[Harp-L] re: Paddy Richters out of the box

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Simon asks:

"Seydel seems to be the obvious choice as they do both the Session  
and Favorite harps in Paddy Richter, does anyone have any comments on  
how they compare? (Especially how they would compare with a Power  
tweaked Suzuki)."


I have only played the Seydel Session models not the Favorite, but  
have been quite favorably impressed with them.  The design is solid  
(very similar to the Suzuki Bluesmaster, a basic variant on the tried  
and true Lee Oskar design) and feels good to me (solid covers, smooth  
plating, nice plastic).  The ones I've bought (a handful) have been  
well tuned and set-up as well as most any standard harp.  I would  
think this would carry over to their alternate tunings, indeed the  
low-tunings were quite nice.

As for comparing to Brendan's instruments, I doubt that they are in  
the same league.  A custom instrument is just that, and will always  
be better than a stock model.  However, by learning to gap to your  
own desires and even a bit of fine-tuning if needed you can greatly  
improve any harmonica.

Another option is to create your own Paddy Richter by swapping reed- 
plates between two Lee Oskar models.  This is easy and takes very  
little time.  As I can't recall the details of which models, and  
don't want to get it wrong and have to correct myself,  I'll point  
you in the direction of the archives, which has this basic mod  
mentioned several times (try a search for Paddy Richter and Lee  
Oskar).  Unless other companies offer a Paddy Richter tuned harp (and  
I'm not aware that any do, but I'm probably wrong) these are probably  
your best options.

Hope this helps.



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