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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
I am retiring
I am retiring
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1275 posts
Aug 10, 2012
7:46 PM
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I just wanted to let everybody know I'm retiring from the harmonica scene and won't be offering any more stock harmonicas or harmonica accessories. The Elk River Institute for Advanced Harmonica Studies will stay up and I will keep adding stuff to that. The rest of the Web site will be coming down.
Once I finish up the current batch of orders and outstanding repairs, that will largely be it for me.
Anybody who has a purchased a harmonica from me, I will continue to service those instruments.
What I will be doing is continue to make some of the more unique Elk River products, such as The Bluesified Concerto or preflattened combs, altered intonations and the like. Really, the only reason I'll be doing those still is because I enjoy that so much. I was getting ready to come out with this $90 (but German) half-valved chromatic that worked really well for minor blues. But I'm not going to be selling those direct anymore, they will be sold by another dealer, who will keep some of these things in stock. if any other dealer might be interested in carrying something, let me know and we can see how it goes.
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David
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At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Last Edited by on Aug 10, 2012 7:47 PM
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HarpNinja
2616 posts
Aug 10, 2012
9:16 PM
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Congratulations? I hope this decision is something you want to do and isn't something you were forced into.
I can't wait to catch up soon...are you going to SPAH?
I wish you the best. You're one of the coolest harp-guys I've ever met, and I could listen to you and Joe Leone talk for hours about anything without ever getting bored or feeling the need to chime in.
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Mike
VHT Special 6 Mods
Quicksilver Custom Harmonicas - When it needs to come from the soul...
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Aussiesucker
1175 posts
Aug 10, 2012
11:35 PM
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Good luck David. I hope this means more fishing & home brewing & perhaps some travel? I have been retired for over 10 years, busier than ever, and cannot understand how I ever found the time to work.
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HARPOLDIE’S YOUTUBE
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Jim Rumbaugh
771 posts
Aug 11, 2012
5:59 AM
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I hope this means you have more time to show up on Tuesday night at the club meetings. We love to see your smiling face.
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theharmonicaclub.com (of Huntington, WV)
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1276 posts
Aug 11, 2012
7:33 AM
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Jim, Probably will. One issue is the post office and the trouble I have getting there when it is open. I'm always working when the post office is open. It's also a bit too much to handle. The end result is I'm getting too slow - and that's not how I want to operate.
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
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Sarge
236 posts
Aug 11, 2012
10:08 AM
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Well Dave, I hope you have more time now for fishing and squirrel hunting. I sure appreciate the great work you've done for me and wish you well.
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Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
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JInx
284 posts
Aug 11, 2012
8:19 PM
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hey, thanks for that embossing video...the penny trick works for me.
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Sun, sun, sun
Burn, burn, burn
Soon, soon, soon
Moon, moon, moon
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TheoBurke
65 posts
Aug 12, 2012
1:41 PM
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Thank you for your dedication to the art and craft of this brilliant little instrument.
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Ted Burke
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-VPUDjK-ibQ&feature=relmfu
ted-burke.com
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MP
2401 posts
Aug 12, 2012
2:47 PM
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really sorry to hear it Dave.
may i still order some reed screws and nuts before you go? i mostly use rivets but sometimes those Seydel screws and nuts are just the right thing to use.
almost all my fav tools are from you. i use your reed popper,rotary tool, file, and pozi drive every day
regards, MP
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MP
affordable reed replacement and repairs.
"making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time"
click user name for info-
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mlefree
69 posts
Aug 13, 2012
9:49 AM
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Dave, I remember a number of years ago when you "burst" onto the harmonica scene. You seemed brash, determined to further your own agenda and quite possibly just plumb "full of it."
What I slowly began to realize was that you are none of those, but an exhuberant, experienced champion of our instrument with a mountain of knowledge and a willingness to share it. Over time, you emerged as one of the "forces of nature" in the harmonica community, and it seems, a hellofa nice fellow.
I was actually disappointed when you joined Harrison Harmonicas because, even though I knew your presence would help ensure the compay's success, I missed that "down-home" sensibility of yours that says, "Welcome. Come on in and sit down and we'll have some victuals and then play some..." And legions of enthuiast did just that, at least metaphorically. I was one of them.
Now I sense that somehow the Harrison debacle took a high toll on you, personally. After the smoke cleared you appeared to have lost some of that locomotive momentum that seemed to the source of your boundless energy. It seems from the far that the whole episode took way too much out of you and now we, that legion of fans you garnered over the past several years are left wondering, "what will we do without Dave Payne's enthusiasm and willingness to spread his knowledge?"
