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Harmony H22 reissue--Has anyone tried it yet?

#21
I haven't played one of the new basses, but I did have a chance to play one of the new guitars---a Bobkat. I have an original Bobkat so I was able to compare new vs. old, and with regard to that model at least, the reissue comes NOWHERE NEAR recreating the sound of the original DeArmond pickups. I was very disappointed---to me, that would have been the biggest selling point of a new Harmony. The DeArmond on my Bobkat is very loud and snarly---neither of which characteristics were present in the generic-sounding pickups on the reissue.

Now, that's comparing guitars, not basses, but if they didn't tool up to make new DeArmond-style pickups for the guitars, I'm sure they don't use them on the bass, either. It might be a decent bass on its own merit, but don't expect to recapture the sound (or, apparently, feel) of the original H22.
 
#22
lunarpollen said:
One thing that looks different between the original and the new one is the width/taper of the neck. The original looks like it has a narrower and less tapered neck. On the reissue it looks like the neck is wider and widens a lot more toward the body (look at how wide it is compared with the pickup in photos of both the original and the reissue, and you can see the apparent difference). Part of the appeal of the original H-22 to me is the narrow neck, I love how those feel...
Click to expand...

The original is 1 3/4" at the nut and 2" at the heel, 29 3/4" scale.
 
#25
Hello everybody

It's my first post and I ended here while I was looking for some harmony bass information.
I'm just jumping in the conversation to know if anybody here has an experience of both original H 22 and H 27 basses.
I was wondering if they had the same sound, (with only bridge pick up for example) cause everybody is always raving about the H22 , but not that much about the h27, wich I find more attractive.

Thanks if anybody can help, and tell me if you want me to create another topic for that...

The forum looks really cool, I suppose I will hang there too ;)
and happy new year

Victrola ( I play on Hofner Artist Solid BTW)
 
#26
victrola said:
Hello everybody

It's my first post and I ended here while I was looking for some harmony bass information.
I'm just jumping in the conversation to know if anybody here has an experience of both original H 22 and H 27 basses.
I was wondering if they had the same sound, (with only bridge pick up for example) cause everybody is always raving about the H22 , but not that much about the h27, wich I find more attractive.

Thanks if anybody can help, and tell me if you want me to create another topic for that...

The forum looks really cool, I suppose I will hang there too ;)
and happy new year

Victrola ( I play on Hofner Artist Solid BTW)
Click to expand...

Welcome aboard! I have no info for you, but this is a great place to discuss bass stuff!
 
#29
yeah !

Anyway I'm a huge fan of Ronnie Lane's bass sound, and that's why I'm getting curious about harmony's

I managed to come more or less close to this sound using my hofner artist, muting the string a bit and using a lot of compression, but still there something unique and very special with him. On a lot of lip synched clips, he act like if he was punching the strings with his fist...

I may be too obsessive with it, but I noticed that using long scale strings on a short scale bass was recreating that blurred mellow sound, like if the notes weren't always completely well tuned. I love it.

Does anyone have an idea of what kind of strings were used back in the sixties ( except that they were merely flatwounds) ?

Victrola
 
#34
GlennW. I confess. I bought one. I'm a beginner, but I think it looks, feels and sounds GREAT. My guitar players first bass was an H22 back in the 60's, and he thought it compared really well sound wise. He liked the upgrades. He sort of goes for playability over nostalgia. I'm more nostalgic myself, but had given up on trying to win an H 22 on auction, and had found an H 27 that I love
 
#35
Victrola. I have an H 22 reissue that my guitar player (who played one in the 60s) swears sounds like the original. And an H 27 that I found. I'm a sucker for archtops, so the H 27 knocks me out. A lot of tortoise too which is so cool. I would highly recommend that you own both these basses if at all possible, and as much as I love the H 22. I would have to pick the H 27. The neck pick up gives you that thump, plus it might be the coolest looking bass ever built. Of course, I'm a little late with this. Would love to know what you wound up with. By the way, the epiphone jack casady signature bass case fits bith these guys like it was made for them, and has that new car smell
 
#37
twoharm said:
it's 1 11/16 at the nut, to 2 3/8. So just a hair narrower than the original at the nut. Neck isn't quite as thick I don't think. Neck feels fantastic
Click to expand...

The wider heel is bound to be nice allowing for a wider string spread at the bridge. If I had to change one thing on the original that would be it. Glad you're liking it.
 
#38
victrola said:
yeah !

Anyway I'm a huge fan of Ronnie Lane's bass sound, and that's why I'm getting curious about harmony's

I managed to come more or less close to this sound using my hofner artist, muting the string a bit and using a lot of compression, but still there something unique and very special with him. On a lot of lip synched clips, he act like if he was punching the strings with his fist...

I may be too obsessive with it, but I noticed that using long scale strings on a short scale bass was recreating that blurred mellow sound, like if the notes weren't always completely well tuned. I love it.

Does anyone have an idea of what kind of strings were used back in the sixties ( except that they were merely flatwounds) ?

Victrola
Click to expand...

I think there were two reasons for that sound, aside from using flatwounds...

1. The bridge doesn't have individual intonatable saddles, so as he played higher up on the neck, it probably sounded just slightly out of tune.

2. The bass has a "baritone" switch that, when engaged, bypassed the tone control and engaged a capacitor that cut some of the low frequencies from the signal. So it was more of a full-range (well, as full as it could be with a neck-position pickup and flatwound strings), somewhat mid-heavy sound, rather than a deep smooth sound. He probably played with this switch engaged as his default, normal sound (a lot of Harmony players do this because they mistake the normal switch position as a "bass boost" when actually it's the other way around, with that position being normal and what they think of as normal being "baritone" mode).

My reissue Epiphone Rivoli bass (when it was still working) had a version of baritone switch; it engaged a little transformer rather than doing what the Harmony's switch does, but the effect was very similar. Unfortunately there was some kind of wiring issue in it that would create a HUGE amount of hum with that mode engaged. But ignoring the hum, the tone was very much like Ronnie Lane's famous tone, I merely had to turn up the lows on the amp to compensate for the reduced lows coming from the bass. Of course if I switched back to normal mode it sounded like I was engaging a bass boost...
 
#40
Trivia for the day: the "vintage" .005 capacitor that is engaged on the "baritone" setting of the selector switch is the same value capacitor that is inline to the bridge pickup on a Rickenbacker 4001 & 4003.
 
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