G'day Gargs,

I'm no pan-harmonica polymath - I just call 'em as I see 'em.

"More than I ever wanted to know...What is your SOURCE?"

Source? ... more like 'sores' - well a few score late nights with 4 bleeding holes in my lips from swollen wooden mouthorgan bodies scraping away bits of face all night. Apart from that, I was fortunate to buy directly from the Australian Hohner concessionaire for many years, from 1965, and I bought a lot of odd harps, just on spec.

I know just what JimP sees (... hears ... ) in these big, multi reed harmonicas ... although my preference is for the "organ-tuned" (in octaves) varieties - the aforementioned curved front "Comet" in 2 keys is lovely and handy (but not cheap) but I really loved the old Boomerang octave models (long gone, now) or, failing that, the Hohner "Australian Branding" Auto Valve Harps ... made as a direct competitor for the octave ('Large') Boomerangs.

Most of the identification was aided by catalogs accumulated over the last 40 + years ... and a cupboard I have to keep my wife's hands off!

Regards,

Bob