Re: [Harp-L] Has anybody tried the Hohner Marine Band Deluxe?

[james.jospe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

The Hohner MB deluxe is a fine harp out of the box. I have maybe 6 of them 
and they are superior to SP20's and MB. I think they are worth the money. 
I recently tried a Seydel 1847 and liked that too.

They are not as good as custom Filisko method harps but way better than 
other stock harps. 

I believe Richard Sleigh tweaks the Deluxe for a reasonable price (maybe 
I'm not supposed to mention that, apologies if that's the case).
You can order online from Coast2coastmusic.com  . THey get the harp to you 
in about 2 days. You can't be that impatient....


jj







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02/20/2008 10:05 AM

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Re:  [Harp-L] Has anybody tried the Hohner Marine Band Deluxe?





Special20 wrote:
> I have not found any Hohner Marine Band Deluxe harps around
> Denver, and I'm too impatient to order one.  Have you played
> this harp?  Is it worth 50 bucks, in your opinion?  Does the
> wood comb swell at all?

Too impatient?  The Marine Band Deluxe has been on the market for a
couple of years now.  I'm not surprised that not a lot of retail
outlets stock them, dealer cost is high and the demand for premium
harps from the general public is probably pretty low.  Online
retailers should be able to put one in your hands in a couple of
days.

I had a Deluxe a couple of years ago, and found it to be pretty
nice.  I like the way they roll the back covers open, like the
Marine Bands of old.  I didn't have any trouble with the comb
swelling, but I did have a problem with it "delaminating" after a
pretty small amount of playing time.  In other words, the finish
came off the front of the comb tines.  I asked our former inside man
at Hohner, Fernando Bresslau, about it, and he told me that Hohner
had seen the problem and fixed it, and he sent me a new comb.  I
didn't have any trouble with the new one.  Still, the Marine Band is
not my favorite design, and I ended up sending the harp to my
brother-in-law in Iraq.

I did find the harp to be fairly close to the "classic" Marine Band,
aside from being assembled with screws and the sealed comb (yes, and
the covers).  Same tuning quality, same factory gapping, etc.,
although theoretically, since they have the best technicians in the
factory working on these harps, they should be more consistent, at
least.

If you don't work on your own harps, you are in love with
that "Marine Band sound", and you're not unhappy with the way a
classic Marine Band is tuned and set up, the Deluxe is probably the
way to go.  In my book, a $30 price premium is worth it for the comb
not to swell.

-tim



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