I could not resist this neck-through Harmony in really amazing condition, maybe two pin-prick size blemishes on the whole thing. I've tried looking up info on it, and what I find is this:
(1) Generally, the Harmony guitars from the period that said "est 1892" on the headstock were cheaper, and at some point during that time production moved from Japan to Korea.
(2) I know the similar neck-through Skylark sold in 1981 through JC Penny, and on a hunch I looked in other department store catalogues from that period. I found a similar looking guitar, but not exact, from 1981 Montgomery Ward. So my best guess is that this might have been imported through Montgomery Ward in 1982 or so? But then again, if this was a Department store guitar, I'm wondering if they would not be more common...
(3) The controls are identical to the Vantage Artist 800. Matsumoku made a lot of very similar / overlapping neck-throughs, so to me this might weigh in favor of this being a Matsumoku. If it is not, then I'd say some one tried VERY hard to copy the Vantage Artist 800, and Matsumoku neck-through guitars in general.
(4) I note that the tuner / volume knobs are EXACTLY the same on both my Skylark and this Harmony (same transparent brass/gold, with white markings, same font, etc.), which would seem to weigh in favor of this being a Matsumoku. Both also have similar brass nuts & the bridge hardware is identical but different shade (chrome versus gold/brass). However, the Skylark is 45mm at the nut and the Harmony is 43mm. Both are around 57 or 58mm at the last fret. However, the Skylark is 24 fret and the Harmony is 22 fret.
I have to say that the Harmony matches up very well to the Skylark in every area, to my eye, hands and ear. I cannot see any finishing flaws or the like. Both have nice size frets, very playable. Since getting the Harmony, I reach for it more than the Skylark. I had been playing the Skylark pretty exclusively for the last month before getting the Harmony, and I felt no issue with playability when I switched. If anything, the Harmony frets seem more substantial, but then that may be because it looks like it was a total closet queen.
It's hard to compare tone because they have such different controls. I mean, the Skylark has so MANY options, in a way it's a relief to play something simpler. I often play these electrics unplugged so as not to bother family members, so I am big on judging a guitar's "dry" tone first, it has to sound good unplugged, like a good (albeit quiet and thin sounding) acoustic. Both of these pass the dry test and sound quite nice unplugged. The treble / neck pick-up is really warm in single or humbucker, and gets chunky in a nice way. The rhythm / bridge pick-up is very quacky, which can be good for some applications, can do some funky stuff with it. You can alter / bleed off the quackiness by turning down the tone if you like, which gives some nice tonal options. Both together seems like too much going on, the chunky warmth of the neck and quacky bridge, so I prefer them separate, or with the tone on the bridge turned down to 4 so they match better.
I was playing through a relatively cheap desktop solid state amp (Yamaha THR-10, highly recommend) on clean channel with gain, treble, mid and bass all at noon, and just a bit of reverb, and it was sounding really nice.
Ultimately, I like the Harmony every bit as much as the Skylark. They both have different strengths. I have to try harder with the Skylark to dial in a tone that I like, I can't just leave everything at noon, but instead I'm tweaking a lot. And I keep changing my mind what settings I like best (right now, it's neck and bridge together, with the bridge in split coil, as this particular setting unlike any other does some interesting compression stuff to the tone when I flip the phase switch). Oh, I should point out that you can't split the Harmony pickups separately since there's only one switch, so you can play neck single or double, bridge single or double, or both single or both double coil.
If anyone has info on this Harmony, or even theories, let me know.
Thanks,
Ken