Harmony H78

[alanbakewell]

Jim Nugent, have you seen this?

As we discussed a few years ago I had the Harmony H77 in 1968

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAt70OcyTN4

Cheers, Alan.

[JimN]

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.

[cockroach]

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..

[ecca]

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.

[Billyboygretsch]

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