My new Suzuki SCX-64 harp

[Samuel Gravina <sgravina@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I got my 16 hole Suzuki Chromatic.  You can see a picture of it at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~sgravina1/IMG_2380.jpg

You can see the manufacturers picture at;

http://www.suzukimusic.com/harmonicas/Pages/home.html

This harp does need some tweaking.  The bottom three holes and the top two
were not in tune.  The rest of the harp was right on at A440.  So I tuned
the out of tune holes to A440 too.  Some day when I have more time I will
tune the whole harp to A442.

One of the bottom values buzzes but I haven't tried to fix it.  The top hole
was very hard to play and I messed with he gaping quite a while with no
luck.  Finally when I tuned it it was playable.  Apparently the factory
tuned the reed asymmetrically and I fixed it with my tuning.  I also added
vales to the two top holes to make them play more like the others.  They
were noticeably leaky without the valves.   Something I've never noticed on
my Hohners.

There are many little features that make this harp a better built harp than
a Hohner 270.  The harp covers seem stronger and the nickel plated covers
seem more comfortable to me.

Once tuned and gapped it doesn't sound any different or play any easier than
the 270.  Except that the slide is quicker and less prone to sticking.  But
I've only played it for about 4 hours so far.  You can tell from the machine
marks on the slide that some effort was put into making it flat, they don't
do that with the 270 or CX12.  Then again they don't need to with the CX12,
it doesn't stick or leak.

I didn't get the CX12 again cause I drop my harps too often and the plastic
cover can't take it.  Sure enough I've dropped this harp twice already.
It's survived unscratched.

It's not a pretty harp.  It just looks like a bar of stainless steel to me.
The mouth piece looks like stainless steel but is actually red plastic with
nickel plating bonded to it.  It works fine.

I've heard that the reed plates for this harp are thicker than Hohner reed
plates.  That's not true they are the exact same thickness as my Hohner 260
reed plates.

The plastic comb had some machine shavings still hanging off of it from when
they flattened the surfaces.  I appreciate that they flattened the thing and
I cleaned the shavings off my self in about 5 minutes with my fingernails
and a razor but they should have done this.  Otherwise I would be breathing
in plastic the first few hours I played it.

If you look at the picture you can see that the reed plates are not flat.
When the harp is put together is is also not flat but has a slight arc to
it.  This doesn't effect the playing at all.  The harp does not have any air
leaks in it.

Sam