Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Chromatic DeLuxe a PREWAR design?

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

As previously mentioned, Dave - I'm thrilled you nabbed the Hugo Rauner  
chromatic. What intrigued ME the most was the USSR-Occupied Germany 
inscription,  and I'd vaguely remembered 'someone' (my thoughts were that it was you)  
expressing a prior interest in Rauners.
 
 
One rule of thumb I go by with a used chromatic, though--is that when a  
Seller states that there's a 'tiny cosmetic' crack with or without  photos, I 
simply assume that it goes all the way through the comb. I've  never yet 
seen any crack which doesn't. Sellers are clueless in my  experience.<G> I've 
even seen some referred to as 'tiny' which  comparatively looked like the 
Grand Canyon in what was obviously a permanently  damaged and completely warped 
(usually by liquid) chromatic.
 
Caveat Emptor --always!
 
 
The leather windsavers and spring are great to know about with this Rauner. 
 Very interesting info about it. It was most intriguing to me and IF you 
hadn't  gone for it I might still have, purely for its historical interest.
 
BTW - in re what to use to glue Beech, I stumbled upon this  product (saw 
it advertised in the current Popular Mechanics), so checked out the  website:
 
_http://www.eclecticproducts.com/_ (http://www.eclecticproducts.com/)  
 
and here's a photo of one of their wood products:
 
 
_http://www.eclecticproducts.com/_photos/ad_images/076818180012_wf_37c.jpg_ 
(http://www.eclecticproducts.com/_photos/ad_images/076818180012_wf_37c.jpg) 
 
I've NO idea if or how it works or its properties (or if it'd be at all  
good for a comb), but in the PM ad it's listed as 'impact and vibration  
resistant and waterproof: fixes what other glues simply can't'. Hadn't heard of  
it before and thought you might be interested. 
 
OFFtopic --they also sell something called ShoeGoo (maybe other people know 
 all about it since skateboarders use it to repair their specialized 
shoes?), but  it was news to me. I imagine parents of young kids and those who 
don't have a  good shoe repair place handy might find it of some interest:
 
_http://www.eclecticproducts.com/shoegoo.htm_ 
(http://www.eclecticproducts.com/shoegoo.htm) 
 
Elizabeth
 
"Message: 7
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:41:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: David  Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Chromatic  DeLuxe a PREWAR design? 
To: Harp L Harp L _harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx) 

Elizabeth pointed  me to this chromatic on Ebay, it was a 12-hole Hugo 
Rauner. I'm not really a  harmonica collector - I'm afraid I would cross the 
line into hoarding if I were  - but I went after this one and paid more 
($28.50) for it than I've paid for any  Ebay harmonica that wasn't a prewar Seydel 
Bandmaster, even though it had a comb  crack - which the seller assumed was 
merely cosmetic (it ain't). What got my  interest up was that it bore 
markings of "Made in U.S.S.R. Occupied Germany," so  it would have to date from 
around 1946 to 1949. This was made by a PRIVATE  company in Soviet-occupied 
Germany, before the DDR really took control of the  industry, and would almost 
neccesarily be a prewar design. It might as well be  prewar Klingenthal.
 

It has leather windsavers. The comb is beech. How often do you see a  
chromatic with a beech comb? I'm a bit nervous about repairing the crack, pear  
is so soft and has give, beech is very hard by comparison. If all else fails, 
 I've got an old pearwood Seydel chromatic DeLuxe comb that will fit it, 
believe  it or not.
 

Now the interesting part. It is the exact same design as the Seydel  
Chromatic DeLuxe. That unique short spring on the side that the Seydel chromatic  
Deluxe has - it has it. It has the same mouthpiece. I haven't measured the  
reedslots yet, but the parts all seem to be interchangeable. The Chromatic  
DeLuxe has recently been updated with the acrylic comb and all... this Hugo  
Rauner is identical to the previous wood comb DeLuxe (which was pear,  
Klingenthal harmonicas are traditionally beech).

What happened to the  Hugo Rauner company is unclear. We know that they 
left East Germany around 1950,  then went out of business. I think this special 
harmonica - and its apparently  being a direct ancestor of the chromatic 
Deluxe, offers a clue about what  happened. Seydel has this design for a 
reason and it seems probable that they  got during the years when the DDR was 
running the show and nationalizing  companies left and right - and that Hugo 
Rauner was nationalized and at that  point Hugo fled to West Germany to start 
another company, which flopped. But the  notion that design came from Hugo 
Rauner would hinge on the fact that it was  actually a Hugo Rauner design, 
which might not be the case. I know that the  other Hugo Rauner 10-hole 
chromatics I have seen (the Borrah Minnevitch  chromatics) have been basically 
copies of the Koch valveless chromatic.  

I'm always interested in figuring out these model histories, Seydel  didn't 
start pushing in the U.S. until recent memory and they came up with these  
new models, Solist Pro, 1847,etc. at about the same time and the Session is 
a  little older, but slightly. They still are the world's oldest company and 
they  still have some historic designs, the Mountain Harp is one - the 
recently  discontinued Solist was another. The Concerto is probably the best of 
the older  designs I already knew about.
 
 
 That the Chromatic DeLuxe is a prewar design that has survived is  very 
interesting to me. I wonder, folks who have taken apart actual prewar Hugo  
Rauner TWELVE hole chromatics, if those chromatics also had the spring on the  
side like that - which is the most obvious part of this particular design 
and I  would be interested to see if any other companies had this design.

David  Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com


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