1945 Harmony Patrician H1415 Natural

Harmony Patrician H1415 1945 | $625 | (v2241) The Harmony Patrician was a near top-of-the-line offering for the venerable Chicago company. Constructed of quality solid woods with snappy appointments it targeted the budget-minded semi-pro musician. The Patrician line must have been a good seller for Harmony because its production lasted about thirty years. The Patrician was not one specific guitar with standardized specs, but rather a line of archtops with varying specs, and priced accordingly. The 1940 Harmony catalog, for example, shows ten iterations of the model. The H1415, with the solid spruce top, was the apparant queen of the lineup!

The top is solid spruce with a curious strip of mahogany pieced through the midsection under the strings. The back and sides are solid mahogany. The top features an attractive multi-colored marquetry around the top. Both top and back are bound with white celluloid. The neck is mahogany carved in a comfortable C-profile, topped with a radiused Brazilian rosewood fingerboard featuring inlaid celluloid block markers, and also bound in white celluloid. The headstock is veneered with faux-tortoise celluloid and engraved with the Patrician logo and branch-like graphic. The pickguard is four layers, with faux-tortoise on top.

The lower bout measures 16 1/4" across and the scale length is 24 3/4". The neck measures 1 11/16" across at the nut, and string spacing is 2 1/4" across at the saddle.

The guitar appears to be in mostly original condition with only the tailpiece and tuning buttons changed. The neck was reset by the previous owner. There are no cracks in the top or sides (that line on the upper treble bout is a deep scratch but not a through crack). The top/side jointure is dented from the pressure of the original tailpiece. The top seam of the mahogany joint appears to have been reglued. The braces appear tight, the top retains its arched integrity, and the neck has the proper relief for good action. We recently leveled and dressed the frets. The finish is original and shows a lot of wear from over 85 years of use, but the guitar still looks good overall!

With a very comfortable neck profile and the action set at 6 & 7/64" the guitar is a pleasure to play. Strung with 11-50 nickle strings, the sound is very pleasing to the ear even for a fingerpicker! Pushed hard it produces the warm and 'scratchy' archtop sound with good projection, but fingerpicked it mellows a bit but retains good depth and tone across the spectrum. Also a good candidate for Carter picking.

Comes with a soft case.

Check out the sound clip