Harmony Stella H942 Refurb Project

[dhoenisch]

I want to apologize up front about this post. I am terrible at remembering to take pictures of a project while I'm working on it since I get way into the work, and forget to document it. Also, this post is a bit long and picture heavy, so pull up a cup of coffee and read on.

 

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About 4 or so years ago, I purchased a Harmony Stella H942 guitar at a garage sale for my sister for $20, in near new condition. Since I purchased hers, I had always been looking for one for myself. Early summer, I finally found one via CraigsList, and snagged it. It was in rough condition for $30. I still wanted it though.

 

After bringing it home, I assessed the damage.

 

I had a bit of a list for this guitar. It had been well played since 1968, which is good. That's how it should be. My list included:

 

Remove graffiti

Remove pick guiard and buff

Install side markers

Refret

Find original tuning machines and bushings

Fix two cracks at the soundhole

fix belly bulge

fill screw holes on bridge, and reglue

Add a couple of extra coats of shellac

new saddle

new nut

 

Okay, so I started out by removing the old strings. I also then removed the tuning machines and started my search for the replacement ones. I found a used music store not too far from me, and the guy had a set and a half of non-complete tuning machines. I purchased all of them for $4, and combined all of them to get one complete set.

 

The bushings, I found later.

 

Than, with some goof off, I was able to remove all the permanent marker, paint marker and gook from the guitar. There is a slight remnant of it on the top, but not bad considering what I started with.

 

Off came the glued in saddle, bridge and nut. After I unscrewed the bridge, it took very little heat to remove it since the bulging belly had removed itself from part of the bridge. I then filled the screw holes in the bridge with cyno glue and some ebony dust. It is still noticeable, but only from up close. Much better looking than the two large screw heads.

 

I installed the side markers next. It's a rather easy process, and decided to go ahead and do it now. It's basically, drill a 3/16" hole, add a little glue (cyno.), press in the rod, and snip it off with an exacto knife. Sand level, and you're done. Sorry, I didn't take a picture of this process.

 

The bulge got worked on next. The way I do that is I use a clothes iron and a blue shop towel, folded and placed over the area where I removed the bridge. I wet the towel, put the iron on it for about a minute, and repeat the process until the wood is pliable. Once that's done, I clamp it all down with a piece of maple on both sides of the guitar, and clamp it for a week. The outcome was a perfectly flat top. Sorry, but I didn't take a picture of this process on this guitar.

 

After fixing the bulge, I started on the refret. I removed the frets using a soldering iron, with a groove cut into the tip so I wouldn't slip off of the frets. One by one, I heated the frets, and pulled them out carefully. The fretboard is ebony, and quite brittle, so I used a lot of cyno glue and accelerator in all of the chips, and started to sand it all down.

 

The fretboard came out quite clean and nice looking after the final sanding.

 

Okay, new frets went in. After a leveling and crowning, I started working on the cracks. Basically, I cut some pieces of maple, about 1/8" on my band saw, and sanded it down to a desired thickness. I than beveled the edges, and using hot hide glue, I glued these pieces under the cracks, and clamped them overnight.

 

The next day, I removed the clamps, and with an exacto knife, trim and bevel the excess wood.

 

Than, I added three fresh coats of shellac (the original finish was also shellac). Sanded it down and buffed out the whole guitar to a decent shine. I didn't want a mirror finish, I wanted it to look like nothing was added. I didn't restain. The stain was naturally removed by a lot of playing, and I wanted it to keep that well deserved look. I just wanted to protect what was left after all the cleaning I did to the guitar.

 

Next, I glued (using hot hide glue) the bridge back on, made a new bone saddle for it, glued it in the saddle slot, carved a new bone nut for it, installed the tuning machines, and checked the action. The action was high when I got it, but I blamed it on the belly bulge. Well, I was wrong. The action was still quite high. Neck reset time.

 

Again, I didn't take pictures of the removal process, but I followed Frank Ford's advice (www.frets.com) on removing the neck. I purchased a cappuchino maker from a garage sale for $5, and made a steam needle. Removed the 15th to the 21st fret, used a clothing iron to heat off the fretboard, drilled a small hole in the 15th fret slot, and steamed the neck right off. It was assembled with hot hide glue, so it came of in just a matter of about 3 or 4 minutes.

 

After that, I cleaned up the gluing area for the reglue. Still following Frank Ford's process, I started fitting the neck. Once I got the neck at the proper angle, on went some fresh hot hide glue in the mortise, and under the fretboard, and threw on some clamps. I like using strap clamps for the heel. It keeps things nice and tight.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I put the last few frets in before I reglued the neck back on. I than leveled and crowned them afterwards.

