Harmony H950T Tenor Guitar to Octave Mandolin

I’ve been looking for the right instrument to do this conversion. A few weeks ago, on Craigslist, I found a 1965 Harmony tenor guitar, model H950T. It was a two hour drive away but after seeing the pictures and talking to the owner, it seemed to be worth checking out.

It was in excellent shape, despite being filthy. It had been left behind in a foreclosed house and rescued by one of the people cleaning things out.

It took me nearly two hours of cleaning, lay by layer, to get
Down to the finish.

The result was a nice solid guitar with very few cosmetic flaws. A small crack in the top by the bottom of the right f-hole, which I repaired to keep it from going any further.

At some point in it’s life, the guitar had a neck reset. The neck was straight and there seemed to be few other issues.

The conversion became very simple. Drill out the tailpiece to accept 8 strings, a new nut made from fossil mastodon, a bit of work on the bridge, and 8 Grover Mini’s on the headstock.

I did the grunt work installing the tuners, all the drilling, got all the parts squared around and took it to my luthier friend here in Oberlin. He finished the nut, strung it up with new D’Addario OM strings and set the action.

I added the replacement pickguard and the finishing touch of a Very nice Trophy strap. The conversion is essentially finished for now.

It has some fret wear around the 7-8 fret wires. My luthier friend and I have decided to leave it for now. In 2-3 months, I will have a new tailpiece finished with the correct hole spacing. We’ll check the neck for any twisting or moving. If nothing moves, we will remove the fretwires, give the board a nice radius and install new wires. Then he can set the action and we will watch it for movement.

It has an awesome sound! The solid birch body gives it a big sound. It fills the room. Haven’t been able to put it down all week.

I’ll post some in-process pictures and some sound files in the next few days.

Any comments and questions are certainly welcome. This is my first conversion. I’m certainly. No expert and i’m always open to fresh ideas.

Thanks

Attachment 165151

Looka great to me. You did a good job!

https://youtu.be/qiYrA0bKOew

Some sound.
My playing is not the best. I have nerve damage in my left shoulder/arm/hand.
My fingers don’t always do what I ask.

But you get the idea.

More later.

Thanks!

Nice job and cool to have something not everyone else is playing!

https://youtu.be/jWyUMUI4f2c

Thank you.
I like having something unique and a little off center

Another sound clip.
Forgive my playing ability.

Nice condition guitar!

Great work!

Looks and sounds nice. Good find. Good job.

I was going to say it's a shame not to leave it as a tenor guitar, but it looks cool and sounds good -so nice one, enjoy it :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by derbex

I was going to say it's a shame not to leave it as a tenor guitar, but it looks cool and sounds good -so nice one, enjoy it :)

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Thanks!

I understand completely. I wrestled with the same idea.
In the end, I wanted something unique, different, that was not too difficult to convert, and would have an awesome sound.

I simply can’t afford a new octave mandolin and there is really nothing that compares in sound and structure that’s affordable for me at this point.

It’s a beautiful instrument. It has history, character and a great sound. It is just soooo much fun to play!

Thanks again for the nice comments.

Tim

How did this guitar hold up over time to the conversion with the added strings? Considering doing this myself, didn’t know if it was worth it. Thanks!

Nice work!
I had a Harmony that had been converted to OM and I went further and made it a mandocello. It held up fine in both situations.
I preferred the sound without the pickguard.