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[Lester]

The DG market is pretty much just the UK, or ex-pats in other places, and they haven't moved with the times.

Not sure what 'haven't moved with the times' means. We have a perfectly good spanner for doing the job (English Folk/Morris) so why buy one with additional bells and whistles that you don't need?

[Winston Smith]

That has to be very true, Mr Bailey, except for the need to keep all those factory workers in employment. By the way, thank you for the suggestion of "The Drunken Sailor", with a bit of luck I'll get around to it shortly.

[Helena Handcart]

Are Hohners becoming extinct?

Not in our house they're not, although the miniature collection being housed in the spare room that's become my office I do find they are migrating. One seems to follow me downstairs each day at the moment 

[Thrupenny Bit]

Yes I agree we have a good spanner for the job, but we are a comparatively small market.
What I was trying to say was that the European market has moved towards more complex boxes with larger keyboards and more basses plus the ability to change voices. All with a general 'type' of dry-ish sound.
I don't know the full range that Hohner produce or have produced in the past, but I am unaware of their move towards the European type box. Therefore they are missing out on a far bigger market than the UK.
If missing out on large market and selling older style products I would guess they then have to downsize their production?
Q

[Peadar]

Are Hohners becoming extinct?

Not in our house they're not, although the miniature collection being housed in the spare room that's become my office I do find they are migrating. One seems to follow me downstairs each day at the moment 

Miniature collection? Are they all Lilliputs or are you just being modest?

[Pete Dunk]

Liliputs and Giordys would be my guess!

[Chris Ryall]

Don’t know about spanners, but when I stop and enjoy the morris teams at festivals, over nearly 20 years now,

1. More musicians than dancers
2. More plain wood non Hohners than pokerworks

Res ipsa loquetur? as they used to say in Recanati

[Steve_freereeder]

...once these beginners have progressed to a higher level where they want a proper new-made melodeon they'll just skip mid segment brands like Hohner immediately go for a high end brand like Castagniari, Saltarelle...

What you are saying is a common misconception. Hohners are not in any way second rate, or poor relations. They are, in a multitude of respects, superior to the  ones you  mention, especially for the music a lot of us play.

I agree with the first part of Greg's post - Hohners are definitely not 'second rate, or poor relations'. But I will gently argue about their superiority over other makes of instruments, particularly Castagnari, Saltarelle and as has been hinted at earlier, Beltuna. The build quality of Castagnaris and Beltunas is second to none, although that in itself does not make them superior instruments. It's the sound and playability of the instrument (of whatever make) which counts.

The Hohner sound is perfect for many tunes genres, but especially English traditional hornpipes, jigs and polkas, though I will point out the difference between the mellow sound of the 1930s Hohners with steel reeds on zinc reed plates, compared with the bright sound of a modern Pokerwork or Erica. The refined sound of the high-end Italian boxes is just lovely for French and other continental music, and the individual compositions of masters such as Andy Cutting and Stephane Delicq. But of course there is no reason why French music cannot be played on a Hohner and English music on a Castagnari.

Having said that, I can't imagine Naragonia's 'Les Deux Frères' being played on anything other than their Castagnari Handrys, nor, for instance, Tony Hall's music on anything other than a vintage Hohner.

Ultimately we choose the boxes for the type of sound we want - it's a very personal thing and there is nothing right or wrong about our choices.

Steve
(who plays Castagnari and Hohner instruments and loves them both)

[Tone Dumb Greg]

...once these beginners have progressed to a higher level where they want a proper new-made melodeon they'll just skip mid segment brands like Hohner immediately go for a high end brand like Castagniari, Saltarelle...

What you are saying is a common misconception. Hohners are not in any way second rate, or poor relations. They are, in a multitude of respects, superior to the  ones you  mention, especially for the music a lot of us play.

I agree with the first part of Greg's post - Hohners are definitely not 'second rate, or poor relations'. But I will gently argue about their superiority over other makes of instruments, particularly Castagnari, Saltarelle and as has been hinted at earlier, Beltuna....Steve (who plays Castagnari and Hohner instruments and loves them both)

OK, hands up, I was exagerating more than a little 

I don't know anyone who plays a Beltuna, but I'm sure they're fine.
I've got a Salterelle and I love it to bits.

Castagnari's, however, don't really float my boat. I'm not sure why. I had possession of one for about six months and after the first week, or so, I hardly every played it. It was beautifully built and a  very  fine instrument but it...bored me.

[-Y-]

I'm under the impression that this subject has all to do with habits and preferences, rather than "natural laws" that would dictate the use of one brand or tuning for a given musical repertoire.

I have a chaotic relationship with Hohners. The feeling was really dreadful, German or Chinese boxes alike, when I started learning the melodeon. More so than the wet tuning (for which I developped a fondness with age), the ergonomics was dreadful. I was really relieved to have to been able to buy a second-hand Bouëbe, and that has pretty much nothing to do with the repertoire I was playing. And now, I have two Hohner boxes that I'm perfectly happy to play. Although none of them are Pokerworks (an old Club and a tinkered Erica), and will most probably try and get a C/F Club someday.

While I agree that it would be snobbish to say Hohners are second-rate boxes, I'm more than happy that the overall build quality is several step higher now than some decades back.
Hohners clearly present a lesser build quality than the vast majority of other brands, but it doesn't stop them to be great boxes nevertheless.

I see many counterexamples to what was said earlier in this thread: there are plenty punchy boxes on the market, that are also better built than Hohners; and even if I prefer to play some repertoire on a given box, it's not necessarily the case for other players, so I don't see how the one-type-of-box-per-repertoire could be a valid point.

