[Harp-L] Original Marine Band Deluxe

[Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I tried to download Dave Payne's video of him & Jason Ricci comparing  
pre-war harps but only got the first coupla minutes. Just wanted to  
comment on what was said about the original Marine Band Deluxe:

I had the extremely good fortune to acquire one of these harps in  
1977 on a visit to the Hohner factory in Trossingen (no, I didn't  
steal it, they actually gave us two of them  -  those were the  
days!). Though I've done nothing to adjust it, it played great then  
and still does. According to production documents I have seen since  
it was manufactured in 1924 (maybe 1925), not in the mid 30s. This  
limited edition model came in a beautiful green velvet lined case  
with a spring loaded lid which I got with the harp and still own. The  
cover plates are gold plated, not brass and feature some unique and  
extremely intricate embossing. I took the name for the updated Hohner  
Marine Band released in 2005 from this instrument because I wanted to  
commemorate it (and wish we could have made the MBDL 2005 equally  
luxurious, but then no-one would have been able to afford it).

Maybe I should get mine fixed up and actually play it. I'd be very  
curious to play a pre-war Seydel, because I've seen quite a lot of  
their communist era production as well as later instruments prior to  
the takeover by the new management in 2004 and most weren't very good  
(in fact the DDR harps were terrible). As this factory made the first  
ever Richter harps to be commercially manufactured, it would be nice  
to know they were doing a good job prior to the cold war era. Does  
anyone have any info on this?

Steve

Steve Baker
steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.stevebaker.de
www.bluesculture.com
www.youtube.com/stevebakerbluesharp