[Harp-L] 12-hole diatonics



There are a few models of 12-hole Richter diatonics out there right now. For the most part they do tend to be pitched an octave lower than the standard instruments.

Hohner has the Marine Band 364 (http://www.hohnerusa.com/index.php? 1572), which I believe is pitched an octave lower than standard (at least the C and D are, IIRC, not sure about the G). The 364 Soloist (http://www.hohnerusa.com/index.php?28) is a solo tuned variant (a common design, actually, as several companies make 12-hole harps in this tuning), and I believe it is also tuned an octave lower, but I could very easily be wrong. Unfortunately, Hohner's website doesn't really answer the pitch questions.

Huang offers the Cadet Soloist, which is also a 12 hole solo tuned Richter diatonic. I'm not sure about the pitch range, but I think this may be the same as the standard C diatonic. (couldn't find Huang's website)

Hering's Master Solo is, you guessed it, a solo tuned 12-hole diatonic, starting on middle C as does the standard diatonic (http:// www.heringharmonicas.com.br/gaitas.php?cod_tip=2&cod_gai=29). What is different about this than most other 12-hole diatonics is that the hole spacing is the same as on a standard 10-hole. Until Seydel released their new 12-hole models I believe this was the only one which had that feature. Alas, key of C only, and reed replacement is tricky. Hering used to have an octave lower 12-hole instrument as well, but it seems to be no longer made.

Seydel has recently brought out two models (well, one model and two tunings) which have the same hole spacing as their standard models (a bit larger than most manufacturers, smaller than on the 12 and 14 hole Hohners, IIRC), these are the Solist Pro 12 line (http:// www.seydel1847.de/epages/Seydel.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/Seydel/ Categories/Products/Blues/Solist_Pro_12&PageSize=50). One is solo tuned the other SBS tuned. They are both available in either low or standard C, with the SBS also available in low D and A (what the starting A is I can't say, either a very low octave below the standard A, or the same as the standard A which makes the second and third octave the same as the lowest two octaves on a high A). I plan on trying these soon, but would love to see them available in all keys, and maybe in other tunings as well. Still, I can retune easily enough and I'm just happy to see some more 12-hole models made with the more standard hole-spacing as opposed to the larger spacing of the Hohners, for instance.


Hope this helps.






 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'







This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.