Fwd: German harps...how much "German" are they?

["Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jens - 

Thanks for a really great post. It told me things I didn't know about 
the extent of Hohner's outsourcing - I know some of my diatonics come 
with "Made in the Czech Republic" on the box, but I didn't know that 
parts were not fitting together.

The gentleman who thought that buying "German" harps was a bad idea 
for political reasons would have to choose Brazilian or Chinese or 
Japanese harps - but wait, he can't buy those either and for the same 
political reasons - governments in those countries didn't support 
certain policies of the U.S. government either. I'll bet if he went 
down to his local Wal-Mart store (discount retailer superstore for 
those who don't live in the U.S.) he would find that most of what 
they sell is produced in countries that are in his bad books.

It's a truly international, globalized world, right there in your 
hometown, reflected in just about everything you see or touch. How 
fitting that a man who follows the prince of peace should be the one 
to point this out to us.

Winslow

- --- In harp-l-archives@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Jens Bunge" <jensbunge@xxxx> 
wrote:
German harps are not really German any more...as far as I know, since 
1997 Hohner has been owned by the HS Investment Group Inc. in 
Tortola, British Virgin Islands, a subsidiary of the K.H.S. Musical 
Instrument Company, Taipeh/Taiwan. So the parts of their harmonicas 
are mainly produced in Taiwan, P.R.China, Czech Republic etc. Some of 
the instruments are then assembled in Germany. I once got in trouble, 
when I needed reedplates tuned at a pitch of a = 440 Hz for a 
recording session in Chicago. The piano there was regularly tuned at 
440 Hz. Hohner's standard tuning is about 444 Hz, so I ordered 
reedplates at a lower pitch from them. Having waited for 6 weeks for 
the delivery, I called them and had to learn that they couldn't make 
it before my flight to the USA, because they had trouble with the 
company which produced the reedplates, located in Czech Republic. 

Some years ago I also heard complaints from other non-professional 
harmonica players about instruments with parts that seemed not to fit 
to each other. This was because the parts are produced elsewhere, and 
the people in Trossingen then have to try to make them fit, with 
sometimes lousy results. 

>From then on, I rather try to buy old instruments from ebay and work 
on them to adjust them to my needs, than buying expensive new 
harmonicas directly from Hohner's. In both cases, I don't know 
exactly what to expect before I finally receive the instrument, but 
at least the old ones are much cheaper. 

Recently I sent an old (German) Hohner Chromonika III, probably from 
the 1930's or 1940's, which I won in an ebay auction, to an American 
customizer with Greek ancestors, who restored it with some of his 
original parts, and made a new pair of coverplates from Indian 
rosewood. I plan to take this fine instrument to Hong Kong and play 
it at the Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival this August. Hehe, so it's 
really an international, "globalized" harmonica now; the reedplates 
and the slider - apart from me - are the only German components left 
in this instrument...

By the way, pictures of this beautiful instrument can be viewed at: 
http://groups.msn.com/harmonicaclub/harmonica.msnw?
action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=54 
(continued at: =55/=57/=58).

Jens Bunge (born in Germany, but with a Danish name, loving music and 
loving people - no matter where they come from...)
- --- End forwarded message ---