I own 6 harps from Richard Sleigh-the best harps I have ever played..
Richard is now offering a great new service-I'll let his post explain:
Here’s the deal, harp freaks…
You send me a Hohner Crossover / Deluxe / Golden Melody / Special 20 / Rocket 10 hole diatonic harmonica in great shape and I re-do the reed plates for high performance.
This offer applies to the Hohner hand made series harps made over the last 15 years IN GREAT SHAPE with all screw construction. Please don’t send Marine Band 1896 put together with nails.
You can also have Rockin Ron ship harps to me for this deal. Just tell him what you are up to and he will know what to do.
I’ll set up the harp for:
– airtight, buttery bends up and down the harp
– over blow friendly reeds on holes 4, 5, & 6
– extra attention to holes 2 & 3, 9 & 10 to balance out the presence and clarity of the bent notes as melody notes
– a tuning formula very close to 19 limit just intonation for smooth chords while keeping the 5 & 9 draw notes on pitch for playing melody lines.
– reed action that balances out bending and over-blow playing without having reeds “blank out” from harder attacks that come from “adrenaline” situations…
Then here is your chance to turn your harp into a high performance machine at half the price of a full custom Marine Band harmonica. You supply the harp, I supply the skill and attention.
Here is what I do for this version of the overhaul:
1. Step one was to use a big ass heavy duty tool that a friend of mine made for me for moving reeds while still attached to the reed plates with rivets. He swore me to secrecy on the design of this tool and it’s one of those things I’ve kept under my hat for years cause I don’t want people getting mad at me for having an unfair advantage (or bugging me to “just show it to me I won’t tell anyone)
Anyhow I use this thing to center reeds at the root to make embossing more consistent. Some reeds are really off center from the factory – like diagonal. Most customizers just work around the reed as best they can, and over-emboss to close up the wide areas.
I also use this tool to close the space between reed tips and the end of the slot when they are too far away.
Here is a video of the before and after on one reed plate:
2. Make sure the reed plates fit the comb with no air leaks.
3. Emboss reed plates and shape the reeds – this usually means making about 3 passes to get the reed where I want it with various tests and a lot of plinking the reeds to make them settle. I fuss around a lot on holes 2 & 3 to get good raspy bends and also re-test all over blows in holes 4,5, & 6 and blow bends…
4. Rough tune the reeds and then let them sit for a few days.
5. Wax reeds in slots 2,3,4,5,6, 9 & 10 – this gives helps the bends and over blows in these holes, and gives you more control over high note bends ( and overdraws if your technique is good )
6. Two more tunings to dial in the reeds. Sometimes more. Testing for octaves smooth chords, in tune melody notes. The general temperament is close to 19 limit just intonation, but i tweak it a bit to give you a little more room for high note bends and a couple other things I like to hear in a harp.
7. Check harp with cover plates screwed on and tweak things if necessary if the screw pressure brings out some minor slot / reed alignment issues.
8. Test one more time and then get ready to ship…
These harps are very close to the flagship Custom Marine Bands that I have been making for $197. The full custom Marine Bands have some minor extra tweaks plus the custom combs and the re-shaped cover plates.
I am now taking orders for a small batch of these overhauls for only $95.
There are currently 7 harp overhauls left in this offer – to be shipped in October. When they run out, the shopping cart is set up to stop taking orders. If that happens, please contact me to get on the November list.
Harpe Diem!
PS – if you have harps to send me for the hot rod treatment you can use this address:
If you haven't tried a harp from Richard Sleigh, your life is not complete.
Richard was one of the very first to seriously customize harps starting back in the 1980s. His harps have always been fantastic and he developed a respected name early on, but he's not one to rest on his laurels. He's been constantly innovating and upgrading his tools and techniques to this day, most recently with the excellent reed removal-riveting tool he developed in collaboration with Tom Halchak.
Richard makes his specialist tools available and, unlike any other top harp customizer, shares the fine detail of his techniques with excellent instructional videos. There is a treasure trove of knowledge in those videos for any aspiring harp tech.
Richard is a living legend of the harmonica community and his harps play like butter. I have a couple and they are among the most cherished in my collection.
Last Edited by Brendan Power on Sep 29, 2016 8:57 PM
I have a couple harps Richard built last month using this model. C and D marine band deluxe. They are very good. I have a few harps I can compare them with. It's interesting how each customiser seems to produce different kinds of good. I'd say Richard has delivered on the promise of his pitch.
I do tech work, but still have given money to others in order to benefit from their time and skill.
Richard has been doing this a long time, and has a great reputation. I don't really know him, although I spoke briefly to him at SPAH several years ago.
