Sometimes you just love a guitar that really, from most rational perspectives, is not a good one. Or at least isn't a great one. Maybe it feels right. Maybe it has a unique sound. Maybe you just like it. Many, if not all, guitarists can confirm the existence of this ethereal, irrational exuberance over an instrument.

It is almost never a new instrument. There are good reasons to be in love with a Les Paul Standard or a Martin D41. The instruments we speak of sound weird, bad, won't stay in tune et-cetera.

By way of example take the Harmony Rocket H59. These guitars were made in the 1950s and 60s and were aimed at kids who wanted to be the next rock star and parents who didn't want to pay to much to further Junior's aim. They are usually made out of maple from my research but they are not acoustic so the wood not being outstanding is a survivable trait. They can have between one and three pick ups.

When I was a teenager I had a similar model to the H59 (not sure of the specific model). You had to stuff cotton into the f-holes or stand in the other room from your amplifier when you played it or it let out horrendous shrieks of feedback.

The DeArmond pick-ups actually sound great in their own way. Even with the wildly shrieking guitar I owned there was never buzz or hum. Usually the wires from the pickups to the knobs are poorly concealed beneath a plastic pick guard.

Why this guitar? It does have a certain 50s rockabilly sound that is hard to duplicate. They also look really cool and since there were a gazillion (not an official figure) of them made you can still get them fairly cheap. Disdained by collectors and not yet played by any new school rock n' roller (that springs to mind anyway) to drive the price up look for them for around $200. You may be able to find them for almost nothing. Some music stores ask $350 or so for them, however. The other "H" models with one or two pickups go for a bit less.

I picked Harmony first because there are a lot of guitarists who love them. Maybe they were their first guitar. Maybe they just feel like history. They do not, however, sound like a 335. So why do we like them so much?

Who knows?

More "irrational exuberance" guitars later. Including Kay and other Harmony models.