a very interesting blog, I cant resist adding a few comments of my own

I’m a sax player, I play a japanese copy of a french masterpiece, so do many other sax players, including a great many professionals, and I say it is the player rather the instrument that matters in music.
I also play low D whistle and have owned Overton and MK whistles that I have had to wait on a list for, but I find that my mass produce Susato whistle is just as good for most applications, since it is my level of skill that is crucial, provided that the instrument is reasonably well made.
I accept that sax and whistle isnt the same as hang, but it’s all music at the end of the day, I also suspect that the best made hang in the world isnt going to make a person a musical genius.

I can accept that a hang variant from a different maker may not be as good as a PANART one at the present time, BUT provided it is good enough to enable the musician to express themselves then I say it is good enough.
In any case in a couple of years these alternatives could exceed the PANART hang in quality, I have no doubt that the makers of similar instruments share the passion and the energy, all they lack is the time and the practice.

critiscm invited – please do your worst( or best!), cheers, Jim

its interesting reading these commnets
the fustration is real & very apparant

there are very good reasons to both sides of the debate.

However im sure as Adam states, there will be others ,…these will be copies
these will sell

and a diluted form will be on the market,
its business forces ….that simple

i first felt the vibrations,.. this fantastic instrument emits in Spain years ago.
i too wrote & requested to be placed on the waiting list
alais , still to no avail !

ive read most stuff on the net , i have come across the two other sites selling their own version of the Hang.

They wont be , the same as PANart…………..to me that is clear

but with thousands of requests for access to the instrument , then developers will be creative,….and will enter this market.

personally i just hope ill live long enough to be lucky enough to actually have one
…and no it will never be sold on,…some things in life are Special

Eric

There may be only two people who CURRENTLY know how to make Hang.
There are not only two people CAPABLE of making them.

If there is a strong enough market, there will eventually be an alternative product of similar quality for a lower price. That’s just a fact of life. It’s how the world economy works.

These people are apparently so clever that they are the only people who can make this instrument, but are too stupid to work out how to run a business capable of getting it to the people who actually want one.

There are many expert instrument manufacturers around the world who could reproduce this instrument and eventually they will, once they realise the market demands it. If PANArt cared about their invention, they would want to be involved in it’s global development. Instead they seem happy to let other people develop alternatives. The non-PANArt products might not be as good as the hang now, but they will improve, with or without their involvement.

If they are not prepared to license the product, do you know if PANArt are taking steps to train people to make the instrument within their company to increase production?

But I think you will not be able to do it. And if you can’t, the rest of your statement is meaningless. It is the main difference between a guitar and a Hang: There are thousands of experts out there capable of building a guitar, but by now there is no one who was able to reproduce the Hang. There are a few persons who are able to build an instrument like the Halo or the BElls. But these instruments don’t meet the quality of the Hang. PANArt isn’t interested in low quality Hanghang. To meet the quality of the Hang it needs PANArt’s technology AND tuning skills. The technology could be shared but not the tuning skills, that need years of experience. To license the Hang technology is not the way. It would need capable persons willing to stick to the hammer and the Pang for years and interested in collaboration with PANArt. But even this would never make a mass production of the Hang possible, which would be necessary to meet the demand.

There’s clearly a very strong market for this product, but under producing and expecting people to travel to switzerland to choose an instrument is just absurd.

I’ve been playing guitar 20+ years and am pretty useful.
If someone had told me before I started that I would have to spend £1000 plus air fair and accomodation to go and try one out, before I’d ever played a note on any guitar ever, do you think I’d be playing now. Even if I did have the money to travel and buy one, assuming I was lucky enough to be ’selected’ to own an instrument, how would I know which instrument matched me as I haven’t learned to play yet.

To carry the analogy to it’s conclusion, imagine Gibson were the ONLY guitar producers in the world, they told you if you could have an instrument or not, you had to travel to memphis to try one out and only then could you start trying to learn to play.

It is ABSOLUTELY a case of poor business skills. The worst business model I’ve ever heard of.

License the product, or loose it. Up to them.

There currently are two manufacturers who try to build a Hang alternative, Pantheon Steel and Bellart. But both productions are significant lower than PANArt’s and the quality of the instruments doesn’t meet the Hang.