[Harp-L] Pre-School Shopping

[<bill.eborn@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone
This is my first posting here although I have lurking for a while, so can I say thanks to so many of you for the pearls of wisdom I have picked up whilst perusing....

I am a long term diatonic harp player and starting at college to study jazz full-time in September.  So this month and next month I will be receiving my last decent salary payments for a while, the bulk of which will be dedicated to stocking up on harps to ensure that I am appropriately equipped for the course ? I mainly need harps in the less typical flat keys Db, Ab & Eb and a low F as well and I generally find I can never have enough Bb and C harps.  

Up till now I have found the Golden Melody to be the best harp for playing jazz, in terms of the responsiveness of the reeds to overblowing/drawing, I also find it easier to achieve more precise intonation on the lower octave on the GM.  The problem I find with the GM is that tonally, the sound is a little thinner and reedier compared to the Meisterclasse for example, as a result I presume of the latter?s heavier gauge reedplates.  The problem I have with the Meisterclasse is that I find the Nickel plated reed plates harder to work on and I have to stick bits of Blu Tack on the rivet heads to stop them from squeaking during OBs especially when they are new ? I don?t have that problem at all with GMs.  I can also get replacement reeds for GMs, with the MS harps, you need to buy the cheaper plates at £11ish a time and harvest the reeds from them. 

All of which has got me wondering whether for this fresh batch of harps I should switch to playing Seydel?s instead, either the Solist Pro or the Favourite.  I have had a Solist Pro and liked it, the use the past tense here is the result of a tale of woe common I would imagine to every novice harp customiser but before that disaster, the harp had a lovely tone and was starting to overblow beautifully.  I can also get replacement reeds for the Seydel?s.  

The price of the Solist Pro ? about twenty five of our English squids is attractive compared to thirty seven for the Favourite.  The Favourite has an aluminium comb and I like the aluminium combs on the Meisterclasse, although with aluminium combs, as I understand it, you need nickel plating on the reed plates and with nickel will I experience the same difficulty with regard to embossing in terms of the hardness of the material that I get with the Meisterclasse?  The Solist Pro reedplates are 1mm thick and Favourites 1.1mm what difference does that make in terms of tone?  That, he says, after dancing round the Mulberry tree about fifteen times in order to try and explain himself is the crux of my dilemma.

Thanks again

Bill 


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