Having decided to stock a few Seydel Harmonica's, and it being summer, it seemed to be logical to start with The Summer Edition of The Session Steel.
The Session Steel features stainless steel cover plates with an ABS comb, a German Silver reedplate, and, of course, stainless steel reeds, all held together with stainless steel rivets and screws.
In "Charcoal and Honey" (grey/black plates with an orange, translucent comb), the summer edition certainly looks the part, but is it all cosmetic?
Never having played a Seydel before, I've been 'living' with a 'C' for the last week, getting used to the variations from the East:top, Kongsheng, Hohner and Suzuki models I have played. Just bear in mind that I still consider myself to be a beginner, and the limitations that creates!
Out of the box my first thought was that the smooth, rounded coverplates made it appear thicker than the models I was used too. It is, slightly (1 or 2mm), but after a few plays it felt natural. Each individual hole is also a fraction bigger than average (maybe 5% bigger?), meaning the 10 hole on a Special 20 lines up with the gap between holes 9 and 10 on the Session Steel. In action I can't say I noticed any difference. For those of you with whiskers, you will be glad to know it does not appear to want to remove any hairs as you play!
Sound is subjective, so the only way to really find out if you like the tone is to buy one!
What I can say, is that it is a nice bright sound, with reasonable if not the loudest volume. But the thing with those steel reeds is that you can blow hard, so it can be worked hard! There have been suggestions that the steel reeds make it harder to bend, and there could be some truth in that - I certainly struggled initially - but I think it is more down to fractional variations in style (and embouchure), and a more experienced player would have little problem.
