[Alan Brinton]

A couple of Bruno’s photos do seem to show a 36 key Hohner being produced just a few years ago. It would be interesting to know for sure about the year in which those photos were taken, if it was actually 2010-11. I just found some photos of a Piano 36, though, that seem to indicate that it was produced as late as 1978. Actually, this already seems to be indicated by Hohner brochures that show a Piano 36 along with the Piano 26, 27, and 32 that are Lowboy’s favorites. Those were produced from about 1978 until 2011. It is the early models that came with the brochure showing them with a Piano 36. The 26, 27, and 32 came in a grey soft plastic sided case of the kind you see in the photo below. This (except for accompanying photos) is the only photo I recall seeing of a Piano 36 in the grey case of that type. The cases of the early Piano 26, etc. had the same logo that appears on this case, while the 2011 models have a different “Hohner Melodica” icon showing a melodica. So the Piano 36 apparently was still in production into, say, the early 1980s. Maybe it continued in production for much longer, though perhaps in small numbers. That rascal Bruno has drawn my attention to Hohner photos of quite a few recent musicians playing some rather new looking Piano 36 melodicas. Some of these photos, at least, are displayed on the playhohner.com Web site.

http://en.audiofanzine.com/melodica/hohner/melodica-piano-36/medias/pictures/a.play,m.1035408.html