Re: Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Chromatic DeLuxe a PREWAR design?

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You are right to assume the crack goes all the way through, it usually does. On the Rauner, it went all the way through. It's proved to be a challenging crack because it is so small. I could get a wood splint - I used American Chestnut scrap - in through the top, but not the the bottom, so I used my thumb to apply pressure the push wood glue on the bottom, applied the splint (with glue) at top, then used a piece of wood to push as much glue into the crack from the inside as I could. I always repair comb cracks initially with the harmonica together. I've resisted the impulse to take this chromatic apart. It plays fine. The only thing I'm going to do to it is something Rauner should have done, drill a little bit into the mouthpiece screw holes and enlarge the screw holes to accomodate the Pufferhulsen, the bumper tubes. 
I have a sneaking suspicion that this harmonica was never played. 

 
David Payne
www.elkriverharmonicas.com


Elk River Harmonicas Forum now available via Iphone app, www.elkriverharmonicas.com/forum


________________________________
 From: "EGS1217@xxxxxxx" <EGS1217@xxxxxxx>
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 8:56 PM
Subject: Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Chromatic DeLuxe a PREWAR design?
 

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/ 
 
and here's a photo of one of their wood products:
 
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
 
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@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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