1950s Silvertone H53 Vintage Archtop, Baxendale Conversion, Harmony USA-Made w/ Gibson P-13 & Case

Up for sale, a 1950s Silvertone H53 archtop in excellent condition and in perfect working order, professionally serviced and re-braced by Baxendale Guitars in Athens, GA. Produced by Harmony in the USA for Sears' Silvertone brand of instruments, the H53 shares the same elements as Harmony's H50 model. One of the earliest and least common archtop offerings produced by Harmony, the H53 is also one of their most visually and tonally alluring instruments, with checkerboard binding and a Gibson-made P-13 single coil pickup.This guitar benefits from Baxendale’s quality restoration work; including a neck reset, a fretboard re-radius and complete refret, a brand new Gibson-style floating rosewood bridge with compensated saddle, a new carved bone nut, and Grover vintage-style open-gear tuners. Featuring a solid pressed spruce top and maple back and sides, the guitar has a bright, yet full acoustic response, and the overwound P-13 pickup delivers plenty of woody richness and midrange bark, perfectly paired to the body's tonewood combination. Weighing 4lbs 13oz, this USA-made Harmony has been professionally setup with 13-56 roundwound strings, easy-playing action, and spot-on intonation.The maple neck has a substantial soft V-shaped profile carve at the nut, gaining significant additional heft further up the fretboard, measuring .895" deep at the 1st fret and 1.105" at the 9th. The Brazilian rosewood fretboard has been re-radiused and refretted with pristine vintage-spec slender fretwire. This guitar plays cleanly up the 25 1/4“ scale with a straight neck and a responsive, optimally-adjusted truss rod. The replaced bone nut measures a full 1 3/4“ in width. The tortoise headstock overlay is one of Harmony's best, channeling a certain medieval aesthetic with gold Silvertone text and border, and gold “S” inset in a green shield. The new Grover open-gear tuning machines turn smoothly and hold pitch as they should with gleaming plating and butterbean buttons.The simple electronics work as intended, with an untouched wiring harness. The P-13 pickup has a nickel cover and oversized transparent tortoise pickup ring, and the original deep brown "radio" knobs round out the plastics. The instrument benefits from a professional neck reset, and the neck meets the body at an ideal angle. The replacement floating rosewood bridge has a compensated saddle for optimal intonation, and there is room on both thumbwheels for future adjustment. The original nickel-plated trapeze tailpiece rounds out the hardware. Visible through the F hole, the original H53 model stamp and Baxendale Guitars sticker are present.The spruce top has perfect curvature with zero sinking, supported by two parallel tone bars. The gloss two-tone Sunburst nitro lacquer finish is 100% original with no touchup or overspray, exhibiting extensive, prominent vertical lacquer checking on the top with more subtle checking on the back and sides. There is also a small back binding repair on the bass-side upper bout. Additional cosmetic wear includes a number of minor chips and dings on the body as a whole, with a small area of buckle worming and a handful of finish scratches on the back.A modern black tolex hardshell case with a Baxendale badge is included.