[Harp-L] Old Meisterklasse, bits & bobs

[Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I know lots of harmonica players who rave on about the old  
Meisterklasse and I played them myself from when they came on the  
market until about 1990, when I returned to playing Marine Bands. The  
reason was simple  -  while listening to one of my own recordings  
from the early 80s I realised I greatly preferred the harp sound,  
which was played on an MB. Since then I've never really played  
anything else but Marine Bands.

Recently I got Hohner to make a test comb which had screw holes for  
both old MK and MB Deluxe reed plates, so I was able to make a direct  
comparison. I still own some old MK models and took a pretty much  
unused pair of C reed plates, which I mounted on this comb. I was  
most disappointed  -  they weren't at all like I remembered them and  
were leaky as anything. In fact by the standards of today's Hohner  
Classic harps, which I'm accustomed to using, they were virtually  
unplayable. I took them off and mounted a set of current production  
MB Deluxe plates. The difference was like night and day, the new reed  
plates were loud, responsive and punchy when mounted on the same comb  
and with the same covers.

What this comparison made clear to me was the undoubted superiority  
of the reed plates Hohner has been producing during the last five  
plus years in comparison to those they made earlier. The main reason  
for this is the closer tolerances between reed and slot, which were  
introduced in the early 2000s across the board on Hohner Classic  
diatonics and chromatics. Interestingly enough, exactly the same  
process was described by Dave Payne when talking about Seydel's very  
recent improvements as used on the 1847. Where did they get that idea  
from, I wonder?

Steve

Steve Baker
steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.stevebaker.de
www.bluesculture.com
www.youtube.com/stevebakerbluesharp