Re: [Harp-L] Need Help Identifying Antique Harp

["Ohio BluesMan" <ohiobluesman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the great info, David !  It gives me a place to start.

OhioBlues
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Message: 10
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 16:33:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Need Help Identifying Antique Harp
To: Harp L Harp L <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Message-ID: <832620.76538.qm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

It's a tremolo harmonica. For its worth, old harmonicas aren't worth a whole
lot. You have to estimate their value in coolness and awesomeness alone.
Eagle Brand, to the best of my knowledge, was not an actual maker, but a
Gretsch brand. In other words, Gretsch paid somebody to make these
harmonicas. The only company I am sure of that made harmonicas for Gretsch
is Kostler, but that was just after world war II, when Kostler was the only
maker in the U.S. Zone of occupied germany, thus the only harmonicas U.S.
companies could import. Hohner was in the French Zone, Seydel and host of
other companies were in the Soviet Zone. 
The question is, who made it? I dunno. This harmonica would probably date to
the 1920s or 1930s. I would think the 1930s. The key is F on one side, but
the other side is not B, it's Bb. "B" is the German designation for what we
call "Bb.." If it were "B" it would be labeled in the key of "H," which is
the German designation for "B"