New melodica way out of tune, faulty or tuneable?

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  • #14790
    Nerdlinger
    Participant

    Greetings. I’m new to melodicas and was excited to stumble across an Amazon Warehouse “used” Suzuki Pro 37v3 for £107.53. This has just been delivered without original packaging and a barely noticeable dent in the brass cover to the mouthpiece socket. So far ‘s OK but on testing I found problems with one of the lower black keys needing much more blowing to make a tone which was also rattly and one of the white keys near the middle being slightly more than a whole semitone low/flat.

    I am reading here and on reddit that new melodicas often need tuning but this seems extreme.

    Any advice? Should I attempt to fix this or send it back for a refund? It’s a lot of money to risk voiding the (short) warranty or damaging it beyond repair but it is also such a good bargain… Other than the faults this is a nice instrument which I wouldn’t buy at full price, I especially like the ability to play with much less blowing than the Stagg 32 honk organ I got (second hand ebay £11.75) yesterday.

    Regards,

    Andrew.

    #14791
    Nerdlinger
    Participant

    On closer inspection one of the case screws was a different type and through a loupe the others had been unscrewed so I disassembled it and found it had been broken by a previous owner. I had thought when Amazon Warehouse listed stuff as used it wasn’t meant literally. Anyway one reed has been bent and twisted so that it fouls the slot (? not sure of term) and has been left with a large gap so it only works when blown hard and then it rattles.

    bent reed

    The other one is discloloured and well scraped as if a coating has been removed, this is the semitone flat one.

    flat reed

    So I’m returning it. Beware if you see it for sale…!

    Meanwhile I had some success with the Stagg 32 tuning so I might just stick with that for now.

    #14794
    Daren
    Keymaster

    Thanks for the update – shows the risk of buying melodicas secondhand!

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