Hohner CX-12 D- Major

The CX 12 harmonica has a lovely tone and is quite responsive but it has a major design fault. The housing that covers the harmonica is weak and breaks easily. This has happened three of my covers/housing. The weakness is where the metal bar slots into the bottom of the casing. Hohner responds saying it must have been dropped and they have never heard of this happening others. I didn’t drop the three casings and I know of at least three other people who have had the same problem. If it’s not a design fault, then why has Brendan Power designed the Power Patch to patch it up. That involves trimming the metal bar and I don’t think that’s a good idea. An engineer friend of my mine blames the quality of hard plastic used and also the design which involves a lot of stress being put on the holes at the bottom of the casing by the metal bar. It costs €60 to buy a new casing (€20 of which is delivery cost) from Hohner. Too expensive for a poor quality item. I’m very disappointed as I like everything else about the harmonica.