Topic: Harmony 6362: 80 bucks well spent!!! ***multiple recordings included***

[Blue in VT]

Howdy all!!!

Well...after recording my Larrivee the other night (see payday thread below) I thought I would sit down and try to get some recordings of my beater...just for reference...and I have to say that she sounds pretty good on tape!

The guitar is a ladder braced Harmony 6362 from 1970...I bought it off ebay for 80 shipped and have put a bunch of work into her....so she's worth a bit more now but will never be a valuable guitar.  Her name is Roberta

heres a pre work pic:


So for sound clips I have a variety of tunes that I recorded...lets start with some Mance Lipscomb tunes...he's the reason I bought a Harmony in the first place cause thats what he played.  Thanks to the constructive help of folks on this board I have reintroduced a thumb pic into some of my playing...Mance in particular...so these first ones are played with a thumb pic...a goldengate to be exact and a little bit of nail on the first two fingers.  As I was looking to get the tone of the guitar...sorry no singing this time!

http://media.putfile.com/Roberta--Nightime-is-the-Right-time
http://media.putfile.com/Roberta--Captain-Captain

Heres one Mance tune that didn't sound good to my ears with the pick but came out well with bare fingers:

http://media.putfile.com/Roberta--Sugarbabe

And finally here are a couple of Elizabeth Cotten tunes played with bare fingers as well

http://media.putfile.com/Roberta--Mama-your-Papa-Loves-you
http://media.putfile.com/Roberta--Freight-Train

No one is ever going to claim that this is a sweet sounding guitar but I think it works particularly well for the Mance tunes...heavy palm damping and a thumb pick bring out the character in this guitar IMO.

ENJOY!!!

cheers,

Blue

[Mike Brosnan]

Sounds great, Blue!
Like you said, I think it sounds particularly good for the Mance tunes, but it works fine for Libba too. 
I'm all about the funky old beaters.  I picked up a 60's(ish) Harmony Stella at a thrift store for $25!  Huge cracks on the sides.  Neck joint needs some lovin'.  Action's about a 1/4" at the 12th fret!  But it sounds great for slide!  I didn't even change the nearly rusty strings it came with, but I think that adds to its character.
Nice work!
Mike

[Blue in VT]

 

Thanks Mike...she is a fun guitar to play...For a cheap old box. 

Cheers,

Blue

[TX_Songster]

Sounds great!  Nice playing.  I love your motivation for buying the guitar in the first place.  I may be on the hunt for one some day too.

[Blue in VT]

Thanks TX!!!

Love your picture!!!  I went to school in College station...just a few miles from Navasota...but strangly didn't find Mance until I had moved up here to Vermont....sigh....I would have loved to cruised around Nav. to get a feel for the town...plus I understand that they have a Lipscomb festival in the summer....I maight have to make a trip back for that some year!

Cheers!

Blue

[TX_Songster]

Hi Blue-
Isn't that the way it goes!  Although I guess I had the opposite experience.  I was living in Minnesota, and I had a guitar teacher who turned me on to Mance, Black Ace and a lot those old blues guys.  I married a gal from Texas (who was living in MN at the time), and we moved to Fort Worth about three years ago.  My in-laws live in College Station.  One afternoon I drove down to Navasota from there, and found Mance's grave site.  It was neat experience to see that Brazos river bottom country.

By the way, if you ever make it back for an A&M reunion, there is a great place to see old country blues close by.  The Camp Street Cafe in Crockett, TX is about 50 miles North East of College Station.  It's a small place, but they get some great big name acts to play there.

Joel

[Blue in VT]

Great...thanks for the tip...I'll have to check it out when I make it down there again.  I wasn't a full fledged Aggie...I was there for Grad school...so skipped the indoctrination of undergrads....but still have a lot of friends in the area that I hope to visit.

Cheers,

Blue