my first chromatic
Hello Everybody;
I have been practicing with diatonic harps for close to one year and now I am thinking about buying my first chromatic harp.
My two choices are the CX-12 or the 270 Deluxe.
Which one would you recommend?
Thanks;
Steve
Thanks for the replay...yes, to my ears the Cx has a nicer sound indeed
Conversely, for those who may want to try chromatic but aren't sure they want to put the money into buying a hohner, suzuki, etc..... I actually just bought a Swan 1248 off of Amazon for $48. I can honestly say that for the money it is a really decent little harp. I had to work on two reeds that were a bit sharp. Everything else seems to be acceptable, all the notes play quite well, bends are there, slide works pretty well etc. It does have the square mouthpiece which some may not like, but hey, for $50 you really can't go wrong! It isn't my SCX-64, but it gets played and beat up on more, and cost about 20% of the SCX. I can take it with me wherever I go and not be so worried about something I spent hundreds on being protected. Bottom line, it isn't my go to harp for performing or recording , but I'll always have one for that little workhorse I like to have. Just food for thought.
Students have shown me Swans they bought that had absolutely unrepairable manufacturing flaws. Great if you got a good one, and maybe their quality control has improved, but I'm not incldined to recommend them after what I've seen.
That makes perfect sense to me Winslow. I may have gotten really lucky. I will say that I was EXTEMELY leary about buying a chromatic off Amazon at all, let alone one I couldn't find a lot af actual reviews on. I prefer to buy all my stuff local or from someone like Rockin' Ron's, but I figured I'd give it a go and feel ok with the purchase (at least so far...) With all that said, I would heed Winslow's advice and avoid them if that's the case. He has obviously seen more of them than I have, and it would be terribly unfortunate to get a bad chrom., especially for a first one.
I finally got the CX and I am quite happy with it....it is really a new experience for me...it feels much easier to get the sounds right when improvising...but I am always happy to get back the the diatonics.
I'm glad to hear that you like it. I'm actually planning to get one at osme point here too. I like the sound of them and I'm very interested in trying one out. I REALLY like playing chrom.!
so, we got a new blues harp in c, got a free month of lessons which came in handy when i fell on the river rocks near where i live i was all alone broke my wrist, ....used the lesson on breathing to calm body down, very cool it worked and was able to get up and scream for help. so thank you fellas
I'd give a slight edge to the CX-12. It's more airtight and it's easy to take apart for cleaning.
That said, the 270 Deluxe gives you *the* classic wood-bodied chromatic, sort of like the chromatic version of the Marine Band. It's hard to go wrong with either one.
I'd also say that blues players sseem to prefer either the 270 (Deluxe or regular) or the Hohner 280 16-holer over other models, including the CX-12. Not sure why, maybe just tradition. The CX-12 does have a warmer, fatter sound to my ear.