Something amazing in my search for information about the Gavioli
Guitharmonie.  From the description that Hans van Oost provided,
I think I now understand what a Guitharmonie really is.  I have
seen a picture of a barrel operated reed organ that had a case shaped
something like a guitar.  It had a short neck and the body was guitar
shaped if you look from above.

The barrel organ I have belongs to another collector and it is the
more common type with just the curved top over the barrel.  I also have
a similar Gavioli reed organ in a plain rectangular case.  Mine has two
bells in addition to the reeds; that's 27 keys.

 [ See the Gavioli catalog illustration provided by Hans van Oost
 [ at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/  -- Robbie

Do you know any more about these instruments?  Some of the reeds are
missing from both of these instruments so I wonder if they had all the
reeds originally.  There are two sets of 26 reeds, but in mine seven of
one bank are missing (#4 through #12, counting from the bass end) in
mine and about twelve of the longest ones are missing from one of the
sets in the other machine.

I have a friend who has another Gavioli reed organ.  I thought it was
like the one I'm working on.  I asked him about the name on the front
because both of the ones I have here have the names written in paint.
When he described his machine, I realized that it is a Guitharmonie,
with the volume control on the neck of the 'guitar', just like Hans
described.

He didn't know what the instrument was called so he was very happy to
get the information.  I will send him a copy of the Guitharmonie label
and the tune sheet and instructions so he can put them with his machine.
He sent me some pictures of his Guitharmonie and I have forwarded them
to Robbie to put on the web site.  It looks like new.

One last question.  Does anyone know anything about the reeds in these
organs?  I still don't know what to do about the missing reeds.  If
not, do you know anyone who does know about them?

Craig Smith
Near Rochester, New York, USA