This is a valuable vid you posted Zhin. For the most part, I don't buy mics (I make 'em), but this is really good to know.
For the record: I am personally immensely fond of bad words. When you use words like "shucks" or "darn", you are lying to the people you are talking to. They know what you really mean to say. So I feel that one should just use the words that mean what you want to say. That's what they're there for. ---------- -------------- The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Yes, it's definitly f******* buyer be f******* beware on Ebay or you could be wasting s*** loads of money.(That sentence was for Isaacullah) I was watching one of Dave Payne's videos about a prewar Hohner, a harp he had bought on Ebay. He polished the covers, cleaned the reed plates, de-gunged the comb, put it back together to check for tuning only to find the harp had an A blow plate and a G draw plate. He laughed and said that it happened sometimes. Mind you, he didn't say how much he paid for it.
I have owned many different mics and still do. I currently have around 12 that I use for harp. I would say that every mic I own has been modified by me to suit a need or to find a tone. Every mic has its own voice with the amplifier it is plugged into. I always add a volume control to my mics if they do not have one. I do have a couple that I haven't been able to add the Volume control due to design problem that I have yet to solve. For those I have a volume pedal. I have gotten quite a few mics from Ebay. Like any shopping it is always wise , in my opinion, to be patient and realize that what is "monster tone" or that gritty "Chicago" sound in the listing is only from the perspective of the seller. That tone really comes from the player. I have never paid more than $50 for a mic and would not sell any of them now for less than $200. Wheezer is dead on when saying buyer beware. That should go without saying. Everyone should always do research into a mic, or anything for that matter, before spending money that you cannot afford to write off as a loss. Does it get good reviews for use with a harp? Is it high or low impedance? What do they normally sell for? (completed listings). Last of all be patient. If you don't win the one you are bidding on because the price goes beyond your limit, there will be another just like it or better soon enough.
I love the headshot monologue.. "Bloaks like me.....", "I'm just providin' a service". Awesome stuff ---------- ---Go Bears!!! (Richard Dent for Hall of Fame)---
Last Edited by on Mar 27, 2009 11:03 AM
That's why you may be surprised to hear me use a word I've never used on this forum and rarely use in real life: This guy is an [BAD WORD EDITED OUT TO TONE DOWN MY ANGER].
He has appointed himself a sort of muckraker, exposing the chicanery of evil harp-mic sellers, including somebody I count as a friend.
Here's the problem: The people he's slandering--at least two of them--have 100% perfect feedback records as eBay sellers. In one case, the person he slandered had 645 positive feedbacks (645 satified buyers) and ZERO negative feedbacks. The first person he slanders in this video has, once again, a perfect record of customer satisfaction. He never mentions this. But the evidence is right there in his videos.
In the video attacking my friend, he criticizes the seller for playing the mic "through a Fender Bassman and a Silvertone amp," insisting that if the seller REALLY wanted to give you a sense of how good the mic is, or isn't, he'd play it through a "clean" amp.
That is [FLAMING TERM FOR "REALLY REALLY UNINTELLIGENT" EDITED OUT].
Here's the definition of good business: you buy something for a low but fair price and sell it for a higher price that is determined by the market. There's nothing evil about that. If you're offering something at a grossly inflated price, nobody will buy it except for the occasional fool. And even those fools will eventually get wise. In any case, bad business practices eventually accrue as negative feedback from the people who have purchased your products.
The eBay harp-mic sellers that this guy is "outing" are engaged in business. What they're doing--and I'm speaking about someone I know, a guy who is slandered in another video, and the first person mentioned in this video--is entirely ethical. They are acting as middlemen. They are scouring the market, including eBay, for what they believe to be bargains, using their accumulated knowledge as harp-mic traders, and then offering the fruits of their labor to buyers at what they believe is a reasonable price. Of COURSE the buyer should beware. But those 100% satisfaction records speak volumes--volumes that OldDog, or whatever his name is, simply skips over.
He's wasting his time. He should be seeking to expose harp-mic sellers who are consistently failing to deliver the purchased product in a reasonable condition.
For the record: about a year ago, a well-known harmonica mic purveyor with an excellent reputation--or so I gather--sent me a Shure PE5H on speculation. He'd heard that that was what I used; he thought I might be interested. When I opened the box, the mic was covered with sticky black powder, as though the foam in the box had partially decomposed. It was gross. I could not believe that this particular guy had sent a mic to me in that condition. I emailed him--twice--expressing alarm and asking him if perhaps somebody else in his shop had sent the thing out, since there was no way I could buy it in that condition. He never responded. I emailed him a third time. No response. I finally sent it back with a note, and included my email. He never contacted me.
THAT is the kind of harp-mic seller that needs to be outed. I'm a gentleman and have refrained from using his name, but I won't ever do business with him.
As for HonestJohn/Olddog: he has slandered a friend of mine and I told him how I felt about that. (His response was surprisingly mild-mannered; he's not a bad guy when approached this way.)I think his energies are misplaced. Please remember: my friend has a 645-0 record of satisfied customers. Think about that. Does he deserve this sort of treatment?
Last Edited by on Mar 30, 2009 3:51 AM
One bit of advice for ebay- don't be fooled by shiny paint jobs and fancy volume knobs and connectors. IMO, its probably better to buy mics either from very well rated ebay users or better yet, give real mic customizers like Chuck Gurney (fatbottom mics) or Greg Heumann (blowsmeaway productions) if you're willing to spend some money for a top of the line mic. ---------- "Without music, life would be a mistake" -Nietzsche
I'm not going to ask that you take it down, and of course I don't blame you personally for putting it up. I'd prefer, frankly, that this specific thread be allowed to die of its own accord, but I'm all in favor of further discussion of the general issue. I certainly want folks on this forum to make good choices about harmonica mics.
For the matter of public record (should he choose to delete my comment) I'm re-posting my 2p to the offending video here. It makes a point that seems to be have been missed by everyone...
"Ron paid $200ish for the Brown biscuit with a WHITE label CR element (See 5:03). Refurbished it and replaced the element with a BLACK label CR (alone easily fetching $200). Selling it for $400 makes him some sort of crook? His profit on this must have been quite low. Seems you don't know the difference between black and white label CRs - pretty basic stuff to anyone selling harp mics on ebay. Or maybe you do, but chose to quickly gloss over the difference so you could "expose" your competition?"
I'm with Adam on this. There's no conspiracy here, there's noone selling mics only to mic-techs at next to nothing. Anyone could be bidding on these. Part of their work is to source the bargains. To know what to look for, lovingly renovate these old gems (adding value and harp friendly tweaks) and then to sell on for a profit, so that they can pay their mortgages and feed their children. It's their job. It's just how business works.
Last Edited by on Mar 30, 2009 6:40 AM
