I've worked as a stagehand at the Opry House for the last 30 years. In the hallways backstage there are several display cases full of memorabilia. I don't know why but I've never taken the time to actually stop and gander inside them but last night while doing the tuesday night Opry show this thing all of a sudden stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Anyway I thought it was very interesting and was wondering if anyone knew the history of these type harps. I tried google but nothing came up. The only info I could see was "Always Happy Pipe Organ" and "made in Germany". Is it a Hohner? I like the 5 little mini megaphones coming out the back of the covers.
Thanks for sharing this. As a brass player I like the idea of getting high volumes unamplified and had been wonreing what had been tried to get the harmonica to project befroe the advent of the amp.
I think I read somewhere that Mr Bailey used to hold up a megaphone in one hand while playing the harp with the other but this is the first time I've ever seen a harmonica with built in "projectors".
While I never did find anything on google about the particular harmonica I posted I did in fact find some other really interesting designs including the "Trumpet Call" mentioned above on the Alan G. Bates Harmonica Collection site. According to them the horns on that model and on another called the Trumpet Organ Harmonica by Andreas Koch were non functional and purely decorative. Oh well they look cool anyway. lol