From: SNaru~-online.de (Siegfried Naruhn) Date: Mon, 14 Oct 96 12:23 +0100 Subject: Which chromatic?
Troy Hall asked on 10-14-96:
>>I STILL don't have a clue about which chromatic I should buy.<<
Troy, I'm astonished that your question is still without an answer. Maybe because of the 95% bluesharp players? I modify chromatics and I tell you what.
To ask about the proper chromatic model one should buy as a beginner is something like to ask others for the girl to get married.
It doesn't matter which or who to choose. They all have more or less bigger or smaller mistakes! All must be modified or adjusted. So, you can buy or marry whatever you think, it's all...But chromatics have an advantage: you can easily throw them away.
But more seriously now, not completely. To start with a chromatic, I advice to buy at first a model with only 3 octaves (12 holes). Secondly, I assume that you will not pay much attention in the beginning to the slide. This means, you could be so eagerly involved in learning the chromatic technic as quick as possible that you might forget to let the slide dry up as quick as possible too. Then you you have only the alternative between Hohner's 3-octave CX 12 and the rest of the world.
The slide of the CX 12 never sticks, similar (not same!) as Hohner's two Super 64 chromatics. However, these have 4 octaves.
But because nobody and nothing is perfect, you have to accept, in case you incline to a CX 12, that it's reeds are crisscross or zigzag positioned on the plates. I'll not detail why I consider this a disadvantage, because learning by own mistakes is a valuable life experience you should not deligate to others.
When you ask about the proper blues harp model, you will hear all playable models as a recommendation. The same question regarding a chromatic depends only on the slide mechanism. You got the message?
