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Over the course of several years as a professional harmonica technician, my workshop has got filled up with harps whose owners abandoned them, jobs I started for people who subsequently changed their minds and all sorts of other harmonica orphans. In order to improve my feng shui, I need to find some new homes for these things, so I'm offering them for sale at bargain prices, first come, first served. All prices are in US dollars and do not include shipping. I accept PayPal or money orders. If you see something you want, contact me right away!
Key of G, new old stock, never used. This is how the Special 20 was first made - reedplates attached with brads, rather than screws and to be honest, the tolerances are not as good as they are on current Hohner S20s. However, if you want a slice of history in the original tan vinyl snap fastened case, this is for you. I could rebuild it with screws, tune and adjust it to your personal requirements, but that would cost you extra and take at least a couple of months. Take it off my hands now for only $25.
These also date from the mid to late 1970s and Hohner has not made them for several years. For those of you that have not seen this model before, they have wood combs like a Marine Band, but the chamber partitions are wrapped with a nickel plated metal strip, as described on this page. Again, these are unplayed new old stock and I have one each in the keys of Eb harmonic minor, E harmonic minor and F harmonic minor. $30 each, or $80 for all three.
OK, so the tuning is not exactly secret, but it is one of the tunings that Lee uses for his own harps and is not commercially available. Here is the layout:
| BLOW | Ab | D | G | Bb | D | F | Bb | D | F | Bb |
| HOLE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| DRAW | Eb | F | A | C | E | G | Ab | C | Eb | G |
As you can see, it covers the same range as a standard Bb harp and is essentially a variation of the Melody Maker tuning, giving an F major scale in second position, with some blue notes thrown in. I guess if you have to ask what you can do with this tuning, you probably shouldn't be buying these reedplates. I retuned them for myself by mistake, picking up the wrong key. I've already got a harp in this key/tuning, so these reedplates are up for grabs. They are standard Lee Oskar plates that will fit any LO comb, they are adjusted for medium pressure playing and tuned in Just Intonation. $25.00 and they are yours.
These are for the original Hand Made or Classic Meisterklasse diatonic, NOT the current MS version. One pair is in A, the other pair is in C. They have been used, but I have thoroughly checked all the reeds as I retuned and adjusted them and everything is in very good shape. The C reedplates are the original incarnation with beryllium copper reeds for holes 4 and above, with standard reeds in holes 1 to 3. The A reedplates are the later version that use the standard alloy for all the reeds. The A set are in one of the nice little vinyl wallets that Hohner used to use for replacement MK plates. Again, these haven't been made in twenty years or so. Both pairs are tuned to Equal Temperament at A=442Hz and adjusted for medium/gentle playing. For an additional fee and wait, I can set them up however you want, but you can simply take them off my hands right now for $50 for both pairs.
This has been lying around my workshop for far too long. An older Golden Melody that has been converted to use screws rather than brads and retuned to a C major Spiral Tuning:
| BLOW | C | E | G | B | D | F | A | C | E | G |
| HOLE | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| DRAW | D | F | A | C | E | G | B | D | F | A |
If you start at the first hole, blowing and drawing then moving to the next hole, you get a C major scale, with the draw note always being higher in pitch than the blow note in the same hole. This gives a ton of harmonic possibilities, far too many to go into any detail here. It's tuned in a slightly tweaked meantone temperament and adjusted for medium/gentle playing. I seem to have misplaced the box for this one, so it's just $35.