Re: [Harp-L] The Future of Blues Harmonica?

[mik jagger <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael  - what's the excellence of the idea? Isn't it a smaller version of XB40? Less complete(hohner bends ALL the notes), more expensive, less playable as people report. Hohner should have done the smaller version of xb40 if players thought it was a good idea, but apparently players did not - hohner is discontinuing the current xb40 due to low demand from playing community. I think the (hohner's) idea was great - love my xb40, but apparently i'm in the minority here. What does the sub3o do that xb40 does not? Or does it do it differently? Seems like an old asian practice of stealing the intellectual property from the west, without giving credit to where the  idea/ engineering came from. That's exactly what drives the "originators" out of business. The new thing is that instead of offering a "knock off"  at a LOWER price, they uniquely conditioned the harmonica community to pay HIGHER prices for their product. It became somehow fine to charge
 hundreds of dollars for an instrument that was traditionally amongst least expensive ones... "Well, if you play a grand piano, guess how expensive that would be..." Well, harmonica ain't grand piano, you know... Even a Renny isn't. I guess that conditioning is a single "good idea" here - good for "them", bad for "us".
Mike.



________________________________
 From: Michael Rubin <michaelrubinharmonica@xxxxxxxxx>
To: mik jagger <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx> 
Cc: Mike Fugazzi <mikefugazzi@xxxxxxxxx>; "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2012 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] The Future of Blues Harmonica?
 

I have to jump on the bandwagon of excellent idea, terrible out of the box harp.  Matthew Smart defended Suzuki saying if there had been some hard factory tweaking it would have cost $250 to $300.  That is EXACTLY what Suzuki should have done,  imo.  Charge me $300 and give me a great harp.  Now for $115 less, I am extremely unsatisfied.  
Michael Rubin
Michaelrubinharmonica.com


On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 10:32 AM, mik jagger <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Mike, thank you for your review - it confirms my "suspicion" that it is a version of the xb40 - better or worse is to be determined by playing it, of course. I'd probably like the smaller size, but as a player of xb40, I got to tell you that hohner really works great out of the box, I love my xb40. Good to know that if rumors of xb40's demise are true, we have at least a somewhat passable option, although the price really does not sit well with me. BTW, my xb40 in C has years of hard play on it by now - it became my main instrument of choice, and no performance issues whatsoever!
>Mike.
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>________________________________
> From: Mike Fugazzi <mikefugazzi@xxxxxxxxx>
>To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Cc: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>; mik jagger <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx>; harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx
>Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 9:46 AM
>Subject: Re: [Harp-L] The Future of Blues Harmonica?
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>The most noticeable difference is that the it is the size of a standard diatonic.  I have a SUB30 in A that I removed the valves on holes 1-4 on and taped of the extra reeds on 1-4 (draw reeds on the top plate).  It plays a lot better, but you lose notes on those holes, then.  I was ok with that as I was more concerned with the middle and top octaves.  The 1 and 4 overblow play well, IMO.
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>The more I think about it, it plays like a Special 20 from the 90's...like right before they switched to stainless steel cover plates.  It is a very mellow and warm tone (dark), even after heavy tweaking of the reeds and slots.  The top octave plays well save hole 10, which I need to tweak more for the blow bends.  I am pleased with how it plays holes 4-9.  I think 3 responds well now, but is still a tad stiff.  1 and 2 play and bend fine, but feel a little soft for me.  I am not sure tweaking gaps would really solve that.   The new bends on 10 are a lot more like an overdraw than you'd think, but are easy than a regular valve bend, IMO.
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>I like it a lot more than a week ago, lol.  The new bends seem to be void of any extra noise or issue.  I would like to try it with different valve material at some point, though.  I will totally play it and gig with it if given the chance.  I should make it clear that I did spend a good chunk of time 1-2 hours tweaking it using very advanced techniques (beyond just gapping and embossing).  
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>I have tried the XB40, but don't own one.  I remember that harp being louder and brighter than the SUB30.  
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>Mike
>On Sunday, September 9, 2012 7:56:07 AM UTC-5, mik jagger wrote:
>So how's the "sub 30" different (to the better) from the xb40? XB40 has all the reeds bending deeper than a halftone (more available notes), less expensive, and great out of the box, yet not popular enough to not be threatened by the rumors of its demise...
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