Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Chromatic DeLuxe a PREWAR design?
- To: dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subject: Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Chromatic DeLuxe a PREWAR design?
- From: EGS1217@xxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:56:35 -0400 (EDT)
- Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
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As previously mentioned, Dave - I'm thrilled you nabbed the Hugo Rauner
chromatic. What intrigued ME the most was the USSR-Occupied Germany
inscription, and I'd vaguely remembered 'someone' (my thoughts were that it was you)
expressing a prior interest in Rauners.
One rule of thumb I go by with a used chromatic, though--is that when a
Seller states that there's a 'tiny cosmetic' crack with or without photos, I
simply assume that it goes all the way through the comb. I've never yet
seen any crack which doesn't. Sellers are clueless in my experience.<G> I've
even seen some referred to as 'tiny' which comparatively looked like the
Grand Canyon in what was obviously a permanently damaged and completely warped
(usually by liquid) chromatic.
Caveat Emptor --always!
The leather windsavers and spring are great to know about with this Rauner.
Very interesting info about it. It was most intriguing to me and IF you
hadn't gone for it I might still have, purely for its historical interest.
BTW - in re what to use to glue Beech, I stumbled upon this product (saw
it advertised in the current Popular Mechanics), so checked out the website:
_http://www.eclecticproducts.com/_ (http://www.eclecticproducts.com/)
and here's a photo of one of their wood products:
_http://www.eclecticproducts.com/_photos/ad_images/076818180012_wf_37c.jpg_
(http://www.eclecticproducts.com/_photos/ad_images/076818180012_wf_37c.jpg)
I've NO idea if or how it works or its properties (or if it'd be at all
good for a comb), but in the PM ad it's listed as 'impact and vibration
resistant and waterproof: fixes what other glues simply can't'. Hadn't heard of
it before and thought you might be interested.
OFFtopic --they also sell something called ShoeGoo (maybe other people know
all about it since skateboarders use it to repair their specialized
shoes?), but it was news to me. I imagine parents of young kids and those who
don't have a good shoe repair place handy might find it of some interest:
_http://www.eclecticproducts.com/shoegoo.htm_
(http://www.eclecticproducts.com/shoegoo.htm)
Elizabeth
"Message: 7
Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:41:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Chromatic DeLuxe a PREWAR design?
To: Harp L Harp L _harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx)
Elizabeth pointed me to this chromatic on Ebay, it was a 12-hole Hugo
Rauner. I'm not really a harmonica collector - I'm afraid I would cross the
line into hoarding if I were - but I went after this one and paid more
($28.50) for it than I've paid for any Ebay harmonica that wasn't a prewar Seydel
Bandmaster, even though it had a comb crack - which the seller assumed was
merely cosmetic (it ain't). What got my interest up was that it bore
markings of "Made in U.S.S.R. Occupied Germany," so it would have to date from
around 1946 to 1949. This was made by a PRIVATE company in Soviet-occupied
Germany, before the DDR really took control of the industry, and would almost
neccesarily be a prewar design. It might as well be prewar Klingenthal.
It has leather windsavers. The comb is beech. How often do you see a
chromatic with a beech comb? I'm a bit nervous about repairing the crack, pear
is so soft and has give, beech is very hard by comparison. If all else fails,
I've got an old pearwood Seydel chromatic DeLuxe comb that will fit it,
believe it or not.
Now the interesting part. It is the exact same design as the Seydel
Chromatic DeLuxe. That unique short spring on the side that the Seydel chromatic
Deluxe has - it has it. It has the same mouthpiece. I haven't measured the
reedslots yet, but the parts all seem to be interchangeable. The Chromatic
DeLuxe has recently been updated with the acrylic comb and all... this Hugo
Rauner is identical to the previous wood comb DeLuxe (which was pear,
Klingenthal harmonicas are traditionally beech).
What happened to the Hugo Rauner company is unclear. We know that they
left East Germany around 1950, then went out of business. I think this special
harmonica - and its apparently being a direct ancestor of the chromatic
Deluxe, offers a clue about what happened. Seydel has this design for a
reason and it seems probable that they got during the years when the DDR was
running the show and nationalizing companies left and right - and that Hugo
Rauner was nationalized and at that point Hugo fled to West Germany to start
another company, which flopped. But the notion that design came from Hugo
Rauner would hinge on the fact that it was actually a Hugo Rauner design,
which might not be the case. I know that the other Hugo Rauner 10-hole
chromatics I have seen (the Borrah Minnevitch chromatics) have been basically
copies of the Koch valveless chromatic.
I'm always interested in figuring out these model histories, Seydel didn't
start pushing in the U.S. until recent memory and they came up with these
new models, Solist Pro, 1847,etc. at about the same time and the Session is
a little older, but slightly. They still are the world's oldest company and
they still have some historic designs, the Mountain Harp is one - the
recently discontinued Solist was another. The Concerto is probably the best of
the older designs I already knew about.
That the Chromatic DeLuxe is a prewar design that has survived is very
interesting to me. I wonder, folks who have taken apart actual prewar Hugo
Rauner TWELVE hole chromatics, if those chromatics also had the spring on the
side like that - which is the most obvious part of this particular design
and I would be interested to see if any other companies had this design.
David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com
Elk River Harmonicas Forum now available via Iphone app,
www.elkriverharmonicas.com/forum
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