[Harp-L] Leo Shi Chord harmonicas

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I recently ordered a bunch of harmonicas from the Jiyang Musical  
Instrument company in China.  They are probably best known in the US  
for making the entry-level Golden Cup brand of harmonicas.  They also  
make the Leo Shi brand instruments which have gotten some notice on  
harp-l and elsewhere, particularly for their "Bass" model.  While  
ordering a few of these, I noticed that they also made some  
interesting chord-harps, and so decided to get these.

There are two varieties, the 2Chord and the 3Chord.  The 2Chord model  
is all-blow and has two combs held together in the way a traditional  
Bass or Chord harmonica is with metal hinges at either end.  The  
lower comb has major chords in the following order: Bb, F, C, G, and  
D.  The upper comb has the relative minors of these: Gm, Dm, Am, Em,  
and Bm.  The 3Chord model adds a third comb below these two with the  
following chords: F7, C7, G7, D7, and A7.  However, unlike the major  
and minor chords, the sevenths are draw chords.  All the chords are  
voiced in octaves, and the plastic comb is similar to that used in  
most tremolo harmonicas, in that there are two rows of holes top and  
bottom, so each reed sits in its own cell.  While the traditional  
Chordharp and some of it's diminutives (Vinettas, Chordets) can be  
thought of as evolving out of the Knittlinger style of octave  
harmonica (Auto-Valve, etc...) this could be seen as an evolution of  
the Wiener-derived double-reed harmonicas more commonly found in  
China, particularly the "Single" style of harmonica.

Quality control is very good throughout, with acceptable edges to the  
exposed reed-plates and nice plating on the solid feeling brass  
covers.  The comb is black ABS plastic, and the partitions between  
the chord groups are quite smooth, a nice feature since your mouth  
often covers this area.  Each comb is roughly 6 1/2" long by 1 1/8"  
deep by 1" high at the covers' highest point, and the hinges are  
about 2 1/4" long total.  The pitch is centered about A=442 and the  
chord voicing is equal temperament.  While the tuning isn't perfect,  
it is more than acceptable and these are tuned as well or better than  
any double-reed harmonica I've purchased from Hohner, Hering or  
Seydel, if not quite up to the level of the top of the Suzuki and  
Tombo lines.  One caveat is that these seem to be made-to-order, and  
thus when they arrived the combs were still out-gassing a bit from  
the molding process.  This is easily fixed simply by leaving the  
harmonica in a well-ventilated area for a few days.

All of which gets to the playing.  First, I wouldn't mind if the  
hinges were slightly closer together.  That's the only negative  
comment I have.  These are a joy to play.  The octave voicing of the  
chords makes them really stand out with a full, rich sound, giving  
more presence and available volume than the four-note chords in the  
Chordet, for instance.  Combine that with the responsiveness of the  
reeds which allows for a wide range of vocal effects and tone  
shading.  It's easy to isolate single notes, octave notes, split  
intervals and top and bottom reed-plates for a massive range of note  
and chord choices.  Moreover, the single reed-cell design creates a  
very easy-breathing instrument, with neither the need for valves of  
the big 48-chord nor the ramps found on many other smaller chord- 
harps.  I've come to prefer the 3Chord version in not just because it  
has the added seventh chords, but also because they are draw chords,  
which lets you develop some interesting blow/draw patterns between  
the sevenths and the major and minor blow chords.  While this is  
obviously rooted in C, it is useable and useful in most of the  
closely related keys--think of this as a diatonic chord-harp rather  
than a chopped off 48-chord and it comes into it's own.

These are by far the most enjoyable chord-harps I've ever played.   
They are well-made, well-designed and just plain fun.  The only  
difficult part is ordering them.  AFAIK, they are not distributed in  
the US, but you can contact the Jiyang company directly through their  
website:

http://www.golden-cup.com/

In English here:

http://www.golden-cup.com/ebar1.htm

And click on "order form".

The website is not the easiest to navigate, as you sometimes have to  
type in numbers because links don't work (this could be due to my  
being on a Mac, though), so here are the links to the page with the  
Leo Shi instruments:

http://www.golden-cup.com/ebar318.htm

http://www.golden-cup.com/ebar319.htm

The Chord models are listed at the bottom of the page items JH020S-2  
and JH020S-3.

Thanks to Candy at Jiyang for her wonderful customer service and fast  
responding emails as well as all the people there who make these  
excellent instruments.



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