Harmolin Hawaiian Acoustic Guitar , c. 1940s
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Item # 496
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Harmolin Hawaiian Acoustic Guitar, c. 1940s, made in USA, sunburst lacquer finish, spruce top, birch body.
Here's one for the books: A highly unusual 7-string square-neck flat-top Hawaiian guitar with a "Rube Goldberg"-esque pitch-changing system for the third and fourth strings -- activated by knee levers beneath the neck! This very intriguing curiosity from the annals of steel guitar history was obviously someone's pet brainchild that never quite took the world by storm. Could this be a blind alley on the way to the pedal steel?
The folding knee levers operate metal bars leading to spring-loaded cams in a box under the headstock. These change the pitch of two strings which ride in slot-headed screws behind the nut. The lever system is stamped "HAWAIIAN HARMOLIN, pat. Pend." on one of the bars. The whole assembly is very nicely made with multiple points of adjustment -- certainly not a thrown together affair!
Generally well made at the quality level of a better prewar Harmony (who almost certainly built this instrument), the guitar is a slot-headed square neck flat top with flush frets. It has a ladder braced two-tone sunburst spruce top and birch back, triple binding on top, single binding on back and soundhole, pin bridge, bone saddle and nut. The nut is extended with the seventh string beyond edge of fingerboard. The fingerboard has pearl dot inlay and the notes on one string are marked off in gold paint stencil. Tuners are unplated brass with black plastic buttons.
Overall length is 37.5 in. (95.2 cm.), 14 in. (35.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3.875 in. (9.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24.25 in. (616 mm.).
Clean overall with some minor wear and scratching, mostly to the top. Structurally fine except for several hairline grain cracks on the spruce top: one is still open, the rest are glued up. One of the pitch-changing levers is bent; otherwise the system appears intact, if not exactly functional. It could probably be restored with some TLC and a little ingenuity to figure out how it was supposed to work in the first place! While this guitar is currently playable, we offer it as a unique collector's item and display piece. Sold as is, condition as described.
Here's one for the books: A highly unusual 7-string square-neck flat-top Hawaiian guitar with a "Rube Goldberg"-esque pitch-changing system for the third and fourth strings -- activated by knee levers beneath the neck! This very intriguing curiosity from the annals of steel guitar history was obviously someone's pet brainchild that never quite took the world by storm. Could this be a blind alley on the way to the pedal steel?
The folding knee levers operate metal bars leading to spring-loaded cams in a box under the headstock. These change the pitch of two strings which ride in slot-headed screws behind the nut. The lever system is stamped "HAWAIIAN HARMOLIN, pat. Pend." on one of the bars. The whole assembly is very nicely made with multiple points of adjustment -- certainly not a thrown together affair!
Generally well made at the quality level of a better prewar Harmony (who almost certainly built this instrument), the guitar is a slot-headed square neck flat top with flush frets. It has a ladder braced two-tone sunburst spruce top and birch back, triple binding on top, single binding on back and soundhole, pin bridge, bone saddle and nut. The nut is extended with the seventh string beyond edge of fingerboard. The fingerboard has pearl dot inlay and the notes on one string are marked off in gold paint stencil. Tuners are unplated brass with black plastic buttons.
Overall length is 37.5 in. (95.2 cm.), 14 in. (35.6 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3.875 in. (9.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24.25 in. (616 mm.).
Clean overall with some minor wear and scratching, mostly to the top. Structurally fine except for several hairline grain cracks on the spruce top: one is still open, the rest are glued up. One of the pitch-changing levers is bent; otherwise the system appears intact, if not exactly functional. It could probably be restored with some TLC and a little ingenuity to figure out how it was supposed to work in the first place! While this guitar is currently playable, we offer it as a unique collector's item and display piece. Sold as is, condition as described.