|
Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Beginner and changing my harmonica?
Beginner and changing my harmonica?
Page:
1
Dennis82
1 post
Dec 31, 2018
10:12 AM
|
Hey you all.
I’m a complete beginner on a harmonica and some month ago i buyed my first harmonica ever a hohner special 20 progressive. But i have a problem. My mustache and harmonica isnt friends and It hurts alot :) i’ve looked at a Seydel Session Steel instead. I really linke the shape on the harmonica and the steel reeds really talks to me :)
How is the seydel session steel for a complete beginner? Has it something to say that the holes are a little bigger on the session steel good or bad?
The joy to learn to plat harmonica isnt there Wien my mustache hurts :)
Harpy newyear to you all.
|
The Iceman
3742 posts
Dec 31, 2018
10:14 AM
|
I used to trim my "stach" a la Freddie Mercury style and that eliminated the plucking of hairs by the cover plate....as a beginner, I don't think there is one model preferable - you have to find the one that feels right for you...
----------
The Iceman
|
jbone
2796 posts
Dec 31, 2018
2:02 PM
|
I keep my mustache trimmed down. I have managed to snag a 'stache hair on several brands and models over many years. So maybe a compromise. Trim your hairs and keep the Special 20 for a while. I have never played a Progressive but used to use the regular SP20 for several years and liked them a lot.
Some brands- Suzuki comes to mind- have covers the whole length of the harp but this is no guarantee your mustache hairs won't find their way into a cover.
By the way welcome to this cool joint here! Lots of discussion and opinion and help.
----------
Music and travel destroy prejudice.
Reverbnation
Facebook
Youtube
|
SuperBee
5712 posts
Dec 31, 2018
3:11 PM
|
Progressive Sp20 and the older ‘Marine Band’ Sp20 are no different in any way that matters to anyone except Hohner’s marketing executive.
I reckon every model of harp is capable of grabbing your face via the lip hairs, but some are worse than others.
Worst I ever met was the Seydel Solist. That was all about the tabs which attach the covers to the plates, and the way they are formed.
The Sp20 tends to grab hairs in the space between front of cover and comb.
Marine band will grab between leading edge of cover and reedplate.
Lee Oskar has a strong reputation for grabbing.
I’ve seen mixed reviews I’d the Seydel “session” harps. Mostly they seem ok but if you get a ‘bad’ one they’re murder.
So some of the grab factor is inherent in design of some models, like the Lee Oskar and the Seydel Solist, but then there are other types where a particular harp will be grabby though many of that type are not. This applies for instance to Sp20, Seydel Sessions, and Marine Band, and it’s about ‘fit’.
What I mean is that I play mainly Marine Band and Sp20 types with no trouble but there are certain of my harps which will send me to find the trimmer.
I’m gonna trim up today infact. It’s not just the harps. There’s a lot of dessert being dished up around here at this time of year
|
nacoran
10028 posts
Dec 31, 2018
7:32 PM
|
Gah! It ate my post!
Okay, short answer, most harps can do that. I've got a long mustache that I've more or less trained to stay out of the way. (I even twirl it sometimes like a movie villain!) I think if you trim the mustache it's fine if you make it short enough to stay out of the way, but medium short and it will stick out like a crew cut. Short or long. There is no inbetween.
Stick the harmonica farther in your mouth too. That will reduce how often hairs get snagged. I also use a trick where I sort of use the harmonica like a teeter-totter. I use somewhere around the 4 hole as the fulcrum and I pull one end or the other end in closer to my face. That means less total side to side movement to snag hairs.
Lee Oskars have those little squares that are terrible for catching hairs. Most other harps snag hairs where the cover plate meets the reed plate. (The gap between the reed plate and the comb should be flat enough not to cause a problem, although it is possible to rarely snag one in the corner of the tine on a protruding reed plate like the Marine Band (as opposed to a recessed reed plastic comb like a Special 20).
I've played a few of the long cover Seydels. Occasionally the front edges of the ends stick up a bit and you'll snag on them (on the low end mostly). I think they could fix that with a front edge instead of a middle screw. Manji's might work well for that reason. I've only got one though, and over the years it's become less of an issue. I'm not sure if it's because my mustache is longer, because I do the see-saw thing or because it was just certain problem hairs that were causing the issue. It may have been I had a few Alfalfa cow lick mustache hairs that were causing problems and after I ripped them out a few times they stopped growing back (or learned their lesson and behaved!)
