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Hohner Harmonetta

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Stephen said:
Any engineers in the room ?
Here are some (extremely rare) 10 photos of the inside of an old Hohner Harmonetta, a free reed keyed mouth harmonica.
http://www.vintageaudioberlin.de/vabgalerien/kurioses/hohner-harmonetta/index.htm

I never had the opportunity to hold a Harmonetta in my hands.
Im not really attracted to the Harmonetta because of its large dimensions, maybe some of the members have seen or played it before?
Click to expand...

Im not an engineer... but I have seen the Harmonetta being played. There is a well known harmonica quartet in the Netherlands: Fata Morgana where the lead player (second from the left) sometimes uses the Harmonetta.
http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~debra/photos/play-in-meer-met-muziek-2016/slides/P3138136.jpg>P3138136.jpg
Quite a special instrument, a bit like an alternative to the accordina.
 
The inside pics of the Harmonetta are so rare to find online, so I put a link here on the forum.
So you are one of the very few living beings having made close encounter with the alien Harmonetta 8-)

I think my accordina is more practical and ergonomical than the Harmonetta (looks like a mini typewriter to bite...).

The Hohner Claviola (a reed instrument with pipes) is even more oversized.


In my Hohner book it is written the Hohner workers called it the Ravioli... It seems they were very displeased in having to produce this oversized thing.

(Im still dreaming of the Charles Wheatstone symphonium... Small is beautiful !)
 
Development of products like the Harmonetta and the Guitaret, and many other ... must have costed Hohner a fortune !
I read the Hohner Claviola production was discontinued after months...

They kept the pdf Guitaret tutor online
This is a plucked free reed mini guitar with amplifier.
Sometimes too many engineers in one (Hohner) room...

Still, cool they keep the tutor online for collectors:
http://de.playhohner.com/fileadmin/...ying_Instructions_for_the_Hohner_Guitaret.pdf
 
Stephen said:
The inside pics of the Harmonetta are so rare to find online, so I put a link here on the forum.
So you are one of the very few living beings having made close encounter with the alien Harmonetta 8-)

I think my accordina is more practical and ergonomical than the Harmonetta (looks like a mini typewriter to bite...).

The Hohner Claviola (a reed instrument with pipes) is even more oversized.


In my Hohner book it is written the Hohner workers called it the Ravioli... It seems they were very displeased in having to produce this oversized thing.

(Im still dreaming of the Charles Wheatstone symphonium... Small is beautiful !)
Click to expand...


I agree: the accordina is more practical than the Harmonetta and indeed it looks like a mini typewriter to bit.
The Fata Morgana quartet uses many different harmonica-like instruments, but not the accordina. I do believe Fata Morgana should add the accordina to its arsenal, but Im not involved (and I will never give up my accordina!).
 
Quite interesting thread, thanks for posting this :)

I only dare to comment on this:

Development of products like the Harmonetta and the Guitaret, and many other ... must have costed Hohner a fortune!
Click to expand...

I believe this depends on whether they produced them mainly manually or tried to set up large-scale production. I think Hohner has some small department crafting innovative instruments with the help of few skilled guys, and if it covers the customer demand, then there are no significant capital expenses.
 
You might have seen this video already:

HARMONETTA : Dismantling
 
Thanks a lot for links!

I cant understand from video - does it sound on both blow and draw (i.e. as any harmonica), or is it single-action (like melodica/pianica)?

*UPD* ah, wikipedia says it gives the same note on blow and draw: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonetta

If it is true, it is a very nice feature compared to both harmonica/melodica...
 
I dare not to answer that question, because I never paid much attention to the Hohner Harmonetta (I don't like the sound of the Harmonetta).
I'm interested in the complex construction of the Harmonetta.

In the video they say Hohner sold only a few Harmonettas, because they were not flexible at all, clumsy, and difficult to play.

They also forget the French accordina was also being made at that time (in the 1950s), a much more flexible instrument. The accordina player has total freedom in making any chord he or she wants.
And the construction of the accordina is very simple, in contrast to the very complex construction of the Hohner Harmonetta.

The question is: was the production of the Hohner Harmonetta prior to the André Borel accordina production?
Harmonetta production started around 1954 (?).
The exact start of the Borel accordina production is unclear, somewhere in the 1950s (patented in 1949 in the USA).