I for one have grown to count you as one of the few real, genuine contributors to the harmonica scene. As such, you will be sorely missed. I think I speak for all of us when I wish you the very best in whatever endeavor you decide to sink your formidable teeth into. Further, in the commmunity's interest, I hope that you do leave at least a crack in the door giving us hope that you will return to our open arms at least from time to time.
Thanks for all you have done for the harmonica community, David Payne!
Michelle LeFree
Western Colorado
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1278 posts
Aug 13, 2012
12:26 PM
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Thanks guys.
When I popped on the scene, I was brash. I don't know that I had an agenda, but I was pretty loud, still in my 20s. Maybe I did have an agenda, I don't know. I can't remember what it was if I did, besides the agenda I wanted to work for a harmonica company, maybe. I am positive that I was plumb full of it.
But, you get older, you mature and start thinking more before you say things. There was a time when I spouted off everything I knew about harmonica tweaking, then I got Harrison method training and couldn't spout off EVERYTHING anymore.
The whole Harrison job was such a great job, a cool job, a dream job - I'm in there burning it up, rocking and rolling and then one day, there's nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I'm at the point now where I'm not able to handle it and I'm running slow, way too slow, that's not only a drain of energy and enthusiasm, but also it takes time away from being able to pop in and answer some newbie's question about why his two draw won't bend, etc. I can't really do that while some guy's harp sits around unrepaired.
My gut reaction is I'm exhausted, would like to finish every project that's outstanding, then just kind of drop off the face of the earth, maybe even take a nap or two - but, the reality is, I love the instrument too much and will never be able to do that. I did drop off the face of earth after HH went under for about a year - and I think a good deal of the exhaustion has been I haven't been in the "Occupy Brad Harrison" camp, I've been saying "What mistakes there were are obvious, but there was no funny business and everybody there tried their absolute damnedest" and that really is an exhausting position to take - as far as the many, many times you have to retell it - or you read somewhere somebody's written about what a culpable jackass you are because of it or reading the occasional e-mail sprinkled with the F-bombs.
Certainly that contributes, but is not the root cause of exhaustion. I simply can't keep it up and operate as it should, so I won't continue. There was one thing that did pop up a few weeks ago. It wasn't really bad or anything, it just made me ask myself "why am I still doing this?" I couldn't answer that question.
But even when I dropped off the face of the earth in 2010 - 2011, I couldn't stay out of it entirely and went back in business, so I know I'll have to do something. I came up with this realistic solution:
1) I would still repair stuff I have sold.
2)I wouldn't sell any stock harps, nor would I sell anything directly. I would make stuff and send it to somebody else, who would keep that stuff in stock. That guy is at SPAH, when he comes back, we'll cement all the details and I can announce stuff. I might be working with other dealers as well.
All my efforts will be in the niche stuff I do, such as
1) customs
2) Bluesified octave harmonicas.
3) Optimized harmonicas.
There will be stuff I wasn't able to do before that I will be doing. One is 12-hole blues chromatic for under $100, from the Seydel Chromatic Standard, it plays really well in 3rd position or any kind of draw-heavy position.
Another would optimized Manjis in addition to the optimized Seydels, etc.
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Last Edited by on Aug 13, 2012 12:30 PM
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shadoe42
213 posts
Aug 13, 2012
12:42 PM
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a chromatic for under 100 bucks? Color me interested.
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The Musical Blades
My Electronic Music World
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
1282 posts
Aug 13, 2012
7:40 PM
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You can already get it in the unvalved chromatic Deluxe, and it's actually cheaper than it would be with the valve modification I've in mind, but, being I deem unvalved chromatics unplayable (although some actually prefer them). The comb is too narrow on the inside to make inside valves feasible. What I did was put valves on the outside over the blow reedslots and see what happened. End result was, for 3rd pos. minor blues (which is the only thing a lot of folks play on chromatics), it plays a lot like a valved harp. The draws feel like a valved harp. It kind of blew me away when I did that stuff. Now when I played in first position, it was a different story, it took a lot of air, but for that minor key blues, it was really cool.
I'll have a price once my guy gets back from SPAH and we work those things out. He'll be selling from stock that I've sent him - as opposed to taking orders for harps to be made, which is what I'm really retiring from. That and stock harps.
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David
____________________
At the time of his birth, it was widely accepted that no one man could play that much music so well or raise that much hell. He proved them all wrong.
R.I.P. H. Cecil Payne
Last Edited by on Aug 13, 2012 7:44 PM
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