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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Cham-Ber & Frank Huang Interviews
Cham-Ber & Frank Huang Interviews
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Todd Parrott
307 posts
Jan 09, 2011
12:15 AM
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This may or may not be of interest to some of you. I thought it was cool to see the all metal prototype for the CBH-2016, as well as to hear Frank mention that his brother designed quite a few models for Hohner. Word has it that Cham-Ber designed the Golden Melody. Too bad Huang harmonicas were never of better quality than what they are. They certainly had the ability to create some great instruments. Check out these links for the interviews:
Frank Huang Interview
Cham-Ber Huang Interview
And here's an interesting Seydel interview about how "after decades of failing business, the employees worked hard to re-invent the image and product line of the harmonica company back in 2004."
Lars Seifert Interview
Last Edited by on Jan 09, 2011 12:20 AM
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barbequebob
1479 posts
Jan 10, 2011
7:58 AM
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The big problem for Huang was that, unlike Hohner, his financial and marketing muscle was essentially noexistent by comparison and couldn't dictate the way the things wouuld get done wheras a company with financial and marketing muscle can dictate things.
What also hurt them was the way the Chinese government had such control of things that you were stuck with what you got, but Huang was the first company since WWII to even attempt to compete with Hohner after too many years of frustration with them, especially with Frank Hohner at the helm sucking the company dry.
Seydel had a few things working against them. One was the fact that it was in East Germany, and they got hit by Hitler worst of all, being forced to make munitions for the Nazis, and then when East Germany became communist, the Seydel family was forced out and the government controlled everything and badly ruined the company for decades, and they even imported the Bandmaster harp line to compete with Hohner in the 70's, and an ad they had in a 1975 issue of Guitar Player magazine had advertised them as being just as good as Hohner, but half the price, but they were real dogs.
Once Germany got reunited, Seydel was returned to the family, but it was in such bad shape it was a money put for a long time until a media company bought them out around 2003-2004 gave them some real cash flow to get it back on track and prior to WWII, tho it never had the financial and marketing muscle Hohner did, they were often a lot more adventurous with the instrument than Hohner ever was.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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Diggsblues
673 posts
Jan 10, 2011
12:56 PM
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Thanks for that Todd.
About six years ago at SPAH I was
talking to Chamber and asked him when he
was going to write a Chromatic Harmonica
Method. He laughed and said, "I made my first
million you do it"
The cbh 2016 is my chromatic ax.
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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Todd Parrott
311 posts
Jan 10, 2011
3:21 PM
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Thanks BBQ Bob and Diggsblues.
@barbequebob - What about Tombo? Any idea why we can't get them in the USA besides Lee Oskars?
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isaacullah
1349 posts
Jan 10, 2011
7:01 PM
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Todd, I was just wondering the same thing about Tombo. I have a feeling it's part of their deal with Lee Oskar or something. So they can't decide to "cut him out of his own market" by selling lower price Lee Oskar equivalents under the Tombo name. I was looking at those neat compact Tombo Bass harps, and thinking that it's be something cool to have. There really isn't a good affordable Bass harp out there, especially now that no one here in the States seems to be stocking the Leo Shi/Golden Cup ones anymore. Lowest price alternative seems to be the Swan/Huang model, and I think coast2coast is the only place stocking those. At about $300, they are cheaper than the Suzuki's and Hohners, but are way more expensive than the Leo Shi's were and what the little Tombo is supposed to be (both somewhere in realm of $100).
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== I S A A C ==
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Last Edited by on Jan 10, 2011 7:02 PM
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isaacullah
1351 posts
Jan 10, 2011
7:53 PM
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Just a note: I found a website that seems to sell the entire Golden Cup/Leo SHi line, but they seem more of a wholesale distributor: http://www.sogoeo.com/musical-instruments-harmonica-c-308_418.html. Minimum order for any type of harp is 2, and they are selling the Leo Shi 18-hole single Bass harp for about $36,the double Bass harp (36 holes) for $60, the double 40-hole chord harp for $60, and the triple 60-hole chord harp for $70. I you order in quantity, the prices are lower, so if any of you small businessmen and women out there see this, you might take the opportunity to get a few of these in stock! There'd be a decent market, for sure! If any of you know a harp seller, pass this info along to them. I'd definitely buy some of these!
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== I S A A C ==
View my videos on YouTube!
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Todd Parrott
315 posts
Jan 10, 2011
8:10 PM
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@isaacullah - That is a pretty weird deal with Lee Oskar if you ask me. It seems that Tombo has missed out on thousands or millions of dollars over the years by not being able to sell their other models in the USA.
But you have to give Lee Oskar credit for being a viable competitor for Hohner. Hohner says that Lee Oskar is their main competition, not Seydel, Suzuki, etc. At least you can find Lee Oskars in the music stores.
As for bass harps, I would not recommend the Huang bass harp. I bought one for about $280, and though it could possibly be made to play better, it doesn't play well out of the box. I also noticed that the entire harp was tuned noticeably sharp.
Last Edited by on Jan 10, 2011 8:14 PM
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Stevelegh
33 posts
Jan 11, 2011
1:48 AM
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To my mind, Lee Oskars (in the UK at least) won out in the 80's and 90's on the fact you can play 2nd position (without overblows) consistently, which is what what 99% of harp players were doing back then. The cool case system where you can slot them together was a winner too.
But if anything, Hohner lost the market in those times to Tombo due to their poor marketing and being distracted by poorly made Chinese guitars. They also took on distribution deals with the likes of Godin, Seagull etc, all of which came to nothing. Those companies moved to other distributors and flourished.
We used to joke that HIV could be completely eliminated if only Hohner could market it........
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barbequebob
1480 posts
Jan 11, 2011
7:54 AM
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During the 70's, the only place in the US you could get Tombo harps were in limited areas on the West Coast. The Lee Oskar was actually a Tombo Major Boy model, but with more refinements done to it and I've actually had a chance to see and play one about 25 years ago and when played agains the LO in an A/B test, the LO definitely played better because of the refinements.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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