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Suzuki BR-21 Bariton Harmonica, SS-37 Soprano Single and
AS-37 Alto Single
The BR-21 Baritone, SS-37 Soprano Single and AS-37 Alto Single
have actually been available for a while, but I've only recently
been able to obtain samples for review. The production quality
of all three harmonicas is nothing short of outstanding.
The BR-21 Baritone Harmonica seems to be grouped together with
the Alto and Soprano Single, although I am not entirely sure
why it would be considered an orchestral harmonica as it is
merely a tremolo harmonica. I say "merely " a tremolo
- it is without question the best tremolo harmonica I have ever
played and one of the few tremolo harmonicas that could truly
be considered a professional quality instrument. It is also
a rather unique design. The same size and shape as a typical
12-hole chromatic harmonica, the reedplates are fully recessed
into the ABS comb and the front of the comb is extended to form
a mouthpiece, again the same size and shape as that of a typical
chromatic. The comb is bright red and the brass covers contrast
nicely with this, having the same smooth glossy black finish
as the Hammond/Suzuki HA-20. The steel cover supports are shaped
like soccer goalposts and look much sturdier than those used
by most other makers. The instrument looks stunning and feels
very nice in the hands, with no sharp corners or rough edges.
It comes in a form-fitted hard plastic case with a cleaning
cloth enclosed.
The chrome-plated reedplates are 1.1mm (.0435") thick
and attached with 8 screws. As with most other Suzuki harps
these days,the reeds are spot-welded into place and tuned using
Suzuki's laser process. Tolerances seem pretty good, reed response
is very even and the tuning is extremely consistent, with the
base row tuned to 12TET at about A=444Hz. The amount of tremolo
is moderate, ranging from about 2Hz at the lower end of the
harp to 5Hz at the top. The note layout is the typical Asian
pseudo-solo tuning - I wish I knew what this system is "officially"
called. Anyway it covers three octaves starting from the C below
middle C. Unlike the typical Wiener-system tremolo there are
no missing or repeated notes in the lower octave (although the
B is omitted from the highest octave) and unlike the solo tuning
used on chromatics, there are no repeated C notes. I think most
chromatic players could get used to this tuning without too
much work. I find that the extended mouthpiece makes for more
comfortable playing than the usual tremolo design. It certainly
makes it easier to isolate individual rows to allow note bending,
or simply to shift between a full chorused sound and a thinner
single reed tone. A nice touch is a small white dot on the front
of the mouthpiece to indicate where the C notes lie on the instrument.
As I said, this is simply the best tremolo harp I have ever
played and I would recommend it to anyone serious about tremolo
harmonica playing. It is available in the keys of C and C# (for
the typical Asian stacked diatonic approach to playing chromatically)
and I for one would really like to see it made available in
a few other keys as well, although as far as I know Suzuki currently
have no plans to do that. An octave tuned version would also
be nice.
SS-37 Soprano Single and AS-37 Alto Single
These two harmonicas are identical apart from their pitch range.
They are all-blow harmonicas, with the notes laid out in the
manner of a piano keyboard. There are two rows of holes, the
lower one containing the notes of the C major scale and the
upper row providing the sharps/flats in groups of two and three,
like the black keys on a piano. These are not the first harmonicas
to use this configuration. Back in the 1930s, Hohner introduced
a series of instruments with the name Educator (not to be confused
with the much later Educator I solo-tuned diatonic and Educator
II chromatic), consisting of Bass, Tenor, Alto and Soprano harmonicas
with the piano-style layout. Tombo still make their Contrabass
(again, strictly speaking neither a contrabass, nor a bass instrument,
but actually a baritone) and their Alto and Soprano Pipe Horn
Harmonicas, which are similarly constructed. However, the Hohner
versions are long discontinued and the Tombo instruments can
be quite hard to find outside of Japan.
The SS-37 and the AS-37 each arrive in a box that suggest a
professional quality instrument is contained inside. It is a
substantial wooden box, leather covered and velvet lined, with
latches and a carrying handle. This is appropriate, as the instrument
inside weighs in at around 29 ounces (about .8kg), being about
12 1/2" long (32cm) and 2 1/2" front to back (6.5cm).
The obligatory cleaning cloth is included in each case. The
instruments themselves use a sandwich-style construction, with
the reedplates attached by 14 sets of nuts and bolts and lying
very flat against a beautifully finished hardwood comb. The
covers are brass, again with the same glossy black finish as
used on the HA-20 and a slightly bigger version of the soccer
goalpost style steel cover supports. As with the Baritone tremolo,
both of these instruments feel very nice to hold, with no rough
parts, despite the exposed edges of the reedplates.
