Huang Octave Bass

[Danny G]

I recently forwarded a complaint from a customer about his new Huang Octave Bass harmonica to the distributor.
This is a copy of the correspondence between the distributor and the manufacturer.

Distributor
Hi, I have a product question regarding the HH123 Bass Harmonica.
We recently bought one and sold to a dealer. He received a complaint from the customer
that for the last 20 years the HH123 started with the key of E similar to all other Manufacturers' Bass Harmonicas.
He was surprised and disappointed to learn that the HH123 now starts with key of C.
Can you please shed some light on the subject, is there more than 1 model available, when had the change occurred?

Manufacturer
HH-123 Octave Bass is starting from C all the time. One of Hohner Octave Bass is starting from E.
Patrick Huang/Music-Mart USA, Inc.

Apparently, the Huang Octave Bass is no longer available in the traditional E-E configuration.
Danny G

[SlideMeister]

That's a bummer! 

[billybaconbowl]

Hi Danny,

     I have owned the Huang HH123 Octave Bass since May 2012, and I would like to clear up a few things:

- The Octave Bass starts on EE (with that extra high F that is sometimes needed, along with extra C's and F's), same as the Hohner and Suzuki models, BUT the cover plates are printed showing it starts on low C, and ends on C#, so essentially, the Huang company made the HH123 look like a bass in the key of E, though it is still in the key of concert C.

Hope this helped!

-Nick

[John Broecker]

Hello, Huang Octave Bassers.

SHEESH!

Now I'll need to check my Victory Octave Bass, made by the Shanghai General Harmonica Plant, to see if it's in E phyrgian or C major. The Huang and Victory octave bass harps are tidentical twins (as far as I know), made in the same factory (SGHP). Victory is a "house brand" of the SGHP.

I bought the Victory bass as a back-up for my Hohners. It was a low price of $150. It needed adjustments and tweaking to make it playable. The adjustments were made in 8 hours (by me). An experienced repair tech could probably have done the work in 1-2 hours.

Best regards

John Broecker

[Danny G]

Thanks for your input Nick
As I remember, it was backordered for several months before being delivered to my customer.
The customer is (or was a list member) who plays the Hohner bass.
He had previously owned a Huang bass which he had sold some years previous and had decided he wanted another one.
His complaint was that it was tuned differently than his Hohner and his previous Huang bass.
Prior to Chamber and Franks retirement all models were distributed by Insignia International
His Huang bass was distributed by Huang/Music-Mart USA, Inc.
You got yours in 2012 but do you know when it was manufactured ?

[John Broecker]

Hello, Nick and Danny G.

After checking my Victory Octave Bass and two Huang catalogs (1998 and 2002), it was discovered that:

1. The Victory and the Huang Octave basses were (at least in 1998 and 2002) identical, except for the printing on the covers.
   
2. Both harps have a range of E-F in the key of C, but I prefer to call them E phyrgian basses (E-E, no accidentals on the lower harp).

3. After comparing my Hohner #265 Octave bass harp, E-E, with my Victory bass, it was found that they are both in the same range, with the
   Victory octave bass (and Huang) adding the F note on the upper harp.

4. In the Huang catalogs, the Huang #123 Octave bass is listed as E-E, but has the added F reed on the upper harp.

5. If Patrick Huang says that the Huang Octave Bass has always been in the key of C, he is correct. Theoretically, E phyrgian is a mode of the
    C ionian (major) scale.

Best regards

John Broecker

[billybaconbowl]

Danny,

I am not quite sure on when my Octave Bass was manufactured, but I remember that I bought it at coast2coastmusic.com, and when I ordered it, It had to be back- ordered for about 3 weeks, due to that Coast2Coast did not have them in stock at the time. When I received it, there were a few unexpected surprises about the Octave Bass:

-The cover plates read C-c# and were laser- engraved instead of stamped out, which is what i believe they used to do
-The cover plate opening had been re- designed
-The mouthpiece was no longer a separate white piece of the body, but black and Incorporated into the body when built
-The brass reed plates are now silver plated

Also, I read on another website a while back, that a customer had bought an Octave bass, and the reeds had seemed to be screwed onto the reed plate, instead of being riveted?

I will try to upload some pics of it a little bit later.

Thanks!

-Nick

[billybaconbowl]

Hey Everyone,

I took some pictures of my Huang HH123 Octave Bass.

[Danny G]

Sorry Nick, I think I'm missing a plugin, I see the little boxes where they're supposed to be but no pictures,
John and Nick
When I made the original post in Sept of 2011, I copied and pasted the email from Patric Huang that my distributor had forwarded to me.

HH-123 Octave Bass is starting from C all the time. One of Hohner Octave Bass is starting from E.
Patrick Huang/Music-Mart USA, Inc.

I'm not disputing what you guys are saying and I'm not a bass player but I understand his reply to mean that there is a difference between the Hohner and the Huang.

[Gene D]

I have a Huang Octave Bass Model 123 I bought in July 1987.  It is an E - E range harp.

Regards,
Gene Dodson