«click here
After 10 absolut exciting days, we’re back hoem.
The learining curve was not only high at the vistors of our workshops. Probably we felt even more as pupils facing the many news we have learned about over there.

Did you actually know, that Asians mostly play the Tremolo?
Out of 2200 participants more than 500 subscribed for the Tremolo competitions!
Chromatic harmonica was about equal.
And the Blues Harmonica? Only 5 !!!!!

Number of players beyond 20 was about 60%.

This are numbers that are absolutely opposite to the European and Amerikan Harmonica World.

The niveau of the players is unbelievably high, especially the youth harmonica groups achieve a standard as it seemed unachievable to me before.
And it comes over professionally and absolutely stage qualified.
The hospitality, the interest and care we have enjoyed in Singapore from everyone as well as the lots of fun we had together is something we never will forget.

Now I understand why >>>Jens Bunge tours since years in in Singapore, Malaysia and China and has recorded his latest album there. On the Si ngapore event he was one of the star performers.

One of the many personal highlights of the festival was meeting the young m,an on the opicture above: Our customer Lee Chun Lok from Hongkong. Those wanting to learn more about the unblievable niveau of this young player may switch to >>>Hohner Chromonica II Golden Steel, Custom by Harponline and listen to the soundsample.

We have benn so busy that we couldn’t take many pics.
Therefore the following collection does not represent the festival as a whole:

«click here
For example, if you are asked to participate as a lecturer and judge at the biggest harmonica event of the Eastern hemisphere.
And therefore we're looking proudly and excited forward since months to the trip that will become reality now: The 8th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival 2010.
However, it's not so easy just leaving the house. We first have to shut down our mail order business.
There are orders that have been coming in yesterday to leave tomorrow, Custom harmonicas that have to be made, commodities which should be received, tax dates that should not be missed, etc.
Therefore, we have to bring down business some days before departure, just to make sure that all shipments will be done before.

It will be 14 days off for Harponline Shop until we will be back on 5th of August to re-open with a lot of Jetlag behind, as we suppose.

>>>http://www.aphf2010.org/index.php?lang=en

«click here
That we are in love with the products we sell may be one of the secrets of our 8 year ongoing success.
And sometimes, products or manufacturers that dissappoint us more or less vanish from our portfolio. This is the consequence
of a dedication that is not only money-oriented.
I can’t imagine this happening with David Barrett.
For years our shelves containing his works have grown continuously and we claim to have (almost) everything of his constantly in stock.
We admire not only the excellent schoolmasterly structure of his teaching aids, but his worldwide reputation as a teacher.
He is a brilliant businessman and manager with a responsive personality,he is smart and smoothly carries through on every promise he makes. David Barrett doesn’t talk big.
Moreover, at the Trossingen Bluesharp Masters Workshop 2008 we discovered him to be an infectious ‘live’ musician with a reliable sense of style and since then I’ve become his absolute fan.

Therefore I am very proud that David gave us some copies of his (nowhere else sold in Europe) Transcriptions of the Harmonica Solos, including the unique CD ‘Serious Fun’ (which in truth is a teaching example) for us to sell.

>>>Serious Fun Transscription SET

P.S.: Those wishing to meet David in person may book into his workshops at the Harmonica Masters 2010 in Trossingen, Germany.

«click here

Whereas the market nowadays is constantly being confronted with lots of new materials on harmonica combs ( a trend we set years ago with our Acrylic combs) we again go one step ahead: In our opinion it’s not enough to simply switch to material that is hygienically appropriate, does not change the shape and is extremely durable.

To prove this we took the Hohner Marine Band 364, which basically has some remarkable features:
1. Quite break-proof reeds
2. High covers which make a hit of the low draw reads quite unlikely.
3. The reeds respond very well especially in the low octave.

However the product has not been upgraded for decades:
1. The plates are still fitted with screws.
2. The comb isn’t very ergonomic, the timber tends to soak and swell and the front is very abrasive.
3. The comb (especially in the low range) is too small, which improves the cushioning effect, however it worsens the airtightness at the rear.

In other words: The perfect object for Harponline Customizing.

First we took our well proven Acrylic CNC comb technology to have improve topic 1 and 2.
Plates are now fitted with screws, separately from either side. At the same time we have added 3 additional fixing points at the front, so that the plates are attached flat and airtight to the comb. The body now has a horizontally rounded shape at the front as well so that the shape follows the natural contour of the lips.

Regarding topic 3, we have constructed something totally new:
A dovetailconstruction combined with a soft seal.
The common seals between plate and comb didn’t assert themselves because usually they were causing a dampening on the oscillation of the reeds, which is something we should implicitly avoid.
Our construction favours a sealant ABOVE the plates and therefore doesn’t interrupt the acoustic coupling to the body in a degree that the seal
between the body and plate would do.
We hereby achieve a far greater reed efficiency, especially in the low register (of this LC tuned Hohner Marine Band 364) and this becomes even more enforced by the addtional improved airtightness.

That we’ve actually achieved higher efficiency can be proved by the fact that we
can enlarge the gaps by about double the serial condition, without losing airtightness.
Therefore the response and loudness is much improved.

