NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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woster
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NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

Post by woster » Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:55 pm

You won’t believe this, but I actually got a Harmony electric 12 string for free at a thrift store yesterday! I’m not a regular poster here, but I thought I’d share it with you. Needless to say I’m very pleased with this. For years I've been longing for an electric 12, and I've kicked myself for missing the boat on the Fender XII reissues, which I couldn't afford when they were released.

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Pickups date 1967

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Lifting the pickguard and bridge shows how red the finish used to be:

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It’s a really cool guitar, that feels great even with the five rusty strings currently on it. It has definitely experienced a lot of use in the past, though the frets have plenty of life left. The fretboard has a good layer of gunk on it, that might be easy to remove. The pickups and knobs work fine, but the bridge volume knob is a bit loose and tapers off a bit too quick.

Apart from a good cleaning, it needs a repair as well. I could use some advice here, as I’m rather inexperienced with guitar repair. To start with, the headstock has a crack from the top to the tuner post hole:

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I figured that I might break the headstock further, when I put on all twelve strings instead of the current five strings. The extra tensions might be too much to handle for a headstock in this shape. Any opinions on this? What would be the best approach to repair this? Or can I just ignore it, and set up the guitar anyway?

A couple of screws from the tuning pegs are not original, one post looks a bit bent and one post sits loose (I suspect the bushing is missing). How could I restore it? Would you advice to look for vintage period correct Waverly tuners and transplant the required parts from there?

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The bridge has two nuts, and one of them needs replacement. What approach would you suggest?

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So how did I get this for free? Just a coincidence of plain luck and a good bit of opportunism. Just when I had left the store, a rather exuberant couple was about to enter, taking frivolous selfies with some stuff they were bringing in. One of them carried this guitar and an oversized lampshade. So I just asked her: Hey, that's a nice looking great guitar, did you just buy it or are you donating it to the thrift store? She said: We’re giving everything away… would you like it? Me: well, eh yes, of course! The store owner noticed it and didn't seem to mind either. Thank god for luck and generous people!

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JSett
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Re: NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

Post by JSett » Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:00 pm

Good luck indeed!

That headstock crack could likely be fixed easy enough with some thin CV glue wicked into it and a good clamp but I'm sure others with more experience will chime in
Silly Rabbit, don't you know scooped mids are for kids?

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MattK
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Re: NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

Post by MattK » Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:28 pm

Amazing score! Agreed those cracks just need a glue and clamp, but I’d use a wood-specific glue like Titebond red, thinned 10% with water, and wiped into the crack using pieces of paper or thin plastic. A good coverage with enough to squeeze out a bit when clamped (wipe off with a damp cloth), will give you a bond stronger than the original wood.
Looking at the state of it the timber looks very dry, you might consider putting it in a case with a humidifier for a week or so to bring it back into a good state before subjecting it to 12 strings of tension.
What a beauty.

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Sweetfinger
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Re: NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

Post by Sweetfinger » Sun Jan 23, 2022 7:10 pm

That headstock separation is "V" shaped. With no tension on it, if it can't be forced together with your fingers, it will likely need a spline- a thin v shaped piece of wood slid into the crack, then glued and clamped.

You can't swap out tuner buttons and worm gear shafts on Waverlys but you can swap posts and the slotted machine screws that hold the post/tooth gear assembly.

Is this a thrift shop you visit regularly or every so often? The owner may have looked like they were "ok" with your deal but I think I'd go back and hand him some cash or buy something, as a nod to the fact that your luck was made possible through his existence. The people were giving it away, that's their choice, but an intercept of donated goods (or interrupting a purchase) is considered quite rude from the business owner's view. Just the pickups on that thing are worth a couple hundred bucks on the low side.

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rbrcbr
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Re: NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

Post by rbrcbr » Sun Jan 23, 2022 7:38 pm

Incredible score, these particular Harmony 12s are really great. Funny enough, this 12 is the only guitar my frugal/untainted by vintage hype/former bandmate picked up while we were at Carter's in Nashville that clicked and convinced him that some vintage guitars actually are special hahaha. Really wish I'd tried to get one since then, you can't really find em and the prices have doubled on these too.

Best of luck with the repair, seems to be an easy fix. Worst case scenario, you put a little bit of money into a free guitar that is worth a lot more than whatever work you put into it.

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SignoftheDragon
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Re: NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

Post by SignoftheDragon » Sun Jan 23, 2022 8:04 pm

Amazing!

Repairs seem doable without too much specialized knowledge- the tips above are as good as I can offer. Glue & clamp that monster up and get it roaring!

The tuners should be relatively easy to source- I've seen full arrays of vintage examples on the usual sites recently.

This will be a great beauty once it's restored- please keep us posted on progress & lots of pics!

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Re: NGD: Harmony electric 12 string Advice needed

Post by woster » Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:30 pm

Thanks everyone for your advice! This is really helpful. The headstock repair sounds feasible, so I will give it a shot. I’ll definitely post updates here.

As for the karma thing, I went back to the store today. I’m a regular customer and got their regular warm welcome. They told me they got two acoustic guitar earlier that week, and didn’t mind me getting the Harmony at all. So we’re good. And besides, the owner drives a BMW X5, so I guess his business is doing well enough ;)

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