[Harp-L] new Suzukis

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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:)
`----'