I don't remember the last time I snagged a hair. You might play around with how far forward your cover plate is seated to see if that helps. Usually there is a little wiggle room. I like Seydel harps but I don't think of them as a cure all for snagged hairs. When it was happening a lot I tried to think of other solutions but didn't come up with anything that wasn't silly (well, I have an idea for one piece harmonica cover plate but I don't have a machine to make them.)
Get yourself one of those little mustache combs and see if you can't train the little buggers to sweep to the side a little. :)>
----------
Nate
Facebook
Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
First Post- May 8, 2009
|
Flbl
179 posts
Jan 03, 2019
11:07 AM
|
The session steel may just be the worst harp for grabbing hair, all mine have a gap at the ends of the covers, otherwise they're good harps, the trick is to time the screams of pain with the music, so everyone thinks its on purpose.
Oddly enough I first grew a stach to keep the hairs on my index finger from rubbing my upper lip raw, well sometimes ya just can't win.
A word on the steel reeds, I find that they are a bit stiffer than the brass reeds Hohner uses, not a bad thing just different.
Look at it this way for every hair pulled out, you get to work on the old blues song, My Harp Pulled Another Hair Blues,, It's in the key of Eeeyow!!!
|
ScottK
118 posts
Jan 03, 2019
3:59 PM
|
I used to have that problem for many years. with any harps and back then (80s-90s) I played mostly Lee Oscars. I tried playing marine bands back then for a few years but it hurt my lips and I eventually went for the LOs, I mostly played neil young tunes and other first position playing and using a rack while strumming guitar. When I started playing 2nd position more bluesy I still had the problem. A couple years ago when I decided to re-learn because I knew I needed to improve and i hadn't really learned many of the basics, (like I wasn't even holding it correctly at all) it took a little time but I don't have that problem anymore at least to any extent that I notice.
For me the key has been to become accustomed to putting the harp more in my mouth, even touching the teeth a lot and having my lips being more on the cover plates when back then I think I was more like "kissing" the harp. And though the first few weeks of switching to Marine Band 1896s was uncomfortable I did get used to it. Building my collection now I have a few MBs, MB Deluxes, Crossovers, Manji, some of my older Lee Oscars, and a Seydel Session Steel. They all seem the same to me as far as Beard issues. And I have a bigger beard and stache than usual right now. Adam Gs very first beginning lesson that I bought on this site was amazingly helpful.
I think the key is getting your lips more onto the cover plates, keeping them moist and hydrated, having the harp being more in the mouth and feeling natural with that and the breathing while playing.
That's what seems to have worked for me.
Last Edited by ScottK on Jan 03, 2019 4:01 PM
|
florida-trader
1405 posts
Jan 04, 2019
10:23 AM
|
Way back when I first started playing the harp about 100 years ago, I had a mustache. I haven’t had one since about 1983, but I don’t ever remember snagging facial hair on my harp. Perhaps that is because I pretty much exclusively played Golden Melodys, so I guess Golden Melody would be a good recommendation. The comb and covers on a Golden Melody are integrated better than most any other harp out there.
That said, I am always a bit puzzled why some guys are not more proactive about fixing minor issues with their harps. If it has a sharp edge, sand or file it smooth. If you don’t like the shape of the cover – bend it to a shape that you do like. Often a minor modification will solve the problem and it will not affect the way the harmonica plays at all. Regarding mustache hair, a harp will only snag your mustache hairs on either end of the covers. There should not be a gap between the reed plate and the covers in the middle of the harp large enough for a hair to fit in and get snagged. If there is, then the covers are not seated properly on the reed plates. If the covers are slightly bowed in the middle which means the ends might be raised a bit, perhaps then you will get some separation between the covers and the reed plate large enough to snag a hair. Take the covers off and “massage” them so that when they are mounted on the harp, that separation is eliminated. Or, do something to cover the little gap that snags your hair. How about a bit of tape on the edge? Might not be pretty, but it would be effective. The point is to be proactive and creative and fix the harp you already have instead of spending more money on another harp.
----------
Tom Halchak
Blue Moon Harmonicas
|
Post a Message
|
