P. & Brothers Maestro
P. & Brothers' Maestro is perfect for skilled musicians looking for a high quality instrument with rich beautiful sound, long sustain, lots of extras and great versatility. It is an excellent choice for professional recordings as well as for concerts, giving you considerably more options in terms of sound than our premium harmoniums. At the same time it is lighter, cheaper and more sturdy than our foldable scale-changer harmoniums. And with a padded bag it is also great for travelling.
The 42 keys have a tonal range of three and a half octaves. Each note is fitted with three reeds in different octaves. Those three reeds can be played separately or in any combination, giving you seven different possibilities of mxing your sound. An octave coupler can be activated, connecting any pressed key automatically to the note an octave lower. That way you can play up to six reeds with just one key – giving you a particularly powerful, rich, warm and carrying sound. However, the more reeds are played, the more air needs to be supplied. That is easy in this model due to the large volume of the multifold bellows. The perfect balance between bellows and springs gives the P. & Brothers Maestro a wonderful long sustain. The bellows, which open to the side, can be moved actively in both directions. Thus you can adjust air supply exactly to your musical requirements.
"BONUS: One month free online access to comprehensive harmonium teaching material at the Bhakti Breakfast Club with harmonium purchase!" - more info here!
Sound sample P. & Brothers Maestro
- complete melodic range with three registers
- three-note chords in middle range
- complete melodic range with three registers without cover (jali)
- total range of 3 1/2 octaves (= 42 notes)
- triple reeds in three different octaves (bass / male / female)
- three register stops for separate playing of each register / octave
- additional tremolo stop for bass register
- five drone stops
- optional lower octave coupler with wooden transmission
- multifold side bellows
- large inner bellows
- transparent high glossy natural shellac polish
- adjustable stick, lever and pallet key system
- cabinet made of solid teak wood
- handles, fixtures and register stops made of metal
- removable wooden cover (jali) on top of the key mechanism
- wedges at the back side for easy opening for maintenance
- incl. padded bag
P. & BROTHERS is a very small, relatively little known family business in its third generation in Calcutta. Originally, the company was founded in Dhaka, in today’s Bangladesh. After India became independent and divided, the three sons of the founder Gopal Karmakar moved to Calcutta. Initially they worked with other musical instrument manufacturers and finally opened up a joint business under the present name in 1953. Among their customers were, e.g. Nikhil Banerjee, Kartik Kumar and Manilal Nag.
Today, Suman Karmakar is running the business, a grandson of Gopal Karmakar. Especially in a small company like this every instrument is made and checked with great individual care. As we have been continually working together with P. & BROTHERS since setting up India Instruments in 1994, they supply us with rather high quality instruments at a relatively favourable price.
P. & BROTHERS is specialised in excellent sitars and tanpuras. Suman Karmakar has been taking advice from Hiren Roy's son Barun Roy, and his sitars come as close to Barun's as one can get. After 2010 P. & BROTHERS has also taken to making wonderful harmoniums, and we carry their harmoniums since 2015.
In India, our harmoniums are tuned to international concert pitch of a = 440 hertz. In Europe, however, they usually sound slightly higher at a = 441 to 442 Hertz due to the colder climate. The difference is small and not necessarily noticeable even to trained ears.
We do not offer manual set-up of other tunings for harmoniums with 3 sets of reeds - the extremely sensitive reeds in the highest register can too easily be damaged beyond repair.
NOTE:
Air temperature and blowing pressure influence the vibration frequency of harmonium reeds. At higher temperature and higher pressure, it decreases; at lower temperature, it increases. In our workshop in Berlin we tune at room temperature around 20 degrees Celsius.
Measure: height 34 cm, width 60 cm, depth 26 cm, weight: 12 kg
Each instrument is individually hand-crafted and might differ from our description.
