In 1972 I was beginning my desperado phase...
My marriage and my first real love had come crashing down about my ears
and I was alternating between suicidal thoughts and radical fantasies.
Crazed with guilt and self loathing, and laden down with debt.
So I looked for a band to join. Fare well cruel world, I've gone to join the circus.
I saw an ad for a Fender bass somewhere. The guy wanted $150 for it.
I worked at a restaurant that paid me cash. So I put five twenties in one pocket
and one more in my other pocket, and went to see a man about a bass.
He dragged it out from under his bed. There was dust on the case. He wiped off
the dust with a grimy bandana and lifted it onto the bed. I opened it. Inside was
a 1966 Fender Jazz Bass, three color sunburst. I was instantly attracted. I lifted
the bass out of the case and sighted down the neck. It was warped.
I said, "I dunno, man... that neck's pretty warped. I'll give you a hundred."
He shuffled and scratched his ass. He wanted more. But he knew the neck wasn't straight.
I said, "I'll probably have to buy a new neck. This is all I got." I showed him the five twenties.
He shuffled around and squinted like he had a headache. He probably did. Then he took the
hundred. I took the bass. I walked with that heavy bastard for blocks and blocks, down to a repair shop run
by the young Dan Erlewine, just starting out... like me. I showed it to Earlewine. He squinted down the
neck and made thoughtful sounds, and said he could fix it. I left it with him. He said come back the
next day.
I did. The neck was perfect. Earlewine charged me five dollars. *laughs
I think he set it up and did the intonation too, because it was perfect for years after.
It was a long time ago, and he was newly in business.. I played that bass trouble free
for years before getting it set up again.
The bass had chrome covers over the pickups
and a tugbar.
But I had not the slightest idea what the tugbar was for. Nor did i have the foggiest notion
what the technical term for this odd feature might be. It was just a lump of plastic on my
"pick guard." I thought the pick guard itself was ridiculous because I had never seen a bass player
use a pick. And I didn't intend to either.
But I had my life ring. And I knew that the bass was my life ring. Sometimes the life you save is your own.
So I didn't care if it had some odd parts. That bass was my future. I also knew that the Fender Jazz bass was
one of the world's best. A hundred bucks cash was a lot for a divorced short order cook who had child support
payments to make, and credit card debts to pay off, and all the regular troubles... but I knew I'd got a good deal
and that the bass would serve me as well as my talent could make it. It wasn't an unfair price either. I could
have bought a new one for about $300 then. So the seller wasn't off bass asking $150 for it. But he wasn't
going to get that much with a warped neck. So the hundred was fair, if low.
I played that bass up until 2018, when I finally sold it, with my other 'vintage" guitars. So it did serve me well.
In the '80s I removed the tugbar and the pick guard and the chrome covers, because I thought it looked more
radical that way. And it did. In the '70s there was nothing special about it, it was just an old bass. No one
was worshipping them then. But... just on a hunch... I didn't throw the parts away. I kept them in a box
for like decades. *shrugs
Here I am with it in 2009, a lot older, and the bass is a lot older alongside me. By this time I'd put black
nails in the screw holes, and that '66 J-bass is the best bass I'd ever played, never looked seriously at
another bass for most of that time. I'd try someone's cool bass, or standup bass, and plunk around with
it, and then say, "why go out for a hamburger when I've got steak at home?' A bass needs no tug bar IMHO.
But I finally dug the old parts out of the dusty old box, and screwed them all back in... maybe about 2012.
By that time, it looked a lot more radical with them back on. But I couldn't find the durn tug bar. It fell through
a crack in time. So I looked around online, and saw that guys were selling the original part for like $200!
Get outa here! I also found a craftsman who made replicas of the original part out of ebony.... MY MAN!
He only wanted $11.00 plus shipping, which I was glad to pay. So I put an ebony tug bar back on my old
bass, not because it was necessary or important but because it was part of the original design... and an ebony
part was an upgrade in my eyes.
But I would have loved to play an old Harmony like the OP has posted.
Much as I boast about my good old Fender (that I sold) ...those Harmony instruments
from that time period are excellent. Look how long it lasted, when mine got chewed
to rags. Fine photos too, Don.
Since Adrain gave me a name for this thing, I finally could search and buy this piece. My older brother bought this mid 60’s Harmony bass and gave it to me when he enlisted in the Army in 1968. Somewhere back then it loss it’s pick guard and well, it’s tug bar. 
