RE: [Harp-L] Seydel Session Steel: a love that lasts?

[Steve Shaw <moorcot@xxxxxxx>]

>"Up to five times longer playing life compared to models with brass reeds", 
> sayeth Seydel of the Session Steel. At about twice the price.
> 
> So -- should be a good deal.But it´s a strong claim, and "up to" can mean it 
> has 1. 001 "longer playing life compared to" etc.
> 
> 
> I wonder, have any of you heavy hitters, hard players, harmonica tormentors 
> any experience that corroborates this claim of longevity?
> They have been on the market for a number of years now and as I´m very tight 
> with my money and always looking for a good deal when it comes to a 
> harmonica that lasts (never mind how they sound: as they say here on Harp-l, 
> "it´s all in the player" anyhow!) it would be interesting to hear some 
> experiences based on just this particular aspect of the instrument.
> Cheers
> /Martin
> (who just killed another S 20 and ain´t too happy about it.)
Well, here's my experience. I've been a SP20 devotee for many years. But Hohner stopped making low Ds, so I moved to Seydel Session Steel. I recently bought two of these, quite an investment, after reading the rave reviews and claims about longevity. Problem solved, I was thinking.
I'm not a hard hitter. My harps always last me a very long time before reeds go south. But the first of my two Session Steels, less than two months old, which I have played lightly at home and just twice in pub sessions (again, quite lightly), has let me down badly. The 7-blow reed has gone flat. In all my years of buying and playing harps, this is by far the worst performance of any harp apart from the extreme cheapos I've occasionally experimented with. I'm devastated because I'm not a wealthy fellow and I can't afford to replace harps every few weeks, and, for reasons best known to Seydel, replacement reedplates cost just about as much as new harps. I would easily and routinely get almost a year of "hard" playing out of a SP20.  I suppose I could have been unlucky, but I won't be putting much trust in my second Session Steel example. Instead, I'll be digging out all those wrecks and replacing reeds in my knackered SP 20s in the hope that I have enough spares to keep me going until I don't care any more!
Cheers
Steve