[Sebastian]

But I will gently argue about their superiority over other makes of instruments, particularly Castagnari, Saltarelle and as has been hinted at earlier, Beltuna. The build quality of Castagnaris and Beltunas is second to none, although that in itself does not make them superior instruments. It's the sound and playability of the instrument (of whatever make) which counts.

I had several instruments of the above named companies in my hands and did play them. (Well, I can remember only one from Beltuna, but several from the others.) I can’t strongly enough support Steve’s last sentence: It’s the sound and playability of the instrument which counts.

Therefore I up to this day don’t own an instrument of said companies.

[invadm]

new Vienna/poker work and Erica 's are still available,not in dozens stuck in the shelf but still available.
I'm guessing; Hohner would have made many more if there was demand for them but sadly not enough to keep a production line running for 1 or 2 row new boxes,in Europe not many diatonic players any more,same here in the UK,market is very small and not strong enough to keep on producing new boxes..keeping all those machinery/setting up tools and workers busy needs a BIG market even in China 
plus 2nd hand market became bigger than NEW market for Hohner & they set up C shop to supply spare parts rather than making new boxes,  good call for business me thinks..
I also agree with many negative things said how and why...but this is a business for Hohner to make profit /money & not to keep some players happy and respond all their request or advise..setting up a tooling/machinery and running a production line takes long time and even more money than they could make in a few moths..simply not cost effective and better/cheaper not to do it at all.
think about a single row Hohner once everyone had one, with stops or 4 bass..but market moved on to2 rows and production ended.
market and money for Hohner now days are 3rows so is the production.
as for UK-DG market; I wander how many of us would buy new DG Hohner and how often ? would it be enough to keep production line going for several years ? I guess not.           
               
               

[Tone Dumb Greg]

... this is a business for Hohner to make profit /money & not to keep some players happy and respond all their request or advise..setting up a tooling/machinery and running a production line takes long time and even more money than they could make in a few moths..simply not cost effective and better/cheaper not to do it at all...               
               

I concur with a lot of what you say, but I have to point out that the manufacture of the DG doesn't need a production line of its own. It will be made on the same line, with the same jigs but the reed set used will be that for the required tuning. I would imagine that reed manufacture is subbed out, so there is not really any significant extra effort  in making a DG rather than a GC, for instance. They supply populated reed blocks as spare parts, anyway.

I think you over estimate the effort in running customisable production lines. They're, actually, very quick and easy to set up and run.You don't  have to carry much stock, either, if you're working to a pull system (which is the normal way to do things, these days).

Are two rows still being manufactured for other markets, or have they gone completely?

[bellowpin]

... ..               
               

I concur with a lot of what you say, but I have to point out that the manufacture of the DG doesn't need a production line of its own. It is would be made on the same line, with the same jigs .

                  the tex/mex market for three row boxes ,seems to be the main focus for hohner's business .  it is simply a marketing decision to go for the growth area .
   the DG reeds are still being made, ( used in ADG boxes) ,but are not being offered in two row boxes .  I assume that there must be some logic ,from hohner's corporate point of view!!
    this is all part of the "love/hate "  ,as reflected in members thoughts above..     all the best brian..

[Peadar]

Are two rows being manufactured for ther markets?

Don't know sure but: https://www.hohner.de/en/instruments/accordions/diatonic/folk-line/vienna-model-2915

copied from hohners website about 30 second ago suggests that you can buy a new pokerwork in G/C

The Morgane is also a very nice feeling Vienna box (with Stradella corners).

[Conjunto Dave]

The Hohner Coronita - the 3-row version of the Erica that was never produced:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfPSgsDQxh8&t=10m52s

[melodeon]

The demise of Hohner 2 rows and one row boxes is a result of product manager Gilbert Reyes. 
I conversations with him a number of years ago. he told me he was going to expand the 2 row range, specifically for the Dominican Republic market, improve the HA 114 , but instead, he concentrated on the Tex-Mex, Conjunto market and abandoned all efforts to expand the 2 row and 1 row line.

He asked me to get involved in  the one row and two row expansion and offered me a dealership/distributorship.

I also road tested the newest 3 row models which he sent to me,  one of which was defective and the other, while nice, had no character and was heavy.

And now they have an Italian builder making yet one more high end three row at obscene prices.

They have all but abandoned the harmonica market (also  Reyes responsibility) with no in house tuning and repair and customizing.

Hohner is no longer the company we all knew.

Next

[Tone Dumb Greg]

The demise of Hohner 2 rows and one row boxes is a result of product manager Gilbert Reyes...
Hohner is no longer the company we all knew.

Thank you. This goes a long way to explaining the situation.

[Kimric Smythe]

It' seems to go even further than that. Companies don't seem to be registered with Hohner and no longer include (new) Hohner's at all. It's not just a case of not stocking many, it's a case of not being stockists at all, if I am interpreting what I see correctly.

 Hohner (in the US anyway) has offered me no dealer support and I was always undermined by stuff online at basically my wholesale price. Parts were literally 10X what i could get them for elsewhere. ($2.5 wholesale for a bass reed valve anyone?) The tuning on new instruments was often worse than random chinese instruments. I just got a brand new panther in on trade and the entire instrument is 5cents sharp.

If this is what other store are dealing with it is no surprise nobody is carrying them.

[Thrupenny Bit]

Blimey.
Having read both melodeon and Kymric's experiences it does answer a lot. Set against a backdrop of Italians improving the build, expanding the range reacting to the demands of players and gaining a reputation for a quality product. Essentially supplying a product their clientele want to buy.

Whatever your product, if you don't keep up with customer demand you will get left behind.
Q