This page is dedicated to : Frances Wagner

Thanks for the good idea!

Harmony On The Screen, On Stage and On The Album

As the owner of a few dinged up Harmonies, I want to say thanks for having such a great resource available. Your site is really great (and the Study truck is incredibly cool). I found the attached pic online, saved it, then immediately lost the link (yeah, I know, I'm a dope.) I thought you might like it. It's a really early photo of the Rolling Stones, including pianist Ian Stewart. And look at Brian Jones: is that a Stratotone? You bet it is.

Thanks, Dave maleckar@morganmyers.com

J.J. Cale, one of America's best songwriters in the Blues/Rock field, proudly used his old Harmony guitar on many of his famous recordings. To read all about his recordings, in his own words, click on the link below!

http://perso.magic.fr/aramis/jjbooks.htm

I was reading your trivia section last night, then this afternoon they showed La Bamba on
Encore. So I checked it out to see what kinds of guitars "Ritchie" played. The first guitar he
plays is a single pickup Harmony Stratotone.
Later he switched to what looked like an white Archtone to me.

That was the guitar he played in the phone booth - he was singing "Donna" to the subject of
the song. It wasn't a flat top.

By the way, toward the end of the film he is shown doing Alan Freed's Rock n' Roll show - one
of the other performers was Brian Setzer portraying Eddie Cocherine - in the background, one of his
band members was playing what appeared to be an H68, better known as an "Artists Jazz". By then
"Ritchie" was playing a Fender Strat.

It seemed that someone involved with that movie was really into Harmony guitars.

Thanks for listening,

Earl Oliver  jumpcity@earthlink.net

F.Y.I.

There is a real cool all Harmony instrumental album project titled "Pickin' On Harmony". It features 12 original songs and uses Harmony guitars exclusively. This project uses arch tops, flat tops, Rockets, Meteors, Silhouettes and an H75. All bass work is done with an H/22 Harmony hollowbody bass. This project was professionally recorded at The Harmony Barn Studio USA (where else!)
The album has been recorded and mixed in the digital domain so it will be crisp and clean. (The new 24 bit digital gear is also as warm as analog, I have used a ton of both types and the new stuff is good!)

All the songs were written and performed by Jim Calhoun, the author of this site. This project will be offered on this site and possibly Amazon.com if all the details can be worked out.

Available Now!
CD will be $10.00 - Cassettes will be $7.00 U.S. Funds
To order click here
 

Hey, in the latest "Acoustic Guitar" magazine, in an article about Rodney Sheppard, lead guitarist for Sugar Ray, Rodney lists some of his favorite personal guitars including a "'63 Harmony acoustic that looks really cool". He claims to favor his Martins but I think we all know better.

Ray Barron Rb12252@aol.com
 

Hi, Jim, looking forward to the trivia on the movie harmony, now, how about the Roy Smeck harmony that Roy Orbison played on a vintage video playing pretty woman? people have told me that it was a Roy Smeck, anyone care to second that opinion?
 

Frances Wagnerfrancesj@bitstorm.net
 

For anyone who saw the movie La Bamba, starring Lou Diamond Phillips, who portrayed Ritchie Valens, there is a scene when Phillips is in a phone booth calling his girlfriend Donna to play the song he wrote for her, he was playing a Harmony flat top. I'm not sure of the model, but anyone who rents or has that movie, please freeze frame and tell all of us Harmony fans what model his guitar was.

Frances Wagnerfrancesj@bitstorm.net
 

Subject: Harmony Meteor & The Kinks

If you go to www.davedavies.com, Mr. Davies lets the cat out of the bag. The killer riff of "You Really Got Me" was played on a Harmony Meteor!

Another Satisfied Harmony Owner, Mark
 

Here is a fun thing to do when you have some time on your hands. Rent all of the Elvis movies you can find. (Except "A Change of  Habit", no use torturing yourself through this one) Get out your pen and paper and write down every scene that has a Harmony guitar in it. Be prepared to write quite a bit. Let me know what you find and I will post it.

Also, there is a good Harmony shot in the movie "Rounders" starring Henry Fonda. (Good movie)

Jim....Author of the Harmony Web Site
 

Hey Jim, Ok, I got a little excited the other night. I was watching the Jay Leno Show and his last guest was Chris Isaak, and Chris was doing his rockabilly thing on a black 60's Silvertone/Harmony thinline, archtop, f-hole, dual pickup with a Bigsby tailpiece. How cool is that? .

Ray BarronRb12252@aol.com
 

Harmony By Heath

I saw somewhere on your site about a guitar model with heath as the logo. I did some investigating on the origin of the heath. there is a company called Allen-Heath that produces audio mixers, etc., and I emailed them in hopes of identifying their Heath as the one needed to identify this unit. also, another Roy Smeck series of guitars was built by Gibson. but they were earlier acoustics and Hawaiian series. I'll keep you posted on the Heath,.

Frances Wagner francesj@bitstorm.net
 

I believe that the "Harmony By Heath" was a product offered by the Heath Company, maker of the famous Heathkit products. These were electronic kits you assembled yourself. If memory serves me, you could buy an amplifier by Heath and purchase a guitar, already assembled. My memory is fuzzy on this one but I think this is correct. Heath is still in business and you can hit their home page for info at http://www.heathkit.com . Love your Harmony pages... you may remember I have an H-77 hollowbody.

Tommy Martintmartindub@charter.net
 

Thanks for the enjoyable memories. I still have my single pickup Stratotone although I have refinished it. Probably not worth anything but still fun to play. The Harmony by Heath logo you questioned on your site belongs to a line of guitar kits that were put out by Heathkit. This was about 1967 to 1969. They had 3 models, a 3 pickup rocket, a 2 pickup rocket and a 2 pickup solid body guitar. They also produced 4 different amp kits and a Vox organ kit. Hope this helps the web site Regards

Craig BaumBaum4739@aol.com

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