SuperBee
1668 posts
Feb 11, 2014
6:48 PM
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G'day. I'm wondering if anyone here plays seydel brass.
Some years ago I had some brass Seydels, and Jim suggested I should polish out the milling marks on the reeds. It seemed at that time there was a known problem. Is that is still a concern, and if so, how does one best address it? Is polishing marks from the reeds the way to go? How do you do that?
Now that the only low tuned hohners are the thunderbirds, seydel session seems the likely lower-cost alternative.
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didjcripey
704 posts
Feb 11, 2014
8:07 PM
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Can't answer your specifics, but I play a low tuned blues sessions (with brass reeds). I found it played beautifully from the box. Couldn't stop playing it.
I have also found that after about three months of pretty heavy usage, the 3 draw reed has gone flat (its usually the 4 or 5 draw that goes with me).
Haven't tried to retune it, as it is covered by both seydel and Mandoharps six month warranty.
At the price, you can't go wrong.
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Lucky Lester
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GMaj7
354 posts
Feb 11, 2014
8:32 PM
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Hey SuperBee, I think Jim's advice about reed polishing is sound although there is debate among some competent folks out there who are not as convinced.
However, I don't think there is or was a "known problem". Fabricated metals have milling marks and these milling marks - in some cases - are the starting point for reed failure. Polishing the base is just a way to reduce the tendency for fatigue at the milling point.
In all things there is a trade-off and what works for some may not for others. For the most part, Seydel has consistent slot lengths across most diatonic models and keys. This means that instead of an extra-long reed, they use a weight to get down to the low and super-low pitches.
Depending on a bunch of other factors, a weight at the end of a swinging piece of metal could put some stress on the fixed end.
I think the low tuned Seydel brass reeds play and sound great, but I think half-valving them is a really good idea and the player has to understand that he or she probably won't be ripping up high speed Orange Blossom Special runs on the lower key harps which lend themselves more to jazz and special purpose effects.
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Greg Jones
16:23 Custom Harmonicas
greg@1623customharmonicas.com
1623customharmonicas.com
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SuperBee
1670 posts
Feb 12, 2014
3:50 AM
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Thanks for the response Greg. I guess i just inferred they were prone to early breakage because when i asked what folks thought of solist pro, the first comment was something very similiar to 'as long as you polish out the milling marks you should be OK', which seemed to imply 'dont' and you wont'.
and then when i very quickly lost the 5 draw in my Eb, it seemed to add weight to the inference. but maybe i read something more into it than was there
i'm totally not expecting to play fast...in fact i just have 'dont get around much anymore" on my mind, and figure i'll country-tune the low F.
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GMaj7
355 posts
Feb 12, 2014
7:31 AM
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If you want me to fix that Eb, I can do so and will use a polished stainless reed...
Email me directly if you have specific questions or I can help you out.
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Greg Jones
16:23 Custom Harmonicas
greg@1623customharmonicas.com
1623customharmonicas.com
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harpwrench
771 posts
Feb 12, 2014
7:40 AM
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Knocking off mill marks only helps slightly, along with a mild chamfer. But the bigger picture with stress is in the reed profiles. Any major change in thickness is the next weak point, and guys who tend to blow out harps are already pushing the energy into that range. Learning how to replace reeds and gathering the stuff to do it is probably time better spent than polishing reeds and retuning, if the goal is making harps last longer. It can make them play better sometimes though depending on the context.
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nacoran
7530 posts
Feb 12, 2014
12:35 PM
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I only have one brass reed Seydel, a LLF, but I haven't had any problems with it.
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SuperBee
1672 posts
Feb 13, 2014
4:40 AM
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Greg, thanks for the offer. I sold that one though
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isaacullah
2631 posts
Feb 13, 2014
10:44 AM
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Hey there.... I've had a few Seydels with brass reeds, and I blew out 4 and 5 draw on all of them. I'm not a hard player, but I don't blame seydel's brass or tuning marks. I think that seydels are just closer gapped and diffrently profiled than hohner reeds, and my playing style was not properly adjusted. The good news is that hohner MB/spec20 reeds can be made to fit into seydel slots (at least on the solist pro). I just had to trim them for length, but they were the perfect width. Since then I've not blown another reed on any of my sedeyls. I did by some session steel reedplates in Low C to put on one of the solist pro's I had, and I must say it makes a really nice, really mellow-sounding low harp. You might try that too!
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SuperBee
1675 posts
Feb 13, 2014
12:18 PM
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Thanks Isaac. I can't see me playing Solist Pro again unless I shave between my top lip and nose. Or if I can work out how to fit the covers to be less grabby. But I doubt I'll bother. It's just the low/alt tunings I'm interested in and looking for a moderately priced option.
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jim
1488 posts
Feb 18, 2014
1:35 AM
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Brass Seydels have another problem - top reeds not fitting to the end of the slot.
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MP
3093 posts
Feb 18, 2014
11:32 AM
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I believe that the Seydel Solist Pro is one of the most breakage prone harps I've ever run across.
Isaac says he's not a hard player and I believe him.
Seydels Blues Solist is one of the handsomest harps I've ever seen and the slot tolerances are nice and tight but damn! those #4 and #5 draws break left and right. It's a shame. Oh well.
Ummm not all Hohner and Seydel reeds are interchangeable. I forget where but Seydel goes short slot reeds one key harp sooner than Hohner.
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SuperBee
1680 posts
Feb 18, 2014
1:52 PM
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I received my low F session. First impression is ok. Playable from the box, cover plates are not as bad as I feared but I find them kinda weird. I found the first time I played a thunderbird pretty odd too, and I got over it. I'll probably get over this. I tuned up the 5 draw, found the 6 blow was slightly misaligned so fixed that, then found a problem with 3 blow. That was like an alignment issue too but it was weird. Wasn't there when I first played it, showed up after I put it back together after fixing the 6. Guess I must have nudged it while the harp was apart.
I have an Ab solist pro which also had a sticky reed ootb.
But this Low F seems like an ok harp. I'm playing don't get around much, lots of splits....the tuning could be better. The 3 blow requires a very 'open' cavity to play at the same pitch as the 6 blow . Good training for me I suppose. 1 blow is 10 cents sharper than 4 blow, the octave pulses a bit.
2 blow plays a few cents lower than 5 blow, again though, with an embouchure adjustment they can play more in tune.
This effect of embouchure on pitch makes me wonder about tuning generally. It must be quite personal to the player. Maybe it's more of an issue on lower harps?
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isaacullah
2637 posts
Feb 18, 2014
2:03 PM
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When I got those Low C Session Steel plates I mentioned above, the 6 blow reed was completely *untuned* (as in, it was a completely stock reed that had not been filed). At first I was kinda pissed, but then it made me realize that Seydel have real people tuning their harps (and only a few people), and this "mistake" was a sign that human hands had touched this set of reeds (along with their human error). I'm not sure if that helps your question, but perhaps that's what's going on with your harp too? (human error from the factory)
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