Re: [Harp-L] Old Meisterklasse, bits & bobs

["Fernando Bresslau" <fernando@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Not that Steve's account needs verification, but I have played the
same set of plates and MK parts and can attest that I too was
disappointed with the MK performance compared with MBDLX. The good
news is that Hohner Classic reedplates have never been this good.

All the best from Mannheim,

Fernando, almost finished with MBA
http://bresslau.com/blog


On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 00:50, Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 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