The Harmony Company is a former guitar manufacturing company that is currently a brand owned by Singapore-based BandLab Technologies. Harmony was, in its heyday, the largest

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

manufacturer in the United States. It made many types of

string instruments String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the Str ...

, including ukuleles, acoustic and electric guitars and violins. The company ceased in 1975, with the "Harmony" brand being relaunched by BandLab in 2018 to produce electric guitars and

amplifiers An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...

History

Harmony was founded in 1892 by Wilhelm Schultz. In 1916,

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began as ...

purchased it, in part to corner the ukulele market. At the time Harmony was led by Joe Kraus, who was chairman until 1940. In 1928, Harmony introduced the first of many Roy Smeck models, and went on to become the largest producer in the U.S. They sold 250,000 pieces in 1923 and 500,000 in 1930, including various

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

of guitars,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

s, and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

s. In the late 1930s, the firm began making violins again after a 19-year hiatus. They also bought brand names from the bankrupt Oscar Schmidt Co.—La Scala,

Stella Stella or STELLA may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Comedy *Stella (comedy group), a comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain Characters *Stella (given name), including a list of characters with th ...

, and Sovereign. They sold not only Harmony products, but instruments under the Sears name, Silvertone, and a variety of trade names—Vogue, Valencia, Johnny Marvin, Monterey,

, and others. In 1940, after Kraus had a conflict with management, he left, but then bought enough stock to restart the company independently. Between 1945 and 1975, the Chicago firm mass-produced about ten million guitars. The company reduced their output over the years, later focusing on student models sold through JCPenney. The Harmony brand peaked in 1964-1965, selling 350,000 instruments, but low-end foreign competition led to the company's demise 10 years later. The pickups on almost all electric guitars and basses that Harmony produced were manufactured by Rowe Industries Inc. (later known as H.N. Rowe & Company, Rowe DeArmond Inc., and DeArmond Inc.) of Toledo, Ohio. Many of the instrument amplifiers badged with the Harmony name were manufactured by "Sound Projects Company" of Cicero, Illinois. The Harmony Guitar Company ceased in 1975,
''In 1975 the Harmony Guitar Co. in Chicago ceased operations and had a huge three-day auction.'' and sold the Harmony name. In the early 2000s, an unrelated company, the Westheimer Corp., based in

Lake Barrington, Illinois Lake Barrington is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 5,100. Geography Lake Barrington is located at (42.2125330, -88.1680526). The village is also situated on the shores of Lake Barringto ...

briefly imported "reissue" Harmony guitars. In 2018, BandLab Technologies claimed to be "relaunching" the Harmony brand with a new series of electric guitars and guitar amps. The brand has since been relaunched with American-made models such as the Rebel and the Jupiter.

Gallery

File:BarrettHarmonyGuitar.jpg, 1963 Sovereign
(

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his ...

's 1st guitar) File:Harmoney guitar - A Birdhouse with Soul.jpg, Harmony acoustic File:Silvertone model 319 (1971) by Harmony Company, MIM PHX.jpg, Silvertone model 1219 Buck Owens (1971) by Harmony Company File:Harmony Archtone H1213 (SN 886H1213).jpg, H1213 Archtone (c.1963) File:Harmony H15 Bobkat.jpg, H15 Bobkat File:Silvertone 1480 (Harmony H19 Silhouette).jpg, H19 Silhouette
(Silvertone 1480) File:Harmony Stratotone H88, H44, & Fernandes ZO-3.png, H88, H44 Stratotone, compared with travel guitar File:Airline Stratotone.jpg, H7208 Roy Smeck Stratotone (Airline Roy Smeck Stratotone) File:Johnbutler(by Scott Dudelson).jpg, H49 Stratotone Jupiter ( Silvertone 1423) File:Dan Auerbach.jpg, Stratotone File:Harmony H53 Rocket - Jason rocking some riffs.jpg, H53 Rocket File:Black Keys at MOG.jpg, H78 3-pickups with Bigsby File:Harmony H82 Rebel body.png, H82 Rebel

References

External links

Official website
at National Music Museum {{BandLab Technologies Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States Companies based in Lake County, Illinois Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in Chicago Mandolin makers

History

Gallery

Further reading

References

External links