The Ultimate model of the Stratotone "Planetary" Series

1959 Harmony Stratotone Deluxe Jupiter H49

This sixty-three year old 'top of the line' Harmony electric guitar is an absolute featherweight at  just 4.90 lbs. Featuring a laminated maple body with a blond laminated spruce top and a bolt-on hardwood neck. The top of the guitar is triple bound in white/black/white celluloid and the bottom is single bound in white celluloid. the sides and neck are finished in black and the back is a rich two-tone sunburst. The bolt-on neck is secured to the body at the 15th fret by three screws and the fretboard is triple bound. The neck has a very typical 1959 thick profile and a huge nut width of 1 3/4 inches. The rosewood fretboard has 22 medium-to-thin frets and pearl block position markers. The headstock has three-a-side individual open-back Waverly tuners with oval whaite plastic buttons. On the face of the headstock is a decal with "Harmony" in white; "Stratotone" in gold edged in white, and a 'Jupiter' design in white. Single-layer white plastic bell-shaped truss-rod cover with three screws. Two De'Armond/Rowe Golden-Tone Indox single-coil pickups  each with a rectangular sticker on the underside "ROWE INDUSTRIES / Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A." and outputs of 10.79k and 11.42k. Each pickup with a tortoiseshell surround with two screws. Five controls (two volume, two tone and a master blender control) + three-way selector switch all mounted on tortoise shell pick guard with six screws. Three-way pickup selector switch also mounted on pick guard. Five hexagonal clear plastic with flat tops and one "chicken-head" rotary pickup selector knob. Rosewood bridge on height adjustable rosewood base, trapeze tail piece with three horizontal line design. The potentiometers are stamped "137 916" (CTS April 1959) and inside the guitar, under the bridge pickup the serial number "986H49" is stamped in blue. Under the control cavity also stamped in blue is  "F-60-JC / Made in U.S.A." and "Made by 506 JB". This absolutely amazing little guitar is in near mint condition and is almost certainly the finest example you could ever wish for… Housed in a modern Gretsch five-latch, shaped black hard shell case with maroon plush lining (9.50).

"Just as Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, the H49 Jupiter was the Ultimate model of the Stratotone "planetary" series. It featured a conventional three-way switch, separate volume and tone controls for each pickup, and an unusual "blender" knob. One unusual construction feature of the H49 was its spruce top. Again, the tortoise-shell pick guard (albeit somewhat long and narrow) is an oh-so-cool part of this top-of-the-line Stratotone. Its price in a 1963 catalog was $149.50." (Willie G. Moseley. In Praise of Fretted Americana, p.51).