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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
You don't have a custom harp.....or maybe you do
You don't have a custom harp.....or maybe you do
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RT123
262 posts
Jan 04, 2012
4:43 PM
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So many people advertise and sell "custom" harps. While they are great instruments with a lot of work put into them, they are NOT customized. Merriam Webster defines customize as ": to build, fit, or alter according to individual specifications". Most of these are not built to individual specifications, they are built the same way most of the time by the builder. You have bought a "tweaked" or "set up" harp. There is nothing wrong with that and you will probably get a superior harp than an OOTB harp, but it is not customized for you. There are exceptions, but unless you request a specific playing style and let the customized hear you play, then you are just getting a tweaked one.
On the flip side, by definition, you probably have a lot of customized harps and didn't even know it. If you buy a stock harp and do as little as push a toothpick through a hole to gap a reed then you have a customized harp. It has been set for the way YOU play.
I am just pointing out the semantics of it, so don't take this as a "custom" harp bashing. They are great instruments, some of the best you can get. But if you by from a website or for sale listing you are not getting a custom harp, you are getting a very good adjusted, tweaked, set up, or whatever else you want to call it.
edit to correct some spelling :)
Last Edited by on Jan 05, 2012 3:43 AM
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FMWoodeye
168 posts
Jan 04, 2012
6:13 PM
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Nice to see another guardian of the language. My work is based on interpretation of colloquial language. One of my pet peeves is people say CON-sum-mat professional...wrong. It's con-SUM-mat professional, the former being a verb, the latter being an adjective.
BUT...it doesn't make much difference to most people, as long as the meaning is conveyed.
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easyreeder
93 posts
Jan 04, 2012
7:48 PM
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Like it or not, language, like music, evolves, and is defined by usage. That's why'google' is now a verb. Don't believe it? Just google it, you'll see.
That said, I agree with RT123 to an extent. The term custom, to me, implies built from scratch, to order. Some stock parts might be included, but the design would be original. I wouldn't describe a tweaked Golden Melody with a wood comb custom, but I'd probably describe it as "customized".
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LSB
120 posts
Jan 04, 2012
8:03 PM
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Wow seriously?!? This is a topic worthy of discussion?
Next up: We rip on everyone's Syntax.
Ridiculous.
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ReedSqueal
229 posts
Jan 04, 2012
8:14 PM
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It must be a slow news day.
Next time, in promulgating your esoteric cogitations, or articulating your superficial sentimentalities and amicable, philosophical or psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity. Let your conversational communications possess a clarified conciseness, a compacted comprehensibleness, coalescent consistency, and a concatenated cogency. Eschew all conglomerations of flatulent garrulity, jejune babblement, and asinine affectations.
Let your extemporaneous descantings and unpremeditated expatiations have intelligibility and veracious vivacity, without rodomontade or thrasonical bombast. Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pompous prolixity, psittaceous vacuity ventriloquial verbosity, and vaniloquent vapidity. Shun double-entendres, prurient jocosity, and pestiferous profanity, obscurant or apparent!!
OK, I have a modified harp.
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Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
-Dan Castellaneta
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easyreeder
94 posts
Jan 04, 2012
8:19 PM
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Everybody run! The discussion police are gonna raid the place!
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joek18
8 posts
Jan 04, 2012
9:46 PM
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I hate to do this but... as a professional writer and fellow protector of words, RT123, the name of the dictionary is Merriam Webster, not "Mariam Webster".
The definition of the transitive verb "customize" is: to build, fit, or alter according to individual specifications.
Custom harmonicas are customized, by definition, in that they are altered to the individual specifications of the builder/customizer. Nowhere in the definition is the assertion made that the buyer or user must cite the specifications; the builder may create and fulfill the custom specs themselves.
With respect, your intent is noble but the execution is flawed.
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lor
67 posts
Jan 04, 2012
10:15 PM
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I suggest the pronunciation of the verb consummate should be con'-soom-mayt. whatever...
I am still working on the computer program that will let you design a custom harp by ear, by allowing you to specify tuning temperaments and notes to the holes. It can now play a stream of notes specified textually, a bit like a midi player. a bunch of work is still needed to make it user friendly.
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RT123
263 posts
Jan 05, 2012
2:36 AM
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@joek18 - you are correct. I guess my iPhone spelling autocorrect didn't get the memo. How ironic. LOL
@ eharp - modified is a perfect way to put it!
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hvyj
2045 posts
Jan 05, 2012
4:20 AM
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"Most of these are not built to individual specifications, they are built the same way most of the time by the builder."
This is NOT TRUE for the custom harps I have. Tuning, gapping and overall response were set up specifically for the the way I play and covers were opened or not depending on key per my specs. I don't OB but since I only play ET I don't want a "blues set up" either. So my personal requirements are somewhat atypical.
On the Quicksilver custom GMs I got from HarpNinja, he built them and set them up exactly the way I wanted, including somewhat higher gapping since I play with a relatively strong attack. Resonance was set up for throat bending since that's what i do. Covers were not opened on he higher keys because i find tone is warmer on those harps if they are not. Tuning was pure ET A442 which is certainly NOT a one size fits all set up.
The Quicksilver harps I got were an individualized build specifically to my specs/requests, with a lot of communication with Mike along the way, so I consider them to be custom harps in the proper sense of the word. Playing them is like walking on air.
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RT123
264 posts
Jan 05, 2012
4:36 AM
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@ hvyj -
You sir have custom harps!
That is a great example of true customized harps.
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jim
1115 posts
Jan 05, 2012
5:03 AM
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LOL Really, the topic went in such a direction that I just can't resist...
I've got 9.8"
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