'63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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pocaloc
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'63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by pocaloc » Sat Mar 13, 2021 4:12 pm

I bought, and posted about, this guitar 8 years ago. I finally upgraded it. I sent it in for the Baxendale conversion 6 months ago and it was delivered back to me today. 1st impression is good, very loud, dry and woody.

https://flic.kr/p/2kKH7HA

https://flic.kr/p/2kKCRxj

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Telliot
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Re: '63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by Telliot » Sat Mar 13, 2021 4:44 pm

I’d love to more about this! Can you tell me a bit about what he did to it and (if you wouldn’t mind) some neighborhood costs?
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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pocaloc
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Re: '63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by pocaloc » Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:02 pm

I had to pay to ship to them, and then it was quoted $1375 even. The basic conversion is $995. I added a K and K pure mini pickup, and a gator case. The actual price was $1247. I think they gave me the pickup for free, maybe because it did take them a full 6 months. The conversion process involves re-setting the neck, new frets, new tuners, a new rosewood bridge and all the x bracing and converting it to a thru body bridge. I think he re-planed the fretboard too. I thought it was a good deal for all you get compared to just going with a neck re-set. I’ve only had it back for a few hours. I’ve been putting it up against my J45. It’s definitely louder. The tuners are nice. They’re Grover.

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pocaloc
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Re: '63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by pocaloc » Sat Mar 13, 2021 5:04 pm

And a new bone nut.

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Jonesie
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Re: '63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by Jonesie » Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:23 pm

Oh nice! I've been curious about these. I first heard about them a few years ago because I think Patterson Hood has a few.

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pocaloc
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Re: '63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by pocaloc » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:07 am

I've been hesitant to go crazy praising it as I've done so many times in the honeymoon period. It sounds great though. Perfectly intonated, and I can't keep my hands off of it. I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm excited for the metallic zing to go away from the strings. That's when I'll be able to give it my full assessment.

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Re: '63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by El Reclusa » Tue Sep 28, 2021 5:30 am

So after a few months, what's the verdict?

Just got mine back from a dozen plus years with my oldest daughter (and left her my e-series mij strat)...probably needs a neck reset anyway but I've been eyeing the Baxendale conversions for ages. Worth it?

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pocaloc
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Re: '63 Harmony Sovereign acoustic-Baxendale Conversion

Post by pocaloc » Wed Sep 29, 2021 9:36 am

I do think it's worth the money. It's a nice acoustic guitar and if it was my only acoustic I would be happy with it. I'm pretty picky with what I want to hear with an acoustic. I went though quite a few nice guitars in the mid nineties until I landed on my J45, which I immediately loved. I go back and forth with my j45 and this Baxendale Harmony. The J45 seems to have more depth to the sound for lack of a better way of describing it and the Harmony is louder, a canon. They both have a nice woody tone. I really like both guitars so if I had to sell it would be a hard choice. I do think I would stick with the J45. A lot of that is tied to sentimentality. Anyway, I think it is worth the money. I think its a good bit better than an acoustic guitar that you would buy new for that price.

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