Here's a good price on a chromatic!

["Keith Freeman" <keith.freeman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Matthew,
> Hello, if you've never played a chromatic harmonica before, then
> here's the best price I've ever seen on one. I bought one from Tony
> just now, as I've never played chromatic harmonica, and thought you'd
> want to buy one at this price and try it out if you've never had the
> chance.
I now have two Swan harmonicas, a 10-holer and a gold 16-holer. They are certainly 
good value for money, but you get what you pay for! All the notes worked on the 10-
holer out of the box, but I had problems with some notes on the 16-holer being weak or 
not working at all (especially top notes - I showed it to Froggy and he reckoned a couple 
of reeds were too wide for their slots and filed them down or replaced them). The slide 
assembly is leaky too, which makes for a mellow sound (which I don't mind) but also 
less dynamic range as you have to blow very hard to get any volume (which I'm not so 
happy with). Any competent harmonica technician should be able to fix these problems, 
of course, or you can learn a lot from doing it yourself. I bought both of my Swans from 
jldyer on ebay and was happy with his service (he warned me they wouldn't be up to the 
standard of a Hohner or Hering).

If what you're after is a 12-holer in C I wonder if the Seydel Chromatic Standard 48 
might not be a better buy (EUR 39 from www.harponline.de - I haven't seen or tried one 
but it is apparently very airtight, even though it has no valves). Seydel have a very 
good reputation (see Chmel's test on harponline.de and the reviews on the Coast 2 
Coast site).

As a beginner myself only a few weeks ago I have mixed feelings about recommending 
these Swans to other beginners, unless the idea is to learn gapping (and/or tuning) on 
them. Yes, it's a cheap way to get some idea of what a chromatic harmonica is, but if 
the thing is not set up properly you're not going to get a proper idea of what it can do, 
and I imagine the resale price is not so high. There's a lot to be said for starting out with 
a good-quality instrument, as it will give you a better idea of what you can do with it and 
you'll lose less if you decide to sell it.

- -Keith