[ Editor's Note:
 [
 [ Back in June, Hal O'Rourke posed a question about the
 [ Hofbauer system.  Quite a bit off "side" correspondence
 [ went on, but the results were never sent out to the
 [ group.  Hal reminded me today -- he was not included
 [ the "side" conversations.  Oops.  Sorry!  Here's the
 [ correspondence, some of it translated from German by
 [ Robbie Rhodes.
 [
 [ Jody

Hal O'Rourke wrote in Digest 960613:

> Several years ago I know there were some people trying to
> 'understand' the Hofbauer 'black box' system used on their monkey
> organs and similar products.  Did anyone make any progress?  I'm
> considering buying a used instrument and have heard horror stories
> about maintainability, availability of factory support, cost of
> factory repair, and availability of music.
>
> Any assistance or comments by private e-mail would be appreciated.

I have collected the responses and translated some interesting
material sent by Claus Kucher.  I'm sorry that there's been a bit of
a delay.

Robbie