Here’s how the old Harmony H906 short-scale hocky stick neck bass looked when I ‘won’ it from Goodwill Auctions for $90. Very rough, used a bunch so somebody loved it.
I dismantled it to sand, paint and foil up the cavity.
The paint was a dark sea-foam engine block enamel with ceramic so it won’t burn up if I get hot playing it.
I sanded to 320 grit but didn’t fill in dents. Pots and output jack needed cleaning and I had to do lots of set-up before it sounded nice.
Short scale therefore easy to play. Big humbucker sound. Lightweight too.
The strings are very bright D’Addarrio XL Nickels showing up my every fingering error with a scrape sound.
A nice old hocky stick neck Harmony short scale with twin mighty humbucker pickups and sexy offset body for $90 USD. A good deal and a new sound for me.
All text and images by todgermanica.com unless otherwise noted.
Very cool bass and work!! I just picked up a Harmony H906 yesterday for $100 from a 83yr. old retired road dog that loved that bass. He said it was 1959 model which I already knew these weren’t produced until the 70s(?) I believe.
Anyway..it was already repainted with some type of textured (sandyish..marlbized) paint that does infact match the original headstock color..which otherwise is all original as far as I can tell..to date.
Very easy to play!! Very light and comfortable to my 58yr old hands that struggle with full size basses.
No amp yet( coming today) but sounded very good in his 50w Yorkville combo amp.
Glad to see I’m not alone in digging this time capsule treasure from a day long gone.
Anything you can share with me would be more than appreciated as I’m a newbie to it and basses as a whole.
Thx Again and Cheers!!
Max
They are lovely little basses with quirky headstock. Like about half my projects it is now on my wall, really pulling the place together.
But not played because of hums and buzzes and…worn out mostly. I removed my D’Addario shorter roundwounds from it for my next shortscale bass. It can live on the wall until/if ever I get too it.
I’m just now finishing up a similar old salvage bass from that era, a Korean Peavey Milestone II ‘relic’ job P-bass clone that suffered fire, maybe.
I used the rest of that dark seafoam hi-temp engine block paint from the Harmony project on the bridge, neck plate and on my homemade pick guard for it.
It will need to wall hang also until I can render it fretless, the scarce Peavey neck being sweet but the frets are flattened off from wear. Again, brings the room together and can wait.
Sounds like you got a nice one, I’ve often considered texture finish. I do arthritis hand and finger PT every day so I can keep playing. That shorter scale does make it easier, shorter stretches.
In 3 years I’ve learned the I-IV-V blues progression and play mostly 12-bar primitive blues. I use the text Progressive Base, Turner/White, blues based to show the student the most useful bass blues runs, riffs, etc. Good included online tracks, videos, running TAB too. Good luck and thanks for the comment.