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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
A tricky issue
A tricky issue
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laurent2015
111 posts
Apr 13, 2012
7:46 PM
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What's the main feature of a diatonic harp?
I thing I'm not wrong if I reply: the bending capacities.
Now the question is, if you buy a harp that for mysterious reasons can't be bend, even after fine (under magnifying glass) adjustments, are you eligible for claiming the warranty?
It's tricky, because all the reeds operate and have no failures if you simply gently blow or draw: the harp is "in order".
It recently occured to me, and the supplier (located in Germany) wanted a detailed explanation on what I called "a problem". I described as good as possible what's bending a harp, and had them notice that all other harps I ordered to them before worked pretty well, including for bends.
It lasted a few days before I receive their answer: they eventually granted the warranty to me, just because I claimed it within 14 days after shipping: I'm nigh sure otherwise I wouldn't have got it.
The supplier is Thomann in Germany: they are very huge on the field of music and have an outstanding variety of lots of music appliances and instruments, but bad point is that they can't be real specialists; so their customer care service didn't ever heard about "bending".
In my opinion, beyond the fact we blow and draw the harp, bending the reeds remains the main feature of the instrument thus the warranty should be effective even after 14 days...Am I right?
Last Edited by on Apr 13, 2012 7:51 PM
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Oisin
937 posts
Apr 13, 2012
8:00 PM
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Hey Laurent....I've used Thomann many times before and I've always found them a good company to deal with. I must admit I've never heard of a diatonic harp that you couldn't bend the reeds on. What kind of harp was it and which reeds wouldn't bend? Was it all of the reeds? What key was the harp in?
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Oisin
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laurent2015
112 posts
Apr 13, 2012
8:26 PM
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Oisin, I should say, a chromatic harp that you try to bend, you see?
Well on the diatonic (that was a Seydel, but no controversy!) the best bends I could perform on 2 or 3 reeds were like on a chromatic harp.
Other reeds were simply not bendable!
Yes, Thomann's a good supplier.
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Oisin
939 posts
Apr 13, 2012
8:51 PM
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That seems very strange...I've never played a Seydel harp but I've heard nothing but good things about them. At least they did refund you. Did you try gapping it first?
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Oisin
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nacoran
5537 posts
Apr 13, 2012
9:16 PM
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I'd think that even after the warranty period if you ran it high enough up the chain of command you'd get someone who thought a harp that couldn't bend was a defect, even if they had to call the manufacturer. As long as you could prove to their satisfaction you could bend notes on most harps I think most companies, just for the sake of good business, would.
If I was a harp manufacturer I'd want defective harps sent back so I could see what was going wrong. The best way to deal with defective merchandise is to figure out what is wrong with the production line and fix it!
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Nate
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laurent2015
113 posts
Apr 14, 2012
12:05 PM
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Oisin, yes for the gapping (under a magnifying glass!)
Nate, ok with you; I just hope it won't happen again, that's not good for my nerves.
Now I'm sure you also think that without bending capacities, a harp is not a harp!
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MrVerylongusername
2329 posts
Apr 14, 2012
1:00 PM
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I hate to say this Laurent, but I'm sure many others will be thinking like me. Please be assured that I make these comments with no malicious intent.
You say there is nothing wrong with the reeds - each reed sounds, but still you appear to believe that it is the harp that is faulty.
Was it by any chance a low tuned harp?
Without all the details (brand, model, key) it is hard to be certain, but I am somewhat sceptical that the harp is faulty. Instead I believe that you need to learn how to deal with this particular harmonica.
Different models and different keys respond in different ways. Many people presume because they can play one key they can automatically play another: not so! The lower in key you go, the harder the draw bends become, the higher in key you go, the more subtle the mouth shape changes you need to make.
I've been playing over 25 years and I have no problem bending any harps in the regular key range right down to Low C. Drop down to low G and I struggle to bend the 1 draw. On my Low Low F I cannot bend the 3 bottom holes. I have never presumed theose harps to be at fault though and I still work at bending on them.
As for refunds, I'm sure you'll get one - shops are used to folk returning harps with 'broken' 2 and 3 draws without quibble. Whether I think you're are actually entitled to one is another matter: If I bought my 6 year old son a car, would I be entitled to return it because he couldn't drive it?
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laurent2015
115 posts
Apr 14, 2012
2:03 PM
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No trouble Verylong, your question deserves to be asked.
It was not a low tuned harp.
I own about 20 diatonic harps ranging 9 keys and bend them all without any problem and for most of them, fortunately, without adjustments.
I have one that was worse than the Seydel, it 's a Big River harp from Hohner; this one was almost simply unplayable and I don't even speak here about bending.
I adjusted the reeds (they really obviously needed to be) and this harp sounds now almost like a MB, included the bends (I don't like it much, however).
I think Seydel is a good brand, I have a chromatic that works pretty good!
Now what a surprise when I opened the diatonic Seydel, compared to the Big River: at first look, all the reeds seemed to be normally "gapped" so what I succeed in was just getting a very slightly improvement, remaining however widely under what you can expect.
That's why I first evoked "mysterious reasons" causing the problem, actually it's beyond my understanding!
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