Harp prices are WAY TOO HIGH. Yes I am complaining right now. Amazon has Seydel 1847s for $125, and Special 20s for $60.
It’s a harmonica, not a gold bar!! Where do you guys source affordable new harps? I already drive mine probably too long - but I feel like prices went up a lot in the last few months.
I normally run Lee Oskar and Seydel.
Well, let’s not forget that compared to the Euro your dollars have lost value. For the Seydel harps this can make them at least several dollars more expensive.
Then also I don’t know if tariffs have been applied to them as well – probably not. But don’t start asking or the tariffs could very well start being applied !!
I forgot to factor that in. Still hard to swallow when 10-15 years ago I could get a special 20 for literally $20.
Yeesh.
Sweet water has sp20 for 47$
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Special20A--hohner-special-20-key-of-a
True….Maybe I need to venture off of Amazon once in a while
Look up Luke’s review of the Easttop t008k - it’s quite good and in that 20usd range.
That being said, I have a Special 20 in C and it’s a great workhorse. When trying to articulate “why it’s so great” though, apart from the usual platitudes such as “it’s durable/sounds good/etc”, part of what makes it great is that it’s the “standard”, so to speak- I was able to learn how to bend with it because the bending tutorials are often done specifically with it, so there was no “excuse”
I tried the Easttop harp. Mine had a bad chemical taste, so I got rid of ‘em.
I appreciate the LO reedplate prices have gone down on sweetwater. There was a point where they were only a dollar different than buying an entire new harmonica - yikes!
I might just stick with LO. I wish you could reliably overblow them and sound good, but at least they are durable and last a long time.
They still cost less than a great Stihl chainsaw!
Yeah - luckily, the “paint taste” seems to go away after a while.
Also, they released a silver unpainted version for around 30usd, so there’s that (they also have a silver t009 for 20usd now but I haven’t tried it so can’t vouch for it)
I bought each one of my 3 grandkids a East top tremolo 24 hole key of G harp. I spread them out to help my budget but I hurried up and ordered the last one before possible tariffs came around.
A standard gold bar is about 1.6 million $, so a harmonica is a bargain Hahahahahaha
Marine Bands were $2.50 when I started playing but I also only got paid $2.50/hr.