If you play harp and you have the funds available, you could do worse than to have Richard "hot rod" your instrument.
He doesn't post much here, but he does have a newsletter (I get it, when it comes out, every couple of months or so) If you are interested, it's free, and he shares ideas there. I don't know if it's appropriate to cross post here . . .
Richard Sleigh here... I was alerted to the thread going on here (yeah, I know, I don't get out much or post a lot)
So I will address the direction I am going in for my harps and other stuff... I'm working at designing the way I run my business to emphasize what I am good at - making reed plates come to life, designing tools and instructional materials...
I am also learning how to get most of the data tracking into systems that take a lot less of my time. To make a long story short, I am working at simplifying the hell out of my business...
I took my tool kits off the market several months ago to re-invent the tools and the way I sell them.
The tool kit I used to sell had parts from 13 different sources. Some of the parts were made for me, but a lot of them were things I would buy off the shelf.
I now have a new design for a draw scraper that is 1/8th inch wide, twice as wide as the old one, but it still fits into a hole on diatonic harps so you can drop the pitch of a reed without taking the harp apart.
The other end of this tool makes embossing the end of a slot surprisingly easy.
The problem has been getting a machine shop to make the part with super high quality materials and specs.
I used to work as a graphic designer and we had a saying: "Fast / Cheap/ Good - pick two."
If I had picked Fast / Good for this scraper I would have had to sell it at about twice the price I will be selling it for. The downside is that I have had to wait for a very long time to get what I want. The kind of people who can do exactly what I want tend to be very booked up with major contracts, and I have to wait till they get a break between huge projects.
In the mean time i have sold a few pre- orders for this tool but keeping the promo pretty low key.
For now, what I do have available are reed wrenches, reed shaping tools, and a reed replacement tool. All of these tools have been designed, re-designed, and work-shopped many times over the years.
You can find out more about these tools at http://hotrodharmonicas.com
Richard helps a lot of folks, here and elsewhere. I don't think anyone in harp tech is getting rich--and we all have our favorites. Is $100 too much to invest to improve a harmonica?
I may be biased owning Filisko and Sleigh harps-but value wise you can't beat it. If it was anyone other than Richard , Jimmy Gordon ,Joe Spiers or Filisko I would hesitate.
@JInx RS wasn't the OP so you can't claim self-aggrandizement. I believe the OP was within the bounds of the list rules. You don't have to take advantage of his expertise, but someone unfamiliar with his work might benefit.
As I said here recently, harp players don't like parting with their hard earned money--I don't believe that tendency benefits them.
I have been doing some form of business with Richard Sleigh since the Fall of 2012. We have developed a good friendship and a mutually rewarding, synergistic business relationship. I might point out that four years ago I had just begun my journey to becoming a harmonica tech. I’ll also point out that in four years you can get a Bachelor’s Degree from a University. I’ve come a long way. Most of the knowledge and skills I now possess have come from just doing it but Richard has been extremely generous with his time and expertise. He has helped me countless times and I sincerely appreciate it. We worked together to develop the External Valve Plate that I use for building custom SUB-30s (I could not have done it without him). I helped him improve the design for his Reed Removal Tool and subsequently manufactured it for him. I turned him on to the vendor who makes his reed wrench. So we have worked closely on a lot of different projects. My point in all of this is that I can tell you from firsthand experience that Richard is easily the most meticulous guy I know in the harp tech world. He is extremely detail oriented. He knows his stuff.
There are very few people in this world who earn a living primarily from being a harp tech. Richard teaches, gigs, writes and builds harps. He has also produced a video series in which he reveals many of the “secrets” to making your harps play better. And he has designed and manufactured a variety of tools which make lives of harp techs (professionals and weekend warriors) a lot easier. Check out his draw scraper. It is a life changer.
The harmonica customization landscape is changing. It is becoming more competitive so guys are having to adjust their strategy. Harmonica customization is not a mass production business. It is a one-at-a-time, often tedious business. And there are only so many hours in the day. If you are a hobbyist or a weekend warrior, then you can take as much time as you want to work on your harps. But anybody who is a professional has to be able to produce high quality instruments in a timely fashion. It takes a tremendous amount of skill. You have to know exactly what to do, when to do it and (ideally) get it right the first time. No wasted motion. No making mistakes and having to do it over again. Time is money. It is a tough game. I am not a full time harp tech. Blue Moon is a sideline business for me and I try hard to keep things in perspective and not let it become all consuming. But guys like Richard Sleigh and Joe Spiers (and others) don’t have that option. To borrow a phrase from the poker world, they are “All in”. I take my hat off to them. Don’t take the contributions they have made to the harmonica for granted.
