I,d like to put out a thumbs up to Mark for reviving 20 of my Special 20 harps that I,ve accumulated through the yrs, back up and playing.He replaced reeds where needed and actually went the extra mile and replaced a couple more reeds that I didn,t know were bad.He cleaned them, did the reed replacements,retuned them and opened the backs in a start to finish thirty day period from my door in N.J. to Hawaii and back,Awesome.His weekly updates were spot on without me even asking.Thanks Mark,you saved me alot of cashish in the future.I,d highly reccommend his service.He,s One Bad Mufuh!
I agree,lets put mark on a mansion on the hill with his harp tech skills....customer service works all the time....they will come back plus providing billboard service for the provider
Thanks MP, its my nickname and easier than coming up with something I could remember & type easy.
You are right. Gnarly did some tuning for me on some SP20s. Hohner no longer offers natural minors in that line. He also worked on some LO's that were pretty leaky on holes 1-4. It improved them, but they are not near as tight as the SP20s. They were bought back in the early '90s. The newer LOs are probably made better, I don't know.
Gnarly is like you. Great to work with, skilled, and a talented player. I highly recommend him.
Last Edited by on Apr 26, 2012 11:58 AM
orphan, didn't know Hohner discontinued natural minors for the SP/20 line. this is another thing about MBH that i really like. you learn something new all the time -sans research, because by and large- at least one of the couple of thousand members has checked it out already.
MBH replaced my morning newspaper two years ago.
groyster,
i can remove the escutcheon pins (all eleven of them) from your ancient GMs and replace the reed plate pins with 0-80 screws. the problem is that i don't have GM cover plate screws. there are not a lot of old pinned GMs around to support buying screws from Hohner.
i did a GM yesterday but am not happy with the cover plate screws i modded to fit. they are only raised a little bit but that is just enough to bug you.
eventually i'll figure out how to secure modified plate screws completely flush w/out weakening the entry holes. when i do i'll let you know. ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
An MS-series coverplate screw set is too short for a GM, but I took the bottom part (the female) and matched it with a stainless steel screw (M2, 10mm, I believe). The head stuck out a lot on the coverplate so I put the screw in my drill press (upside down) and used my dremel to grind down the head at an angle so that it would sit flush with the GM coverplate. Took ten seconds after a few tries....
what you describe is similar to what i did already. i took post (female ends) from a Huang and used those long MS reed plate screws for the males. the top of the harp is fine but the bottom is where the male ends aren't flush. i'm gonna look around for 10mm as i have lots of MS female posts. cool! ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
Yeah Mark, I play here in San Diego and have been repairing harps for a few years--I worked for Suzuki for a year, that was great! Do you play music in Hawaii? I have a friend from here who does that, John Toomey . . .
yeah, i play fairly often. my band is hosting a Little Walter birthday tribute gig early May. we play Chinatown a lot, the University area, and quite a few Public Radio things.
never worked for a harmonica company though. Sounds like the perfect job. i did work for many years on brass,reed, and woodwinds. like harps, a typical problem is leakage. who does John Toomey play with? ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
Perfect job is working for yourself! I haven't talked with John for quite some time, but I know he's playing all over the Islands . . . guitar, keyboard and vocal.
Gnarly, true that! i'll keep an eye out for Toomey. someone must know him. we're pretty tight knit. doesn't matter if the genre is jazz,rock,bluegrass, hawaiian, or what have you. ---------- MP affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
