by barbequebob » Fri May 02, 2008 4:35 pm
I just got a hold of the new Hering Blues in A, and here's my observations so far. The harp has many similarities with the the 1923 Vintage Harps with a sealed comb (actually sealed around the outer edges), the reed plates held together to the comb using 5 screws. Now some of the differences are: a.) the cover plates on the Vintage are made of brass and has side vent holes much like the MB/MBVDlxe/MS Big River harps, wheras the Master Blues is made of stainless steel and does not have the side vent holes; b.) the reed plate thickness on the Master Blues is of the more standard thickness of 0.90mm, which is the same as the stock MB's (please do not confuse reedplate thickness with the reed thickness, which are two entirely different things), wheras the Vintage is very thick at 1.20mm, and because of this, the vintage is noticeably louder in volume than the Master Blues; c.) They're both tuned to Just Intonation, except these two are not the same version, as the 1923 Vintage Harps are tuned to 7 Limit, (which is the same tuning that all MB's/Sp20's/Blues Harp/Old Standby's were all tuned to until 1985), wheras the Master Blues is tuned to 19 Limit (the tuning used on the MB/Sp20/Blues Harp/Old Standby from 1985-1990/91), and with 7 Limit, 5 & 9 draw is tuned to 29-31 cents flat, wheras 19 limit has those same two tuned to 3 cents sharp; and finally d.) the parts between these two models are interchangeable. If you prefer the old MB sound, the Vintage Harp is closer to it because of 7 limit just intonation, but if you're as guilty as most players are of playing with far too much breath force, the chances of blowing them out quickly increases greatly because of the thick reed plate keeps much more air directed at the reed, which gives the instrument greater overall volume, but if you want to play more than just the basic 3 positions, and don't like the really flat 5 & 9 draw, the Master Blues may be for you, and because this one is using the standard plate thicknees, this should be much less problematic in terms of blowing out harps, but if you play any harp too hard, none of them will last too long.