Favorite harp and why

Gear
101

In general, my favorite harp is whichever one I’m playing most at a given time.

I’ve recently been lingering on mid-low tunings. When I busted the LO I was playing most, I decided to return to a Kongsheng “Solist” in low F that doesn’t see much play. The cover plates are too shallow for the tuning, so if I wail on the draw one it clacks unpleasantly against the cover plate. I don’t enjoy the satin finish on the plates. And it’s been in the single digits F° (~ -17 – -11° C) around me recently, so if I pull it out during a walk, the aluminum comb is brutally cold.

But for all these complaints, I’ve been loving it. It’s relatively in-tune, responsive enough, bends alright. You get used to whatever shortcomings after a while, and if a harp is at all decent, you can likely make it sound good.

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102

I fancy having a crack at some Kong Shengs also got my eye on JDR, and I’ve heard a lot of good things about Dabells but they’re hard to get in the UK

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103

Find the rocket louder than the amp.

104

Yes, now that I’ve banged out a few tunes on it, I’m inclined to agree. Of course, we might hear it differently to someone listing from 10 meters away.

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105

Harmonica is huge in Japan. https://shop.taniguchi-gakki.jp/english/?srsltid=AfmBOoqoQ2flg5VMUkrJv6Tz_Ul8Reg4gSQASlxgNHy4XuVmA823JMcS
This shop is just harmonicas and accordions. It has little concerts too.

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106

Hi,
welcome. I missed your original post. I was just in Singapore. I love the place. Couldnt find any live music though. The food is devine. Happy new year!! :snake: :snake: :snake: :snake: :snake: :snake:

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107

Cannot beat a Crossover with a good plastic comb. Ben down that path. I have a Oskar that seldom gets picked up. Does not play as well as a crossover. Once you get a couple of good harp and have them gone through a good tech like HARPSMITH you will always had a harmonica that you can play well. Special 20 is a close second. I always want my ability or lack thereof to be the weakest link in my chain.

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108

I just bought a few weeks ago, a Suzuki pro master, And I love the aluminum comb, I dunno the tone is really different to Wooden, Plastic or ABS, my Wife says it’s darker deeper sounding even though it’s a key of F, I’ve been playing a few Sonny Boy 1 and II songs on it and it just blows me away. So I may delve further into metal combs.

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109

I’m quite keen to try a suzuki sometime. I might get nostalgic for my 600 bandit.

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110

Shills gonna shill for their pennies.

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111

@scott4 who makes a good crossover plastic comb?

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112

There’s a few out there but if I were you I’d get a recommendation from someone on here

113

the 2 names that people talk about aren’t taking orders right now. I can look to see if they simply sell the comb but not sure

114

I’ve begun bringing in Wilde-tuned Seydels. I didn’t play my first one much, until another (standard-tuned) harp failed during a gig. Happened upon some cool unexpected riffs, and then the layout opened up for me. I liked the natural minors immediately, and even more; there’s so much interesting ground between the 6 and 8 holes.
As for standard tunings, I like Kongsheng’s Bluebird & Solist; very airtight, and nicely set up out of the box, and at a great price

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115

I’m of the strong opinion that there are many good harmonicas on the market these days. I’m also of the opinion that there are some historically underserved segments of the market (specifically, harp companies don’t cater much to overblow players).

I always played Hohners, which I loved, but I had to spend a lot of time to get them to play overblows and overdraws, which are so embedded in my playing that not using them feels like I’m missing a leg.

But they had the best overblow game in the market once you tweaked them (emboss, gap, wax). Then JDR came in with harps Assassin harps that had much tighter reed slot tolerances out of the box, making embossing not needed. And they put turbo tape on the reeds that are used to overblow, eliminating the need to wax. And they gapped them for overblowing, especially 4 and 6 overblow, and 7-10 overdraw. So my need to customize vanished. So I play those.

Maybe someday I’ll play my Hohners again, when I retire in 20 years, and have the time to customize.

I love the Trochilus of course. That thing’s amazing.

I like my Lyra. Very comfortable with it and I have several reedplates so it’ll last. But, my Luna and Infiniti are insanely responsive.

I want to love my CBH. But I can’t with the plastic. So Lester made me a metal cover for the mouthpiece. But it didn’t fit well. So I bought some casting putty to make it airtight. I’ll let you know how it goes. CBH sound is out of this world.

I love the sound of my 270’s but the comfort factor is low. I’d like to try some high end hohner chromatics some day. Not the silver one but the one that’s a few thousand dollars.

Some harps I don’t like: Chrometta. Uncomfortable. My vintage 280, uncomfortable. My other vintage 280, we will see. It has the aluminum reedplate and the mouthpiece covers the cage. When I get it back from repair I’ll give it another go.

My mouth has a problem with Baby Fats despite how much I love them. Same for KB-12. I gave them to some friends.

116

I’ve got a couple of Wilde Tuned harps gonna get another, I love them

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117

I’m puzzled about these customised crossovers. Several members have posted comments about crossovers with plastic combs, including Luke who I think has some with custom combs and rocket cover plates if I remember correctly. So, what part of the harmonica is still a crossover? Is it just the reeds that makes them better than other options?

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118

I planning to get some JDR Ninjas, a couple of Kong Sheng harps, and a couple of Dabells which are from South Korea, and they’ve been getting a lot of thumbs up from pro players.

119

The actual instrument of a harmonica is the reedplates and reeds. The crossover is unique because of how the reeds are setup and tuned. If I were to take those plates and put it somewhere else, I’d still call it a crossover.

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120

Took me a minute to bond with the Wilde-tuned harps. Habit can be a good thing, of course, but sometimes a hindrance to discovery. Once I picked up a Natural Minor Wilde-tuned, it opened up so many cool possibilities, I was hooked. Since then, I’ve replaced several Major keys with Wildes as well. None of the anticipated issues alternating between my standard-tuned harps, and the Wilde-tuned ones, I pick n choose, dependent on the song.

2 Likes