This may be of interest to Golden Melody players... I hope I'm not reading this wrong, but I just noticed that the Hohner catalog shows the Golden Melody as being available again in High G:
These were discontinued many years ago, along with the low tunings. I understand why the low tunings went away (reed rattle) but never understood why the High G was discontinued.
Glad to see they're back! Now I can buy one and turn it into a High Ab! :)
Hey There, mine has been in the box forever until last week when I was doing pre-war blues and it was just what I needed. Are there any other brands making them?
Last Edited by on Sep 04, 2012 3:41 PM
Yes, that's the thing; just about every harp is available in high G, which is why I never understood why the Golden Melody high G was ever discontinued.
I use richter, except for tuning down the 7 draw. I've tried the PowerBender, PowerBlow, and some other tunings, which I will gladly use if the tuning works well with a particular song.
Amazingly I received a few GM low tunings (old stock) from someone recently (LEb, LF#, and LF) and none have a rattle. I have 2 other LF GM's I love - Joe Spiers worked on 1 and Harvey Berman the other and I love them both but they originally had the rattle. I did a show with Felicia Collins ( the David Letterman band's guitarist) tonight and she seriously loved the tone of my LGM's: very hornlike.....Thanks for the heads up about the HG's.....I play the AGM you tuned the 7 down for me often. My best. d ---------- Facebook
@bigd - Very cool man! I have all the GM low keys too, but they all have reed rattle. Sometimes reed rattle can be a good thing. In my recent train song recording, the reed rattle on the low E actually sounded like a train noise.
To me, a high G, or any higher key, sounds better on a harp with full-length covers.
That's when the 1 draw reed (and sometimes 2 draw) hits and rattles against the cover plate, because the cover plate is too shallow. The Thunderbird style covers help alleviate this problem.
NOTE: Just confirmed with Hohner that the Golden Melody in High G is no longer available. Things have changed since this guide was published.
I have a full set of Golden Melodies - high G down to low Eb - all are at least 15 years old or older. None have that low end rattle. I believe these were produced before a change in design or screws in the plates happened. I like them better than the new ones.
Todd - I thought I heard an altered reed in the recordings posted from your performance at Adam's gathering this year. Nice to know that I can still trust my ears. ---------- The Iceman
One of the techs from Hohner said once that reed rattle could be greatly reduced by adjusting the gapping, but I haven't tried it. These low GM's are pretty old as well, and all have nails.
As for the altered reed, I use the flattened 7 draw these days mainly as a note to bounce off of, rather than a replacement for the 6 overblow.
I will send you a link to a rough, unmixed, unfinished version of "Sunday Soup" so you can hear a better example of how I'm using that tuning.
Last Edited by on Sep 05, 2012 8:21 PM
I like the idea of the dimples in the draw cover plate, but I'm not crazy about Seydel reeds, no matter how well they are customized, etc. However, due to availability, I can see why Seydel was the choice for this project.
Matt placed a dimple in my Ab Golden Melody and it helped a lot - no reed rattle.
A better solution would be if Hohner created a deeper cover plate design for lower keys, starting around A, though not as radical as the Thunderbird design (which works great for Marine Bands).
At one time, I think I had some lower key Lee Oskars that also had deeper draw plate covers.
Last Edited by on Sep 06, 2012 9:57 AM
You can still retune for a lot of the keys, I think the dimple is really the big thing, although I prefer conical plates.
I would imagine the cost part vs niche is a major issue. The Thunderbird isn't $125 because they make twice as much profit as the Crossover.
You'd have to redo the reed plate and bottom cover plate design on the least popular handmade harp (which probably sells a lot less than other Chinese Hohners too). Hence, the coolness of the dimple.
Matthew always has cool cover ideas. The tool he uses to make MB covers conical is literally one of a kind and it takes like 30s to do. ---------- Mike VHT Special 6 Mods Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
Perhaps its lack of popularity is due to its tuning, cover plate design, brittle comb, and mostly lack of marketing on Hohner's part. You can't even buy a Golden Melody t-shirt, iron-on patch, etc. (Special 20 either.) And they're never in the music stores.
The Golden Melody hasn't gotten an upgrade since the design first appeared in 1957 as a 100 year anniversary model. (Btw, it was not designed by Chamber Huang.)
But still, the tone is my favorite for my style of playing. It is perfect in the studio for acoustic playing on a condenser mic.
