1959 Harmony Stratotone Jupiter H49 Vintage Electric Guitar, DeArmond Gold Foils w/ Tweed Case

Up for sale, a 1959 Harmony H49 Stratotone Jupiter in excellent condition with a pair of DeArmond gold foil pickups. This guitar is ready for stage and studio work, with a clean refret, modern Grover open-back tuners, and a carved, floating Brazilian rosewood bridge.

The Stratotone is one of the most unique and well designed instruments to feature the famed gold foils, with its hollowbody construction and solid spruce top. This guitar delivers plenty of twang and top end balanced with a full midrange and tight bass response, thanks to the aforementioned woods used on the body. The clear, percussive quality of the DeArmonds really shines here, especially with both pickups engaged. Plug this guitar through your favorite vintage tube amp and that's just about as good as tone gets! The guitar is featherweight at a mere 5lbs 4oz. This Stratotone was one of Harmony's top tier offerings in the late 1950s and early '60s, and this one has been professionally setup with consistent low action and a set of 10-46 strings.

The maple neck has a chunky C profile, staying fairly consistent in depth as you move up the fretboard, filling the palm comfortably and fretting easily. The guitar has been cleanly refretted with slender, vintage-style wire, and the new frets are flawless with zero wear. The original bone nut measures 1 3/4" in width and the neck is very straight, fretting easily in every position. On the headstock, the guitar features an uncommon variant of the classic "Stratotone" logo, with red accents on the silkscreen. The new Grover tuners fit the footprint of the originals, with butterbean buttons and a smooth, reliable feel.

On the body, all of the electronics work as they should including the ingenious "Blender" knob. This knob acts as a balance control between the two pickups when both are selected, giving the player a smooth gradient between the Bridge and Neck positions. This is easily one of the coolest features of the Stratotone Jupiter and one found only on this model. The original CTS pots date to the 16th week of 1959 and the wiring harness has all original paper in oil tone caps. The original '59 date stamp is also present in the control cavity. The original hardware includes the stock mini DeArmond bell knobs and nickel trapeze tailpiece, as well as they aforementioned adjustable modern Brazilian rosewood bridge with bone saddle.

Cosmetically, the guitar retains the original natural nitro lacquer finish on the top and two-tone sunburst on the back and sides. The finish on the top has darkened over the decades and shows some wear into the grain of the spruce on the lower bout edge near the rear strap button. There is also finish wear down to the bare wood on the treble side of the neck profile from frets 2-7. An extra small piece of wood was also grafted into the control cavity to mount the tortoise control plate (covered by the transparent tort). Other expected light wear includes vertical lacquer checking and an assortment of minor nicks and scuffs, but no serious or structural wear of any kind!

A modern tweed hardshell case is included.