Gang,
The general concensus and my experience in the past has been that Hering harmonicas were, as a rule, very responsive, but there was a considerable obstacle in the United States of maintaining those instruments and many were frustrated because there was no repair department in the country to send the instrument to.
Hering has realized this and has made an effort to rectify this situation by establishing a repair department in the United States to handle repairs, thus when customers purchase a Hering harmonica, they can have the confidence of knowing that there is a local entity representing the company for after-the-sale service to maintain those instruments.
That entity is me. Hering and I recently worked out an agreement where I am the company's official repair representative in the United States. I am in a position to offer that now with life changes in recent weeks, I am in a far better position to organize such an effort and get the work done in a respectable time frame. In the past, I was managing Elk River Harmonicas, plus working full time in the news media. Thanks to meager conditions in the news industry, I am now a full-time harmonica man...
Official Hering repair is one of many offerings of Elk River Harmonicas and nothing else about Elk will change in the immediate future. My relationship with Seydel is unchanged and I will continue to offer authorized Seydel repair for Elk River customers (non-Elk customers work with Seydel USA prez Rupert Oysler for those services).
I am also now an authorized Hering dealer. That means I will be selling Hering harmonicas as well and will be customizing the Hering 1923 diatonic and, at some point, Hering chromatics. Those will be on the Web site soon.
With the lack of a Hering repair department in country, there are some folks who have done Hering repair on the side. If you have somebody you are already using for Hering repair and are happy, by all means continue that relationship if that is what you wish. You can, of course, use whomever you want.
Hering is sending me the initial parts from Brazil and will build over time according to customer needs. Before harmonicas are sent to me, I want to make sure I have parts on hand for the repair to avoid any confusing delays, especially for the first few months as the finer details are worked out. I know there are many of the older Hering chromatics out there with cracked combs (my forte repair) and those customers can typically send with impunity as there is no need for specific parts to make that repair.
You can contact me at dave@elkriverharmonicas.com
Thanks!
Dave
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