The reedplates are chrome plated and about 1.5mm (.058")
thick. The reeds (phosphor bronze, according to the press handouts)
are unique in that with the exception of the very highest reeds
on the Soprano, they are all slightly tapered in width - this
is the first time I have seen tapered reeds on a harmonica.
They are also quite sizeable - for example, the middle C reeds
on these harmonicas are 21mm in length, compared with about
17mm on a typical chromatic. The reed adjustment is very good,
giving a nice even response with good tone across the full range
of each harmonica. The timbre of the Alto is especially rich
in the lower register, almost cello-like. The tuning is outstanding
- the Soprano Single is almost perfectly tuned to 12TET at A=442
and the tuning of the Alto is only slightly less impressive.
Although the advertising claims that these harmonicas were tuned
using Suzuki's patented laser process, both harmonicas show
signs of being tuned with a small rotary burr. However they
did it, these harmonicas (and the Baritone tremolo) are some
of the most accurately tuned factory made harmonicas I have
ever played.
Despite weighing a couple of ounces more than a Renaissance,
they are surprisingly comfortable to hold in playing position.
I suspect that not having to worry about how to get the optimum
finger placement for pushing a button makes for a more "natural"
playing position. To move from the "white notes" to
the "black notes" takes a slight movement of the wrists,
the switch from upper to lower rows being made easier by the
slightly convex face of the comb. I feel that it wouldn't take
too much practice for a player of conventional harmonicas to
adapt to one of these. I had a head start as I have played the
Tombo Contrabass for some time and I suspect that anyone with
good keyboard skills would take to one of these very quickly.
Compared with conventional chromatic harmonicas, they have both
advantages and disadvantages. Obviously because of the sheer
size of the instrument, large interval leaps are much harder
(an octave span on one of these is a little over 90mm or 3 1/2"),
double-stops or chords are less than practical and the lack
of draw reeds means that breath conservation is more of an issue
(something with which most wind instrumentalists have to deal
all the time!). On the other hand, the all-blow layout makes
for a nice smooth legato when playing runs of closely spaced
notes and certain trills and turns are much easier than on a
regular chromatic where you have to deal with breath changes
and slide movements. Staples of the Chromatica/Polyphonia repertoire
such as "Flight of the Bumblebee" would probably be
easier on one of these instruments, the layout of the notes
making it much easier to keep your place. Due to the reed adjustment
and airtight construction, note bending is easy over the full
range of both instruments, much better than on most off-the-shelf
chromatics. Of course, these are single reed bends rather than
the typical dual-reed bend of the blues harp, still they add
a great degree of expressiveness. I sincerely doubt that Suzuki
really had the blues players in mind as their target market,
but given that Paul Oscher can play some stunning blues on his
Tombo Contrabass, I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear someone
do something in a similar vein on the Alto Single. If you are
looking for an alternative type of harmonica, particularly if
you are frustrated with the leakiness of the standard slide
chromatic, then one of these could be an excellent choice. They
are unlikely to be easily found in local music stores, so interested
parties should probably check with their local Suzuki branch
for availability:
Australia:
Lamberti Bros (WHOLESALE) PTY LTD.
Attn.: Mr. Joseph lamberti
Unit 6, 88 Dynon Road, West Melbourne VIC 3003, Australia
Tel No.(03) 93816810
Fax No.(03) 93763666
E-mail: joseph@lamberti.com.au
New Zealand:
MUSIC WORKS LTD.
Mr. Andrew McElroy, Managing Director
P.O. Box 6246
Wellesley Street
Auckland
New Zealand.
Tel No. +64-9-6340099
Fax No. +64-9-6345615
Mobile No. +64-21-934309
USA:
Suzuki Corporation
PO Box 261030
San Diego
CA 92196
Tel: 1-858-566-9710
Fax: 1-858-566-9517
Web: http://www.suzukimusic.com/
Europe:
Suzuki Europe Ltd.
18, The Granary
Lodge Farm Business Centre
Wolverton Road
Casthlethorpe
Milton Keynes
MK19 7ES
Tel: 01908 511488
Fax: 01908 511904
email: hojo@suzukimusic.co.uk
Web: http://www.suzukimusic.co.uk/
As you have probably gathered from the lack of criticisms in
these reviews, I was very impressed with all of the above harmonicas.
My only criticism, is not really much of a criticism at all:
the BR-21 Baritone covers exactly the same range as the AS-37
Alto Single - and that range is what most of us would describe
as being a tenor instrument! However, that is about the biggest
complaint I have regarding these instruments. They are not exactly
cheap (although you could buy more than a dozen Alto Singles
for the price of one Renaissance chromatic), but if the ones
I tried were representative samples, then Suzuki are delivering
factory-made harmonicas with the kind of quality that you would
normally expect from custom made harmonicas.
Pat Missin
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