Harmony Rocket H53 from the early 1960s

This Harmony Rocket is a really great 1950s sounding guitar with a classic golden foiled Dearmond pickup. The sound is distinct, very woody in midrange tone but not soft on the edges like a jazz guitar. Rather it is a bit more saturated and "hot" sounding, with a bit of a sharp edge to it. You can really hear your pick digging into the strings.

The tone control really shapes the sound drastically, as you'll see in my video below.

The neck is super straight, I think it has a simple steel bar in it, not sure, but this thing will not bend. At least, not this particular one. It's a joy to play.

I picked up this guitar from someone on the south shore. I don't have any "before" pictures but trust me when I say this, I actually think some mice lived inside it at one time. I didn't find any mouse droppings, but it was full of little bits of pillow stuffing and seed shells. Maybe the stuffing was in there to reduce feedback, but the seed shells? The guitar was covered in dust, the bridge wasn't adjusted correctly (and it had been glued at one time I believe). And there was some gummy puffy sticker of some kind once attached to the headstock with some horrible glue that was very difficult to get off. This glue damaged some of the logo on the headstock.

Electronically, it seemed in good shape, however the volume control was frozen and the tone control was floating in its hole.

A good amount of work went into resurrecting this guitar. Everything is original except the hand-made pickguard with logo, and the pickguard bracket. It's definitely got nicks and dings, but it's got that vintage shine and plays like a dream. And of course, it sounds amazing.