 

...

[dhoenisch]

...

 

Well, after a setup, and a stringing, the guitar plays nicely, and sings to me.

As you can see, she aint perfect, but I didn't want her to be. I wanted her to be structurally sound and playable.

 

The tuning machines, even after a good clean-up and oiling, are hard to tune with. Thanks to Trina, I should have a new set of tuning machines on her this or next weekend, whenever I can get to it.

 

Hope you all enjoyed.

 

Dan

[AugTPD]

Well done! I would love to bring an old guitar back to life like that someday.

[babablowfish]

Wow, that was great! Thanks for the pictorial/tutorial. Now you should post a song or two on the annex with that old Stella.

[totamus]

Great project. Thanks for the share. with inspiration like this, maybe someday I will find the time to try my own skills. Great pics too!

[daklander]

Nice job. Looks great and I'll bet it sounds very nice.

[OldGuitarPlayer]

Great job. Thanks for the info and the pics. It was very informative and the guitar looks really great.

[Samilyn]

I am impressed! You did a great job!

 

All the grafitti on that sweet old Stella nearly brought tears to my eyes. So glad you were able to restore it so nicely. Now it has a well-loved/much-played look instead of an abused one.

 

I like the pretty rosette, too. I'm glad it didn't have to be removed or altered.

 

And I must add my thanks to Trina for contributing the tuning machines to this very worthwhile project.

[lauren]

was in my mouth as I scrolled down through your pics wondering about a happy ending. My goodness, I am in awe of what you did.

[guitarist21]

Nice work! Very cool project, glad it worked out. I'm especially impressed by your removal of the graffiti. Looks really clean now.

 

What was the used music shop you visited, just out of curiousity?

 

Ellen

[dhoenisch]

Thanks, all, for your compliments. This guitar was definately a labor of love. It was my summer weekend project, though I had a couple of others that I worked on as well. Actually, now that I think of it, would you all be interested in other posts of projects I have done? Nothing was this major, but I do have one project of an Epiphone with a snapped headstock I could share. Also, I do this for fun, not for profit. I also do not consider myself an expert in this at all. I just enjoy wood working, and restoring things, and musical instruments happens to be one of them.

 

Ellen, the place I went to for the tuning machines is Smeltekop Repair in Oak Park. He's a one man shop, who has been there for many years. He specializes in brass instruments, but does have string instruments there that he restores/repairs and sells. I figure he would have been my best bet for gettin my hands on those tuning machines. Appearantly, I was right.

 

Dan

[T.B.]

in my best eor impression. trina spent a great deal of time twisting and turning her laptop around trying to read the graffiti.

 

Like Ellen, I'm impressed with the removal of the graffiti, boy I thought something like that couldn't be cleaned without rubbing chunks of wood with it. Stella looks mighty fine... might fine indeed.

 

Dan, I gotta question: When you're refitting a neck how do you go about getting a proper angel? Is it a question of "sliding" the neck back into it's previous position or does it take some moving the neck around and remeasuring to get/find a proper angle? Thanks

 

Trina

 

P.S. Samilyn

[babablowfish]

Definitely post all the projects you can!

[Samilyn]

in my best eor impression . trina spent a great deal of time twisting and turning her laptop around trying to read the graffiti.

 

Me, too.

[dhoenisch]

Well, with the neck, as far as what I did, is I took very little material off of the sides of the neck joint, and put it back in place, than with sand paper, I kept sanding it down until the neck angle was where it should be. To find that out, take a straitedge, and lay it on all of the frets. The strait edge should just be touching the top of the bridge.

 

Basically, I use www.frets.com as my guide for all the work I do. This is the page from that site that I studied until I felt comfortable enough to go about it myself for the first time: http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/NeckReset/00028Reset/00028reset01.html

 

Frank Ford's site is very addictive. When I first found it, I spent hours reading through it. It's amazing I didn't get fired.

 

Also, I'll work on adding my other repair projects to this site. I really enjoy reading it all when others post it, so I'll do the same myself.

 

Dan

[guitarcapo]

Fixing up old Harmony guitars is a lot of fun. My favorite are the Jumbo Sovereigns. They're all solid wood and can usually be had for 300 bucks or so needing neck resets.

 

Her'e a couple I've fixed that sound as good as any Martin D-18 from the 60's costing 10 times as much.

 

Did you know the famous intro to Stairway to Heaven was recorded on one of these?