indispensable Jake Wildwood, the embedded YouTube clip in my Vintage & Traditional Guitars details on this guitar is his demo entitled "1950s Harmony H950 Monterey archtop guitar", plus Additional Link #1 there to the corresponding article in Jake's excellent Blogspot. Please do fully research the details provided on my VTG website, which includes additional links to archived Harmony Guitars Database page, etc., and contact me for any further information in order to fulfil your purchase. Thank you, Bob Chaffer, Vintage & Traditional Guitars. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Verification report

*** The new top has been fitted by the renowned luthier I work with, and has new binding fitted, as near as is possible match the original, but the red sunburst is smaller, sort of vintage Gibson style, without the original "faux flame" of course, and to me looks just the ticket! Some past applied over-finish to the sides has been removed and made good....another great job by the luthier, as you will see in the updated photos. *** The neck joint had been extracted prior to replacing the top, and then reset, fingerboard reattached, and re-levelled, retained the 12" radius, before re-fretting.....stoning​/​levelling, re-profiling & polishing of the new frets, reassembling fittings, and setting the guitar up, all now completed.. *** The new purpose-made and fitted to is a Maple​/​Spruce​/​Maple quality laminate, which the luthier is confident will enhance the sound of this guitar, rather than the opposite. Some reading research will confirm that there is an established, well-recorded and well approved history of the use of such quality laminates in archtop guitars, by principal makers, including historically Gibson, and pre-Gibson Epiphone made guitars. *** The StewMac Golden Age Nickel Restoration tuners are a drop in replacement for the original machines, but have been fitted with standard vintage-style bootlace ferrules, rather than the more clunky, hex-head push fit bushings supplied with the tuners. *** Original Bone Nut has been adjusted and re-fitted. Original tailpiece is sound and in good shape. Original Monterey logoed pickguard is sound, in good order and has been re-fitted, with new bracket. *** The restoration of original type Rosewood floating​/​adjustable bridge has required the combination of original vintage base and top section from my stock of original parts, in order to get the right combination of a taller height together with the top profile. *** Not only does the additional bridge height required for the adjusted neck angle give improved string break angle over the bridge but on the current thumb wheel settings gives a really good action at 12th. fret, at around 2.5mm.​/​3mm.....would go lower, but not needed for a vintage archtop. Strung initially with Newtone Strings Double Wound Archtop Series jazz guitar strings 12-54.