So now that I’ve played several East Top 008k’s, I’ve made them my official recommendation for #1 budget harp (followed by Fender Blues Deluxe and Hohner Blues Band.)
And we are now carrying the black ones in our Harp Store:
Don’t get me wrong here. If you can afford a Lee Oskar or a Special 20 those are the ones you wanna get. But for BUDGET, the 008k shines bright.
Thanks to everyone who kept on talking about them. 
I haven’t tried the T008, but I have them in my cart.
Have they offered minor tuning?
I asked a month or so ago, and they said no, but now they list Em and Bm as options on their AliExpress listing. I don’t know whether they are natural or harmonic minors though. I did see one listing, not from their official store, that had Em and Bm, but also NEm and such listed, but I wasn’t logged in, and now I can’t find the listing!
Since acquiring the Lee Oskar in a Natural Minor, I’ve come to the conclusion that I much prefer jamming on an harmonic minor tuning in the 1st position, and if available, East top will be more affordable.
They haven’t answered my query on AliExpress, to tell me if the listing is harmonic or natural minor, but they did answer my query through eBay - “are harmonic minor tunings available on any of your models?”, with “Sorry,friend,which you want”.
I don’t know if they mean the tuning, or the model of the harmonica though!
So I thought perhaps they’d given you a list of available tunings, which would help clarify the situation. 
I’ve got an email in. Will let you know when I hear back.
Aloha,
Luke
That’s awesome you shared this info here @Luke about having the Easttop 008k available… 
As you know, I’m a big fan 
I decided to get one of these sexy black bad boys you have here for a nephew who I know is going to love it.
So glad I could get it for him here!
Thanks @Luke , I’ll be interested to see how you go, my attempts at asking them questions haven’t yielded great results!
I never did get a reply to my emails, to the email address on their website. They do answer questions via eBay, but I don’t think they understand much English!
LOL. Yeah, I’ll keep you posted if/when I hear back. But same here. Very broken English!
I just got a reply through eBay, but none of the linked ads offer minor tuning, just flats and sharps. 
Communication Breakdown!
I really just want to know if the ads on their AliExpress store offering Bm and Em, are natural or harmonic minor tuning!
I wonder how hard it is to learn Mandarin? 
@Dave_Dunn I guess learning Mandarin is as hard as becoming a real legend on the harp. 
HARDER !!! 
Yes @Slim, I didn’t want to completely take away the illusion from him.
Who knows, maybe there is a supernatural talent for languages? 
I haven’t tried the 008k yet, but for a moustache AND budget friendly harp, I can vouch for East Top T002. I was pretty impressed
@Java , I too was very impressed with the T002. I have some Marine Bands, Special 20s, a Pro Harp, and a Lee Oskar, but my T002s are by far my favourite harps. I have 4 at the moment, but plan to get more to round out my major keys.
Hey @Dave_Dunn, regarding minor tunings, I got this back from my contact at East Top:
Send me your Minor and Natural minor tuning chart for checking, I think we can do that, Then we can make one or two samples for your final checking,
So it sounds like they’re not really doing it, but they’re willing to do it. I’m not interested in pursuing this, but if you are you could just get the minor tuning you want from the Lee Oskar site and send it directly to them here with a request for them to make one: 
Thanks @Luke , I might just do that. It’s all been a bit puzzling though, as they do list Em and Bm, I just can’t get an answer as to whether they’re Natural or Harmonic Minors, and if they’re labelled for 1st or 2nd position. I guess I’ll buy one and find out!
Thanks for checking it out for me.
Just purchased this since Saturday. The 10 Blow is sticking have to give it some force and the 10Draw is fine zero effort. Is this common.???
The upper holes take some finesse sometimes to get them to sound just right, or it could be stuck as you suggest.
There are some excellent posts here by @Slim and @Luke that talk about opening up your harp.
In a few words, don’t be afraid to do it, but do it carefully. It may simply be stuck and with a slight movement of the reed it may come back into shape. If not, the gap may be a bit too wide or too narrow. You can compare it to the other reeds and then softly nudge it to where it needs to be.
Congrats on your harp! My first was a blue 008k which I loved 
Update - I bought the Em and Bm they listed, they arrived this morning.
They’re natural minors, labelled in the second position. They are simply labelled Em and Bm respectively, with nothing to indicate Natural Minor tuning, or labelling position.
Nice harmonicas though!
I already have a Lee Oskar Natural Em, but that’s ok, I want to play around with retuning anyway after watching the recently linked video on the subject.
The main reason I prefer the Harmonic Minor over Natural, is how ‘dis-harmonic ’ it sounds if you hit any combination of draw 6, 7, and 8. I’m playing them in the first position mostly, and when jamming on the Harmonic Minor, I can ‘blow, suck, blow’ my way up and down the harmonica, and it all works, no wrong notes, just perhaps right notes at the wrong time.
With the Natural Minor Tuning, if I happen to draw 6, 7, 8 on my way up or down - 
.
So I’ll try changing the 6 and perhaps 7 draw, and leave the bottom end alone.
Not sure about the minor tunings but hitting crisp clean 6 and 7 draws on standard tunings is probably the most challenging anywhere on the harp, for me anyway.
What are some songs you play in Em and Bm? 
Yep @HarpinBobbyMcB the layout of blows and draws on Natural Minor is just like a standard, it just sounds minor in 2nd position. The -67 trill sounds really cool on the Natural Minor though.
@Leon75 Congrats on the new East Top bro. So if you’re getting -7 -8 and -9 fine, but -10 is sticking, here’s my suggestion to fix it.
1.) Run it under fast warm water both directions, alternating with gently tapping against palm, and blowing and drawing back and forth really quickly. Do that for a bit. If something is lodged in there, that should take care of it.
If that don’t fix it, you can do this:
2.) Open it up, examine the gap between the reed and Reedplate compared to the other reeds. It’s probably too small of a gap. Using a toothpick, GENTLY push the reed several times until the gap looks more similar to others.
Try drawing. Does it work? If not, keep gently pushing the reed with the toothpick, rinse and repeat till it draws easy.
Sound about right @Slim?
The -10 is fine it’s the 10 is sticking I think. Comparing with my Blues Deluxe. I don’t have that problem in 10 compare to the 008 10. Maybe I didn’t word it properly.
