The Suzuki Olive harmonica has modern slightly vented cover-plates that have a bright olive colour, achieved through the use of a high tech process that doesn't utilise any colouring material, ensuring lasting durability and a clear tone.
Hybrid Wood-Resin Comb
Historically, most harmonicas had wooden combs. This type of comb provides a warm tone, but is prone to absorbing moisture, leading to warping and deformation over time. Many manufacturers responded to this problem by creating a plastic comb, which solves the issue of expansion, but which results in a different tone to wood. Suzuki, in contrast, created a wood-resin composite material for the comb, which is composed of over 50% wood fibres encased in impermeable resin. This provides the tone of a traditional wooden harmonica with the swell resistance of plastic. First utilised on the popular Manji diatonic, this comb has been widely praised by players.
Made in Japan
Air-tightness is incredibly important in producing a harmonica that is both easy to play and responsive. Suzuki harmonicas use state of the art manufacturing processes to ensure an extremely high level of airtightness. As a consequence, the Suzuki Olive responds rapidly to quick phrases, and provides excellent responsiveness to bends.
Suzuki is unique in its utilisation of a welded-reed process, which ensures an extremely high level of accuracy of reed attachment and reed/slot alignment. This enables the reeds to respond to advanced techniques, such as over-blowing, to achieve consistently rich and exciting sounds.
These achievements are a consequence of Suzuki's adherence to the Japanese tradition of 'Kaizen', which involves seeking continual, incremental improvements in all areas of a harmonica's production, from manufacturing through to assembly and quality control.
Tone-wise, the Olive is similar to the Manji, with which it shares the same composite comb material. It's vent design, however, is different, which gives it a subtly warmer sound.
Warning: It has come to our attention that counterfeit Suzuki Harmonicas are being offered for sale through overseas sellers. Please do not fall victim to these illegal sellers of Suzuki Harmonicas. All our Suzuki range have been purchased directly from the official Suzuki distributors.
