Re: [Harp-L] Question about custom harmonicas

[Frank Evers <frank@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

Am Sonntag, 7. Dezember 2008 schrieb John F. Potts:
>   BUT, a player does not need to be very expert to know when a harp
> is   airtight and when one is not.  All of my Suzukis have
> consistently good compression.

I've tried many harmonica models in the last few years, and ended up 
with two favorites, the Hohner Marine Band and Suzuki Firebreath. IMO 
both are very resonsive, airtight and well tuned (different of 
course) out of the box. 
I know what John speaks about when he talks about compression - i 
usually refer to it as stiff, and i think it's the one major flaw 
about the Firebreath. On the other hand as far as i understand the 
stiff reeds are responsible for the superior ability to overblow with 
that harp.
About lack  of air tightness there must be distinguished between air 
leakage and air consumption. Leakage is very low on Marine Bands but 
compared to the Firebreath it consumes more air because the reed 
material is softer and as far as i understand there's more deflection 
on the reeds. That way it's easier to play and also louder than the 
Firebreath, but it won't provide the same kind of compression - you 
can't have both.

So i don't think the Suzukis and Hohners differ significantly in 
quality, but their design engeneers followed different approaches. 
Personally i don't favor one over the other, thats why i play both 
models, depending on my day to day mood ;)

John, you state that Hohner no longer builds the Classic series of 
harps. I don't know if they ever really stopped producing them, but 
they are available today and ever since i took up bluesharps. 
Additionally the quality of Hohner classic harps has improved a lot 
over the past few years.

-- 
Gruß,Frank