The Hero Chromatic

As soon as I arrived in NJ by end August, 2011,  I started looking for an appropriate harmonica.  I did not want to spend so much money on my first purchase for fear of wasting it if I suddently lose interest.  Having fixed myself on a chromatic harmonica, its ability to play all notes, I surfed the internet for the cheapest I can find. I saw on eBay a  Hero brand chromatic harmonica, made in China, which I bought new for $12.00 plus shipping charges of $10.00.

I already had some tabbed songs ready so I tried playing Some Enchanted Evening, Lara's Theme and Speak Softly Love.  I noticed that the Hero has a peculiar notes arrangement.  There are 24 holes and only two notes can be played in a hole, which means all in all 48 notes can be played, which makes it a 3-octave harmonica.  Unlike other designs, only one note can be played in a hole,which could either be a  blow or draw, but not both, with the slider out, and another note, with the slider in.

Notes chart.  Here is the notes chart of the Hero:

I realize then I could follow the notations and play the songs without difficutly but I  experienced  breathing problems because I seem to use a lot of air.  In fact, it was like a test of endurance to finish a song before I had to stop and really take a deep breath.

Playing the Hero.  Here is a video in which I play the song, Speak Softly Love in Dm,  on the Hero  :

The problem was too much air leak.   To find out where the leak could possibly come from I decided to disassemble the harmonica.  The mouthpiece is fastened by two screws and after taking it off I could already guess the architecture - the mouthpiece is plastic with the edges upturned a little where slider fits, and the assembly sits on top of the plastic comb.  I suspected that the air leak must be coming from around the comb and the mouthpiece because there are no seals such as the windsavers found in Hohner chromatics. The only option I had was to tighten the screws harder upon reassembly, but in this condition the slider would not work.  So, I had no  alternative but make do with a loose mouthpiece and inhale more air than not having a working harmonica to play with.

Architecture.  One good point in favor of the Hero is the accessablity of the comb and the reeds for easy cleaning, maintenance, repair or tuning.  It has 24-slots with 2 holes each, one set of 24 notes with slider out and another set of 24 notes with slider in.  The architecture is simple - comb is plastic and reeds plate is screwed to the opposite plate; the slider fits under the plastic mouthpiece which is screwed on top of comb.

Shown below is a fully disassembled Hero.

Saving for spare parts.  At this point, I thought I needed a better chromatic harmonica.  I was about made up to dispose of the Hero, but then I read in a forum that old harmonicas should not be thrown away because these are good sources of replacement reeds.  So, the Hero is still with me and the Raritan Valley Authority had been deprived of one disposable harmonica.  In retrospect, the Hero led me into  what I call the harmonica wilderness - the tablatures, the diatonic, chromatic, and notes chart and tuning, at the same time it gave me an assurance that indeed I could probably use a chromatic harmonica.