Harmony 2813 restoration Pt.1

I was randomly given this Harmony 2813 guitar by a friend yesterday. Supposedly, it was intended to be smashed at the end of a concert as part of the show finale. It never was, and has been sitting around his house for a while.

The body was sanded at some point in it's history, but only on the front and back; leaving some left overs of the original white finish on the sides. From a glance, it appears to have the finish on the sides intact; however, what is left of this has been haphazardly plastered in some places with either white paint, or possibly white-out. It has some minor dings in it, but nothing major. The only contour in the body (on the top, near where your arm would rest) is unclear as to whether it was originally there, or was added when the body was sanded.

The neck and headstock were in great shape, just needed a little polishing. Again, just a few dings here, not perfect, but great for what I initially suspected.

Having the original wiring intact, so far the only major issue with the electronics has been the tone knob. It's likely completely busted; having a scratchy sound/ feel when turned, and the guitar will not generate sound (when plugged in) at all unless the tone pot is in a certain position. It will likely be replaced. One of the unusual things about this particular series was that they had no switches, just both pickups wired in series.

After being sanded down to the wood, the plan is to replicate the original white finish.

The only other major modification I'm thinking of at this point is to replace the original bridge with a Gibson-style tune-o-matic type.

The tone it exhibited before disassembly was a bit muddy, but workable. This should clear up after the new tone pot and some new strings are installed.

A bit of trivia; you my recognize this guitar. The album cover of Switchfoot's "Beautiful Letdown" record featured a guitar of this same type, with the only noticeable difference being that theirs had a maple fretboard.

Introducing the versatile SDG-TC1

Latest from SDG Guitars' workshop: SDG-TC1
TC1: Tone Carver 1
Specs:
Bridge Pickup: Dimarzio X2-N
Neck Pickup: Fender Lace Sensor Silver
Controls: Volume, Pickup Blend (center knob), Variable coil tap (small blue knob -for X2-N)
Maple Neck w/ 21 fret Rosewood fret board
Ping Tuning Machines
Worn Silver Finish

Having two pickups with sounds that are worlds apart turns out to work brilliantly. The Lace Sensor sings with bright sparkle that also carries enough boom and punch to resemble a P-90. The X2-N is very hot and 'raunchy' -ready to shred or scream. But utilizing the blend knob is where the magic begins. This guitar's tone is extremely versatile; simply by varying the amount of each pickup, or fiddling with that coil-tap knob, you get all sorts of crazy cool tonal variations. And with the right overdrive (say, like the 'Warp' channel on my Hughes & Kettner Matrix 100, a Danelectro Fab-Tone, or a Big-Muff Pi) the volume knob is a very effective gain control -right on the guitar!

Want your very own TC-1? Email me: limartstudios@gmail.com for more info.

Thanks to Joe at the Manchester Music Mill for the Memphis scrap guitar,
and the great deals on the pickups. (http://manchestermusicmill.com)