Re: [Harp-L] The Low Rider rides again; Messe Report

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Easton told me to look out for this new chrom at the Messe, and
yesterday I went to the Tombo booth and gave it a test run,

 

It's a truly beautiful harmonica and the slider assembly is very clever.
Great to see some creative thinking coming through after a long period of
copy-catting from the main harmonica manufacturers. The two-piece slide
action gives bigger holes with short stroke, which is a useful combination.

 

The playability is nice but I wouldn't say it's anything out of the ordinary
compared to a good quality Hohner or Suzuki chrom. You have to have great
reedplates matched to a great slider action to produce a special chromatic,
and I'm not sure yet if the Tombo plates match up to the high standard set
by Hohner and Suzuki. I'd also wonder if the two-piece slider would 'gum up'
after sustained playing - that remains to be seen.

 

However the Tombo staff reminded me this very cool new chrom is still in the
testing stages, so I look forward to trying the production model. Good luck
to them for its success.

 

One manufacturer that did impress me a lot with their big range of
chromatics (and diatonics) was the rising Chinese brand Easttop. Their
chroms look superficially like Suzuki copies but are subtly different, with
narrower sliders and a smaller comb. Most have injection moulded combs with
a two-piece slide assembly, but they have one brass-combed model that is
quite unique. It is CNC milled and includes a front lip as part of the same
chunk of brass! This is a really impressive piece of 5 axis CNC milling, of
a complexity unmatched by any other harmonica manufacturer AFAIK. Their 10
hole diatonics are really starting to wail too, with phosphor bronze reeds
on the pricier models, that overblow stably out-of-the-box. Watch out for
Easttop, folks.

 

I was working in a freelance capacity on the Hering stand, promoting my own
Hering-made models (the Slide Diatonic, Irish Session Harp and
ChromaBender), and helping out with demonstrating the stock Hering harps.
Hering chromatics have a traditional 270-type slider matched to short comb
chambers, due to the fact all their reeds are rear-facing. This is a very
good combination as it gives small chamber volumes, resulting in good
compression, and as a result Hering chroms remain amongst the
easiest-playing, sweetest-sounding out of the box despite the fact that they
haven't changed much in the essentials in decades. 

 

I checked out the nearby Seydel stand and had a good chat with Lars Seifert
and Bertram Becher, the two main men. In my opinion Seydel do the best job
of all the manufacturers at these music trade fairs. Their black-painted
booth always stands out, and the presentation of the harps and staff is very
smart. Added to that you have the most energised, switched-on and welcoming
reps of any harmonica company in Lars and Bertram. Even though Seydel had no
really new models to show in substantive terms, just some new colours for
their Summer Edition, there was always a buzz around their booth. Lars tells
me they are turning work away, they are so busy. Well done to Seydel; what a
turnaround since the new crew took over the company after the Wall went
down!

 

Hohner had no stand at the Messe, though I caught up with their astute young
product manager Richard Weiss, and jammed on a couple of impromptu blues
with the always engaging Steve Baker. I didn't have time to get over to the
Suzuki stand, which was in a different hall to the other harmonica
manufacturers. However my spies reported they had no major new harmonica
models to present either.

 

All in all an interesting Messe, but missing new models from the two biggest
harmonica manufacturers. I guess we'll have to wait for SPAH for that - hope
to see you there!

 

Brendan

 <http://www.brendan-power.com/> www.brendan-power.com

 <http://www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic>
www.YouTube.com/BrendanPowerMusic