Introduction
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Hello
As a recorder (baroque music) and keyboard player (mostly Seventies “minimalism”) I’ve been interested in the melodica for some time as something I could ostensibly pick up and get familiar with pretty quickly, but with the expressiveness of a woodwind. So about June of last year I noticed a Suzuki Pro37v3 online for less than half the price here in Italy (I live in Modena) and jumped at it. And it really is a fantastic instrument. Very expressive and responsive, But I also got curious about the vintage instruments people talk about on here, and have purchased a Hohner Melodica-Piano 36 and have a Professional 36 coming. Obviously buying vintage instruments online is largely a crapshoot. But the Piano 36 came in excellent condition, very air tight (just a tiny bit less than the Suzuki) and with a big sound quite different from the Pro37. It’s nowhere near as responsive as the Pro37, but when you push it hard it plays very nicely, with quite a difference between the lower and higher registers. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the Professional coming in – I’m curious just how more professional it can really be.
One thing I noticed on the Suzuki is that when you start playing it the keys are quite sticky. After a few keystrokes they free up. I eventually tracked this down to dry condensation residue on the pads closing the airways of the individual reeds, and it’s just now drying off after a good wash. Hopefully that’ll resolve the issue. I have to say it’s impressive what a mature design the Suzuki is in terms of construction, really very neat.
Anyway that’s me. I’ll review the Professional when I’ve had a few days to get to know it.
I’ll just add one thing: the Suzuki’s only fault imo is that it uses the same springs on the black and white keys. This means the black keys are considerably harder to play than the whites, and you have to keep your fingers near to the end of the keys to get an even feel. But that’s my only gripe. Apart from that it’s a fine instrument.
Oh yeah – the wash seems to have largely resolved the issue, the keys are no longer sticky. The Piano 36 does not suffer from this issue – or at least so far.
Good point about the springs Rob, most melodicas use the same springs on all keys, which results in uneven pressure, as there’s more leverage power in the white keys. For me this is just something to get used to.
Looking forward to your views on the Professional 36!
From what I’ve seen, Yamaha is the only manufacturer to have addressed this issue, at least in its vintage instruments. The P36/P-36 has compression springs with adjuster screws, while the P34/P-34 has extension springs of different sizes on the white and black keys. I actually picked up a P34 (for 30 euro!) here in Italy and will be interested to see how it plays.
As for the Professional, it was not functioning and I’ve returned it to the seller. At least one reed was broken and tbh the sound of the others didn’t get my juices flowing. So I’ve scratched that itch.
One interesting feature of the Professional is that the mouthpiece has a very small bore, which would lead to a significant pressure drop as the flow of air enters the instrument. This is probably why people report the instrument as needing a lot of breath. I tried it briefly with the Piano 36 mouthpiece which has a larger bore and found it to be much more responsive. Strange design choice.
But the design of the breath input port on the Pro37 is far from ideal as well: the air flows into a small chamber of larger diameter than the mouthpiece delivery and then through another port into the actual reed chamber. It would surely have been more efficient to have a single diameter tube from mouth piece to reed chamber. I’m sure this is why the melodica feels more responsive when played without a mouthpiece – which is not convenient on the Pro37.
So the P34 came in just now. I opened it up and the reeds are like new, it all works perfectly. What a delightful voice – very different from the other two. Not at all loud, this could definitely use some amplification. The keyboard has a very light, precise action. All in all a really amazing little instrument, especially given what I paid for it.
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