Greeting to my fellow SlideMeister Forum subscribers and Meisterklasse fans.
INTRO
My name is Alejo and I am the recent proud, owner of a used Meisterklasse (M.K.) which I successfully sniped ($230) late last night.
HISTORY
Let me first say that: I'm a newbie to this forum with little experience with forums in general. I posted my introduction when I joined S.M. a couple of weeks ago.
As a semipro musician who simultaneously plays a rack mounted harmonica and classical guitar or, ukulele, I require a very responsive, extended range model for melody playing that can sound good without the benefit of the hand's flesh on hand effects or, the cupped, tight mic sound.
CHROMATIC CHOICES
With partiality towards German engineered Chromatics, I recently began accumulating some Hohner 16 holers from online classifieds, I noticed that for the most part: you get what you pay for. As I found the Super 64 a step up from the 64 Chromonica, it in turn was eclipsed by the Super 64 X. I could only surmise that the M.K. would be the next logical step up in quality. Posts in this club seemed to confirm the M.K.'s high quality unanimously. I also based my M.K. purchase decision on the fact that the M.K. 10 hole diatonic I once owned was my favorite from all those in it's Klasse.
M.K. LESSONS LEARNED FROM S.M. FORUM & KEN LIEBOFF'S VIDEOS
Be on the lookout for powder from the negative reaction of the dissimilar metals (I find it hard to imagine that such an obvious flaw got past engineering and QC on this high end model)
A coating of Vaseline may help to prevent this dissimilar metal reaction and also as a side benefit, help seal it.
It has a short stroke slide which can be noisy.
The newer models are preferred. They come in a leather case and can be distinguished from earlier models which come in the more common plastic case.
They generally play evenly well across their range.
Their volume output isn't very strong
There aren't any aftermarket combs currently available
IN CLOSING
I welcome any advice I can obtain from fellow S.M. Forum users regarding the M.K. or, to answer any questions about my own instrument choices.
When I re-entered the Chromatic World, my online searches often led to S.M. There, I always found the forum very informative, focused and fun. So much so that I had a desire to join it. From that perspective I hope you all know how important you are in the roles that you play in assisting those Chromatic Players out there who are desperately seeking a good knowledge base for making important decisions regarding an obscure instrument, in a “You blow it, you buy it” world.
Kudos ladies and gentlemen of this SlideMeister forum and Mr. Fedor for the excellent job you do. It's my hope that in the future I might also join you by making a meaningful contribution of my own.
- Alejo