Conversions
The Harmony conversion is a process by which we take old USA-made Harmony and Kay guitars and remanufacture them using our proprietary bracing and internal design, giving the guitars a new life and a world class tone that compares to vintage guitars of the highest order. This re-manufacturing process allows us to create a guitar that is also green, recycling and repurposing by starting with an existing guitar that was originally made with quality woods, and requiring no finish work. These are great guitars that retain their vintage patina and mojo at a price that the average musician can afford.
Many musicians have an old Harmony or Kay laying around that was their first instrument. Some have sent them to us to be rebuilt, and these guitars subsequently became their favorite instrument! Many of our customers are professional recording artists and musicians. If you would like to purchase a remade Harmony or Kay, have one rebuilt, or have one to sell, contact us here.
The Conversion Process
Disassembly
Before we can work our engineering magic on your acoustic guitar we have to completely disassemble it into it's component parts.
We carefully remove the neck and bridge, separate the back from the body, and remove all hardware and old braces. We then inspect and remedy any structural problems.
Neck Reset
Through years of string tension, the neck can pull up, the top can warp, and the dovetail joint can slip: resulting in high playing action or impossible playability.
We remove the neck and clean out the dovetail, before setting a perfect neck angle and glueing back in place to ensure further more years of life.
Refret
A precise re-fret, built on-top of a level-planed fingerboard, greatly enhances playing feel, action, sustain, and intonation.
All frets are carefully leveled, crowned, sanded, and polished to a mirror finish as part of the process.
The Nut
Making the perfect guitar nut, ensures optimum resonant transmission, acoustic coupling, and intonation. Each guitar that passes through has a hand carved nut.
Every bespoke nut is made to fit, ramps and guides are filed to be flat and true, and each guitar is expertly tuned for playability and function.
Bracing
Our bracing pattern, inspired by pre-war models, increases headroom, richness and projection. Combined with vintage tone-woods, we create top shelf guitars at a fraction of the cost.
Each brace is meticulously hand carved, shaped and perfectly fit using the highest quality spruce stock we can source.
The Bridge
We consider the bridge to be the engine of the guitar. Converting energy supplied by your pick to project sound.
Every guitar that comes through our shop gets a bespoke hand carved bridge to match the style and footprint of the original.
Tuning Gears
Over more than 40 years, the tuning gears on vintage guitars tend to warp and bind together leaving them stiff and unusable.
We replace all tuning gears with high end models as standard. Ensuring precision tuning and years of further use.
Green
Guitar making accounts for a substantial amount of the lumber economy, older guitars are made from exotic wood, unobtainable in todays market.
Our guitars are constructed using the original neck and body woods, and we use minimal new wood for our conversions. We're proud to support environmental concerns.
*Please note, during the conversion process there is a chance of minor cosmetic damage.
The Science
Science
Have you ever wondered why the vintage guitar you have in your hands sounds, and feels, so inviting?
Guitar designs have evolved over time to allow for increased tone and playability. We harness physical laws to produce world class instruments.
Tension
The acoustic guitar is a structure under enormous tension. Precise engineering is required to keep it from collapsing under its own forces.
Guitar builders exploit tonal resonances to increase projection and frequency content, setting the top in perfect resonant motion.
Waveform
Every musical note has its own fundamental frequency, which is the lowest point in a periodic waveform.
As a stringed instrument vibrates, it generates harmonics, which are octaves of the same frequency.
Vibration
As a string is plucked, it’s motion generates mechanical energy. This mechanical energy is converted to acoustic energy working in harmony to produce sound.
Energy creates resonances, which send structural vibrations throughout the guitar that amplify and combine to create the modern sound of the acoustic guitar.
Engineering
The internal engineering is where all the secrets lie within a phenomenal sounding guitar.
The top and back bracing collaborate with the tone woods, the bridge and bridge plate to create the engine room of the guitar.
Aging
Wood is mainly composed of three components: cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose. The chemical makeup changes over time.
Hemicellulose gradually evaporates, which causes a guitar to lose some of its composite weight. As the pores open up, so does the character.
History
Our History
From the 1940’s onwards, there were two main players in the department store boom of the era: Sears and Roebuck, and Montgomery Ward. These huge nodes within networks across America stocked everything from fishing tackle and groceries to musical instruments.
Big-time producers of the musical instrument lines were the Harmony Company, and Kay Musical Instruments: both making guitars and amplifiers that ended up with different branding names including Airline, Biltmore, Kent, Knox, and Silvertone, as well as Kay and Harmony in their own right.
Catalogue
Iconic in many households, varied levels of quality from the beginner level Stella, to higher end models such as the Roy Smeck, and Buck Owens editions.
While the quality of tone woods differed, one thing is consistent, they all had solid top, back, and sides, often made from Spruce, Birch, or Mahogany.
Downturn
As economic measures favored using less desirable source materials and the electric guitar became more of a prolific fashion item, acoustic guitar quality started to suffer.
By the mid 1970’s Harmony and Kay had ceased production. From the 1890’s to mid 1960’s, it is estimated that Harmony Company alone, produced approximately ten million instruments.
Rebirth
When the 90’s arrived, popular music was starting to rebel against the mechanical sheen of the 80’s.
Cheaper guitar models came to the fore with the pawn shop guitar and amp movement for musicians in search of more cranky and authentic sounds.
Unplugged
When Pat Smear played a Buck Owens Harmony on Nirvana’s live recordings for MTV unplugged, it created a surge in popularity.
Renewed interest in unique models resurfaced, continuing to the present day with artists such as Jack White, Dan Auerbach and Alabama Shakes.
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