Re: Out of the box

[Alec Drachman <alec@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Special 20's.

The old hand-made Meisterklass was pretty cool, too rich for my blood,
though. However, I don't like the exposed front reed plate edges on any
of the MS harps including the newer Meisterklass. I also don't like
wooden or metal combs. The former tear up my tongue, and the latter
taste funny.  For me, then, that narrows it down to Herrings - hard to
get and I don't like them quite as much as S20's anyway, Lee Oskar - too
expensive and they squeak on overblows, and my favorite the S20 (I don't
like the equal temperment of the Golden Melody - and I'm way too lazy to
retune every harp I buy.)

In the past year or so, the S20's have gotten even better. Lately, I've
found them to be well tuned, air-tight, and squawk-free. They even
overblow pretty well out of the box, although the higher reeds need a
little gapping for overdraws. I honestly think they are the best harps
out of the box at any price.

- --
Alec Drachman
http://www.bluecats.org