G'day Murray,

I think you wil find that the Hering name has been dropped in favour of the surname of the bloke who bought the factory (in Brazil). I understand Herin were basically a toy factory, but they made bottom-of-the-line Hohner diatonics which occasionally appeared under Hohner's Hohner International branding. I have a couple of examples that came to Hohner's Australian concessionaire in the '70s - but were never imported as a sale item.

A few years back, Hering was bought by a keen young Brazilian businessman and he decided to drop the toy business and concentrate on the quality end of the harmonica line. I've seen local (Sydney, Australia - only 100 kilometres or so from Murray) literature from a Harmonica Club with ads and special prices.

They claim that they are better chromatics than Hohners and cheaper (well, they would, wouldn't they?). The photographs look somewhere between tradional Hohner design and the Chinese models influenced by Cham Ber Huang - particularly in the deeper lip block, ending in a narrower section and having round holes (a design I have always liked). I haven't heard one played and I don't know how well they would last.

Regards,

Bob Bolton