Re: [Harp-L] Suzuki Fabulous Harmonicas

[Frank Evers <frank@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

Am Sonntag, 11. Januar 2009 schrieb Wadi Jalil Maluf:
> Hi Frank, now that you mentioned I'm a little confused here. If I
> would like a harp for doing overblow , what do you recommend?

It depends on what you wan't and how much money you can spend. There 
are stock harps that allow  overblows very good out of the box.
The Suzuki Firebreath is very good in that respect. If you want to 
learn to play overblows, but can't afford custom harps the Firebreath 
is my recommendation.
The Suzuki Overdrive is specially constructed to make overblows 
easier. There are holes in it's cover plates that you can close with 
your fingers to block the "closing" reed, which helps a lot to make 
the overblow on the "opening" reed happen.
Another harp (just to mention another vendor) that overblows easily 
out of the box would be the Seydel 1847. 

> I get 
> lost with Suzuki firebreath, Suzuki valved(what are the valves
> for?for doing overblows??)And what about the hohner xb40???

On a (half) valved harmonica like the Suzuki MR-350V you cannot play 
overblows at all! However with the higher pitched reed in each hole 
valved you can bend the lower pitched down. That way you can play 
fully chromatic too. An example: to play a D#/Eb in the middle octave 
on a normal unvalved 10-hole you have to overblow on hole 4. On a 
half valved 10-hole like the MR-350V you cannot play that overblow, 
but you can bend 5 blow down a half step, so you can get that D#/Eb 
too.
The XB-40 is a different beast. You can find an explanation of it's 
internal construction several times in the Harp-L archives, so i 
won't repeat it here, but as a result of it's construction you can 
bend _every_ tone, blow and draw alike by at least two steps, which 
gives you an exceptional flexibility how to play things, that was 
unknown before the XB-40. Oh, overblowing is not possible on the 
XB-40 - and not neded at all either.

> On the other hand, regarding to custom harps what do you recommend
> and are they too expensive?

I havn't tried many custom harps so far, so i won't give 
recommendation here. However those i tried were always far better 
than _any_ stock harp i ever tested. Custom harps are not too 
expensive, the price reflects the time and craftmanship thats needed 
to convert a stock harp into a superior harp. You have to decide on 
your own wether owning superior harps is worth the money for you or 
not. 
Again you will find many recommendations of satisfied customers of 
custom harps in the Harp-L archives.

So, it's late, i'd better hit the hay ;)

-- 
Gruß,Frank