Suzuki reviews (long)

[Pat Missin <pat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

These harmonicas have actually been available for a while, but I've
only recently been able to obtain samples for review. First of all, a
criticism: the BR-21 Baritone covers exactly the same range as the
AS-37 Alto Single - and that range is what most of us would describe
as being a tenor instrument! However, that is about the biggest
complaint I have regarding these instruments. The production quality
of all three harmonicas is nothing short of outstanding.

The BR-21 Baritone Harmonica seems to be grouped together with the
Alto and Soprano Single, although I am not entirely sure why it would
be considered an orchestral harmonica as it is merely a tremolo
harmonica. I say "merely " a tremolo - it is without question the best
tremolo harmonica I have ever played and one of the few tremolo
harmonicas that could truly be considered a professional quality
instrument. It is also a rather unique design. The same size and shape
as a typical 12-hole chromatic harmonica, the reedplates are fully
recessed into the ABS comb and the front of the comb is extended to
form a mouthpiece, again the same size and shape as that of a typical
chromatic. The comb is bright red and the brass covers contrast nicely
with this, having the same smooth glossy black finish as the
Hammond/Suzuki HA-20. The steel cover supports are shaped like soccer
goalposts and look much sturdier than those used by most other makers.
The instrument looks stunning and feels very nice in the hands, with
no sharp corners or rough edges. It comes in a form-fitted hard
plastic case with a cleaning cloth enclosed.

The chrome-plated reedplates are 1.1mm (.0435") thick and attached
with 8 screws. As with most other Suzuki harps these days,the reeds
are spot-welded into place and tuned using Suzuki's laser process.
Tolerances seem pretty good, reed response is very even and the tuning
is extremely consistent, with the base row tuned to 12TET at about
A=444Hz. The amount of tremolo is moderate, ranging from about 2Hz at
the lower end of the harp to 5Hz at the top. The note layout is the
typical Asian pseudo-solo tuning - I wish I knew what this system is
"officially" called. Anyway it covers three octaves starting from the
C below middle C. Unlike the typical Wiener-system tremolo there are
no missing or repeated notes in the lower octave (although the B is
omitted from the highest octave) and unlike the solo tuning used on
chromatics, there are no repeated C notes. I think most chromatic
players could get used to this tuning without too much work. I find
that the extended mouthpiece makes for more comfortable playing than
the usual tremolo design. It certainly makes it easier to isolate
individual rows to allow note bending, or simply to shift between a
full chorused sound and a thinner single reed tone. A nice touch is a
small white dot on the front of the mouthpiece to indicate where the C
notes lie on the instrument.

As I said, this is simply the best tremolo harp I have ever played and
I would recommend it to anyone serious about tremolo harmonica
playing. It is available in the keys of C and C# (for the typical
Asian stacked diatonic approach to playing chromatically) and I for
one would really like to see it made available in a few other keys as
well, although as far as I know Suzuki currently have no plans to do
that. An octave tuned version would also be nice.


SS-37 Soprano Single and AS-37 Alto Single

These two harmonicas are identical apart from their pitch range. They
are all-blow harmonicas, with the notes laid out in the manner of a
piano keyboard. There are two rows of holes, the lower one containing
the notes of the C major scale and the upper row providing the
sharps/flats in groups of two and three, like the black keys on a
piano. These are not the first harmonicas to use this configuration.
Back in the 1930s, Hohner introduced a series of instruments with the
name Educator (not to be confused with the much later Educator I
solo-tuned diatonic and Educator II chromatic), consisting of Bass,
Tenor, Alto and Soprano harmonicas with the piano-style layout. Tombo
still make their Contrabass (again, strictly speaking neither a
contrabass, nor a bass instrument, but actually a baritone) and their
Alto and Soprano Pipe Horn Harmonicas, which are similarly
constructed. However, the Hohner versions are long discontinued and
the Tombo instruments can be quite hard to find outside of Japan.

The SS-37 and the AS-37 each arrive in a box that suggest a
professional quality instrument is contained inside. It is a
substantial wooden box, leather covered and velvet lined, with latches
and a carrying handle. This is appropriate, as the instrument inside
weighs in at around 29 ounces (about .8kg), being about 12 1/2" long
(32cm) and 2 1/2" front to back (5.5mm). The obligatory cleaning cloth
is included in each case. The instruments themselves use a
sandwich-style construction, with the reedplates attached by 14 sets
of nuts and bolts and lying very flat against a beautifully finished
hardwood comb. The covers are brass, again with the same glossy black
finish as used on the HA-20 and a slightly bigger version of the
soccer goalpost style steel cover supports. As with the Baritone
tremolo, both of these instruments feel very nice to hold, with no
rough parts, despite the exposed edges of the reedplates.

