[Harp-L] Interesting little Seydel reedslot legacy

[David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been measuring some reed slots lately, to help me find reeds more quickly as I do repairs. 
Now, until now, I have believed that the Seydel Solist, with its narrow reedslots, was the true heir of the prewar Seydel Bandmaster, the awesomest harmonica of all time. The first of the precious few prewar Seydel Bandmasters I came across were narrow reedslots. 
Now the prewar Seydel Bandmaster that it awesomest, is this G I made for playing 1st position. It is also the oldest of the Bandmasters I've come cross. It says "Made in Saxony..." back from the days of the Second Reich, when Saxony operated as a semi-autonomous state within Kaiser Wilhelm's German empire... it was probably made around 1915. 
To me, this particular Bandmaster is the dearest of all, awesomest of the awesomest. I took it apart today to do free up a stuck reed or something. Now I had previously embossed this thing, tuned it (how the reeds sit in the slots on these prewar Seydel Bandmasters were already set in the factory at Maximum whoopass, so no alteration was needed there). But in all the work I did to it, I never noticed until today that the reeds didn't look right.  
So I measured the reedslots. I found something very interesting. Those measurements follow... (I do all my measuring in metric. God bless America, but I hate fractions.)


Slot Dimensions, Prewar Seydel Bandmaster G , awesomest harmonica of all time
reed slot     length  width
1 blow 1.7 cm, 0.2 cm
2 blow 1.6 cm, 0.2 cm
3 blow 1.5 cm, 0.2 cm
4 blow 1.4 cm, 0.2 cm
5 blow 1.3 cm, 0.2 cm
6 blow 1.2 cm, 0.2 cm
7 blow 1.05 cm, 0.2 cm
8 blow 0.95 cm, 0.2 cm
9 blow 0.8 cm, 0.2 cm
10 blow 0.7 cm, 0.2 cm

Slot dimensions Seydel 1847 (all 1847s are long slot)
1 blow 1.65 cm, w 0.2cm
2 blow 1.55 cm, w 0.2 cm
3 blow 1.45 cm, w 0.2 cm
4 blow 1.35 cm, w 0.2 cm
5 blow 1.35 cm, w 0.2 cm
6 blow 1.2 cm, w 0.2 cm
7 blow 1.2 cm, w 0.2 cm
8 blow 1 cm, w 0.2 cm
9 blow 0.9 cm, w 0.2 cm
10 blow 0.8 cm, w 0.2 cm

Until now, I hadn't seen that wider Seydel profile in anything but tremolos. From a historical continuity standpoint, it's kind of interesting to see the 1847 be revealed as legitimate an heir to the Bandmaster as the Solist is, especially since Seydel is starting this trend where it uses the 1847 name as it used to use the Bandmaster name. Not just as both names were/are used on flagship models, but for a family of instruments. If you've got a Saxony to look at, it's technically an 1847. The name on the cover is "1847 Saxony," The "1847" being inside the O. 

Just a little interesting tidbit of harmonica nerddom I thought I'd pass along. 

Dave
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