Shopping for my First Chromatic

[Winslow Yerxa <76450.3230@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris -

I haven't seen Mel Bay's catalog, but I think the best place to
buy a chromatic, both for price and product knowledge, is F&R
Farrell Company. Dick Farrell knows chromatics up and down, and
carries most major brands at 40 percent discounts. You may find
you can indeed afford a 270.

I played a Huang 1248 for awhile, and while I found it responsive
and bright, I still prefer the 270's action and sound (which is
plenty bright to begin with).

I'm not sure that Blackie is talking about the Tenor 270 (an
octave lower) when he mentions the longer reeds, as George Miklas
suggests. On the Blackie Schackner records I have, he doesn't
seem to be playing one, and if he were he'd probably just say so
- he's a VERY straightforward guy.

There is such a thing as a long-thrust reed - longer than a
normal reed but pitched the same through different thickness
and/or weight distribution. This kind of reed can take more force
in playing, and I believe Blackie plays pretty hard. I'm not sure
that a long-thrust 270 is regularly marketed, although the Toots
Hard Bopper (a deluxe version of the 270) may use long thrust
reeds. Ask Dick Farrell - he will know for sure.

You can contact him at:

F&R FARRELL CO
PO BOX 133
HARRISBURG OH 43126-0133
PHONE 614-877-3678 FAX 614-877-1714

On the subject of pitch standards, if you read the section on
Tommy Morgan in HH&HB, he carries chromatics tuned to several
different pitch standards when he goes to work in LA recording
studios because he never knows what he'll encounter. As does
Blackie Schackner, who works mostly in New York when he isn't
playing cruise ships.

Some of what has been offered in this forum about pitch standards
is incorrect. The fact is that A440 was

        universally adopted in 1939 by an international
        conference held in London under the auspices of the
        International Standards Association. It replaced the old
        standard of 435 that had been fixed by the Paris Academy
        in 1859 (diapason normale) and confirmed, under the
        term "international pitch," at a conference held in
        Vienna in 1885.

(quoted from the Harvard Dictionary of Music, second edition
1969).

That being said, pitch has been creeping up in actual practice
over time, both before and since these standards were set. We
know from tuning forks left by Mozart and other 18th century
musicians that their pitch levels were about a minor third lower
than ours - their C would be our A, which would mean all those
high C's written for tenors and sopranos are much harder for
today's singers than for those for whom they were originally
written (this was true at the Paris Opera as late as 1856).

Pitch does tend to be higher in Europe, but as both Schackner's
and Morgan's experience shows, this is by no means exclusive to
the continent. Conductors are looking for a brighter sound, and
goose the pitch accordingly. Also, soloists often play a little
sharper than the orchestra in order to get a more brilliant sound
and stand out a little more.

Steve Baker, author of "The Harp Handbook," a British musician
who has lived and worked in Germany for 15 years, notes this
tendency in Europe ("a concert grand is frequently tuned as high
as 444 Hz") but does not state flatly that there is any
"standard" of 445 as does George Miklas - I suspect that 445 may
be a rule of thumb for *some* musicians. ALL Hohner harmonicas
are factory-tuned to A440 - I've seen them for sale in Europe.
Steve tunes his harps up to somewhere between 443-445, so that
when they are played they sound around 440-442. And he plays
mostly in Germany.

Actually, I'm a little puzzled by the tuba story George relates.
If his friend's tuba was a little sharp, all he had to do was
pull out the tuning slide to lower the pitch (or, barring that,
get a crook - a mouthpiece extender that lowers the pitch). And
the difference between 440 and 445 should not account for a 600%
price difference - The U.S. is the world's largest market, and
anyone manufacturing for it will easily have the same or better
economies of scale as they will manufacturing for Europe. I
suspect his friend got an inferior instrument, despite the same
model name.