[Harp-L] Tour of world's oldest harmonica factory (Seydel) now on You Tube

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is cool. Awesome. 
  Seydel sent me this video they did for their 160th anniversary. I edited it to make it Youtube friendly and just posted it. You see them making reedplates, milling and cutting reeds, making coverplates, riveting reeds on a chromatic DeLuxe. 
  Now when you see this video, you'll see one employee in a room, two in another, etc.. One guy, Wolfgang, I believe, is making reedplates and coverplates and milling reeds. All the same guy. Couple ladies riveting reeds in another room. Jurgen tuning in another room. You'll notice right away this isn't a huge company, at least as far as employee numbers, although not everybody is on the video, you can see this huge factory with a skeleton staff taking pride in its work. You get this feeling, in some room, ghosts are stamping out old Bandmasters...
   Now look at that video and look at what Seydel is doing today. It's growing, but a company that size doing what it is doing... it's inspiring. Look at these people, even then the future was somewhat in doubt, yet they say bring on the world, we're going get noticed. That David-with-five-stones-and-a-sling dynamic at least inspired me to pursue a career as one of their dealers.
  This is, from a historic perspective, an interesting look. I suppose I could ask when it was shot, but from what I see in it, I date it about 2006. This was the time Seydel began transforming itself, updating machinery, improving quality control, etc. 
  At this time, they were making harmonicas exactly like they were made in the 1930s, with a little 1960s technology thrown in here and there. From a historical perspective, this footage is amazing. It's like you went back in time 80 years, shot color video and brought it back. 
  If you want a look at how harmonicas are made, check this out. It's fascinating from many perspectives. 
   
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CJlQKMym48
   
  Dave
   
  _________________________
Dave Payne Sr. 
  Elk River Harmonicas 
  www.elkriverharmonicas.com