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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
pre war old standby
pre war old standby
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groyster1
3511 posts
Jan 16, 2020
8:43 AM
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I have a full set of these 7 harps....these harps play very well and Im thinking that they have the same reed plates as the marine bands manufactured during that period.....the cover plates leave a bit to be desired though
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florida-trader
1485 posts
Jan 17, 2020
8:13 AM
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I believe you are correct George. The reed plates are the same. If you remove the covers on a pre-war Marine Band 1896 (post Mouse Ear era harps), you will see three holes in either end of the reed plates. Both the Marine Band and the Old Standby covers are secured to the comb with nails. The nails have little slots in them to make them appear like screws, but they are, indeed, nails. The holes in the reed plates are there to allow nails to pass through the reed plates into the wood comb. The Marine Band uses four nails to fasten the covers to the comb – two in each end - the middle of the three holes in the reed plates are not used. The Old Standby has the opposite configuration. Old Standby covers are secured to the comb with one nail on either end of the harp through the center nail in the reed plates. BTW – I know that you know this. You are a big fan of the pre-wars and are knowledgeable. I am just going over all this to enlighten anyone who might not be familiar with the insides of the vintage harps and to make my case for believing that the reed plates on both harps are identical. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that Hohner would have had two separate production lines to build nearly identical harps. It makes much more sense that they designed the reed plates so they will fit both models. It is no different from today with the Special 20 and the Rocket using the same reed plates. Only the combs and covers are different. The same could be said for the MB Deluxe and the Crossover. Same reed plates. Just tuned differently and mounted on different combs.
The second part of your statement is also true. I have a few Old Standbys which have covers that are like flimsy tin cans. It boggles my mind that Hohner would have made such cheap covers on a good harp. I don’t think that strategy last too long because the vast majority of the pre-war old Standbys I own have the same gauge metal covers as a Marine Band. Sounds like you have a set of the flimsy covered old Standbys, which, in my opinion, would be pretty rare.
I will post some photos later - or perhaps this weekend.
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Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
Last Edited by florida-trader on Jan 17, 2020 8:13 AM
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barbequebob
3632 posts
Jan 17, 2020
8:33 AM
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For a short time early in its production, some pre-WWII Old Standbys actually used a slightly thinner reed plate and the enclosed cover plates gave them a more mellower sound, especially on harps pitched higher than D.
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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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