Harmony H22 Bass
When you think of vintage and rare basses, it’s only natural for the more popular brands to pop in to your head. Pre-CBS Fender, Pre-Ernie Ball Music Man and Rickenbacker. Bring hollow-body basses in to the mix and some may look to the Hofner 500/1 ‘Beatles Bass’ or the Gibson EB2.
While in fact, Harmony happen to hold some of the more sought after vintage bass guitars. For a long time the Harmony H22 Bass has been one of the most admired bass guitars, delivering a unique tone that can only come from a vintage Harmony.
Accurately described in Harmony’s 1966 catalogue as a “comfortable auditorium size ultra-thin hollow tone chamber body”, the H22 feels adorable to play and sounds great – instantly taking you back to the sound of the 60s, with a little help from a good set of flat wound strings, which were factory fitted as standard. The Gold Tone pickup was especially designed in cooperation with DeArmond for dual tone and fine response.
Ronnie Lane - The Small Faces
Ronnie Lane regularly used the Harmony H22 early on in his musical career with The Small Faces. According to our sources on the good old World Wide Web, Ronnie Lane used this model to record Itchycoo Park and he was certain to use it on live performances. The H22 can also be seen in the performances of Gimme some lovin' and Keep on Running by The Spencer Davis Group.
The Harmony H22/1 was Harmony’s double cutaway version of the H22 and that model now happens to be extremely rare and highly sought after.
Pictured is an “all too beautiful” pairing of a 1965 Harmony H22 and a 1969 Harmony H22/1 double cutaway model. Check out the video below.
