Tremolo Harmonicas Comparison

[paals]

Overwhelmed by the Murphys (Phil, John and Pip), I'm thinking of buying a good tremolo harmonica for Irish stuff. I'd be then more than grateful if anyone could make a comparison of Tombo 3121 vs. Suzuki Humming Tremolo vs. Hohner Echo Celeste. Of course, any other models might be taken into consideration; the three models, however, have all the important keys available and are reasonably priced. I'm familiar with opinions at http://www.joshuacorps.com, just looking for someone else to share. Thanks a lot.

Merry Christmas

[SteveShaw]

The golden rule with tremolos is that you get what you pay for. I haven't had the widest experience of them, but Jonathan's advice on his site is generally sound. If you want to play tremolos in sessions with other musicians you need to be able to play in D, G and A as a bare minimum. As you can't bend notes on trems you do have to have the right keys. You won't go far wrong with the Suzukis and Tombos, which come in a tuning that has all the notes in the lowest octave. The Hohner Echos (not the Celeste, which I haven't experienced myself but have heard adverse reports of - YMMV!) have the same tuning as blues harps in the lowest octave which means they have missing notes in the scale down there - a hassle. Also, Echos are not tuned to equal temperament which, to my ear, makes some notes sound out of tune. Having bad-mouthed them so, I admit that my only tremolos are Echos! (though not Celestes). However, I do retune them, which is a considerable undertaking unless you really know what you're doing. Were I starting out again with trems I think I'd invest in a set of Tombo Band Deluxes in the appropriate keys. I know of a bloke who has won the All-Ireland eleven times with them and no others!

The Murphys did play blues harps and chroms as well as tremolos, by the way.

[rh]

I can't really make a comparison, but i do have a Suzuki Humming Tremolo in D and it sounds nice and plays easily. You do have to watch the lower octave as the reeds can get a little rattly if you blow too hard. You can hear a little sample (non-ITM) on one of the Brendan Power-hosted Suzuki promotional videos on Youtube

The Tombo Bands are unavailable in the States (the only Tombo harps that make it over here are the Lee Oskars); i understand they are a little drier-tuned than the Suzukis, which is probably better for Irish music. You can hear the 1521 (in C) on Bruno Kowalczyk's site. If you listen to Noel Battle, he plays a 3121. I'm curious about them but i'd have to order from Europe and i'm not quite $100+ curious.

The Echo Celeste has actually gotten some great reviews including the one from joshuacorps.org. For $15 US, i'll probably try one out -- hard to go wrong at that price.

Good luck, let us know what you choose.

[SteveShaw]

OK, good luck if you choose the Celestes, but be warned that they are cheapies. Those old Hohner Weekenders were good, too, as long as you were prepared to keep tweaking 'em every two minutes. I just know that cheap tremolos are just that - cheap! Troublesome, for ever going out of tune, tremolo drifting, all that stuff. Great if you can fix 'em yourself, but tremolos are the very devil to maintain if they keep changing! Please yerselves! BTW, Noel Battle is the man to whom I was referring!

[paals]

Thanks a lot, Steve and rh.

The Hohner Echos (not the Celeste, which I haven't experienced myself but have heard adverse reports of - YMMV!) have the same tuning as blues harps in the lowest octave

The Celestes have the solo layout all the scale down, AFAIK.

The Murphys did play blues harps and chroms as well as tremolos, by the way.

Yes, indeed - at least that's what the CD cover indicates . I've got a few 10-holers and used to have a C chrom, but never had anything like a GOOD tremolo. It's time to buy some .

If you want to play tremolos in sessions with other musicians you need to be able to play in D, G and A as a bare minimum.

Sessions, heh... There've been THREE down here in Poland this year that I'm aware of, each in different city . Anyway, I know I'll need at least four of them - in A, D, G and C.

For $15 US, i'll probably try one out

OK, good luck if you choose the Celestes, but be warned that they are cheapies.

Well, strangely enough, here, on the Old side of the Pond, the Tombo 3121 and Hohner Echo Celeste seem to cost almost the same . For now, I think I'll try the Tombo out - seems it shouldn't be the worse option of the two.

Thanks again and good luck ,

Pawel

[SteveShaw]

I wasn't meaning to suggest that Celestes have the same tuning as the original Echos. Sorry if that's what came across. I think you won't be disappointed with the Tombos.