First of all: I don't play on stage, i play just for fun. Sometimes sitting around a campfire with someone who tries to play the guitar and a bunch of other people who never seem to agree which verse they're just singing. Doesn't matter, though, as long as it's fun. And it always is...

Just recieved my new Big Sixes (C and A). The one with the plastic combs.

Yeah, i know, lot of you think of them as toys. Well, they are, sort of.

After playing them for about two hours i must admit: They sound really good, though. They feel and sound very similar to my 1847 Silver, except of course the last four holes have somehow gone to buy cigarettes and never came back.

I'm not really a blues fan, as mentioned i rather like to play campfire songs and such. So, of course, there is only a limited number of them playable on my (limited) harps.

(But on the other hand, from a beer-based mathematical standpoint, it *should* be much easier to play when sitting drunk around the campfire: It reduces the number of double-visual holes from 20 to 12, that is nearly full harps' length less wrong notes ;-)

As for build quality, they are fine, too, as far as i can tell after a couple of hours. Air loss is quite limited, The material is light but yet strong, nothing bends (except the reeds, of course).

I can accept that they are not a "fully grown" harps. But they don't have to be. They're just as much fun, for half the price.

Thanks for a nice review.

I bought the older wood comb model several years ago. The blues model is only good for blues in my opinion. Too many missing notes. I keep saying I'm going to retune the blow 3 and draw 5 to Melody Maker tuning to get a complete octave without missing notes.

I have to point out my earlier review of the Hohner Puck. These smaller harps are all gimmicks. That being said, I've read alot of good reviews on the Seydel Big Six, and am seriously thinking about getting one.

The Big Six is not a gimmick. It has the same reeds as Seydel's ten hole harps, just less of them. I bought mine from Rupert O. (Seydel USA rep) at a SPAH convention. I wanted to try the stainless steel reeds but didn't want to buy a 1847. It's a good harp. But I didn't find an advantage over the brass reed Lee Oskar harps I have been playing for years so I didn't invest in any more.

I have never played a Puck. Some old timers used to use the smaller harps to play hands free. Here is an example of Sam Hinton doing that:
[www.youtube.com]

I have never played a big six or a puck,so I can't comment on them. My first harmonica was a hohner marine band 12 hole (solo tuning), my second and third harmonicas that I owned were the hohner piccolo in C and G (also solo tuning), they were an octive higher than the suzuki bluesmaster's that I have now. The piccolo played very well for me once they were broke in and both had and kept a good tone to them,both were bought around 1976 and at that time were made in Germany, I don't know if the newer ones are still made there. I did notice that the puck sells for around $9.00 where the piccolo sells for about $36.00, so I would think there is some difference in the two, besides the piccolo being about 1cm (about 3/8"longer. By the way, I never tried playing my piccolo using just my mouth like in the video.

Update: Two weeks ago i broke my left hand at the elbow when i fell of my bicycle. Holding a "big" ten-hole is quite hard at the moment.

But my BIG SIXes work quite well one-handed for me.

While that means i'm currently limited in the songs i can play (my neighbors are probably not very happy when i play Clementine for the tenth time a day), it also means i can do *some* playing. And since my other options at passing the (massive amount of) spare time are rather limited (can't do work, can't go online much, even flipping through a book is kind of awkward), buying a couple of Big Six harmonicas turned out the be one of my better ideas ;-)

The only downside of the Big Six i discovered so far: They are basically 10-hole diatonic harmonicas with the holes 7-10 cut off. I'd really like a custom harp (which Seydel doesn't seem to sale) with the holes tuned to 3-8 of a standard diatonic, since i use 1&2 more or less never, but miss 7&8 quite a lot for melody playing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2012 10:15AM by cavac.

I wish you better Cavac, but at least you can still practise and play something.

And I have to agree that it would make more sense to have holes 3-8 rather than 1-6.....

They make one like that. It is called the Big Six Folk. The one you have is the Big Six Blues. The Folk model is harder to find. The Folk model is for playing melodies in first position. The Blues model is for playing blues in second position.
[www.rockinronsmusic4less.com]
This link should show you the Folk model and note layout.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/2012 03:58PM by beads.

Turns out Seydel Germany (i'm from Austria/Europe) does make custom BIG SIXes with the plastic comb, which i prefer.

You have to email customer support, though. (Use the contact form on their homepage)

Mines gonna be a 3-8 in A. It costs about 60 Euros plus shipping. Which actually is quite cheap, only about 10 Euros (which currently translates to 12 USD or so) more to get a custom made harmonica directly from the manufacturer.

Got the confirmation for the final configuration and pricing within an hour or so of mailing my request. Should get it by the end of next week or so, mostly depending on how long it takes the post to handle the parcel and how long it takes the bank transfer to charge up my pre-paid credit card thingy i use for online buying.

Follow up: Been playing my custom Big Six for close to half a year now.

This turned out to be a very good investment, indeed. Basically, my 3 Big Six'es have turned into my "default" harmonicas - with a preference on the custom made one for most songs. I really only fall back to my full 10-hole 1847 Silver for a few songs that need the full range (or to my Seydel Chromatic Deluxe whenever i'm in the mood for a little "Memory" from Cats).

Here's an update on my Big Six Blues. I retuned the blow 3 and the draw 5 up so now it is tuned like a Lee Oskar Melody Maker. It now has a complete major scale from draw 2 to blow 6. I can now play many familiar melodies, more than when it was a blues harp. I also replaced the wood comb with the polymer one. I got that from Greg Jones at 1623 Custom Harmonicas. He is Seydel Rep and a good fellow to do busines with. Now I play this harp a lot more. Tuning steel is much, much harder than tuning brass. I used a Dremel tool with a tiny grinding bit. A smooth one so it didn't remove too much steel too fast. Just tuning the draw 5 up to Country tuning would have also made this harp more useful to me. I am a melody player, not a blues player.