Boaz Custom Harps and Repair

03/03/2025

Getting closer to the finish line. A couple of harmonicas were sent from one of my students in Philly. Some to repair and one brand new Hohner Rocket Low to customize.

01/11/2025

It was just brought to my attention that my website email form wasn’t forwarding messages to my email from someone who got my email address from a friend. I apologize for any missed messages! Harmonicas are being worked on!

11/18/2024

Here’s a restoration of probably one of the very first production Hohner Super Chromonicas before it was labeled 270. It was a 260 1/2. This one even contained the original sales receipt from a German music shop. 1929 is the year about 5 years earlier before the 270 was usually mentioned.

It was sent to me in pretty good condition for its age, but absolutely needed to be restored. The comb was showing various hairline cracks, and the slide was bent. The original leather windsavers were dried and needed to be replaced. The slide mechanism was a bit different than the standard 270 of probably a few years later. The beautiful box fell apart.
I was able to reconstruct it and make it stronger than it was.

I straightened the brass slide and gave the parts a light polish. Reassembled with the original nails to keep it as original as possible, per the owner’s requests. Shipped to Missouri, USA.

This harmonica is a legendary model, and thankfully Hohner made modifications to it over the years to improve comfort and quieter slide action.

Hohner Music
•
•
•
•
•
#270 #260 #1929

09/10/2024

More posts coming up. Still catching up on a lot of stuff after SPAH and the performances I had right before SPAH.

06/20/2024

Repaired, and customized. Both had tuning, inconsistent timbre (voicing) and response issues. The one on the right had an excessively bright and loud timbre/volume on 90% of the notes. I carefully modified each note to mellow out the tone and volume significantly. Then bring it back to A=440 where it may have started its life as an A=432 tuning.

Back to their owners in CA and NY.

06/17/2024

https://youtu.be/nk7hz-WKDcw?si=PDwWvqZcl4aOCbFg

First thing: Thank you Hohner and Hohner USA for all of the support! Playing this harmonica earlier today inspired me to make a video about it. I've posted o...

06/10/2024

Thank you so much for the invite, Lisa Jeanette!! It was so great to listen to your originals and later to be a part of the recordings!

I used several Hohner Music harmonicas on these songs. Special 20, Rocket Low, Super 64x Performance, Chord 48, and Bass 78. They all sounded really great to add different colors and textures.

06/09/2024

Back in Canada! So far the second harmonetta from Canada that I’ve restored and this one included the original shipping box and case. Cool to see. This one needed a good amount of work including all 8 weights on the lowest reeds to be re-attached.

06/08/2024

Upcoming. I already knew that this Shruti Box was going to be an intensive repair job since the customer took it apart and the problems were very visible, but it turned out be worse than expected. Obviously the Bb is buzzing loudly but the other notes buzz occasionally for the customer: About it half of the screws rusted shut and the manufacture used a very soft screw, which ripped in half with the tips being stuck in the soundboard, which I had to dig them out. It goes on and on, but now it’s ready to be tuned. Oof.

More coming up. Thanks for hanging with me everyone.

06/05/2024

I hope my account doesn’t get flagged for this. 🤢 It’s all clean, now. This is an inside look at this next harmonetta. The insects that have hatched have long left.

06/05/2024

A before and after I just did for the next harmonetta restoration. I actually think the brass valves looked nice dark with the rainbow sheen, but these were really filthy. The reeds and comb had two fairly large insect nests in it (they hatched and left long ago). I actually did extra hand polishing on these, which can be a bit tricky, and a bit of reshaping. Not done yet of course. This harmonetta’s gaskets were wrecked, too, so it’ll be the test subject to try my new gaskets.

Many repairs going on at the moment. Trying to keep my head on straight with my own teaching and my other musical projects.

05/31/2024

More about these two later, but they are two instruments that are pretty difficult to work on and tune properly. Both sent back to their owners.