The reedplates are chrome plated and about 1.5mm (.058") thick. The
reeds (phosphor bronze, according to the press handouts) are unique in
that with the exception of the very highest reeds on the Soprano, they
are all slightly tapered in width - this is the first time I have seen
tapered reeds on a harmonica. They are also quite sizeable - for
example, the middle C reeds on these harmonicas are 21mm in length,
compared with about 17mm on a typical chromatic. The reed adjustment
is very good, giving a nice even response with good tone across the
full range of each harmonica. The timbre of the Alto is especially
rich in the lower register, almost cello-like. The tuning is
outstanding - the Soprano Single is almost perfectly tuned to 12TET at
A=442 and the tuning of the Alto is only slightly less impressive.
Although the advertising claims that these harmonicas were tuned using
Suzuki's patented laser process, both harmonicas show signs of being
tuned with a small rotary burr. However they did it, these harmonicas
(and the Baritone tremolo) are some of the most accurately tuned
factory made harmonicas I have ever played. 

Despite weighing a couple of ounces more than a Renaissance, they are
surprisingly comfortable to hold in playing position. I suspect that
not having to worry about how to get the optimum finger placement for
pushing a button makes for a more "natural" playing position. To move
from the "white notes" to the "black notes" takes a slight movement of
the wrists, the switch from upper to lower rows being made easier by
the slightly convex face of the comb. I feel that it wouldn't take too
much practice for a player of conventional harmonicas to adapt to one
of these. I had a head start as I have played the Tombo Contrabass for
some time and I suspect that anyone with good keyboard skills would
take to one of these very quickly. Compared with conventional
chromatic harmonicas, they have both advantages and disadvantages.
Obviously because of the sheer size of the instrument, large interval
leaps are much harder (an octave span on one of these is about 9mm or
4"), double-stops or chords are less than practical and the lack of
draw reeds means that breath conservation is more of an issue
(something with which most wind instrumentalists have to deal all the
time!). On the other hand, the all-blow layout makes for a nice smooth
legato when playing runs of closely spaced notes and certain trills
and turns are much easier than on a regular chromatic where you have
to deal with breath changes and slide movements. Staples of the
Chromatica/Polyphonia repertoire such as "Flight of the Bumblebee"
would probably be easier on one of these instruments, the layout of
the notes making it much easier to keep your place. Due to the reed
adjustment and airtight construction, note bending is easy over the
full range of both instruments, much better than on most off-the-shelf
chromatics. Of course, these are single reed bends rather than the
typical dual-reed bend of the blues harp, still they add a great
degree of expressiveness. I sincerely doubt that Suzuki really had the
blues players in mind as their target market, but given that Paul
Oscher can play some stunning blues on his Tombo Contrabass, I
wouldn't be at all surprised to hear someone do something in a similar
vein on the Alto Single. If you are looking for an alternative type of
harmonica, particularly if you are frustrated with the leakiness of
the standard slide chromatic, then one of these could be an excellent
choice. They are unlikely to be easily found in local music stores, so
interested parties should probably check with their local Suzuki
branch for availability:

Japan: http://www.suzuki-music.co.jp/
USA: http://www.suzukimusic.com/
Europe: http://www.suzukimusic.co.uk/

As you have probably gathered from the lack of criticisms in these
reviews, I was very impressed with all of the above harmonicas. They
are not exactly cheap (although you could buy more than a dozen Alto
Singles for the price of one Renaissance chromatic), but if the ones I
tried were representative samples, then Suzuki are delivering
factory-made harmonicas with the kind of quality that you would
normally expect from custom made harmonicas. They look beautiful,
deliver a good sound and have some unique design features. After these
instruments, the Magic Garden Chromatic and the innovative MR-300
Overdrive (one of the most under-rated diatonic harmonicas around), I
can't wait to see what new products Suzuki have in the pipeline.

Disclaimer - I have no financial involvement with Suzuki harmonicas,
but I am very happy to have been given the opportunity to review these
fine instruments.

 -- Pat.