1960 Harmony H47 Stratotone Mercury

In the early '50s, the electric guitar was just getting started. Fender debuted the Broadcaster in 1950, and then in 1952 Gibson rolled out the Les Paul. That same year, Harmony introduced the Stratotone—a department-store electric guitar designed with budget in mind. While the Les Paul was a high-end, fancy model, the Stratotone was more in line with Leo Fender's streamlined approach. But Harmony went way further and was even cheaper—the Stratotone is a guitar for the people!  Over the years, the Stratotone evolved into different models, and this 1960 was given the "H47" designation. It shows some slick features not available with other Stratotone iterations. The H47 features a fully-hollow single-cutaway body outfitted with a single DeArmond goldfoil pickup. In 1959, Harmony introduced the "Stratotone Mercury Multi-Purpose Switch" as a means to get the most flexibility out of the single-pickup design. In the "Bass" position, both volume and tone control function as normal. When you s