Like virtually all Harmony guitars since the company’s founding in the 1890s, the Meteor of the early 1960s was an “entry-level” instrument, a guitar designed for beginning players or musicians on a budget.

As this rare left-handed Meteor shows, it had the same essential elements as a Gibson – two pickups, each with a tone and volume control. It wasn’t until the guitar was played that the difference in quality – particularly the weak pickups – became apparent. Not all guitarists viewed the low-level performance of the Meteor as a hindrance, however.

Dave Davies of The Kinks put it to good use, pushing the Meteor’s thick, distorted pickup sound through a small Elpico amplifier (with a cut speaker cone) to create the classic “hook” guitar lick that drove The Kinks’ 1964 hit “You Really Got Me”. Another influencial British guitarist, Peter Green, started out on a Meteor, but he didn’t find it useful as Davies did; it was the Meteor that Green traded in for the Les Paul that he played when he replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.