Robert Pete William's Harmony Sovereign Vintage Guitar

[antonverdonk]

In my opinion Robert Pete Williams would any guitar make sound good.In his life he must have used maNy.

[OscarCommie]

For heaven sake, take care of and cherish that thing.

[dalet63]

Nice Guitar..there very underated. If You search " robert pete williams-scrap iron blues" he's playin it and you can seee sticker real good.

[bigfrank1961]

You lucky little shit.

[george383]

The kid don't even know how to tune it. I seen cases where a kid like that get pissed off at his dad for not giving him the car keys one weekend and so he puts his dad's 60's strat up on craigslist for $100.

[kpasa111]

Who am I to say what someone else should do with a guitar that they came by honestly...but I think it really belongs in a museum where is will be safe from ordinary hazards.

[Snackay]

I have one for sale in my videos.

[etheangel2220]

hey kid do us a favor and donate that thing to the Smithsonian! ha

[guitarcapo]

Come to think of it after seeing a few of his videos, that guy was probably the last of the true country blues singers. That guitar might belong in a museum. Take good care of it. Keep it out of the heat and don't alter it. There aren't to many vintage acoustics that have that much MOJO.

[guitarcapo]

6.The tops and braces are also made of rare Adirondak (red) spruce from the eastern USA. This is also a difficult wood to obtain these days. Most guitar tops are made of Sitka spruce from Alaska these days. Red spruce that you find these days is way expensive and usually doesn't have the grain line density you'll find in a typical Sovereign. Each line is an inch so most tops are usually 100 years old.

You can find nice Jumbo Sovereigns for $500 or so on Ebay but prices are going up.

[guitarcapo]

All and all not bad for a "budget" 50 year old vintage guitar. I own 4!

[MRJimcoMustache]

yea, thanks for the info. And I wont travel with it.

[Snackay]

Thanks for all the info guitarcapo.

[guitarcapo]

3. The fretboard and bridge are made of Brazilian rosewood. This wood is endangered and banned from international import and trade. Be aware that if you travel internationally with that guitar, there is a possibility that it could be confiscated because of the wood used being a banned substance.

4. The guitar is glued together with hide glue made from rabbit skins...NOT aliphatic wood glue used today.

5. The finish is flake spirit shellac NOT nitrocellulose, polyester or polyurethane. RARE today

[guitarcapo]

Some other facts about that Harmony Sovereign:

1. It was the guitar used by Jimmy Page to play the most famous acoustic guitar passage in rock history: the intro to Stairway to Heaven.

2. In an effort to cut costs, The Harmony company decided to use a SINGLE solid piece of 16" wide mahogany to make the back. These days a 16" wide piece of solid Honduran mahogany that's instrument grade is impossible to find. Even acoustics that cost thousands today have 2-piece backs.....

[garbeaj]

Page used this for all 6-String acoustic parts on Led Zeppelin III and Untitled/IV album...Also used it on tour for acoustic sets from 1971-1972,arguably the peak of Zeppelin's acoustic writing and performances...

[steinsteel]

Nice to see you good fellar.Some one so young showing Robert Pete Williams RESPECT.

You deserve to own that guitar.

[stoelefj]

Sweet.. That should inspire you to learn some of the old school stuff.

[Igotdablues]

I ran out of space, but anyways he recorded up until he died in 1980 according to the discography. Just about all blues musicians couldn't make a living from thier music itself they still had to have a normal job. The movie "chicago blues" talks about it and there's a lot of clips floating around. It's hard finding info on blues musicinas because at the time america was too busy head banging to the beatles and most performances were in europe. Hopefully I'm right about all that.

[plutoohno]

dude, theres a video on youtube of him playing that guitar.

[woodward134]

i played that guitar to!

[Igotdablues]

I think you are wrong about the age of his guitar. The earliest photos of him I can find shows him with a 12 string (probably a stella). After getting out in 1959 he picked up a trutone (kay) value leader archtop and mounted a p13 pickup on it. There are a few posts of him playing in '66 with it. I assume he got this somewhere around '68, but I dont know for sure. The sovereign was a popular choice for a lot of musicians with a budget being a well built, great sounding guitar and affordable.