Pre-War Hohner Chromonica 260
I was given a great gift by my wife a month ago: a 1930's Chromonica 260
It has the six pointed star on the bottom cover plate and all the reeds function and seem in tune. It has the old style slide mechanism rather than the checkerboard style. A beautiful instrument to be sure. There are, however, 3 things that bother me a bit:
1. The harmonica is in Richter tuning. I didn't realize that early Chromonicas were like this.
2. The windsavers are made out of leather and some of the ones on the inside of the reed plates are a little stiff and not performing their intended function. Some of the windsavers on the outside of the reed plates are coming loose.
3. The previous owner was a smoker and the harmonica must have sat in its box for 40 years with the smell of cigarettes inside the comb. No attempt to clean the comb has worked in getting rid of the smell (and to some extent taste), although I have not taken the reed plates off
I'm wondering what my options are as far as restoring/fixing the harmonica.
Thanks in advance!
Thanks for the detailed response, Winslow! I guess a new comb is the way to go.
I have one more question, Winslow. It ocurred to me that I could buy a more modern 260 and create a Frankenstein harmonica. But I'm unsure of how compatible my 260 would be with the more recent models. What kind of characteristics do I need to look for?
The 260 changed very little over its life. The very earliest ones may have had an outside spring - a ribbon of springy metal screwed to the outside edge of the comb and looped back behind the slide button. This was later changed to a hidden interior spring. Other than that my understanding is that it changed ittle if at all.
Thanks, Winslow. I've asked around and it seems the easiest thing is to order a new comb directly from Hohner.
You've got a fairly early example of a chromatic. And yes, the earliest ones were tuned like diatonics (Richter properly refers to the physical structure of the typical single-reed diatonic and not to note layout; chromatics actulally use Knittlinger construction, regardless of whether they use solo tuning or diatonic tuning).
If you think like the sort of collector who wants to keep antiques in as-found condition in order to preserve their original condition without alteration, then stiff valves and smoke odors would make no difference to you; you'd put it in a display case and admire it.
However, I sense that you'd actually like to make it into a playing instrument.
Leather valves can be replaced or they can be reconditioned. Former Hohner technician Rick Epping authored an interesting tutprial on reconditiong leather valves, which you can find here:
https://youtu.be/NFrUKEeQ1UU
If you'd just as soon replace the leather valves, you could buy mylar valves. Hohner and Seydel both sell stock 2-layer valves, or you could get single-layer valves from Danny G at newharmonica.com.
To get rid of smoke odors, you could:
The least practical part of this revolves around the comb.
For this reason you might want to consider buying a replacement comb, either a stock wooden 260 comb from Hohner, or an aftermarket comb made of various types of plastic. Possible sources include Chris Reynolds, Tom Halchak, or Michael Easton. In that case you'd also convert the reedplate nails to screws.