Somebody dropped an old Harmony Stella off at the local music store for a bridge and a set of strings. They didn't want to pay what the repair bill was gonna be, so they bought a new guitar for their kid, and didn't even want to take the old beater home...I saved it from the dumpster.

The paper inside that identifies it is torn, and the useful stuff is gone. There are some numbers stamped inside the back near where the neck is glued on but some are illegible, what I can make out are 373???228.

It's a wire string, floating bridge, tailpiece model. Lamanate top, looks like spruce, light natural finish, sides and back look like mahagony, scalloped tortoise shell pickguard screwed on with three screws, pickguard doesn't fit quite right because it's for a full size guitar and this deal is a 3/4 size. Painted circles around sound hole, painted on binding, painted on fret markers in the form of capital H's.

12th fret is where the neck is attached, 18 frets total, headstock about as plane as it gets, open gear tuners, three to a side, tuning stem for D and G strings are bent, appears to be bent on purpose, "Harmony" is written on headstock.

It's a beater, but I think I know where there's a bridge that will work for it, put a set of strings on it, and maybe start the grandkids out with it some day.

Any of you experts know what model it might be...I looked at the Harmony sites, and can't find anything that matches it.

Does it look like any of these, Oke?

It looks quite a bit like that last one, except it had Harmony on the head instead of Stella, the tailpiece is a different design, and I've concluded that the pickguard is too small. It is mounted to where it's covering the middle circle around the soundhole...the one with the white in it, and the circumference of the circle that the pickguard would make is smaller that the circumference of the circle of the soundhole...sloppy work.

the design of the pickguard is the same, and it seems to be the origional, can't find any sigh of other mounting holes from a different picguard ever being on the guitar.

I know they were mass produced, and the stella was the cheap one, probably just a bastard put out on a Friday about closing time.

I finally managed to get the busted Gretsch to the house. I'm gonna try the super glue in the cracks and see how it goes. I got the parts all to come back together so it should be pretty much invisible glue seams when I get it done, and maybe I'll have a pretty neat looking archtop F-hole to play with.

I borrowed the bridge off the Gretsch and put it on the Harmony along with the five strings that were on the Gretsch just to see if it would tune, and stay in tune, so maybe I could get the grandkids started on it some day.

Well, crap, I'm tunin' it up and two of the old brittle plasic tuning keys pretty much shattered in my hands. Looks like the old Harmony will be a wall hanger. I super glued the keys back together and they don't look bad from the front side.

Maybe a new set of tuners some day...maybe just hang on the wall, old thing ain't worth messin' with anyway.

Now that old Gretsch, I need for it to work out. The finish is all cracked like an old oil painting, if I can get some tape along side the cracks, and some thin super glue in the cracks to hold and the tape off without pulling the finish off it will be an accomplishment. I think the guitar is as old as I am, we should be a good pair, both damaged goods.

Oke, stewmac.com sells a couple of things that might help you out. They sell a thick super-glue that's more like syrup than water made for filling cracks that aren't too terrible and tuner button-knobs that are knobs-only with a hole drilled in them that you can fill with superglue or epoxy and then stick 'em on the tuning machine shaft. I've had a couple of real old ivory buttons go before.

Oh (and you mighta used this trick elsewhere already but just in case) when I put masking tape on something that I'm afraid the tape will do some damage or pull up the old finish or something, I always take the piece of tape and stick it to my shirt or my jeans a few times first which takes away about two-thirds of the stickiness. Leaves enough to stick and mask off the area but not enough to pull anything up.

Anyway, good luck.

I know the de-sticky on the pant leg deal, and I sure do need to be careful with the tape.

I'm thinking about using a super glue called Hot Stuff...you have any comments in regards to that brand of glue? I was thinking a thin glue might get in the crack better. The wood is back in place pretty well, and the cracks are barely visible.


Stewmac...that's it, I couldn't remember the name of the place with all the guitar goodies, thanks.

I never heard of Hot-Stuff but if it's a Super-type glue it should be okay. Yeah, if the cracks are lined up real close a thin glue might be better. That thicker stuff is good when you have to do a little filling in between the sides.

After you get it glued, it would probably be a good idea to put a couple of small wood cleats on the inside of the crack. Just a couple of little pieces glued tightly against the underside running cross-grain to the split, to reinforce it. A couple of little pieces cut off anything (maybe even a popsicle-stick ) would work. Stewmac sells (used to anyway) a little bag of 'em for a buck or two.