Harmony Baxendale Conversion H162 1961-65 Aged Natural Gloss

This is a Scott Baxendale Harmony Conversion. The best guess for the guitar's age is between 1961-65.   

My comments: this instrument is a killer guitar. I have compared it to a 1939 Martin OOO-18 at Greg Boyd's House of Fine Instruments and it sounds just as good and does it ever project. I have put it in the hands of great players who look askance and amused at having an old relic in their hands but awestruck when they strum the first chord. Solid mahogany back and sides with a quilted master grade top and new x-bracing makes this instrument bark. I have installed a K&K passive bridge plate pickup and it delivers. The neck is 1.75 inches at the nut and 2.25 inches at the 12th fret. The neck profile is beefy but fast. I really love this guitar. My reason for selling: I have a Harmony H1260 that I want Scott to makeover. If you are looking for a vintage guitar that has 55+ year old wood and a sweet, powerful sound, look no further. Comes with a new hardshell case.

Here's how Scott describes the makeover:

Baxendale Guitar has perfected the process of taking these old inexpensive department store guitars and remanufacturing them into new professional grade real relic guitars. Our remanufacturing process includes a complete disassembly of the instrument, by removing the neck, gears, bridge, etc. then we remove the back. Once the "shell" is open we clean out all of the old crude ladder bracing and replace it with our tuned proprietary scalloped X design that is based on a combination of mid 30's Martin, 30's Gibson designs. We also cut down the oversized tail block. This helps the tone and also allows for the fitting of an endpin jack in case you want a pickup. After all the new bracing is installed and all structural issues are addressed we glue the back back on and start work on the neck.

We plane the neck straight, and sand a 14" radius into the fingerboard. We reset the neck to the body and refret. We make a new rosewood bridge and a bone compensated saddle as well as a new bone nut. We also replace the gears with new vintage open back style gears.

Once complete the new rebuilt guitar is the greenest guitar made today, because we recycle the old wood and don't refinish them. The only new wood is the spruce brace wood, maple bridge plate and a East Indian rosewood bridge. As a "new" guitar these are the absolute environmentally green guitars being produced today.