# 1965 Harmony H59 Rocket back from the dead



## garretrevels (Mar 9, 2007)

Hey guys, I thought I'd share my first ever project guitar with you. I recently Bin'ed this Harmony Rocket, it had the whole side split open and was covered in filth.

I've never done anything like it before, so it was all a great experience to me, I'm happy with how it turned out given my inexperience. And love the fact that I kinda brought it back from the dead.

Here's the before and after.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Nice work man. Very nice.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

awesome, great job on the restoral. Got yourself a pretty cool guitar there.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Hard to believe it is the same axe !!

Congrats on the work....very well done:bow:

Dave


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## garretrevels (Mar 9, 2007)

thanks guys, its great to see the results. I'm really happy. This guitar was destined to be parted out piece by piece, to bring it back to where it is now feels awesome, especially since I love these old guitars so much.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Did you glue and fill it?


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## sneakypete (Feb 2, 2006)

looks really good, you should be proud...but I think they coulda stuck one more knob on there don`t you?


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## garretrevels (Mar 9, 2007)

shoretyus said:


> Did you glue and fill it?


thanks guys

yeah I glued it, it was an open enough crack to be able to get a good amount of glue (titebond) in there easily, and from what I had read, it said on side cracks like that you don't have to reinforce it with splints, because the structure of the arch itself is strong enough to hold. So it was a simple glue job, everything lined up good with some strategic clamping (9 clamps), then a bit of sanding and you couldn't tell by touch that there was a crack there.

Then I painted it with crafters wood paint of all things, probably not the right way to have gone about it but it being my first time I was intimidated using spray on paints, with the crafters paint I felt I had way more control over what I was doing, I was able to mix and blend the colors exactly how I wanted them. I knew if I messed it up, I could easily sand it back off. I wouldn't think about doing this for a whole guitar, but for this application it worked fine. Anyway I got it to the point where it looked great to me, I then went ahead and shot it with a coat of aerosol glossy nitro based lacquer. I made sure it wasn't gonna react bad with the paint. It looked good so I shot 3 more coats....... and this is the result.

so yeah, maybe not a pro job per say, but for my first attempt and not really being a handy guy generally, I couldn't be more pleased.


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## garretrevels (Mar 9, 2007)

Here's a shot of it pre-paint.


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## Edutainment (Jan 29, 2008)

I can't even tell from that after shot that there was a crack in it. Nice job and nice axe.


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## garretrevels (Mar 9, 2007)

Thanks man


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

Wow! Cool resto for a cool guitar! GREAT JOB!
-Mikey


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## Doctor Blind (Oct 17, 2008)

Looks brand new nice job man! Nice to see the guitar was given another chance to sing.


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## faracaster (Mar 9, 2006)

Very cool work Garret !!!
Good for you. Looks like you did a great job. 
I love those old Harmony guitars.

Cheers
Pete


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## garretrevels (Mar 9, 2007)

Thanks guys!


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## mario (Feb 18, 2006)

What an awesome job you did. Looking at the pics you posted, I cannot imagine anyone doing any better. Those old Harmony guitars are great. Years ago, I played the same model you have that a friend once owned and it sounded amazing. BTW...you have a killer collection of guitars. Enjoy!:food-smiley-004:


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

You know, I'd love to have an H54-1 Rocket some day.


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## garretrevels (Mar 9, 2007)

I'm lovin' the guitar, it really can get a bunch of different tones. Handy when you're dealing with simple volume and tone style amps like I am, it makes even the simplest home setups pretty versatile.

Robert1950, I'm with ya, I'd like to see first hand what the new reissues are like, here's a demo of the new model like mine.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gymU2Puqf8w]gymU2Puqf8w[/youtube]


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