Re: [Harp-L] Golden Melody

[Eric Nielsen <ericbarnak@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Steve,

Do you know any of the history behind Hohner's "U.S. Navy Band"? It
seemed very like a GM, except for the name and design on the cover plates. I
found one in an old dusty music store when I was a kid, and I bought it
because it looked cool. It soon became one of my favorite harps.

Eric


On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 3:32 PM, Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> John wrote:
>
> <Steve,
>
> When was the Golden Melody model first released?  Did it have a wood comb
> at first?  when did it start to be made with a plastic comb?
>
> Questions I've never known who to ask......
>
> Thanks,.
>
> Best regards,
>
> JP>
>
> Hi John,
>
> it's not so easy to answer your date question accurately, as a variety of
> different instruments bore (and bear) the name Golden Melody. I'll assume
> you're asking about the 10-hole Richter harp. The basic design is clearly
> 1950s and was used for a series of 100th anniversary harps in 1957, as well
> as for a number of similar instruments from around that time, most of which
> were confusingly named Marine Band, even though they bore no similarity to
> the Marine Bands we know (maybe it was a generic term for 10-holes at the
> time). These all instruments all had the characteristic rounded GM shape
> with full-length closed anodized gold or silver covers, but the covers were
> lower and the comb seemed slightly wider from front to back. Totally cool
> harps, I've been trying to persuade museum curator Martin Haeffner to give
> me one for years without success. I've not seen any earlier ones using this
> form and the name Golden Melody was not used at that time as far as I could
> establish.
>
> The current (gold version) GM came on the market around 1975, at least,
> that's the first time I saw one, and was an update of the '50s instrument.
> It may have been available earlier though. All instruments mentioned had
> plastic combs from the very beginning. The 1950s ones used some sort of
> Bakelite material and the later (current) ones used injection-moulded
> plastic. Wood was to the best of my knowledge never used for this design.
> Unfortunately my listing of what models were made when (once again compiled
> by Martin Haeffner) omits any mention of the GM, whether 10-hole or
> octave/tremolo models,
>
> hope this helps,
>
> all the best
>
> Steve
>
> Steve Baker
> www.stevebaker.de
> www.bluesculture.com
>
>
>
>
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