10 years ago, there is not much ROLEX class of chromatic harmonica, and I remember that our teacher said the worlds top chromatic harmonica is "Silver Concerto" it is make by Hohner. The designer is Tommy Reilly. Tommy is a very intelligent harmonica player, In 1967 he designed a concert harmonica, later manufactured by Hohner and marketed as the Silver Concerto.
This is the "Silver Concerto" chromatic harmonica, the whole harmonica is made of sterling silver (except the reedplate and reeds). The comb is solid, it sounds very bright and elegance.
After that, there is another "Silver Concerto" harmonica made by
Georg Pollestad. Tommy Reilly and Sigmund Groven are playing this harmonica. Very beautiful craftsmanship and beautiful sound.
This Silver concerto is design by Georg Pollestad. The whole harmonica is also sterling silver( except the reedplate and reeds). Look at the picture, is so beautiful. I have try on this harmonica, it sounds very classic and elegant.The slide are special design, and it is very smooth when you press it. This "Silver concerto" is design in 2 pieces, and join into one pieces. that's why the inner body part is hollow. It's resulting the harmonica become more lighter weight and the sound more warm.
In Hong Kong, there is a website http://www.harmonicart.com./ and there have invent more choices in chromatic harmonica. The person who in-charge is Johnny Chan and Tommy Leung. Their product name is "JT".They have made "Silver concerto" of course and they also have made "Solid Brass", "Ebony wood", "Brass with Ebony wood". So interesting on their product.
This is the "Silver concerto" made from JT. Some part need to highlight, they have design a new slide button and the design of the button is to suite our finger angle. So when you press on it, is very comfortable.
As you can see it in the picture above, the button is unique from others. Beside that, they also has design a new mouth piece. The mouth piece hole is more deep and hollow in the lower note and slowly narrow up when it goes to higher note. From the mouth piece until comb, there is only 2 part (mouth piece and slide), so it resulting more airtight, wheres the Hohner and Polle got 4 parts (mouth piece + guide rail + slide + bottom plate) then only come to the comb.
The comb is in solid design, so compare to Hohner and Polle "Silver Concerto" this is the heaviest model. JT "Silver Concerto" sounds very powerful and bright, It sounds more on attacking and energetic.
About the Solid Brass comb, the tone is tend to very "Young" or "Teenage" as you can see the picture below.
The JT Ebony wood comb is very powerful harmonica, because the comb is longer than the others comb. You can see it in the picture below
Beside that, it also can have true warm tone, because the character of Ebony wood.
The last model they have made is "Brass with Ebony wood". All of this model also has it own characteristic is so marvelous. This harmonica sounds very unique, because its mix up "Metal sound + Wood" so the result is tend to have a little bit warm sound in the tone color.You can see the picture below.
Thanks to JT harmonica, they have done a great job, they have the most combination of chromatic harmonica. It give customer to have more choice to choose on it.
Wow, now you can see, there are so many model out there for us to choose now. Not like 10 years ago, only a fews model in the market. The next model I am going to introduce are "Renaissance harmonica" The material that use to make this harmonica was stainless steel for the comb, and slide. Others are brass and is heavy silver plated, After Mr. Douglas Tate pass away, the only info we could get is, this harmonica are now produce by Seydel Harmonica Manufacturer, the basis price for this harmonica is 4000 euro, not including any specific tuning or request from the player.
I try it before, and for me, it sounds more to Jazz tone, or Gershwin era. This harmonica is design by the worlds great harmonica player Mr. Douglas Tate and Bobbie Giordano. The cover and mouth piece design is without a single screw. You can see the picture below, the outlook is shine and smooth without any screw note. The response of this harmonica is very good, very airtight. You can have a look at the picture below.
The last model I am going to introduce is Suzuki "Fabulous 48 and 64". The original material is "Brass" and it is heavy silver plated after the machine work. I have try on it, and i can say that Suzuki harmonica sounds very modern, and the tone is sweet. Beside that, they have longer reeds and it makes the reeds lifespan more longer. When I try on it, I try to play as soft as possible and it did a great job that even I play it very soft it still can project the sound out and it able to control the tone also. Maybe is because the have use different material in the reeds, so it can handle this easily. They also provide 2 different design, half stroke and full stroke. Half stroke is benefit when you play on a fast passage with a lot of slide work, you can drive it very smooth and steady. Full stroke benefit is, it provide more power and louder sounds. It comes with 12 hole and 16 hole.I think Suzuki has make a first move in 16 hole metal harmonica.
The picture below are Fabulous from Suzuki
All of this chromatic harmonica are very pricey, the highest price are more than 7000 USD.
