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Harmonica Brands
Harmonica Brands
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Philosofy
831 posts
Jul 05, 2017
7:37 AM
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I thought it would be nice to have a thread dedicated to current and out of business harmonica manufacturers.
Off the top of my head:
The big 3: Hohner, Suzuki, Seydel. Hohner is the largest, Seydel is the oldest, and Suzuki is in Japan.
Other active harp brand names: Lee Oskar Easttop (a new Chinese brand) Huang Yonberg
Which ones am I missing?
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Rontana
416 posts
Jul 05, 2017
8:29 AM
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Lots of names out there, such as Hering, Bushman, Johnson, Kay, Merano, LoDuca and probably more. Recently "harmo" popped up, which was addressed in a thread a few days back. Pretty low quality on a number of these.
I have no idea if some of this is simply rebranding of different names from the same plant. I suspect yes, but am too lazy to investigate.
It may be analagous to how, years ago, Kay and Harmony guitars were sold under a ton of different names, by Montgomery Wards, Sears, JC Penny, etc. Brands included stuff like Old Kraftsman, Silvertone and Truetone (sold in Western Auto stores) but the list goes and on and on. The instruments were basically the same animal, with a few tweaks. If I recall, even a lot of Stellas were Harmony.
Not necessarily a bad thing. I've got a Harmony archtop from the 1920s, and a True Tone/Western Auto "Speed Demon" from the 1960s. Both still play very well (I don't play very well, but the guitars do).
Last Edited by Rontana on Jul 05, 2017 8:52 AM
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AppalachiaBlues
30 posts
Jul 05, 2017
1:27 PM
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I would contend there is the "Big 5":
Germany: Hohner and Seydel Japan: Suzuki and Tombo/LeeOskar China: EastTop (including the many other brands they produce).
10 years ago, I would not have included EastTop, but would have instead included 'Brazil: Hering'. I don't see much from Hering these days. They were the only big producer based in the Americas for any extended time.
Last Edited by AppalachiaBlues on Jul 05, 2017 1:33 PM
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nacoran
9508 posts
Jul 06, 2017
10:27 AM
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I've talked to some people in Brazil on FB. Hering is still around. They just don't do much exporting these days.
Somewhere around I have a list of all the brands I've run across. Most of them are defunct.
I think East Top may have something to do with the lower priced Bee brand.
There is another Chinese brand named Blessing. I don't know if they are still active.
There is Swan... http://swanmusicstore.com/index.php?main_page=page_3
There was the Brazilian brand Bends for a while...
Okay, found the list... some of these are model names, not actual brands. I was looking at listings on eBay at one point...
Ace American Ace American Freedom Albert Sys. Atom Bandmaster Bee* Bell Brand Bends Blessing* Blue Danube Blues Bayou Blues Buddy Bluesman Blue Star Blue Steel Bohm (F.A. Bohm) Boomerang Brunnbauer (Ph. Brunnbauer) Bushman (Buckeye Trading) Butterfly Canary Carmento Clover Chase ChengGong Chordet Cid College Band Contest Doerfel (Dorfel?) Dompfaff Down Souther Dulcet Duretta Dragon Fly Harmonica Emmet Empress Ergo Essenbach (Carl Essbach) Estrella Excalibur Excelsior Feinste Sileck Stimmen Fischer (Joseph Fischer) Flying Eagle Friedel (Emil Friedel) Glass (Franz Glass) Golden Bird Golden Butterfly Golden Cup (Leo Shi)* Gretsch Guo Guang Hadson Hans Eisen (Stainless Steel) Hardwood Harmonicas Harmonic Reed haRmonic Solutions Harmonix* Harp Depot Harrison Hero Hering Hess# Hilaria Hohner Hot House Hotz (F.R. Hotz) Huang Huricaine Harps H.S.G. The Indian Elephant Jailhouse Blues Jambone* Johnson Kaptain Kool & the Kongs Kalbe Kay-Chicago Blues Kratt (US) Klingenthal Koch (Ands. Koch) Koch (Wilhelm Koch) Koch-Harmonica Werke Koestler Kratt (WK Kratt) Kruse Langhamer Lark LaVoie Harmonicas Loduca Bros. Lombardi Longhorns Ludwig (Gebr. Ludwig) HarpsCool KHS (Taiwanese) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KHS_Musical_Instruments Magnus (American) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Harmonica_Corporation Martinelli Melissa and Doug Merano Messner (Christian Messner & Co.) (Ch. Messner) Minyata Eagle Mississippi Harmonica Co. Miwha (Korean) Miyata Brand Mondial Monzino Music Master Musima* My Chum Nippon Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha Odin (Swedish) Olympic Opera Orion Oskar (Lee Oskar)* Parot Pee Wee Phonix Pinochio Pohl (Peter Pohl) (P. Pohl) Popular Delicia Planetone (Tribal Planet) Puretone Radiotone Rauner (F.A. Rauner) Rennesance Rheinperle Richter (Anton Richter) Richter (Joseph Richter) Robert Dolling Romel (William C. Romel) Rolz (Hans Rolz Co.) Sanita Saxonia Schlossmeinel Schlott (A.S. Schlott) Schunk (Johann Schunk) Schylling Serenata Seydel (C.A. Seydel Söhne)* Schoenhut Schylling Skylark* Sonara Spranger (M Spranger) Star Band Strauss Suasa Suzuki* Swan-Victory* Swaine & Adeney Sweet Music Swing Band Tatiri The Blues Thorens (Swiss) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorens Tombo* Torahachi Machino Toy Star (Star?) Tower Turbo* US Blues Vermona Vinetta Violin King Weiss (Ch. Weiss) Weltmeister* Weydlich (Carl Weydlich) Wurtt (Württ. Harmonikafabrik) Yamaha#
Wuxi-Suzuki (partnership)
#Fairly Contemporary *Still Made Bold Major Brand
Still Need to be Alphabetized and Checked for Duplicates:
A.A. Schlott Dompfaff Brunnbaur and Sohn Carl Essbach Weidersehn Unsere Lieblinge Thomas Rosenkavalier Thomas Zigeunerbaran William (Anton)Thie / Friedrich Wilhelm Thie Carl (A.) Essbach Matth. Hohner A.G. Royal (Emmet) (Richter) T. Meinhold C.H. Meinel (Meinel) Edmund Paulus P.H. Brunbrauer Carl Essbach Richter (Meinel & Herold) Meinel & Herold Blue Bird (Bohm?) Johannes Adler Borrah Minnevitch C.H. Messner (Ch. Messner) Tomba* typo? Migma?* Kostler* Wm. Kratt (U.S. made) Kain Z. Valencia (Kostler Co.) Carl Pitsch Cupid Brand Hockey Mississippi Harmonica by Regal BBB ELA Gebr. Meinel, Klingenthal VEB Klingenthaler Harmonikawerke Gebr. Gündel, Klingenthal Popular (Czech) Thomas Zigeunerbaran (Hans Rolz?) Swedish Luxe (Swedish) Schlossmeinel (bakelite) F.A. Rauner Carmento Joseph Fischer Charmant
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First Post- May 8, 2009
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nacoran
9509 posts
Jul 06, 2017
10:37 AM
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Several of these got bought by Hohner. Some were branded harps rather than brands... someone paid a harp factory to throw their name on a harp, and some are models, not brands.
When I started playing 10 years ago you would see a lot of ads for cheap Meranos and Johnsons. Blessing, Bee, Huang, Bushman, Hering, Harrison, Tombo(Lee Oskar), Suzuki, Bends, Seydel, Weltmeister, Leo Shi and Swan are all ones I've seen being sold new during that time.
Fender now has a line of harps, but they are rebranded. I know they have models made by Seydel and by Tombo, as well as several others.
And of course there are tons of customizers and comb makers. Far fewer companies make their own reeds. That seems to be the logical way to divide them into aftermarket manufacturers and manufacturers. Turboharp, Brendan Power and Winslow probably deserve separate mention since they have designed harps that are different in ways beyond just tuning differences (Turboslide, Overdrive, discrete comb).
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First Post- May 8, 2009
Last Edited by nacoran on Jul 06, 2017 10:39 AM
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1847
4256 posts
Jul 06, 2017
11:40 AM
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WinslowYerxa
1362 posts
Jul 06, 2017
12:08 PM
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EastTop and Bee are both brands of Jiangsu East Musical Instrument. =========== Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff Join us in 2017 for SPAH in Tulsa!
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WinslowYerxa
1363 posts
Jul 06, 2017
12:15 PM
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@nacoran: "Turboharp, Brendan Power and Winslow probably deserve separate mention since they have designed harps that are different in ways beyond just tuning differences (Turboslide, Overdrive, discrete comb)."
Thanks for the mention. However, Brendan didn't come up with the Overdrive. It was a Japanese guy; I remember meeting him in Trossingen in 1997. Brendan did come up with the X-reed idea independently (and later) from Will Scarlett, and has plenty of other ideas that are original. =========== Winslow
Check out my blog and other goodies at winslowyerxa.com Harmonica For Dummies, Second Edition with tons of new stuff Join us in 2017 for SPAH in Tulsa!
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