Re: [Harp-L] was Online harmonica museum, now Wm. Kratt, playa

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Colby, you can rip stuff of my pages if you want to: http://www.elkriverharmonicas.com/seydelhistoryjumppage.html

It ain't Pat Missin detailed, yet, but I'm still young. 

The deal with old Kratt, he's a very likeable guy. Slick. Slick .... A playa...
Kratt emigrated to the United States from Trossingen, Germany as a young man.He worked as a machinist for Thomas Edison and later worked making violin strings. 
Kratt gets some money ahead and thinks, "By God, I'm gonna start me a harmonica company." Now, he doesn't start it up in the U.S., he goes back to Germany and sets himself up a harmonica company right in Trossingen, right under Hohner's nose. 
There were quite a few harmonica companies that started up in Trossingen, Hohner thought of them like a booger that's sticking out of your nose... get that booger out of there and flick it on a wall, was the Hohner policy. Some of these companies they bought out, some companies they got rid of in dubious means, and ol' Wilhelm Kratt knew this well. Kratt himself was a former Hohner employee. 
So Kratt starts up a harmonica company, the National Harmonica COmpany right there in Trossingen. He built it up, Hohner swoops in with some cash, buys him out, and flicked the National Harmonica Company booger on the wall. KRatt, I'm sure, laughed all the way to the bank... he took his cash and went back to the U.S. "THe Harmonica Makers of Germany and Austria" book says nobody has a clue what KRatt did in the U.S. between 1925 and 1940.
My research, however, indicates that Kratt took the Hohner seed money and started his company in 1925 and immediately started making pitchpipes. He might have fallen off the "harmonica makers" book's radar cause he probably wasn't making harps until 1940. Kratt didn't need to make harps, he got the pitchpipes into schools and music teachers were buying them so fast, he was flooded with pitchpipe orders. i've got what I believe to be one of the 1920s pitchpipes, it's a 10-note, looks like a double-sided marine band... before the 13-note circular-shaped pitchpipe he invented. It's awesome. Thing's 90 years old and I use it to tune all kinds of stuff.
 The 1930s wouldn't have been a good time to start up a harp company in the United States anyway because the dollar was so strong and the mark so weak. He'd have made a harp for $1 retail prolly, and the Germans would sell em for a quarter or something. 
 He reserved his name "Kratt" for the American company -- NOT the German one- that's one of a few clues that lead me to believe he playing Hohner. I'm positive he was. He was a heck of a shrewd businessman. 
Kratt really started making harps big time during World War II, cause soldiers needed harps and he got a contract to distribute through the military and Red Cross. THAT's when he shifted into harps. Then after the war, he gradually went back into pitchpipes. 
Kratt's big venture was pitchpipes and Kratt is still in New Jersey making the world's awesomest pitchpipes. A lot of folks wonder when Kratt is going to get back to making some harps. 
Kratt is sort of the Seydel of the U.S., they still make stuff the old way, hand built, hand tuned... They are still using the 1936 equipment. 
And, here's the Wm. Kratt's grandkids, the Zoboomafu crew:
http://pbskids.org/zoboo/kratts.html

Dave
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Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com 


----- Original Message ----
From: "jcolbyspell@xxxxxxxx" <jcolbyspell@xxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 11:37:02 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Online harmonica museum

I recently got an old Kratt harmonica.  I could find very little information on it.  It got me to thinking that it would be fun to set up and on-line harmonica museum of different diatonics.  If you have any cool diatonics I would appreciate you sending me a picture so I can post it.  I would like to stick to diatonics for now.  I picture of both covers and the back would be great.  If it has other unusual features a picture of that would be nice.  The trick is getting the flash angled so it doesn't reflect of the covers.  I did not do a good job with this picture.  http://fromthedarkvillage.blogspot.com/2008/06/pre-war-marine-band.html ; So if you are willing send them to me and I will let you know when I got it all together.

Colby
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