RE: [Harp-L] Suzuki's Fabulus....Rant...

[Steve Shaw <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

> Steve Shaw writes:
> > Ha, well there you are you see! I use Lee Oskars a lot and I can ~guarantee~ that a new one, or new set of reed-plates, will need attention to at least two or three gaps before I can rely on 'em not to choke on me.
> 
> I'm not sure if you are agreeing with me or disagreeing. Realise I 
> didn't say they were supremely playable for everyone. What I said was 
> they were very consistent in set up as compared to other marques. Your 
> anecdotal offering seems to affirm this. Now for me the gaps are too 
> wide on the lower notes. I can't get that bent vibrato I like unless I 
> bring them in a tad closer. I know we agree on at least one point, for 
> twenty quid modern harmonicas represent a good value. The quality of 
> the finished products has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 
> several decades. fjm

 

We're agreeing.  Our different experiences point up once again the fact that you can't mass-produce a harp in a factory to suit every style of playing.   I also agree with you about the quality of finished products.   I haven't bought Lee Oskars in vast enough numbers (darn things last too long) to have an opinion as to whether there have been lows and highs in recent years, but I have bought a lot of SP20s (which I use more, and which, with the best will in the world, don't last as long) and I have the distinct impression that quality control, and therefore consistency OOTB, has improved considerably in their case in the last few years.  Four or five maybe.  I think that what I get for £20, a piece of kit that, in half an hour, I can tweak into being a sweet and lovely instrument that will do 9-12 months' hard service, is a brilliant deal.  I can't get a decent bottle of single malt that my son and I can demolish over two nights after mum's gone to bed for that kind of money.   The rotter earns more than me but he still manages to drink mine.  ;-)


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