Re: [Harp-L] was Renny, now Chmel

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hmm. stainless steel reeds and new valve design. Sound not a little like the new Seydel Saxony, which sports both. Could there be a connection?

The double thickness of reedplates on the low end is a feature of the Hohner Super 64x.

Sound like Franz is a bee going from flower to flower . . . .

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Mon, 8/24/09, Frank Evers <frank@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Frank Evers <frank@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] was Renny, now Chmel
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx, "Jonathan Ross" <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Monday, August 24, 2009, 7:19 AM

Hey Jonathan, *

Am Sonntag, 9. August 2009 schrieb Jonathan Ross:

> This is the first I've heard of Franz Chmel getting into the
> harmonica business.  I know he's worked closely with the people at
> Harp Online, but checking the harp-l archives no-one has posted on
> this before.

Sorry for delay, i didn´t read your question  earlier...

The first time i read about this new harmonica was in Didi Neumann's 
Harmonica-Player-News No. 54 (it´s in german, so it´s probably not 
interesting for the vast majority of u if you wonder why you never 
heard of it) in spring 2007:

---snip---
FRANZ CHMEL (Austria) und Lutz Nölle aus Deutschland haben eine 
neue Chromatic entwickelt, deren Testphase nach ihren Angaben   
hervorragend verläuft, aber noch sehr viel Zeit in Anspruch     
nehmen wird. Auch die Ventile sind bei ihrer Konstruktion       
anders geartet.                                                 
Herausbringen werden die beiden das Instrument selbst. 
---snip---

This means like Franz Chmel and Lutz Nölle built a new chrom and the 
first tests are very promising, but testing is still in progress. 
...new valve design...  ...they´re going to produce this new 
instrument themselves...

Franz , being asked about it on the "harpchat" mailinglist responded 
that he had already tested  the new chrom more then 200 hours and also 
played a few live gigs with it, he couldn't go in detail though.

In April this year he answered again on the harpchat mailing list when 
asked about this new instrument:

---snip---
Zu Deiner Frage bezüglich Haltbarkeit:
Ich spiele nur Chrom...sehr laut..mit viel Vibrato.
Bei meinen Hohner Super 64, die ich fast 20 Jahre spielte, brach 
bereits nach ca. 25 Übungsstunden die erste Zunge.
Danach waren es 4-6 Zungen wöchentlich.
Ich führe Buch über Zungenbrüche:-)))
Nun haben wir Stahlzungen...das Ergebnis:
Ich spiele damit bereits über 1 000 Stunden!!!!!!!!!!!!! OHNE einen 
Zungenbruch und OHNE nachstimmen.
Aber nocheinmal: ich spiele Chrom!!
Soviel dazu..mehr in einigen Monaten auf meiner neuen Website:-))
---snip---

translation:
"About your answer regarding durability:
I play only chrom...very loud...with a lot of vibrato
At my Hohner Super 64s, that i played for over 20 years, the first 
reed failed after aprox. 25 hours of playing. After that 4-6 reeds a 
week broke. I'm keeping record of broken reeds :))
Now we have steel reeds...the result:
I'm playing already over 1000 hours!!!!!!!!!!! WITHOUT a single broken 
reed and WITHOUT retuning. But again: i'm playing Chrom!!
That for now... more in a few month on my new website:))"

So that new harmonica will have steel reeds and innovative valves.
On a third occasion i remember him writing about this harmonica 
something like "It will all be new" meaning full of innovations.

A rumor i heard ist that the reed plates do not have just one 
continous thickness, but that they´re thicker on the low notes and 
thinner on the higher ones, but i don´t know where i heard that 
anymore.

Well, i HTH
Nothing more to do but waiting a few month for the new website ;)

-- 
Gruß,Frank

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