~1935 Harmony Rhythm King Tobacco Sunburst

Harmony Rhythm King H1235 c 1935 | $1750 | (C2102) To understand the context of the Harmony Rhythm King, one needs to look at the vast music empire Sears had created by 1935. In the second decade of the 20th century, Sears purchased the Harmony factory in Chicago to produce guitars for its booming mail order business. By this time, Sears was selling new-fangled phonograph players and records by all the popular artists of the day, plus mail-order guitars on which to play the music! In the late '20s Sears marketed the first 'celebrity endorsed' guitar, the Bradly Kindaid 'Houn' Dog' acoustic, and by 1935 had none other the singing cowboy superstar Gene Autry under contract to market Harmony 'Gene Autry' guitars. The Rhythm King is essentially the same as a '35 Gene Autry guitar but without the Singing Cowboy's endorsement.

The Rhythm King exhibits an unusual combination of appointments, but they reflect that time period of guitar building/evolution. It has a slotted head, a nod to traditional guitar design up until the late '20s early '30s. But, it has fourteen frets clear of the body, a nod to the emereging standard for modern guitar design, developed by Martin in their OM model. The back and sides are mahogany. The top is spruce with a subtle and attractive 'iced-tea' sunburst, trimmed with faux-tortoise, white and black binding. The bridge (replaced) is ebony. The neck is mahogany, carved in a modern-feeling 'C' shape, reinforced with a steel rod, and the orginal 'ebonized' fingerboard replaced with a new ebony board. The slotted head stock sports the Harmony profile, is overlaid with Brazilian rosewood veneer and sports the Rhythm King script in white-painted stencil. The tuners are upgraded to Stu Mac vintage replacements.

The guitar is 'grand-concert' size and measures 14 1/4" across at the lower bout. Scale length is 25 1/8". The fingerboard measures 1 3/4" across at the nut, and string spacing is 2 5/16" across at the saddle. action is set at 5 & 7/64", with ample saddle.

This formerly ladder-braced guitar was hot-rodded by James Burkett, who has built a reputation of X-bracing old ladder-braced flat tops. Along with the new X-bracing, the fingerboard was replaced with ebony, a replica ebony bridge was installed, the neck was reset, several top and back cracks were glued and cleated along with three cleats along the bass side where it appears there is a crack, although it doesn't show through to the inside. The finish is original and shows nicks and dings from age and use.

With its original steel truss rod and new fingerboard, the neck is straight and the guitar plays easily and feels light as a feather. The tone is full, with strong mids and power in both the treble and bass .. this guitar can really be driven hard with a flat pick without breaking up, for sure, but has wonderful openness and sustail when finger picked. This is our second time offering this guitar, and that extra play wear on the top attests to its playability and tone.

Comes with an older hard case.

Check out the sound clip.