Harmony Sovereign Deluxe H1265 repairs

[Beemer]

Hello All,

This is my first post and I'm looking forward to reading and posting.   My present task is to repair my 1968 Harmony Sovereign Deluxe H1265.  It needs a neck reset and the tension rod needs extracted and a new end welded on.

I have studied an excellent video on carrying out a neck reset on a vintage Martin and I believe I can do this work.   For the tension rod repair I have read Frank Ford's 2002  article:

http://www.frets.com/fretspages/Luthier/Technique/TrussRods/BrokenR...

My first question is whether I can contact Frank Ford as I want to ask if the actual extraction (the pull) part might prove difficult?  Secondly I would like to know whether I can buy an exact replacement or dual action truss rod that will fit the channel?

regards,

Beemer

[Richard L Johnson]

Hi Beemer - I'm not a pro like most of the guys on the forum, but I've spent a few years restoring old Harmony guitars for what started as a hobby and is now an obsession (just ask my wife). I've pulled a truss rod out of a Sovereign H1260 and re-threaded it using Frank's technique. I had trouble getting my needle nose vise to grip well enough to pull the rod out, so I switched to a large hemastat, which worked great (I've used it on a couple other rods since). You have pull hard to get the rod out, but it isn't glued and comes out pretty well once you get it started moving. The truss rod channel on Harmony guitars is narrower and shallower than those on most other guitars, and I haven't had any success finding a replacement small enough to fit. That's why it may be best to salvage the original as Frank did. Or you could try removing the fretboard and routing the channel larger, but that's not something I've tried - can't speak to how difficult it is. Best of luck - those old Sovereigns are worth every minute we put into them! Rick

[Beemer]

Rick,

That is good news as I also have little to grip. The piece of rod that broke off is showing rust at the thread even although I know that the guitar has never been near water, high humidity or sea air. My guess is that the steel was subject to these before the truss was made. I really don't want to to remove the fingerboard so I'll persevere with trying to pull the rod out. Am I correct that I do not need to remove the string nut?

My last resort was to remove the neck and push the rod out from the butt end that is assuming the channel extends all the way through? Can you remember if it does?

Beemer

[Richard L Johnson]

Yes, the channel extends all the way through - I'm attaching a picture, you can also see how small the channel is. By my measure it's 5/32 W X 11/32 H. This happens to be an H168 neck, but the channel size is the same in all Harmonys I've worked on. You don't need to remove the nut to remove the rod, but I usually do anyway because it will be in the way when you use your straight edge to check the neck angle when you reset the neck. The nut will knock right off with a sharp tap and is easily glued back on. Rick

[Beemer]

Richard,

I'm so glad I came to this forum and thanks for your help. My next task is to make the neck removal jig like this one:

http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/I-4737.html

Do all Harmony guitars use the same fret material? I need to replace a couple so don't want different from the original.

Beemer

[Richard L Johnson]

Harmony used different frets on different models - I'm honestly not sure if they used different fret material on identical models over time. I must admit on the few I've done fretwork on I haven't tried to match the original, because I like a size LM sells and always use it. BTW I have the StewMac jig and it works very nicely, but sometimes you have to wiggle the neck side-to-side to speed up the loosening process...have fun! Rick

[Beemer]

Rick,

The finish unless I am mistaken is polyester. Soon after buying my guitar rolled sideways to the floor and the side split either side of the neck. This was dealer repaired but recently that repair failed. I removed the Sunburst finish by laborious scraping. This was removed halfway down the upper bout and both sides of the neck. I then made new mahogany side braces and fixed the split. Now I need to refinish the stripped mahogany.

I had tried sanding off the finish but made little progress. I had read several times that scraping is a better solution so I used a tungsten bladed scraper which did the job. However as it did occasionally gouge the wood I need to do a good filling job.

To me it seems better to leave the neck off and complete the refinishing then attach the neck?

I guess the procedure will be:

Filling - with what for mahogany?
Sanding sealer - with what?
Staining - water or spirit based? (this is all sunburst and not transparent)
Sanding
Finish - I would prefer to use a brush on finish
Sanding
Final finish - Spray can
Polishing
Neck re-attaching

This will be my first time doing a finish so any advice is welcome. Photos are attached

Beemer