Bad news, I had a conversation with the Hohner stand at the Uk harp fest, and the man said they had NO intention of up-grading the GM comb or anything to do with it.
So who cares? The brass and reeds are the same in both harps, and IMO, the OOTB playability is essentially the same. And if the DID make such a GM, other than maybe tighter gapping, the only difference would be the comb.
Plus, I bet you can get a better after market comb then would come with it anyways.
No way in the world they mess with the covers on the GM and the tuning isn't going anywhere. Seems like a very good deal, IMO, when compared to the Crossover.
I can't imagine a GM Deluxe running less than a XO.
Updating the GM may not be a priority for them at this time, but I don't think this will always be the case. I had a brief conversation with Clay (the USA president of Hohner) at SPAH about the GM. He actually stopped me and asked what kind of updates they should make to improve it.
We'll just have to wait and see, but there will always be a need for custom harmonicas, no matter what improvements they make.
By the way, the GM covers are the worst covers in production. The easily crush in at the corners, even if you're not a hard squeezer, unless you open them up as I've been doing recently, or add support beams. In fact, any covers that have the single support piece are prone to crushing at the corners - the old style Meisterklasse covers did the same thing. Even the Huang Star Performer's covers are less crushable than GM covers. And GM combs are very brittle.
And.... new covers for Golden Melodies from Hohner will cost you around $24, even as an endorsee.
Don't get me wrong, I am a Hohner fan for life, especially Golden Melodies, but their only focus seems to be on the Marine Band.
Harmonica players, and customers in general like options. Even if we had a full-length cover style for the Marine Band (like the old style Meisterklasse covers) that we could add to an existing Marine band or Crossover, this would be cool. But, I say this as someone who likes full-length covers.
Their focus tends to be the beginner to intermediate (see the full page ad in the latest Musicians Friend).
I understand why, and I realize it isn't apples to apples, but look what happened when a harmonica maker made advanced players the priority....
I've never crushed a GM cover...or any cover other than one custom MB that someone built me from a pre-war harp. IMO, the problem with GM covers have more to do with the edges. They aren't flat and leak air.
@Hawkeye there has been a lot of opinions that sp20s play better than ever also the reed replacements being available is big
Last Edited by on Nov 03, 2011 9:58 AM
But there are a few other things they could improve. Like the cover plate screws...they could make those like the MS setup instead of the straight-edge screws and clover nuts. Makes them a lot easier to work on with a harp tool kit that only has a phillips driver. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
@Hawkeye thats true not so easy to reed replacements with the clover nuts but at least they are available dont need to buy anymore sp20s because of the reed replacements
Lately I have made amazing progess in opening GM covers and am producing a much cleaner result than I did with the green-combed GM pics I posted awhile back.
If anyone would like me to open your GM covers, contact me offlist.
Honestly, I'd rather have crappy covers and more attention to the reed work than continuing to ignore the fact that instruments people buy come OOTB in a condition most professionals would deem unplayable. I recently got a batch of GM from Hohner... and they are some of the worst OOTB harmonicas I have ever bought. After some embossing, and adjusting the arc and gap they are very good instruments now, but it is a disgrace that the basic reedwork (the heart of the instrument) comes so poorly setup. I understand the more time they put into something like that, the more expensive it would be for us, but I'm quite confident there are ways to control for how their workers handle the reeds at the factory and distort them so much. ANY OTHER instrument in the world... if someone bought a sax and half the notes didn't work, that company would fail instantly. But for some reason we happily except it in the harmonica community. Does it not seem completely absurd to buy an instrument knowing that you have to pay someone 200 extra bucks to make it play like a real instrument?
And as for those saying it doesn't matter for beginners; it matters even more! Learning the right technique without extra tension is 10x harder on a leaky, poorly setup instrument. I will say Special 20's have been a good OOTB harmonica in my experience.... but man, it's so frustrating to watch the harmonica world (and companies) fawn over new comb materials, and new shapes of covers, meanwhile everyone is forgetting the thing that ACTUALLY affects the play ability of the instrument... the reedwork!
If any one harmonica company put as much time and money into making their manufacturing process more efficient in terms of reed setup, instead of fancy sounding composite combs and such, they would immediately soar ahead of the competition... because they would be producing a real instrument.
A few months ago I bought 8 Golden Melodies and I was pleasantly surprised how effortlessly they played right out of the box. I had to lower the gap on maybe two reeds a little. I own many harmonicas from different companies and do my own work on them. For once I wasn't disappointed by Hohner.
