[Harp-L] The "newest" Stradivarius of harmonicas!

[Steve]

All those years ago, after I'd bought my first XB40 I took it along to our pub session. I recorded the whole evening on a minidisc recorder. To my ear, whilst playing, the XB40 had a harsh, strident and dry tone. The other harps I played extensively that evening were an SP20, a Suzuki Bluesmaster and a Lee Oskar, the latter two in the same key as the XB40. When I got home, listen as hard as I might, I could discern no differences in the tones of the three G harps despite my impression whilst playing, in fact I couldn't tell which one I was playing. I could tell the SP20 only because it was in low D. All the harps were tuned to equal temperament, by the way, as is my wont, so no chance of picking out harps due to different fine tunings. I came to my own private unscientific conclusion that my choice of harp should be predicated on price, response and resilience and very little else!  

I did come to love my XB40s over the years, by the way. Nice and loud and tough as nails.