Höhner
| Private | |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1857 |
| Founder | Matthias Hohner |
| Headquarters | Trossingen, Baden-Württemberg |
|
Area served
|
Global |
| Products |
kazoos recorder flutes melodicas banjos guitars bass guitars ukuleles harmonicas |
| Subsidiaries | Lanikai |
| Website |
Hohner Hohner USA |
Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG is a German company specialising in the manufacture of musical instruments. Founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner (1833–1902), Hohner is identified especially with harmonicas and accordions. The Hohner company has invented and produced many different styles, and most of the harmonicas used by professionals. The company also makes kazoos, recorder flutes, melodicas, banjos, guitars, bass guitars, accordions ,and ukuleles (under the brand name Lanikai), along with its one million harmonicas a year.
From the 1940s through 1990s, the company also manufactured various electric/electronic keyboards. Especially in the 1960s and 1990s, they manufactured a range of innovative and popular electromechanical keyboard instruments; the Cembalet, Pianet, Basset, Guitaret, and Clavinet. In the 1980s, several Casio synths were sold under the Hohner brand - for example, the Casio HT-3000/Hohner KS61midi and the VZ-1/HS-2).
The roots of the Hohner firm are in Trossingen, Baden-Württemberg.
Matthias Hohner, who was originally a clockmaker, started making harmonicas (by hand) in 1857 with his wife and a single employee. 650 were made in the first year. Hohner harmonicas quickly became popular, and during Matthias' lifetime he built the largest harmonica factory in the world. During the American Civil War Matthias Hohner gave harmonicas to family members in the United States who in turn gave them to the fighting soldiers.
In the 1920s, Hohner began manufacturing chromatic harmonicas that can be played in any key. Famous harmonicist Borrah Minevitch claimed he sold his design for the chromatic harmonica to Hohner.
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Wikipedia