Re: [Harp-L] chromatic advice

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hohner made two models of CBH - the 2016 (16-hole and the most common) and the 2012 (12-hole and much rarer).
When Cham-Ber Huang left Hohner, Hohner stopped making the CBH. Cham-Ber told me that he owned the rights to it but couldn't afford to tool up to make it himself; most of what he sold was just his branding of existing Shanghai production.
The CBH still has its following. Robert Bonfiglio plays nothing else, and Hohner still makes reedplates for it.
Winslow

Winslow Yerxa
Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
Columnist, harmonicasessions.com

--- On Tue, 9/14/10, Rick Dempster <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Rick Dempster <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] chromatic advice
To: "joe leone" <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 7:09 PM

Joe;
        have you got one, or have you ever owned one, and if so, what do/did you make of 'em. Wonder if it's worth trying to pick up one second hand. Woddyareckon?
RD

>>> joe leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx> 15/09/2010 11:03 >>>
Too expensive to justify the low sales..at the time. And Hohner  
didn't want to keep paying Cham-Ber the royalties for the invention.  
NOW they would sell a ton of them.

On Sep 14, 2010, at 8:47 PM, Rick Dempster wrote:

> Winslow;
>               Why did Hohner cease making the CBH - I mean the one  
> with the plastic 'doors' instead of the slide- I never owned one,  
> but when I've briefly played one, it seemed pretty airtight, and  
> that was a  4 octave, wasn't it?
> RD
>
>>>> Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx> 15/09/2010 0:19 >>>
> The Sliver Concerto is three octaves because it was the brainchild  
> of Tommy Reilly, who was a three-octave player.
> Doug became a three-octave player after playing four-octave  
> instruments for awhile. He found his true preference, and when he  
> and Bobbie Giordano went to redesign the chromatic harmonica from  
> the ground up, they designed to that preference.  I once asked him  
> whether they'd be making a four-octave instrument, as my main  
> hesitation in getting a Renny - aside from the cost - was my  
> preference four a four-octave instrument, and he admitted that they  
> did't know enough about building four octave instruments to  
> successfully take on such a project.
> And there's the rub. Smaller instruments are easier to build. Ten- 
> hole chromatic harmonicas are more airtight that 12-holers, and 12- 
> holers are by nature more airtight than 16-holers. If you just add  
> two or four more holes without doing the additional work of  
> figuring out how to compensate for the longer slide and the greater  
> surface areas that contact other areas, you're going to have  
> problems. But Hohner, Hering, and Suzuki, and now Bends, have all,  
> in my estimation, dealt with those problems and produce fine four- 
> octave chromatic harmonicas.
> Winslow
>
> Winslow Yerxa
> Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
> Harmonica instructor, The Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance
> Resident expert, bluesharmonica.com
> Columnist, harmonicasessions.com
>
> --- On Tue, 9/14/10, MundHarp@xxxxxxx <MundHarp@xxxxxxx> wrote
>
> On the other hand... Why did Doug Tate build his "Renaissance",
> perhaps the "ultimate" chromatic harmonica, as a 3 octave? And why  
> is Hohner's
> flagship harmonica, the "Silver Concerto" only a 12 hole harp?
>
> John "Whiteboy" Walden
> Cebu City
> Philippines
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