Harmony Factory Chicago, Illinois
by Donald Lee
January 18 2024
January 18 2024
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January 18 2024 ![]()
The Harmony Company was a guitar manufacturer in Chicago, Illinois which ceased operations in 1975 and relaunched in 2018 by Singapore-based BandLab Technologies. Harmony in its peak was the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the United States. The Harmony Company made string instruments, like ukuleles, acoustic and electric guitars, and violins. The Harmony Company was founded in 1892 by Wilhelm Schultz. Sears, Roebuck, and Co. purchased Harmony in 1916 to corner the ukulele market. At the time Harmony was led by Chair Joe Kraus, who remained chair until 1940.
Harmony introduced the first of many Roy Smeck models in 1928 and would go on to become the largest maker in the U.S. The Harmony Company sold 250,000 stringed instruments in 1923 and built 500,000 stringed instruments in 1930, including guitars, banjos, and mandolins. By the late 1930s the company started building violins after a 19-year hiatus from building violins, and bought the brand names La Scala, Stella, and Sovereign from the bankrupt Oscar Schmidt Co. The Harmony Company sold Harmony products, Silvertone products through Sears, and trade names such as Johnny Marvin, Monterey, Stella, Vogue, and Valencia.
The Harmony Company mass-produced about ten million guitars between 1945 and 1975. The Harmony brand peaked around 1964-1965, selling 350,000 instruments. However, low-end foreign instruments led to the company's demise 10 years later. Since being bought by the Chinese company BandLab, American-made Harmony Guitar models like the Rebel and the Jupiter are built in Kalamazoo, Michigan by the BandLab owned Heritage Guitar Company.
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