Hi All,
I'm a harmonica hacker and player, interested in all things free-reed.
This is an old thread, but I'd like to reactivate it to ask a couple of questions. I'm wanting to make harmonicas using accordion reeds, and need to buy them in specific pitches as single reed plates. It seems Harmonikas Louny are an excellent option, and so are Cagnini reeds from CGM Musical. A couple of other options I'd like your opinions on:
1. Has anyone here bought Hohner accordion reeds from their online shop?:
http://www.hohner-cshop.de/en/Accordion/Parts-Accordion/Reed-Plates/
Lots of pitch and length options there, acceptable prices and I imagine the delivery is pretty swift. Hohner harmonicas are great, but what about their accordion reeds? Any comments?
2. I've made a couple of test harmonicas with reeds taken from an inexpensive Chinese-made Scarlatti 30 button concertina that I bought from Pip Ives for parts. The reeds are no doubt not up to Italian/Czech quality, but still seem pretty good. I'd love to know if it's possible to buy Chinese accordion reeds directly from the Chinese makers in single sets. Anyone know if that's possible?
If you know of any other sources of single reed plates that one can buy and receive quickly (aside from dismantling old squeezeboxes, which is a good option too, though a bit of a waste of the other bits), let me know.
Cheers, Brendan Power