Antoine Hamel does a nice job here and he's using a key of G harp that I built or him. G harps are often dull and dark but you can really hear the brightness, clarity and crispness of the harp in that recording. THAT'S what you get with a custom harp aside from the tremendous playability of course. :-)
The harp sounds terrific. But Buddha! You're losing your edge as a critic of other harp players--or mellowing in your old age. Antoine's playing is frantic. He's not leaving space in any of the right places. If he were a certain French female, you'd be....jumping all over her. So to speak. (Notice that I said nothing about mind-vomit.)
Let's call this what it is: a custom harp demo video, not a performance video. An excellent custom harp demo video.
Hell, the harp sounds fantastic. You're right about G harps: they're usually dark and hard to play. The brightness of this one shines through. You're doing great work. I'm going to break down and buy one of your harps at some point.
I didn't post the video as an example of good playing, I posted as an example of how my work shines though in this vid. He didn't enter the contest, he also doesn't make up shit out me and other about me or try to ruin relationships.
The way I have critiques french folk is no different than how I have critique others on this board. I am fair and balanced in the critiques and only somebody who is arrogant and otherwise unwilling to learn would take offense at my help.
I also don't critique everybody, I haven't started on you yet :-) but I've been wait for our discussion on improvisation and methods of. And in the case of Antoine, there is nothing to critique due to his notes on the clip:
"Still some woodshedding performance :P. First part of Carlos del Junco version of Amazing Grace. It is based on the Howard Levy version.
This was a test for my custom G marine band by Chris Michalek. Excellent harp ! check it out http://www.buddhasgarden.net
I still need to learn the rest of the song and perfect the fist part too... "
btw- Vomit is an action as in uncontrolled expulsion of something ie; stomach content or ideas. It's not actual half eaten food floating in the toilet. If I had said anti-parastaltic expulsion from the cerebrum you wouldn't know what the **** I was talking about.
Last Edited by on May 24, 2009 9:45 PM
I got a custom. Good harmonica. I don't think Adam was correct though in his post. You were not justified in saying those things, sure the word vomit is a little 'mis-understood' and definitely from a person that does not speak English as well as French. It's also a verb, not just a noun. And, this video clearly states it is a demo of the harmonica.
Ah the good old debate on custom harps, I love it :)
I don't own one myself but I made some publicity for them a couple of days ago, imagine that. Where I live the harmonica is a practically unknown instrument. So a reseller asked me about my experiences with Seydel and other harps. It's incredible: they can talk for hours if you ask them about a guitar or a drum set but when it comes to harps they have no clue. So a beginner like me (not even 2 years of experience) had to tell them all the differences between brands, models, custom harps etc.
My conclusion was that sadly out-of-the-box harps all share the same problems we all know: inconsistent quality, out of tune, leakiness, not responsive etc. My only exception was the Suzuki Fire Breath which I suppose comes closest to a custom harp.
So my question to Buddha is: have you ever tried a Fire Breath and how do they compare to a custom harp in your opinion? (I think I already know the answer but it's worth a try isn't it?)
"So my question to Buddha is: have you ever tried a Fire Breath"
I had prototype firebreaths and pureharps that I was testing. They were great. I also build them on a regular basis for customers so I play them quite often.
There is no comparison between ANY out of the box and my lowest level of customizing work. My $85 lotus harp blow away the $200 Fabulous harp.
It's me Antoine. Thanks for the comments and critism on my playing and be sure to look for a custom harp with Chris! They sound great as you can hear in the clip !
I still have alot to practice to master this song but I will get it down eventually so thanks for the honesty on my playing.
load of bull for the harp....but not so much for other instrument. People are assuming it has the same effects but there is not enough energy in the harmonica reeds to make a difference.
I tried a lot of different woods for my comb since I make them and I never saw any difference in tone.
Some look nicer and feel more comfortable but that's pretty much the only differences. The quality of the comb itself ( flatness, arithightness etc.. are the only important things)Oh yeah and the swelling factor is important too :) Some wood swell more than others.
I'm of the same opinion when it come to combs and comb material: they all sound the same.
But there is one italian site that states something different:
http://www.bluestime.it/custom_italia/index.html
Apparently a different comb produces a different sound they actually measured the differences. I suppose a dog could hear the difference.
For me it just a question of comfort. Metal being the best so far.
Hmm I must get one of Buddha's harps one of these days - I just dunno what model and what key to get yet... I hope Chris puts a lot of Buddha-love into my harp when he makes it ;)
Chris: do you eliminate the Golden Melody problem when you customize them? I'm speaking of the lower reeds touching the cover plates.
That page has been discussed before - It's a really bad experiment. How is it an accurate and fair comparison to compare a .25s soundclip of a fluctuating sound (vibrato and hand effects were evident in the sounds analysed) with a .04s one? How is 1dB (the smallest unit of volume change discernible by human ears) a significant volume change? I would expect just being a couple of cm closer to the mic to explain the tone and volume changes. The 'experiment' makes no mention of any effort to standardise the distance from harp to mic.
The 'experimenter' here had a clear biased point of view and has created a flawed experiment and manipulated the data so that they 'proved' his beliefs. It doesn't matter how you dress it up, that's not scientific.
Still... you're right, comb material is really a matter of comfort.