If Hohner knew about the French accordina, why did they even want to make a Harmonetta (?). A mystery to me.
 
adding info

http://www.boite-accordeon.com/accord1.html
Accordina de André Borel
conçu vers 1943, commercialisé
à partir de 1955 par les
établissements Beuscher à Paris.

The music shop Beuscher in Paris started selling Borel accordinas from 1955 (?).
If 1955 is the exact year when the accordina sales started, then that was bad luck for Hohner.

The accordina managed to rise again from the dead...
For how long I dont know, but it sure is a very good music instrument, with stainless steel reeds... (So prior to Seydels steel reed harmonicas by some decades...)
 
(wow, seems my message was not posted, I retype it)

If Hohner knew about the French accordina, why did they even want to make a Harmonetta (?). A mystery to me.
Click to expand...

They started producing (and I believe, patented) their melodica just about the same time, at early (?) 1950-s. And if I understand right, the melodica is just the same thing as accordina, though replacing chromatic button keyboard with piano keyboard. Probably it was a good marketing move - though device becomes larger, it looks more familiar to customers.

Harmonetta on the other side looks very different. I think it is was an attempt to make some more complicated version of chromatic harmonica, with buttons instead of slider. But really it has many limitations of harmonicas - and yeah, the sound is unpleasant, like of a bended blues harp... No surprise it had only limited success. But I think there is no mystery - such a company should constantly try new designs. Few of them may become successful...

BTW, it seems that currently accordinas are only available at comparatively high cost and, probably, from only few (single?) brands... Is it really so or Im missing something?
 
Yep, the Hohner patented melodica was a success from the start around 1958 / 1959. And it still is sold in large numbers. The melodica also is very flexible
Any chord is available, and simple in construction.

Some plastic B system cba accordinas have been made in the Ukraine.
 
A melodica is very different from an accordina. The accordina is a high quality hand-crafted instrument with good reeds, fine mechanics, and costs over 1.000 euro. A melodica can be bought for a few euro, a few tens of euros when brand new, and sounds rubbish compared to an accordina. But both are always just an "extra" used by accordion players, and for an extra the melodica being cheap is so compelling that plans for a piano-keyboard accordina (with the quality of the accordina) never got very far. The only piano-keyboard variations that exist are the larger eolina or vibrandoneon instruments made by Victoria and Ballone Burini (and perhaps others...)
In this sense they are similar to the Harmonetta: this too I have also only seen used as an "extra" by harmonica players. And it's an expensive rare "extra" just like the accordina is for an accordion player.
 
I agree there is difference in quality between a (plastic) mass produced melodica, and the limited series production of high quality accordinas.

I think companies like Hohner and the Asian melodica makers will not change the design of their plastic melodica, because they are still making good money from mass produced cheap plastic piano layout melodicas. Maybe they have an attitude of Never change a winning team (?), because sales are going well.

The high price of an accordina is keeping sales number low in comparison to the millions of melodicas produced.

On the other hand, the 44 button accordina is 1 kilogram or more, while the plastic 32 key melodica is around 500 / 600 grams. Only half weight.
Accordina about 30 centimeters long, the PA melodica about 40 cm long.

Some individual DIY makers are trying to create new forms of plastic melodicas (but probably they meet with stiff resistance from the traditional melodica making companies):

Magical Melodion (Magical Melodica)

Some day, someone will produce a DIY modern plastic 3 row CBA melodica
 
debra said:
A melodica is very different from an accordina.
Click to expand...

I meant the principle of operation is the same - isnt it? :) I.e. there are no sound on draw (so one must practice circular breathing and is anyway easily exhausted when playing chords), and no coupled set of reeds (so the sound is plain). And any key/button operates a single note - no keys for whole chords, pitch shifting etc. Please correct me if I am wrong... Probably it is the time to create wikipedia page for accordina!

It seems that among readily available melodicas hammond 44hp is the most expensive, a bit over $400. But surely accordina should be more handy and compact in comparison... Though it probably leads to more complicated internal structure, as the reeds could not be set in a single row (like in melodica) due to lack of space...

I wonder, whether there are video of disassembling accordina? or pictures?

The high price of an accordina is keeping sales number low in comparison to the millions of melodicas produced.
Click to expand...
...and low sales necessarily keep prices high :)

also as I understand, millions of melodicas are used rather for educational purpose, so their sound quality is not regarded as important :lol:
 
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