Hohner Discovery 48 Review

Well Folks, here is my review of  Hohner's new 12 hole chromatic released to celebrate 100 years of  the chromatic harmonica.

I was sent this by Hohner (thank you folks) to show at the Chromatic Weekend in Solihull outside Birmingham England (which went over real well and I will be posting a review on that as well). It arrived a day late but I have since been  working with it and playing it and taking it to bits (thats how you find out how to make it better).

Okay let's look at the basics
12 Hole Chromatic in plastic
recessed 1.25mm (approximate) thickness reed plates
Plastic mouthpiece and Comb
2 Part Mouthpiece slide assembly (mouthpiece and slide, base plate built into comb)
Straight tuned
Reed Plates bolted down with 7 bolts plus cover bolts (2)
Machine screws for the mouthpiece that is based on the Meisterklasse according to Richard at Hohner.
Can be set up for left or right sided button.
Increased thickness on the buffers.
Comb is designed for future anterior plate screws. Also has ramps for decreased chamber space (increased sensitivity of the reed to pressure change) from the 4th hole on up.
Michael Timler type valves (to be expected as Hohner has shift completely to those to my knowledge)

Price in Europe and the UK around €105 or £85 plus postage if getting it shipped.

Okay that is the Basics.

Assembly and break down is extremely easy with just a philips (PZ0) and flat (No2) screw driver.
You will need to lift the upper plate out or turn it over and tap lightly as the plate tends to sit tightly (at least this one did and still does after 3 times stripping it down and seeing how well it fits back together).

Replacing the mouthpiece is extremely easy, with just hooking the slide on the spring and moving it over and down on to the buffers.

Covers have built in support posts; so there is no losing them when doing work on the harp. The Comb design shows that Hohner has plans to go places with this comb and it will be interesting to see where (it even gave me some ideas). The offset screw holes that are waiting for a plate with screws on the mouth piece side.

Tuning is to A4 = 442Hz and is in traditional solo tuning modern equal temperament. Overall tuning is within 10 cents of exact with most reeds being 6 cents or less from true.

Mouthpiece is easy on the mouth, due to the rounded corners and edges of the Meisterklasse type design.

Playability is really nice and responsive across the whole range. It is very surprising how little breath is needed to get the 11th and 12th hole to sound (near the same range as my customs which is really good for a production harp).

Overall this is targeted at the beginner player. Though I can easily see more experienced players being able to use it and with a little bit of adjustment and tuning this being a near professional grade harmonica.

The case is a joy to use and comes with a rather snug belt loop and opens on the end. The flyer that comes with it; is for the most part well written. It also is a much more honest, realistic statement of what to do in breaking in a new harp and what to expect from a harmonica over the playing life-cycle than I have seen from anyone else.

The new Discovery 48 is a fitting heir to the Chromonica/SuperChromonica line and I can see Hohner keeping new and not so new players very happy with this harmonica.

In the custom build direction I can see wooden covers, fully ramped reed chambers, and maybe a recessed wooden comb sealed in acrylic (to decrease risk of warpage). That is pretty much all I can currently see it needing to really make it a personalized, highly responsive harmonica.

Repeatability, accuracy, and repeatability

Getting the machine to give me an accurate reading is one thing. Getting to do it after running code and rapids is another. Tuning stepper motors for those who don't know is a balance between steps/unit (mm for me), velocity (fastest the machine is to go), and acceleration (how fast it gets there). Just ordered some additional measuring tools to try to get the last bit of accuracy I need out of the machine to do parts I have designed. This is where the demand of accuracy and precession get time consuming and more then a bit nerve racking. The pay off when it is all done is going to be worth it but getting there can take a bit of time.

Two steps forward...

Well making progress on the wiring and set up of the machine and also making progress on getting g-code and everything set up for cutting a good number of pieces. As always seems the case there is one or two that just do not want to go right and wiring issues that need looking at in finer detail. So working on that, which is slowing work down and added to that, been getting sick again which is not good.

But hey got cutting started and getting things moving in the right direction.

The little things

Well progress on the new Gantry Router is going well, though the little things keep getting things slowed down. Which would bother me if it was not for the fact that progress is being made and can be measured. design work is going well and will begetting the upper bed (the part that is expected to get scared and damaged on Monday. Which means I can focus on getting the homing switches and the probe set up over the weekend. Which in turn will make monday afternoon so much easier for set up.

On other fronts Health is getting better and should be back up tuning soon (chromatics) work will be resuming on the Harmonetta front shortly on design and testing of parts (one of the reasons that the new machine was being built). Concertina design is going well and will be setting up to cut out end plates in the near future as well.

So all in all good reasons for thanks and praise.

Well Time to get this and other projects moving forward

Sorry folks about being a dead blog for a good while. Much has happened since last Blog. Have a new Gantry Router due to the old one not meeting tolerances after annual maintenance and the new one took longer to get built then expected (not due to lack of trying on anyones part just the way it happened).

I am at the moment wiring up the new machine and am happy to also have a Distributorship for parts with Hohner (Special thanks to Steve at Sutherland Music and  Michael Timler at Hohner). Also have had fun learning the new CAD software that I was able to get (ViaCAD 2D3D v8) and it really rocks and lets me get models exactly as I need them to set up G-code. Also learning CamBam to hopefully replace BobCAD as my main CAM software.

Been very busy and things look good. Only problem is chest cold that is just not going away.