François Demont is a sound engineer in France. Not only does Demont have a collection of Harmony instruments - he started a website, The Harmony Database, dedicated to providing and collecting information on the defunct American guitar-maker. But what was it that first inspired Demont's love for Harmony?

He says the short reason is that he loves the variety of models and the fact that, within their price range, each guitar was the best available in that range (others may quibble on this point).

"I can only repeat the Harmony advertising here : 'The best you can buy for the money you spend'," says Demont. "I came to Harmony from the ukuleles. When I started playing ukulele some years ago, I found a web page comparing baritone ukes to tenor guitars. You said what? Tenor guitar? What the hell was that? So I bought a tenor guitar. It was a Harmony Archtop, and the sound was out of this world. I had never heard about that brand, because they never were distributed here in France. I was very curious and then bought the 6 string companion to the 4 string tenor, an H1215 "Archtone", all birch construction."

From there be moved to an electric H47 Stratotone "Mercury." As he moved on and purchased new models, Demont had a hard time understanding why they were so cheap. As he learned more about Harmony he decided to start a collection.

"This collection would comprise not only what I liked as a player, but every significant model in the range," says Demont. "Some years and a whole Harmony collection later, I think I understand why I, in France, took interest in these guitars ignored in their own country. They are seen, in USA, as student grade guitars, because Harmony produced zillions of these Stella all birch guitars, sold through catalogs, and this blinded musicians about the rest of the catalog, where you can find real competitors to great names, at a fraction of the price. It was a fraction of the price in their time, and still is today."

People often overlook what is under their nose. Americans, for a long time awash in Harmony's, might find them easy to disregard. To a Frenchman, with little exposure to the instruments, they are exotic. Demont also says that he is constantly trying to understand where the "magic" is in an instrument. Why does a musician want to play one guitar for countless hours where another is "just ok?."

"I found Harmony, with this large field of productions, is a great resource to learn more about magic in guitars. You can compare this Archtop model with spruce top and maple body, to this other one with spruce top and birch body," he says. "It is very interesting; Which one do you prefer to play? Hey, wait a minute, why did they change that precise detail?"

Next we asked Demont a heretical question; Which Harmony, if he had to pick ONE, was his favorite.

"Do you ask parents to choose between their children? May I choose two? You knew I would start to describe the whole range with this question, didn't you? Ok, one acoustic and one electric," says Demont. "The acoustic would be an all birch Archtop, it could be a modest Archtone or one with more fancy finishes, as produced under many different brands. If I was able to use some electricity on the desert island, I'd bring one of the hollowbody Stratotone, but a Rocket could be hidden somewhere under the seat. The DeArmond pickups are real gems."

Demont is not alone in his love of Harmony instruments. Many of even the low end models sell for more than they did when they were brand new. There are a number of reasons for this according to Demont.

"There is certainly a new interest. I believe in an 'eBay effect', this new ability to find less common models. Without eBay, how would I had built a collection in France (Harmony guys call my house "The Museum" without ever seeing it), says Demont. "Then, let's say you want a guitar to get your nephew started. You are going to the local music shop, and what do you find at a budget price ? Instruments that are so cheaply built that you really have difficulties to call them instruments. Of course all cheap acoustics are built from plywood today."

This leads Demont to put to rest an old musical myth about what Harmony guitars were made of.

"No Harmony acoustic guitar, even the cheapest of the cheapest, was ever built with laminated woods," says Demont. "They were all solid woods. Modest white woods, like birch for bodies or poplar for wood blocks, but solid woods. This is a difference with its competitors of the time in the Chicago area. So today, after therapy about buying a brand mostly seen as junk-wood, many players buy Harmony for the same reason they always bought them: the best you can buy for the money you spend. For some models, celebrities seen on TV with a cool little Harmony also helped to push up the price, enough that we begin to see some re-issues as well. Eastwood made some models, and more are to come."

Demont says that his site is lacking a few things--for instance documentation on older years.

"I already have most of fifties and sixties Harmony catalogs, but I need all previous years, including the guitar pages from the Sears, Wards and other catalog distributors. Most of pre-war instrument distributors had catalogs with Harmony-made guitars, but sold under other brands. I especially want to research these," says Demont. "I am ready to buy but I have no real interest in owning the originals, if some readers here can share scans, photos, any readable document, please help, and contact me through the Harmony Database website."