Re: [Harp-L] 19th Century Harp Repair

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 4, 2012, at 6:46 PM, David Payne wrote:

> There is this prevailing notion, that I strike blows against at every opportunity, that nobody did any work or tweaks on harmonicas before 1980.

Ha ha ha, you're so funny Dave. People in show business have been messing with em since time began.....

> When i find an early reference to harmonica repair, I like to pass it on. 
> I came across this in my latest attempt to find Richard Seydel's bandmaster patent. If anyone comes across that patent, I'd love to see it, I've searched for years for it with no luck.
> This patent is from 1893 by the extremely underrated genius Richard Seydel Sr. His patent is for snap covers that don't need any fasteners, they just snap on, kind of the same general idea as the B-radical covers.  By this point, Seydel had quit using nails to hold the coverplates on and were using screws something like the screws that hold the Special 20 coverplates on. 

I had a bandmaster when I lived in Italy in 1956. While the U.S. had a boycot on soviet bloc goods, Italy had no such restrictions. Seydels were fairly common. Maybe moreso than Hohners. And they were a bit cheaper.  

> In the abstract, Richard Seydel talks about people working on harps to clean them or make repairs, losing screws and whatnot and that was a reason for this design. 120 years later, I have that same problem.

Work over top of a piece of light colored velvet. Parts hit it and stick where they land. lolol
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> http://www.google.com/patents/US495842 
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> David
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com