Here additonal pics and informations regarding the new >>>Hohner Marine Band 364 Lovers Kiss by Harponline

«click here

For several years now, several attempts have been made in the market supporting the idea that harmonicas in their note sequences should not be dependent on production-line procedures, or any other limiting “normal” structures.
My idea (started in 2004), was that everything differing from the Solo or Standard Richter Tuning should be freely configurable and not be pressed into the next strait-jacket, whether it be called, Augmented, Diminished, Natural, Minor, or whatever.
To close in on this target, we designed the now named:»Harponline Harmonica Tuning Designer.
With immediate effect it doesn’t matter any more, how the customer calls his/her inbuilt tone sequences.
It is to say that for a harmonicabuilder it is absolutely regardless which harmonical concept is behind a certain tuning. We only need to know if a note in a particular pitch in a certain hole is existing or not as long as a musician wants to have it sounding there.
How the player may name his/her concept, which archetype is to follow, if he/she wants to have no enharmonicas to spread the note range or if bending shall become enabled, avoided or even forced can not be first topic in a productional enviroment that first of all has to put reeds in place.

Just this philosophy was followed while establishing the new »Harponline Harmonica Tuning Designer.

Slim, without torturing the user with musical theory concepts, it answers the one and only question we are all interested in: Can we produce a desired note sequence in a particular harmonica or not, and what’s the cost?
Moreover, one can choose among almost 40 different models of the market leader, Hohner, who offer the largest product range of all.

Epilogue: Those who believe an extra tuned harmonica will be a short cut to playing notes other than what has been worked out on established “Solo'’ - or “Richter Tuning”, should not waste their time here.
They should concentrate on improving their technique, practice some exercises, which in our opinion is time better spent anyway.

«click here

It seems very quiet at Harponline at the moment, but that means despite springtime we have full employment in our workshop and does not mean we’ve run out of ideas.
Indeed the very opposite: Our drawers are full of »new developments, many of them not yet Online. This is mainly because we haven’t had time to put the children into some gladrags (usually Andreas’ flowers, which she recently began growing). So now we can finally shoot some half-decent pics to introduce them to the community.
The same goes for this new baby in the Harponline family:
For some time now we have planned to free this Cinderella from her shadowy existence.
Normally nailed to a comb that miraculously fits several harmonicas, obviously it doesn’t fit this one, however, blessed with a price-performance ratio that is remarkable anyway, she’s crying for our helping hands.
Now let’s cut the mustard… We’ve constructed the body from Acrilic, with optimized ramps and exactly similar dimensions, the plates are attached separately from each side, as is the Harponline standard, using another 4 screws to get an airtight seal in front behind the mouthpiece, making sure there is no air escaping.
We claim to have done such a good job that all we need now is a really good name:

»Hohner Slide Harp Turbocharger

«click here
‘Just another Barrett.’ I hear you moan while we’re introducing the latest of David’s work (with the elephantine title “Blues Harmonica Jam tracks & Soloing Concepts #3″) here.
How does the man manage to get people interested in the next title among approximately 40 that we hold in stock? What can possibly be a thrill in the third sequel of this topic?
Well, at first sight, it seems simply another shelf-warmer, with little chance of ever see the light of day, but again it turns out to be a real bang:
Giving a very detailed explanation, the master analyzes a shuffle called, “Lick Train.” showing the soloing possibilities, after which he includes nine of the most important greats of the today’s Blues harmonica scene, played on the same play-along in order to present their personal interpretation to the student.
That is exciting. It’s instructive, entertaining and backs up the credo that it’s not the harmonica that’s creating the sound, but the player.
Moreover, there’s a bunch of very well placed play-alongs which are fun for both the beginner and the advanced player.

»Blues Harmonica Jam tracks & Soloing Concepts Sequel 3 at Harponline

«click here
Finally it’s spring! Finally the flowers are here again in Andrea’s garden, enable her to create her magical arrangements on our page. And because we’re celebrating just finishing an amazing commissioned work…

(Hohner M270, combined with our Stainless Steel Body and the Covers of the Hohner Silver Concerto,
tuned in Extra Tuning Solo highD, slide tolerances optimized,
equipped with HighEnd windsafers of the latest generation plus highly polished reeds)
…..we put both worlds together, taking pictures from the composition that looks as follows:
(Click the pics!)

Thursday, 25th of March 2010, we are traveling to the Music Fair in Frankfurt.
For this reason, orders and phone calls will be processed by automatic devices instead of personally, as usual.
Friday we will be back, probably a bit tired, but anyway…….
>>>http://www.messefrankfurt.com/

«click here
Only on very rare occasions, our bird house in the garden has had such an attractional force like this winter.
Similar it looks like at Harponline:
Every time, a new snow belt moves over Europe we can register a tremendous increase of orders.
It’s obvious, that people avoid the obstacles outside by moving into a space where there are no: In the Internet.
As a follow up, we now see ourselves running into a delivery bottleneck on Custom Harmonicas and Repairs.
Right at the moment, the waiting list is up to 14 days, and we can’t melt it down as fast as new ’snowfall’ comes in.
Here we ask for your appreciation

Always very well and fast deliverable we are in standard ware.

For the very first time, >>>Hohner Marine Band Crossover is available in all keys.
>>>Suzuki Manji hopefully will come in very soon.
And the new Softcases for the revolutionary >>>Sonnenschein Harmonica Rack V2 are finally in stock too, so that we are able to ship from the shelves.