Re: [Harp-L] Seydel Concerto

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

My Concerto was fine out of the box. After several days of fairly intensive playing, I find I have to warm the reeds into tune a little - some of the octaves sound slightly off when I first pick up the harp but settle in as I play. I may have to do some spot tuning a little later on.

I've ordered a backup for my G, as I'll be playing it in some concert performances, and also have ordered instruments in A and C (an octave lower than the Auto Valve in those keys).

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Mon, 4/13/09, Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Seydel Concerto
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Monday, April 13, 2009, 5:27 PM

I am a bit surprised at all the recent praise of the Seydel Concerto.

A few years ago I bought a batch of these (six in standard keys) and while I
liked the construction (nice plastic combs, good cover design, overall comfort
if a bit larger than an Auto-Valve) the ones I got were not all that
well-tuned--quite noticeable in an octave harp.  This was particularly true of
the top octave in all the harps.  Simply put, they will not hold their tuning
very well in this range: the reeds drift and will not settle into a pitch for
any given length of time.  I am suspicious that it might be an issue of reed
scaling not being well matched to the specific pitch needed--indeed, these reeds
are very narrow in relation to their length and pitch.  Perhaps this was just a
problem with the batch I got (made before the switch to having the tonic
consistently in the first hole), such as a bad bit of reed material, but there
it is.

>From my experience, I would not recommend these, unless you don't mind
retuning your own harps out of the box and never intended to play the top
octave.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
`----'



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