Harmony H-44 Stratotone Model Solid Body Electric Guitar (1954), made in Chicago, copper lacquer finish, hardwood body and neck, rosewood fingerboard, black tolex hard shell case.

Overall length is 36 7/16 in. (92.5 cm.), 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm.) in depth, measured at side of rim. Scale length is 25 in. (635 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/4 in. (44 mm.).

This is a "naturally relic'ed" but nicely original example of Harmony's primal slab-O-wood solidbody, the H-44 Stratotone. These appeared in the early 1950s not long after the Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul popularized the solidbody concept. Harmony was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon and the H-44 was their first solid offering, a small handy design built around a solid wood center and a diminutive body. This guitar's original electronics rig is intact with pots coded 304-405 indicating fabrication in the 5th week of 1954, so this is an early example likely assembled and sold that year. The neck seems slightly less huge than some, but still a handful!

The original copper metallic lacquer finish has fairly extensive wear, but what survives does not appear to have faded too much. Overall it shows play wear with dings, chips, and scrapes, and a "classic" curly-cord burn mark on the back. The back of the neck is worn heavily down to the undercoat, typical of these as the metallic finish usually wears quickly from contact with the hand. Various spots along the edges of the body are similarly worn through to the primer.

This guitar remains all original except the single-layer plastic jackplate is a properly shaped repro; nearly all of the flimsy originals cracked to pieces long ago. The similarly fragile plastic pickguard is intact with no cracks at the screws. All other hardware is intact and relatively clean; even the plastic strap buttons have survived. The original openback Waverly strip tuners retain the original plastic buttons and still work as well as they ever did.

The neck is straighter than most of these, the original frets have been polished a bit and this guitar plays quite well, at least by H-44 standards. This is a great-sounding early example of this super cool, funky, and now much sought-after first-generation solidbody, in a modern Eastman hard shell case well fitted to the guitar. Overall Very Good + Condition.