suzuki CHROMATIC CHROMATIX C 12 HOLES Harmonicas Chromatics harmonicas

For many yeears Hohner has been the name to go to for professional harmonica players. What they produced was on occasions excellent but always a bit hit n miss ... unresponsive reeds or sticky air-savers. They countered this in recent years by developing the CX model. This is very air-tight but plastic. It's a great improvement but doesn't allow a player to control the sound.Enter Suzuki who have now clearly taken the reins with their Chromatix. They have produced an instrument that is consistently air-tight by using superb engineering. The design is actually similar to the 'old' Hohner 280 which had 4 octaves with each reed positioned on opposite reed plates and using round rather than square access holes. (Why Hohner didn't use this design on the 3 octave 270 I don't know).I have several Suzukis and they are always consistent in their volume, control and response. Despite having great loyalty to Hohner - stemming back to the 70's when they sponsored me to win the World Harmonica Championship - but it's only fair to say that their chromatic harmonica has been firmly trumped by the fabulous design and engineering of the Suzuli Chromatix.

Comfortable to play ( rounded-off edges ), loud ( important for me, I'm a bit hard-of-hearing ), notes can be surprisingly well bent ( I would rather expect this from a "standard" diatonic harp ). I like the sound of it, not exactly Hohner but still exquisite. Very well built, heavy-duty quality ( made in Japan, not in a low-wage-country). Thank goodness the comb is made of ABS-plastic, so you can simply douse the harp in water should the slide get stuck ( consult hereto the YouTube -tutorials). My first serious foray into the world of chromatic(x) harmonicas, I promptly caught the bug. Worth every penny, one cannot fault this beautiful little piece of engineering.

Solid construction but I question the "hand-made" claim by Suzuki. This is most definitely a factory made instrument with minimal personal intervention, otherwise every reed/valve would be perfect, but they are not. The SCX-56 delivers a subtle and classy sound, and generally it is consistent along its 3 and a half octaves but there are some notes that have poorly optimised reeds or valves. The distance between the "C" at the top of one octave and the next "C" in the following octave does not have enough physical separation, particularly in the lower octave. This means that it is quite a challenge to avoid a "doubled" and unpleasant sounding combined note of C particularly in the C3 range. The top octave is rather weedy and rather dull in timbre. Maybe this instrument will open up a little with playing. It is not quite the value of its expensive price. The EastTop King Dream is the Suzuki's near equivalent except for the extra four low notes of the SCX56, but is far less than half the price. The EastTop (indeed most chromatic harmonicas) requires user or expert adjustment as there are always some stuck notes or faulty valves but at £209 I would have expected the Suzuki SCX56 to be flawless, but it isn't.The EastTop, when sorted, has more character to its sound. The Suzuki is good but lacking in dynamic range and tone. It's a good instrument but at the price advertised I expected rather more. For this reason it is always a risk buying a harmonica for more than around £150 because it is impossible to predict whether quality control, or lack of it, justifies the price.I haven't tried the Hohner equivalent.Edit 2021: After laying aside this instrument for a year or so, I had another go at improving its playability. The biggest problem was stuck valves/windsavers which kept blocking notes even after warming up. There is a flaw in these plastic valves and the same notes kept popping or refusing to sound. In frustration I got a pair of scissors and chopped off the offending valves about a third from the tip. That has done the trick and in effect these notes are valve-less. However there has been virtually no degradation in projection, tone or volume, so I conclude that windsavers in this kind of instrument are often more trouble than they are worth unless they are perfectly set.My advice to anyone with similar problems is not to be frightened about chopping off at least a small length of these windsavers (disclaimer - please do this at your own risk) if they are causing any popping or stuck notes even when you have warmed the instrument.

Disgusting experience today.Suzuki packaging and insufficient allow for USED and RETURNED harmonicas to be returned and sold as NEW again.I just got one today and quickly discovered that it was used before and judging from the internal damage of the case - it was probably dropped.And yeah, harmonica is damaged too, because few notes simply hiss and don't work... ( I have been playing harmonica - including one identical for years, so no, not technique problem. )Then somebody took off the seals ( see thay are not completely round anymore ) and place them again, just smartly lower, so they look like they are new, and so it can disguise the fact that they were once opened.Awful experience.

great harmonica; thank you james

Received my Harmonica today.. Well its a little early to give a review maybe, But i have had a play for an hour and my first impressions are really good. The stand out things for me are the slide action is very nice and the curved mouthpiece is a joy to use. It is a fine looking instrument and sounds pretty awesome too. There are a couple of sticky windsavers but they seem to have settled down already maybe after it warms up fully this helps stop them sticking. There is a bit of rattle on a couple of low note but as is well documented in other reviews this tends to go away after a while also.. I have previously played Larry Adler Pro 16's and use a swan 1664 mostly for practicing.. Considering the price i paid for it i would have no problems recommending this to any serious player. In fact i would say anybody that is new to playing a chromatic, Buy one of these.. You will advance more quickly as a player if you play a decent instrument of any kind and in my opinion this is definitely as good as you will find without paying over 4 times the price.. Thanks Suzuki and Amazon... suzuki CHROMATIQUE CHROMATIX 16 TROUS DO SCX64C Harmonicas Chromatics harmonicas