I have a Harmony Stella guitar # 12531 made in Taiwan is it worth anything.

It looks like an old Harmony H44 Stratotone. Great guitar in the 50’s and 60’s. Ritchie Valens played the H44. I think that the headstock is bolt on and there may be numbers where the headstock meets the body. Be careful with the trusrod. That’s the small cover on the headstock. You can see similar guitars, though newer, on http://www,guitarquest.net .

OK, did a little research. Yours says est. 1892 on the headstock, so that makes it an import. Harmony only started using that when they moved production outside the USA. You really need to find out EXACTLY how old it is and where it was made to determine whether it is worth fixing up. The quality of the guitars made in Asia varies greatly from one country to the next. Japan made guitars from about the mid-late 60’s made great strides catching up to the USA factories. Korea, Taiwan and China wouldn’t start to catch up until much later, and in some cases still haven’t caught up unless they are making guitars for the bigger USA companies which demand stricter quality control. I have a Harmony strat here and the model number ends in the letter “T”, which means Taiwan. It’s a 1990’s model and not bad. It’s better than a Fender Made in Mexico, IMO. If you can find a model number somewhere on it, that might help.

Still, even if it’s not worth restoring, it might make a good base for a project guitar. The body shape is not your usual Fender/Gibson clone, so it has potential to be made into something really unique.

Everything you ever wanted to know about USA built Harmony guitars can be found here.

http://harmony.demont.net/

Sorry, no info here about Harmony imports, if that’s what you have.

Toxix, what did you end up doing with the guitar?

Hi Toxix,

I’m just curious to know why you believe this guitar is a Harmony. I don’t see any markings in the photos that suggest Harmony.

This instrument is most definately not an American Harmony and appears to be a few notches below the Korean Harmonys of the mid 1980’s. Two pickups with two knobs, now there is some cost cutting for you.

It’s definately a low end budget guitar, don’t spend to much money trying to get it back in shape.

Welcome in Toxix,

Here’s Slash’s gear setup:
http://www.velvet-revolver.com/bandinfo_equipment.php#slash

and that Harmony of yours won’t be worth a huge amount. Some of the acoustics have their admirers but that solid electric looks a bit planky, if you don’t mind me saying. The baseplate is there, so you’re missing four of the saddles. Have a look at pics of saddles at Allparts or StewMac to see if there’s a close match. Best of luck.