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Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 14:44:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Winslow Yerxa
Subject: Re: Hohners Steve Baker Specials

Vince Cheney asks:

>Can one of the Hohner gurus here please explain to me
>why Hohner only makes the SBS in a few keys? This is
>a great harp and I would probably completely move to
>this line if they made them in a few more keys. I am
>also looking into the option of having my SBS harps
>altered to different tunings, is there a
semi->reasonably priced harp man doing this type of
work >out there? I would only need the standard
tunings.

I'm as mystified as anybody by a good deal of Hohner's
behaviour, but I imagine the reason they don't make
the SBS in all keys is that they probably don't sell a
huge quantity of SBS harps. There's probably some bean
counter in their accounting department who would love
to get rid of all but 4 or 5 keys in all their models.

In addition to the regular C,D, F, G and A, Hohner
also occasonally makes batches of Low G and Low A SBS
instruments.

Why not learn to tune? Practice on some inexpensive
10-hole harps to get the hang of it. Aside from your
time, you'll be out the cost of the necessary tools
(mostly inexpensive with the possible exception of a
tuner) and a few sacrificial harps. Unless you have
absolutely no time to spare, this could be a better
solution than throwing money at the problem or trying
to decipher the inscrutable behaviour of M. Hohner.

On the principle that it's easier to tune up than down
(others may disagree - and if they express themselves
I'm sure it will be instructive) you could get the
following yield from existing keys:

C=C

C -> Db

D -> Eb

F->E (I broke the rule already, but 1 semitone downmay
be easier than 2 semitones up from a D)

F=F

F->F#

G=G

G->Ab

A=A

A-> high Bb

C->low Bb

A-> high B

C-> low B

Winslow

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