[Harp-L] Old Meisterklasse, bits & bobs



I know lots of harmonica players who rave on about the old Meisterklasse and I played them myself from when they came on the market until about 1990, when I returned to playing Marine Bands. The reason was simple - while listening to one of my own recordings from the early 80s I realised I greatly preferred the harp sound, which was played on an MB. Since then I've never really played anything else but Marine Bands.

Recently I got Hohner to make a test comb which had screw holes for both old MK and MB Deluxe reed plates, so I was able to make a direct comparison. I still own some old MK models and took a pretty much unused pair of C reed plates, which I mounted on this comb. I was most disappointed - they weren't at all like I remembered them and were leaky as anything. In fact by the standards of today's Hohner Classic harps, which I'm accustomed to using, they were virtually unplayable. I took them off and mounted a set of current production MB Deluxe plates. The difference was like night and day, the new reed plates were loud, responsive and punchy when mounted on the same comb and with the same covers.

What this comparison made clear to me was the undoubted superiority of the reed plates Hohner has been producing during the last five plus years in comparison to those they made earlier. The main reason for this is the closer tolerances between reed and slot, which were introduced in the early 2000s across the board on Hohner Classic diatonics and chromatics. Interestingly enough, exactly the same process was described by Dave Payne when talking about Seydel's very recent improvements as used on the 1847. Where did they get that idea from, I wonder?

Steve

Steve Baker
steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.stevebaker.de
www.bluesculture.com
www.youtube.com/stevebakerbluesharp




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