About the Builder:
Harvey Thomas was a creative American guitar maker in the 1960s and 1970s in Midway, Washington. His Thomas Custom guitar models were eccentric - some shaped like crosses some with double or triple necks.
Harvey performed on the local lounge circuit as a one man band: Harvey Thomas and the Infernal Music Machine. The centerpiece of this was his triple neck guitar, with a six string guitar, a twelve string guitar and a bass. The machine also had various amps, effects, flashing lights, a early drum machine and a foot operated organ.
By the 1980s Thomas was concentrating on other business activities like renovating vintage buses.
More information: http://www.tuba2.com/harvey/
About the Guitar:
This is a semi-hollow body Harvey Thomas model "D", or Deleitar, from 1967, with a 21 frets neck clear of the body. The Deleitar was probably his most conservative design, shaped a bit like a Fender DuoSonic. The Deleitar was also available in cheaper solid body version.
Price in 1967 was around $249 for the solid-body version and $299 for the semi-hollow body (acoustic) version.
All the Thomas guitars are rare but there are only a few semi-hollow bodies known to exist. This one is really cool but has had some work done.
The original black (or very dark green) paint was stripped and it was refinished natural. To restore it to it's former glory, our friend and guitar builder Mikaël Springer took care to redo a paint job similar to that what can be found on original versions of Harvey's guitars. The original pick guard is long gone and has been replaced in the restoration. The knobs are replacements a few of the screws holding the pickups in are not original. The input jack and pickup selector switch are replacements as well. The bridge is probably also not original.
But after the restoration process by Michaël Springer this guitar will find back it's original aura. A great guitar!
