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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Modifying Harps...really?
Modifying Harps...really?
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tbang
16 posts
Aug 18, 2012
6:31 PM
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hi. I'm on here often but I very rarely post. That said, I had a question (that I hopefully didn't miss in the forum search).
I read a lot on here about folks modifying their harps when they buy them (sealing, etc.) to make them more playable. Is this something folks have always done? I think of Sonny Terry, Phil Wiggins, Little Walter, Junior Wells...all my favorite harp-players, and I haven't heard much about them modifying their harps to make them more 'playable'.
So to make this question simpler than it might actually be...if they didn't need to, why would we?
Thank you!
-tbang
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arzajac
842 posts
Aug 18, 2012
8:15 PM
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I think the reference-standard customiser is Joe Filisko. I believe he is a machinist by trade and he is a Blues Harmonica historian. As I understand it, when he studied well preserved specimens of vintage harmonicas he began customising modern day harmonicas so that they would play as well as they did back then. That was his goal when he first started modifying harmonicas.
Quite simply, they don't make them like they used to.
Beyond that, if you buy a modern Marine Band, you will probably find that it plays fine. If you flatten the comb and draw reedplate (to improve airtightness) and optimise the reed profiles to your playing style, you will find that it plays considerably better. Do you *need* to modify harps? I dunno. It depends on your preference at that point. But a well playing harp is a joy. And the difference between an out-of-the-box harp and one that has been properly customized can be amazing.
Add one more level to that by considering overbends. You cannot count on being able to play an overblow or overdraw on an out-of-the-box harmonica, but after a few minutes of tweaking, you mostly can get them. To make them usable in a musical context and to get them to sound pleasant requires a higher level of modifications/customisation (as mentioned, air tightness, specific reed profiles, etc...) So for some styles of playing, a custom harp is a requirement. Sonny Terry and all the other names you mentioned did not use overbends in their playing (although some of my vintage harps play some overbends quite well...) so there was no need for them to modify their harps as is done today.
I hope this answers your question.
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Last Edited by on Aug 18, 2012 8:21 PM
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robbert
120 posts
Aug 19, 2012
10:23 AM
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I've been seriously, consistently playing the harp for about 10/12 years now, and my thoughts concerning the subject of harp mods has changed over those years.
When I started, otb Special 20s and Lee Oskars were my favorite harps for their durability and reasonable playability.
After several years of playing, I wanted to work on achieving overbends, and this technique requires very tight gaps, and specially profiled reeds. I began to experiment, and trashed more than a few harps in the process.
In recent days, I hit a milestone in harp mods, and having the ability to rework the harp successfully to fit my own playing style, is a great joy.
The feeling of really getting the most from the instrument, and being able to do that work to my own satisfaction, is a really good feeling.
My work is nowhere near the quality of pro customizers, but for now, it's working for me.
I have been working on diatonics and chromatics, and the difference between the otb harp and after I've reworked the instrument to my style of playing, is huge.
I can also for the most part, repair my instruments.
Fun!
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BrokenComputerBlues
5 posts
Aug 19, 2012
10:41 AM
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Like Arzajac said, overblowing is part of it. The temperaments of harmonicas have changed. Equal, Just, Compromise... just something as simple as simple changes is playing mostly chords to playing mostly single notes will change your harp choice, and some people would rather do it themselves.
I suspect better power tools in more garages has also made it easier for people to make custom combs for their harps. YouTube lets people get close up views of people's harmonicas, so making them look good and personalized may be on the rise (although if you Google Art Deco harmonicas there is a great collection of photos on Flikr by a guy with the handle Mouth Organ.
The internet has let people trade tips back and forth, and supposedly there was a big slide in quality at Hohner for a while in the 80's-90's.
I doubt prewar harmonicas would pass today's health inspections. The old bell brass had lead in it. (And even now some people have to worry about nickel allergies from some harmonicas.)
I've played on 4 different custom combs now, and for protruding reed plate harps I would definitely recommend them. For plastic combed harps it's a closer call, but a custom comb is going to look much better. I open up all my harps and at least do a little light gapping. I learned to do that on the internet. If I'd had a broken harp before that I would have just scrapped it. Although there are some accounts from the time period that suggest the harps were all high quality, it could also be a case of looking back through rose colored glasses. If someone got a lousy harp they either fixed it or tossed it. The ones that got tossed are gone. When we look at old harps we are looking at the good ones or the fixed ones, and since they are old, if they happen to be broken we blame it on their age and hard playing.
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It's me. My computer is broken.
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tbang
17 posts
Aug 19, 2012
4:47 PM
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I appreciate the feedback. I have friends who modify their harps. They also overblow...That said, in my opinion (which might not mean squat), they could focus an awful lot more on consistency...which is where I tend to focus my playing.
That certainly makes sense that they're just not built like they used to be.
Thanks!
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mlefree
70 posts
Aug 20, 2012
9:19 AM
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I know the great Phil Wiggins. He plays OTB Marine Bands. Tom Ball does, too. I seem to recall Madcat saying that Big Walter did the same. I believe that the classic players were highly adaptable and the thinking was that being able to play OTB (leaky) harps was part of learning the "trade." I can't recall hearing or reading that any of the great classic players talked about working on their harps (excluding Alan Wilson). The older players I know toss their harps (either into the can or an "archival" box somewhere) when they go out of tune or when a reed gets stuck. Heck, I still havent' gotten to the bottom of a big box of "dead" harps that my first teacher generously gave me a number of years ago (I use them for a parts inventory). A good half of them just had reeds stuck with various unknown foreign materials.
Remember, there weren't harmonica toolkits available back in the day, nor was there an internet, etc. Harps were cheap, too. They were viewed as "disposable."
Last Edited by on Aug 20, 2012 9:22 AM
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barbequebob
2007 posts
Aug 20, 2012
10:07 AM
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One thing to remember back prior to 1991, when Joe Filisko first introduced custom diatonic harmonicas, was that there was NO SUCH THING as a customized diatonic back in the day and the things you have now like replacement parts, tools, videos, tuning info, etc., that you have on the internet, none of these things were available back then. Even the cheapo tuners you see being used these days, even those didn't exist until the late 70's-early 80's and the only other tuner was a strobe tuner usually made by either Peterson or Conn (which was bought out well over a decade ago by Peterson) were expensive, not very portable, and usually only available to professional instrument repair people like guitar luthiers.
Some of those players may have work4ed on them, but weren't giving any "trade secrets" away, and trying to get even 1/10K of the info you have now, especially from the harp makers, you had a better chance of infultrating the CIA than getting this from any of them, and that's the most polite version of this answer possible.
Newer players since the mid to late 90's are largely spoiled by comparison with what's presently available just on the internet alone compared to how it was back when I started in the 70's and back then, the ONLY choice you had were stock instruments.
Chromatic players have been doing these things decades longer than diatonic players have.
With all of the info out now, plus the fact that there's much more competition for the first time since prior to WWII, and on top of that, the growth of the customizers have forced just about every company to up their game in many ways and for diatonic players, there's so many different things and styles being played on them that were never done on them prior to the 60's that now there's no such thing as one size fits all because no one instrument that can do so, just on the tuning schemes/temperaments alone, and also now many of them are hiring customizers to help upgrade the game.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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