That is really cool. I didn't realize that Sears was still selling instruments as late as 1979. It looks to be well taken care of. What a special instrument. How does it sound?

I’ve seen a lot of “Global Music Instruments “ guitars on eBay. 

How terrific! I wonder if Global was the distributor to Sears. 

@rain-dog It's cool you have the box and everything!  

Thanks for the info. It’s amazing it sounds relatively melodic for 29.95!

Found this site: shows the sears page - back click a few pages shows another sears page of instruments

https://www.flickr.com/photos/humbugs_and_oddities/5064034869/in/photostream/

Sears Dulcimer  #1   These dulcimers were made in Korea.

I saw a uke under  Sears Harmony

Not being a good archivist, I did not write down the years of these three pages from the Sears catalog. The other attachment is a similar dulcimers marketed by Fretted Industries. Note that the Fretted Industries dulcimers have a rectangular end to their scrolls.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Scan 6.jpeg  •  530KB

Scan 7.jpeg  •  9.5MB

Scan 8.jpeg  •  7.8MB

Scan 5.jpeg  •  9.9MB

Oscar Schmidt was a separate label, dulcimers made by the same company that made thousands of autoharps.

I have a (maybe) Hondo dulcimer sold by Sears for Christmas, has 'clover' sound holes. It needed some work but with the help of some great members years ago, I learned a lot about this dulcimer.

Every instrument is different, each one has their own personality .

Enjoy yours

red Christmas dulcimer.jpg  •  54KB

The plot thickens. They look somewhat similar. The sound holes on mine seem a bit rounder hearts. The hook looks to be a better wood on the Oscar Schmidt.

I think some of these dulcimers were branded Oscar Schmidt, weren't they?

Good to know, thanks! 

The Sears & Roebuck dulcimers were made in Korea by Hondo, at least in the same factory (with the same specs) as the Hondo dulcimers.  Not the first ones imported from the East but pretty good ones.

Regal also made a lot of guitars for Sears to be sold under their Silvertone label.

And yes, the original peg hole was moved. Not sure why anyone would do that. Looked like a perfectly good hole! Maybe for alternate tuning?

Sears carried Harmony-made instruments before they bought the company. They re-branded these instruments (still made by Harmony) Supertone, then branded as Silvertone. I’m curious about the dulcimers offered in the Sears catalog. Apparently they sold for $29.99! Can’t find any info on the inter webs.

Curious: do you mean Roosebeck? They've been discussed on FOTMD before.

Or do you mean dulcimers you could buy from an actual Sears & Roebuck catalogue?

Whatever it is, it looks like someone manked around with the location of one of the tuning pegs --- I think that's an extra hole I see there!  Also of note is the shepherd's crook scroll.  I've seen a couple makers use that pattern, and seems designed for use with a dulcimer wall hanger.

Hi. Does anyone have any info on the Harmony or Sears dulcimers, or can point me in the right direction? I have googled just about every search term I can think of related, with very little info returned. I believe that’s what this is, but not sure. Thanks, you knowledgeable people!

image.jpg  •  218KB

image.jpg  •  1MB

image.jpg  •  890KB