Re: A Paul Beuscher diatonic

[bhollan@xxxxxxx]

John <wilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>When I was in Rabat (Morocco) last year I went into the city's only rock
>music
>instrument shop out of curiosity. There I found a Paul Beuscher "Country
>Western" diatonic harp which I bought.  It looks good. Made in the German
>Democratic Republic (East Germany) it has a plastic comb and the covers are
>held on with a nut and hexagonal bolt. It comes with a soft plastic
>slip-on case: ideal for keeping dust out while adding very little weight or
>volume to the harp.
>
>According to the stamp on the cover plate, it is in G, but to my surprise,
>the
>distribution of notes is as follows:
>
>       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
> blow  B  D  G  B  D  G  B  D  G  B 
> draw  D  F# A  C  E  F# A  C  E  F#
>
>
>This gives you a G chord blow and D9 draw (Amin draw also possible). What
>is
>this sort of harp intended for? It doesn't look like country tuning to me.
>Any
>ideas would be welcome.

I don't know what the thing is intended for, but it sounds a lot like my first
diatonics. Cover plates say "The Bandmaster, Made in GDR." Black plastic comb,
and the same tuning on my G harp. I also had a C by Bandmaster, which as I
recall had an E in the 1 blow.

I also had a Bandmaster chromatic -- my first serious musical instrument. Ten
holes, fully chromatic, wooden comb which might be mahogany.... I took it down
the river with me on my first canoe trip when I was 11 years old, it got
soaked, the comb split plumb in two at hole 3. So I got the diatonics from the
same shop as a replacement & hated them -- there were *notes missing* & I
didn't understand why! (Many years later an article in "Frets" magazine by
David Harp helped set me straight.)

If anybody knows more about the Bandmaster company, or about Paul Beuscher for
that matter, a post would be of interest.


Bill Hollan
bhollan@xxxxxxx