[Harp-L] American harmonica manufacturers



I've been away, so just noticed this from Michael Peloquin:

" Brad harrison <snip> his new company manufacturing the first Harmonicas manufactured entirely in the United States will be online in 2009."

Except that he won't be the first, that would most likely have been either James Bazin who was making harmonicas very early in the instrument's history:

http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp? recview=true&id=51479&coll_keywords=&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_art ist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_cr edit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&col l_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=10088&coll_start=1

The link is to a very early harmonica of his at the MFA in Boston. There was one on eBay earlier this year, IIRC.

There is also his very interesting pitch-pipe design:

http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp? recview=true&id=286784&coll_keywords=&coll_accession=&coll_name=&coll_ar tist=&coll_place=&coll_medium=&coll_culture=&coll_classification=&coll_c redit=&coll_provenance=&coll_location=&coll_has_images=&coll_on_view=&co ll_sort=0&coll_sort_order=0&coll_view=0&coll_package=10088&coll_start=1

Or Lewis Zwahlen from the same time period:

http://www.usd.edu/smm/Aeolian.html

Notably Bazin was from Boston and Zwahlen from New York, both amongst the most cosmopolitan cities of their day and also both with close ties to Europe by way of maritime trade--and perhaps not coincidentally the two pre-eminent centers of American organ-building for much of the 19th century.

A bit more contemporary and we have the William Kratt company, still making pitch-pipes (which could be classified as a circular harmonica) in the US. For a while they made more standard harmonicas as well:

http://www.gradywilliamkerr.com/PitchPipes/PitchPipe.html

I know this clip has been posted before, but it is still fun--a visit to the Kratt factory on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wmrz8BM-4M

There was also the Magnus company, making all-plastic instruments:

http://www.patmissin.com/gallery/gallery07.html

And also mid-century was the brilliant "All American" brand harmonicas made by the Harmonic Reed Corp. of Philadelphia, PA. These were made out of Bakelite, have been discussed on harp-l and are arguably the most complete re-working of the basic harmonica construction ever actually produced (there have been some interesting patents, but most are probably vaporware). Here are some examples:

http://www.patmissin.com/gallery/gallery10.html

http://www.g6pje.fsnet.co.uk/DIATONICS__OTHER_.html

I'd love to see these made again--they really have some nice possibilities and are just so neat design-wise. Won't happen, of course.

So, if he does get into production Brad Harrison may* be the only person manufacturing harmonicas in their entirety in the US today, he will not be the first.


*May because it all depends on how you classify pitch-pipes.



I hope to try one of Brad's harps when they come out--the prototypes look nice. I'm still waiting to see when or if the patent information comes online for these.




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
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