Harmony H17 BobKat 1965 / Straight Outta The Garage!

What a great find!  Here is a 1965 Harmony H17 Bobkat, in Near Mint Condition, entirely original and ready to go.  This is one blues wailin’, garage rockin’, psychedele-trippin’ number that you don’t want to miss.  With twin DeArmond Goldfoils, a fast action and chunky neck, this is a rocking machine that will speak in many different musical languages.

The Harmony H17 BobKat is something of a “kid brother” to the larger H19 Silhouette, with a solid Maple body and neck, and those glorious single coils.  They are not the same guitar (though many like to think they are). The BobKat is a smaller bodied instrument, with somewhat different hardware.  The H19’s used Hagstrom Bridges and Tremolo tailpieces, while the BobKats used the more conventional rosewood bridges and stock, Harmony Type G Whammy bars. 

This particular example looks almost new.  That in itself is a rarity as these guitars tended to get rode hard and put away wet. By comparison, this debutante is still awaiting her sweet-sixteen party.  The back of the scratch plate is dated at February 19, 1965, so our girl is now some 61 years old!  You wouldn’t know it.

Here are the important specs:

Scale:  24 1/4”

Body: Maple

Neck: Maple / chunky C profile

Fretboard & Bridge: Brazilian Rosewood (fretboard may be ebonized Maple)

Nut: 1 3/4”

String Spacing at Bridge:  1 7/8”

Pickups: DeArmond Gold-Foil

Whammy: Harmony Type G 

Pots:  1 Meg Volume, 250K Tone

Caps: Neck .1uf / Bridge .022uf

Action at 12th fret: Low E 5/64”, High E 1/16”

Coming into the shop, this guitar needed almost nothing.  It played perfectly, right out of the case, though the action was set a bit higher than we like.  Essentially, we cleaned the guitar body, fretboard and hardware, lubricated the tuners, treated the pots with DeOxit, leveled and crowned the frets, and adjusted the nut slot depths, so we could optimize the action and playability.  We’ve strung it with a set of D’Addario Half Round Regular Light Gauge strings (.010-.046) and have been hard pressed to get anything else done around here, because she’s just too much fun to play!

In addition the great condition of the guitar, it comes in its original case, which still retains a perfectly functioning retaining buckle, so nothing falls out while you have it strapped to your Vespa!

Please check out the photos and zoom in for detail, as we have tried to capture this sweetheart from all angles.

This Harmony H17 BobKat is sold AS IS and is not returnable unless it arrives in a condition other than as described or photographed, here.

Price: $750.00 plus $125 shipping (Lower 48 USA, only)