Finding a good harmonica holder isn't easy as I am sure many players who have used a holder before will agree with me; it can be a nightmare getting one that works easily and smoothly AND stays in place!
Today I would like to share my experience with a new toy I have acquired last week after someone at an open mic used and recommended it to me.
My New One - Seydel Gecko
My new holder is a Seydel Geko and comes to an eye watering price of just under £70, but I do not regret spending that amount at all; the mechanism is simply ingenious and worth every penny.
My Old One - Hohner (I believe)
I have been using this standard holder for many years; it says "Made in Germany" on it, but I cannot honestly remember how much I paid for it at the time. A Hohner, that looks pretty much like mine comes to roughly £28 on Amazon right now, so not one of the cheaper ones.
My guess is, that my old one is in fact a Hohner, so I will call it that in my post.
Comparing the Two
A quick overview with the two main Seydel selling points marked with **.
| Hohner | Seydel Gecko | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sturdyness | Very sturdy and robust | Sturdy, but feels a tiny bit flimsier as the bars are much thinner | |
| Controlling the fretboard | Controlling the chord hand can be tricky as the vertical bars are wide apart and often in the way so you have to move your head and/or shoulder around to see | The two vertical bars are closer together, so control of the fretboard is much easier with a straight view up to fret 12 or there abouts | |
| Changing harps ** | You may need two hands to hold both bars apart to swap harps, and could even do with a third as the springs make this slightly awkward indeed | The magnet on top of the holder is strong enough to safely hold a metal harp in place during play, but properly positioning and releasing it to swap is amazingly easy | |
| Positioning ** | Every swap or repositioning needs the loosening and tightening of a screw, including folding it flat for transport | A "Memory" mechanism will keep every harp in your prefered playing position, see the video on how that works. | |
| Padding | I put some foam stickers on just in cast to avoid scratches from the bar horizontal bars | Not needed as the harp is sitting on the smooth magnetic strip and stop from moving forward by a plastic bar | |
| Extras | n/a | Comes with soft pouch big enough to take all of my seven harps too | |
| Price currently UK | ca. £28 | ca. £69 |
My verdict
With this holder I am now really happy to play a few tunes in a row confidently changing harps over as needed.
I will still use the old one for harps that are not metal, as they won't work with the new one.
Pricey, but highly recommended!
Hope, this helps someone; thanks for reading!
