I've been playing one of these about 3/4 of a year and thought to offer up a slightly biased review. (Because I like it.)
My first 270 goes back more decades than I care to remember. Back when they were nickel plated. The mouthpiece was so poorly designed it would virtually rip up your mouth. And yet it was the harp of choice for most professional players and the reeds and plates were the benchmark of the industry. Then someone turned me on to the Hard Bopper, which was essentially a 270 on steroids. More technically it was a 270 with longer reeds, a throwback to how they used to make the 270 way back when. The main benefit of longer reeds is that it allows the player to play a bit harder without running out of reed. The tone is a bit different too. So, I played a Bopper for a few years.
Now for the 270 Deluxe. It is a 270 with long reeds, not exactly the same as the Bopper but close. The reed-plates are screwed to the comb, the regular 270 uses nails. It has a mouthpiece with round chamfered holes. Although I removed it and put on one with square holes from an old Bopper.
The instrument plays well, all holes top to bottom work! It's relatively loud. The slide is the basic short throw as this is a straight-tuned instrument, as opposed to the cross-tuned CX-12 and the 16 holers. I find it nimble to play with little slide noise.
I would recomend the 270 Deluxe to anyone in the market for a 12-hole chromatic. It should offer up years of service, as it's backed by one of the pre-eminent companies in the business.

Thanks for that review, Walt. That is a beautiful harmonica. Have you ever tried a Suzuki Chromatix? It is slightly less expensive, and also looks very air-tight. I have a Hohner Chometta 8 hole, and am starting to learn my way around it a little. I don't like those ginormous square holes, and like the fact that the 270 deluxe and the chromatix both have smaller round holes. Thinking maybe it's time to move up.

I've never played a Chromatix. I had a few Suzuki diatonics through the years but they never lasted long. I still have an old chrometta 12 holer and a 10 holer which goes to G below middle C. Isn't the tone and volume great? In my opinion the 270 is the benchmark by which other harps are measured. However I took off the round mouthpiece and put on a square one from an old Hard Bopper.

Thank you, Walt. You're very helpful. But as for everybody else; Come on now! There has to be more people out there who have an opinion on the matter. Maybe I should just stick with the Hohner GM and torture the accidentals out of them.



Post Edited (2009-09-19 11:27:23)