I am aware this is very much a matter of individual taste and budget. I am not about to recommend a specific harp for others, but wanted to share my thought process in picking an instrument for myself. I actually have had an "old" Weltmeister Chromatic in my box for years. I purchased it at SPAH years ago. While I liked the tone it had in the lower register, the upper notes would not play easily. I opened it up carefully with the goal of playing with the gapping. Here is what it looked like in pieces.
The little white strips on the reeds are called wind savers and are standard for all chromatics, but from what I read they can be the source of problems when they get dirty and fail. As you can see the "slide" in this instrument is a multi part unit with very thin metal. The little red spacers were required but very fragile. The comb on this unit was made of wood and from what I could tell the reed plates are "nailed" to the comb. The whole thing just seemed a nightmare to maintain. I might add, the problem reeds played just fine when the harp was apart which tells me the slide system was leaking air. I checked out the wind savers and any obvious issues with gapping and put it back together only to discover I had made it worse. (probably by not understanding how to work on the slide. I decided to purchase a new Chromatic and one that would be easier for me to maintain.
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