[Alan Brinton]

Experimentation is good. But I don’t know how much sense it makes to spend the same amount of money to check out five cheap imitations as opposed to just buying the established quality instrument, such as a Yamaha P-37D Pianica or a Suzuki M-37C Melodion. In the end, one $100 dollar Yamaha is worth more than five $20 (or $40) Chinese knock-offs. Comparison of sound can also be misleading: immediate impressions about tone are one thing; what kinds of sounds a player can get from the melodica and its versatility are something else. There are many variables that may not be evident until one has been playing the instrument for a while. I have found, also, that how my melodica sounds to me while I’m playing it and how it sounds to others (or to myself when I record it) may differ significantly. It’s not entirely different from beer drinking. Tasting a beer is one thing, drinking a six pack is another, making it your regular for a few weeks is something else. And then: I like Stella and buy it occasionally, but if I drank it every day, I’d get tired of it after a few weeks. I’d never get tired of Guinness.