broken hohner reed

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  • #8215
    Richard Begel
    Participant

    Hello, Can someone help me purchase a new E5 reed for a Hohner Ocean Melodica?

    #8218
    Daren
    Keymaster

    Hi Richard. What country are you in? You’ll have to buy a “reed plate” which contains about an octave of notes

    #8224
    Richard Begel
    Participant

    Thanks Daren, I’m in the US. I saw some of another discussion you were in with a link but those plates cost $45 each so I could almost get a new unit for that. Do you know a cheaper way?

    #8225
    Daren
    Keymaster

    Richard, I think that was for Yamaha reed plates.

    From looking on the net, I’m not sure if Hohner even sell replacement reed plates? Best phone Hohner service on 800-446-6010, or email them on service.usa@khsmusic.com

    #8226
    Richard Begel
    Participant

    Thanks again Daren! I called Hohner at the number you gave. They currently only support and warranty the Performa 37 and the Airboard. They now warranty those and just swap them out to replace under warranty. This makes sense because opening them up is so time consuming.
    However, for any older models like my Ocean, they do not carry parts or replacement models anymore. I told them that if they can’t support something under 5 years old, that I wouldn’t buy another Hohner product. I’ll give my Hohner with one broken key to my kids and I ordered the Yamaha P37D last night.

    #8227
    Daren
    Keymaster

    That’s a shame Richard. The only other way I can think of is to buy a secondhand or even faulty Ocean so you can take out the reed plate and swap it over. Not sure how many of those come up on Ebay! Maybe set up a long term search?

    Good choice with the P37D, nice quality instrument, which you can get parts for, but they’re not cheap either…

    #8228
    Richard Begel
    Participant

    Actually, there is a Hohner Ocean on ebay now for just $50 after shipping, says “near mint” in the description. But after my first attempt tuning and messing around on the inside of mine, I made the tuning better but the response worse. I could have just gotten that Ocean and used it, but was thinking the Yammy may be an upgrade. Not sure yet, it may arrive tomorrow. We’ll see!

    #8229
    Paul Durham
    Participant

    Unfortunately the owners of vintage instruments are on their own. Very few craftsmen exist to do the repairs and unfortunately the cost is much higher than replacement. We live in a throw away world.

    #8230
    Richard Begel
    Participant

    My Yamaha P37D arrived and I’m quite pleased. Here are the results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWr9ALLzL2Y&feature=youtu.be

    #8234
    Alan Brinton
    Participant

    Thanks for the comparison video, Richard. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the Ocean has the same reeds as the cheaper Student 32. An uncharitable suspicion would be that the Ocean is just a tricked up version of the Student 32. The sound comparisons are striking.

    It seems likely to me that the responsiveness issue with the Ocean is a matter of reed gapping being altered during your tuning.

    #8238
    Richard Begel
    Participant

    Thanks Alan, I’m sure you are right. I didn’t want to get that technical in the video, but I had trouble fixing the reed gapping by pressing down, and got tired of messing with it. It just wasn’t improving. It still makes sound and I gave it to my son. It would be nice to have it better for him, but it still does make sound without overly too much effort. It’s just no longer sensitive enough on a few notes to have on a gig, and there’s that bad note anyway.

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