[Harp-L] new Suzukis



Paul B. writes:

"Just stumbles on two new premium diatonics from
Suzuki."

Glad to hear it. But I've been asking myself the same question since last night--where????

Of course, I should follow my own advice and Google, them, but....

"The first is named the Firebreath,"

And the harmonica name horrors continue. Wow, Suzuki's certainly had their fair share of duds over the years, but this is beyond bad.

"has a rosewood comb
and lists for $60."

Interesting. Are you sure it's rosewood? I thought that was getting hard to find. Maybe it's just certain quality of rosewood, though (like the ones you make marimbas and xylophone bars out of--probably quite a different set of needs for those than a harmonica comb, come to think of it). What is perhaps more interesting is that this prices it about twice as much as the Proharp, their previous top-of- the-line standard harp (the Overdrive, like the XB-40, doesn't count as a standard diatonic, IMO).

"The second is called the Pure Harp."

Sadly that's an improvement name-wise.

"It also has the rose wood comb but also rose wood
covers! Looks gorgeous but at $120 list I think I'd go
for a custom."

I can understand that. Though if you want a wood comb and covers on a custom harp, I bet you'll find that $120 is much lower than you'd be paying. I seem to recall that the Hardwood Harmonicas (which are no longer around, I believe) sold for about $85 or so. They used stock reed-plates and a plastic comb. The wood covers certainly felt wonderful to play (I make no claims as to sound), so I bet the Suzukis are just as nice feeling--Suzuki tends to have excellent finish-levels on their products, IMO. It's interesting to see Suzuki putting this out to market--it's a risk, especially at that price.

But, if the covers are as smooth and well shaped as the Hardwood ones, then I might give one a try.

"What intrigues me about these harps is the cover
design rather than materials. I can't really tell from
pictures but I'm wondering if they might employ a
design that has a large contact area between cover
plates and reed plates"

Interesting.

"Their Overdrive must be the
most airtight production harp there is but it is
awkward to play and introduces some other problems.
(As always see Pat Missin's site.) A variation on the
theme however would be welcome."

I couldn't agree more. Though I've gotten a lot better at using the OvD lately, it is still a bit awkward. I've been thinking that a design which incorporated the OvD airtightness aspect of the design without the specific features of the OvD itself (reed-isolating ability) might be a very good standard harp indeed. Hmmm....where is that Overdrive I was playing just the other day...(too many harps, not enough organization).

"I'm generally impressed by the product Suzuki puts out
but on both a Bluesmater and a Delta Frost I've tried
there have been leaks at the front edge of the cover
plates. They don't sit flush. Is this common to these
models or did I get bad ones."

Someone else answered this already, but I will say that if there's one area Suzuki can improve it's in the fit of the front of their covers. Even the Promaster has issues there, IMO. As was pointed out, they are easy enough to fix, but it would be better if they were right in the first place.

"Also, I hear varying information as to whether Suzuki
uses phospher bronze reeds. Plates are interchangeable
between Bluesmasters, Harpmasters, Bushman's Frost,
Overdrives and, I assume, Promasters. Any differences
among them?"

Are you sure about the interchangeable plates part? I've never measured but been told by a pretty good authority that this wasn't the case at all. It would make sense to have them all interchangeable (a reed-plates a reed-plate, why reinvent the wheel), but I was pretty sure that's not what they did (they are, after all, a harmonica company, so we can't expect logic to actually sit down at the table during product design for too long:). From what I've seen and been told only the PIpe-Humming and the ProMaster have interchangeable reed-plates (not the same plates neccessarily--the former is unplated, the later plated, IIRC).

Other than that, I can't say about reed composition.

Thanks for the gear sighting. I'm off to Google.




()() JR "Bulldogge" Ross () () & Snuffy, too:) `----'







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