Yet another ebay score...

1960 Aldens H-45 Stratotone. This one is in amazing condition and has an ebony fretboard. I added the bigsby and tune-o-matic. New wiring harness is just a toggle switch plus master volume.

The fretboards on the low end models are usually incredibly rough. Harmony didn't finish sand at all! Here I've buffed the first few frets smooth with abrasive pads and ultra-fine sandpaper.

Installing side dots isn't too difficult. I drilled the holes and glued the plastic rods in place with black superglue. Snip with cutters and let it set up...

...then trim flush with a razor blade, making several cuts to get it level. Finish up by polishing it out.

Old tailpiece holes are filled with toothpicks using the same method as the side dots. The green wire will ground the tailpiece and reduce hum. I drilled a hole just larger than the wire and tied an overhand knot in the wire so it won't get lost the next time the tailpiece is removed. Hate it when that happens :^)

I'm a fan of the stock tuners-retro looks and very lightweight. I upgraded to the new version Grover Sta-tites because I wanted better tuning stability with the bigsby. The oldies had about a 7:1 ratio. The replacements are 18:1 and very smooth. The shafts fit the stock holes perfectly. I didn't use grommets so I can go back to the originals later.

This view of the neck pocket shows why so many Harmony semis have damage at the jack. Notice the nice three-ply top but the sides are single-ply. The neck block is poplar and fills most of the upper bout of the guitar so there's no problem adding a strap button.

The bridge block on most of these is poplar but this one is ebony. The block makes it very easy to install tune-o-matic bushings. The bridge upgrade adds lots of clarity and sustain and tuning stability is improved immensely. I don't glue the bushings in so the stock bridge could go back on and cover the holes.

Best pickups ever made. Just a flat magnet with a coil of wire around it. The whole deal is only 1/4" thick so the entire pickup is sensing the strings. As far as I can tell the different versions all have the same construction. Early ones test around 3.5k. Goldtones are more like 10.5k so the wire guage must have changed. Lots of these pickups have open coils and they still manage to produce a bright, weak output-possibly just the microphonics of the coil coming through?

Hey, I didn't take this??

OK, so what I used a stupid photo page template to do this page. These are nice photos, better than I could have taken myself.

Nice!!!!!!

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