Looking at a new wheel, anyone know anything about Sonatas?

Rabbit Talk  Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

PSFAngoras

Well-known member
Rabbit Talk Supporter
Joined
Jul 15, 2013
Messages
1,363
Reaction score
1
Location
Colorado
I have a Kromski Prelude at the moment, I picked it up from a friend that wanted out of fiber art as it wasn't her thing and she wanted $300 for it. Its been a good wheel and I don't intend to sell it, I'll keep it for slower ratio spinning and letting friends learn on, but a castle style, double treadle wheel would be more comfortable.

The last few years I had been looking at the Majacraft Pioneer. I have spun on a Majacraft Little Gem before and loved it, and the Pioneer is their base model (much closer to my price range, but similar set up though it doesn't fold up), but it went up in price recently, so for nearly the same price I can get a Kromski Sonata, which is one of Kromski's nicer wheels, and still use all my bobbins from my Prelude. Not to mention it says you have to have different Jumbo flyers for the two wheels but it does *look* like the one from the Sonata will fit the Prelude, though the one for the Prelude would be missing parts for the Sonata. Buying two wouldn't be terrible if it didn't work because Kromski is in my experience well built, but cheaper than most other brands, and Jumbo flyers for both wheels are only $92 each.

So my question is this, has anyone spun on a Sonata? I have read a lot of reviews and they are mostly positive, by I'd love to be able to ask someone first hand. Any info would be appreciated! Thanks guys!
 
Ha, thanks anyway. I was reading reviews all morning, and not one could say anything bad about the wheel, so I decided to just go with it. It should be here in 5/14 days, directly from Poland! I seriously hope I enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to!!
 
PSFAngoras":2x2hnw1f said:
Ha, thanks anyway. I was reading reviews all morning, and not one could say anything bad about the wheel, so I decided to just go with it. It should be here in 5/14 days, directly from Poland! I seriously hope I enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to!!



You will!! Congrats... very awesome!
 
PSFAngoras":1ypnbfxt said:
I was reading reviews all morning, and not one could say anything bad about the wheel, so I decided to just go with it. It should be here in 5/14 days, directly from Poland! I seriously hope I enjoy it as much as everyone else seems to!!
Ooh, congratulations on the new wheel! :up:

Please keep us updated when it arrives and how you like it, I very much enjoy hearing about all the different wheels. :oops:
 
I have never heard of that brand. But I am new to spinning. My first and only wheel is a Clemes & Clemes modern wheel that I got off of Cragislist. Hoping to buy a Babe spinning wheel this summer so I have a more portable one to bring to shows. Good luck with your new wheel. ;)
 
I honestly was super disappointed when I started with my Prelude, I had a teacher who hated Kromski and try as I might the wheel just wouldn't work right. She did point me in the direction of a Kromski dealer shortly before we parted ways though, and come to find out there were a few bolts left untightened and a few pieces of the wheel that needed adjusted differently. Once that was out of the way the Prelude is actually a nice wheel. And Kromski is one of the best quality wheels for the look and the price in its category. (The Sonata is one of their nicest wheels and it was $680, the Majacraft I wanted was their base line model for nearly the same price!)

The Prelude spins well, but the orfice height is a little too low for me and I really like double treadle, castle style wheels. They just seem more compact. I'll happily let you guys know what I think when it comes in! It will be interesting to deal with the folding aspect, I wasn't initially looking for a traveling wheel, but it will be nice to have for Fiber Fest, shows, and yarnie get-togethers. <br /><br /> __________ Fri May 26, 2017 6:05 pm __________ <br /><br /> Well it's here!

I've had a couple weeks to play on the new Sonata and I'm quite happy with it. It is LARGE for a folding wheel. I feel like a pre-schooler with a big kid's backpack when it's all packed away in the travel bag on my back. (I'm only 5'3", so maybe that's not saying much!) The wheel itself is 19" in diameter and the whole beast is quite tall, but not ungainly so. The orfice height doesn't have too much in the way of adjustment, but it is a much more comfortable height than my Prelude.

It's only a bit over 11 pounds, so it's certainly not heavy to move, and the double treadle set up is a dream and works so much smoother than the single treadle set up. Set up and take down only take a couple minutes at most both ways, and all the bits and bobs have a little pocket in the bag for easy storage. The mother of all has its own little padded bag that fits within the bag, and then a hole in the farm of the wheel you put it into to keep it in place, so damage is unlikely to the flyer unless you get in a nasty car wreck or throw it off a cliff. Also, the wheel has an elastic drive band, so switching ratios is super quick and easy no matter what height the orfice is at. No tensioner to fiddle with.

The only downsides I've come across so far are that the wheel is very likely to fall before you get the set screw in it to keep it upright during assembly, so you have to make sure you have a good hold on it. When it falls it's heavy enough to do some damage. Within 5 minutes of pulling it out of the box i turned for two seconds to find the assembly screw and the wheel fell, shoving the footman into a pedal and denting it. Totally my fault but something to be aware of. Also, the same footman either doesn't come with a clip to hold it forward or mine was missing, causing the wheel to clack loudly while spinning in Z. I tied a little piece of leather behind the footman to hold it in place and it solved the problem. And last, the outer pouch on the bag isn't padded, so if you store extra bobbins in it they could potentially become damaged.

All said, I'm very happy with the new wheel for the price and the few downsides there are aren't enough to bother me. So yay!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2604.JPG
    IMG_2604.JPG
    79.1 KB · Views: 2,278
Back
Top