Shopping Cart

0

Your shopping bag is empty

Go to the shop

1964 Harmony Rocket H54 Vintage Electric Guitar Red Sunburst Airline-Branded w/ DeArmond Gold Foils

$1,299.99

+ shipping

Up for sale, a 1964 Harmony Rocket model H54 in excellent condition and in perfect working order. Airline-branded, as this particular Rocket was sold via Montgomery Ward's in-house brand, this Harmony is fully hollow and featherweight at only 6lbs 5oz with a bright and crisp acoustic tone that translates well through the pickups. Professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with fresh 10-46 roundwound strings and comfortable action, this Harmony Rocket is ready for stage and studio use.

There's really nothing that can match the balance, clarity, and overall tonal character of original DeArmond Gold Foil pickups. They have a percussive snap and twang, tight bass, and a harmonically-rich midrange that sounds great when each pickup is singled out or when paired together. This pair of gold foils sound great individually, with a particularly full and even tone with both pickups engaged. Each pickup has strong output, and when mated with the fully hollow maple body, the tone benefits from both the immediate attack of the maple and the warmth and fullness of the hollow construction.

The maple neck has a round "baseball bat" C-shaped profile carve with generous shoulder, measuring .925" deep at the 1st fret and .945" at the 9th. The dyed maple fretboard sports pearloid dot inlay and original slender fretwire. The frets have their full factory height, showing virtually no wear, and the guitar plays well in every register up the steel-reinforced neck. The scale length is 24 1/4", and the original carved bone nut measures 1 3/4" in width. On the headstock, the silkscreen "Airline" logo is practically perfect, and the strip tuners turn smoothly and hold pitch well, showing uniform surface patina and retaining original buttons

All of the electronics work as they should, with individual Volume and Tone knobs for each pickup. The DeArmond gold foils have gleaming chrome pickup covers and the unique "argyle" diamond covers only seen on Airline-branded examples. The pickups retain their Brazilian rosewood pickup risers, and the original floating bridge is carved from Brazilian rosewood as well. Plastics include a bright white reproduction pickguard, and the gold text on the original quartet of cream cupcake knobs is extremely clean. Visible through the F hole, the 1964 date stamp is nice and bold.

The bold Red Sunburst gloss nitro lacquer finish is 100% original with no touchup or overspray, and cosmetic wear is limited to a couple finish scuffs just north of the forward strap button and some additional scuffs and minor marks across the back. The neck has a few marks along the profile length which are not distracting to the palm while fretting.

A modern hardshell case with a zippered vinyl exterior is included.