The ShadowMusic Web Community

Yes, I HAD seen that - a genuine Harmony H78 in that player's armoury.

The one I had was "only" the H77: the same guitar but without the Bigsby, and fitted with a German-made lyre-shaped tailpiece of the same design as fitted to later model Hofner Presidents.

There's now an Airline-brand replica (with Bigsby), but of course, it doesn't have DeArmond pickup (with adjustable poles). Just copies of a cheaper DeArmond pickup (the "Kleenex" model) which was never fitted to an upmarket Harmony in any case.

My dear old friend Keith Bateman who posts on this site used to have an H77 or 78, he even let me play it when I returned to the UK on holiday from Oz in 1976!

Jim, those cheaper Harmony pickups were also excellent- a few years before I tried Keith's 'luxury' top of the line model, at home in Oz I had a Harmony Stratotone semi-solid- it had two Rowe/DeArmond gold foil types and these pickups would take plaster off a wall (I was playing very loud heavy rock'n'roll when I had it!)

GREAT pickups, shame about the actual guitars! Although the 77 and 78 were quite nice, many of the cheaper Harmony electrics were pretty cheaply made..

I had an H77 in 1964. Big mistake, I should have kept the Colorama. So disappointing when you came to play Shads , all the lovely tone was lost.

I bought an H78 from the States about 10 years ago paid $250 I got rid of it about 4 years ago and made a handsome profit. It was in excellent condition apart from a nasty scrape obey the lower F hold. The most annoying thing was it rattled and I could not seem to get rid of it. Liked the sound didn't enjoy playing it should have kept it though - story of my life