This is really Cool. You are looking at a Vintage 1960 Harmony Meteor H70 Electric Guitar. Popularized by Keith Richards in the early days of the Rolling Stones, the Harmony Meteor has been a fan favorite for decades for its classic styling & superb playability. Dave Davies cut The Kinks' epochal hit "You Really Got Me" in July 1964 with a natural-finish Meteor -- the scraping, drivingly distorted tone he achieved remains uniquely arresting even today.
A truly wonderful, thin hollow body featuring a pair of warm, rich sounding DeArmond "Mustache" Gold Foil single coils that really deliver the goods.
Introduced in 1958, the Meteor was the first of the thinline cutaway designs that would become Harmony's bread and butter electric guitars for the next decade. This is a very practical, well designed and fairly classy instrument despite its humble reputation. The H-70 in sunburst finish was listed at $174.50 (plus $22.50 for the case) in 1962, far less than most similar Gibson's but still not ALL that cheap by period standards.
Acoustically, the guitar offers tons of natural projection and a rich, detailed sound with great percussive snap and bark. And plugged in there's really nothing that can match the balance, clarity, and overall tonal character of a good pair of DeArmond "Mustache" gold foil pickups. They have a cutting twang, tight bass, and a harmonically-rich midrange that sounds great when each pickup is singled out or when paired together. Both pickups have strong output, and when mated with the fully hollow body and spruce/maple tonewood combination, the sound benefits from both the immediate attack of the maple and the warmth and fullness of the hollow construction.
The maple neck has a round, substantial C-shaped profile carve with generous shoulders, measuring .905" deep at the 1st fret and .945" at the 9th. The extremely dark bound Brazilian rosewood fretboard retains the original slender frets which have been leveled and crowned in the guitar’s lifetime, currently showing only moderate wear on frets 1-3, with sparingly little wear further up the fretboard. The guitar plays cleanly in every register up the straight neck, and the truss rod is responsive and optimally adjusted. The scale length is 24 1/4", and the bone nut measures 1 3/4" in width. On the headstock, the original raised metal "Harmony Meteor" badge is fully intact, and the guitar retains its original set of white button Waverly tuning machines.
The laminated maple body is 15 3/4" wide and 2" deep at the rim with a single rounded cutaway and a laminated spruce top trimmed with subtly fancy 5-ply binding. All of the electronics function as intended, with individual Volume and Tone knobs for each pickup and a three-way pickup selector toggle. All of the original hardware is accounted for, and the chrome plating is notably clean on the pickup bezels and trapeze tailpiece. The Brazilian rosewood bridge is intact, as are the rosewood pickup risers. Plastics include the quartet of cream "cupcake" Volume and Tone knobs, amber switch tip, and original nitrate red tortoise wide bevel pickguard.