It’s true: I don’t really like harps. They are too fragile and too expensive. They are too delicate to work on; at least I do not have the dexterity or patience required for that. I don’t get excited when I see a vintage harp or a custom harp or a big collection of harps. Harmonicas are pretty much a pain in the neck. Honestly.
I don’t play because I like harps… I play because I love the sound they make when played well. If I could make that sound with another instrument I would do it. Sure, harps are handy and portable if you want to carry one around, but so what? You need a collection of at least 12 harps that you are constantly fixing or tweaking or replacing. It never ends.
What gets me excited is hearing them played well in the blues context, either acoustically (Tom Ball, Hans Olson, many others) or amped (Gary Primich, Gary Smith, many others). That is what does it for me. I like amps and mics and all the other accoutrement that go along with harps. I just don’t like harps.
I know there will be some who will claim they have harps that have lasted them YEARS and I must be doing it wrong. No, let’s dismiss that right away. I know several pro players and I’ve asked them about this. They all blow out harps, some more quickly than others. Gary Smith says we destroy them a little every time we play them. If you bend reeds they eventually fatigue.
Given all the shortcomings of harmonicas – the temperamental nature and stigma and expense and on and on – it is remarkable we become so dedicated to them for so long, for all of our lives. For me it is the tone. That’s it.
Okay Beard, let's say you pay $200 for your custom harps. You need 12 or them, and you need at least 12 backups. That is $4800, and you have to keep tweaking, repairing, or replacing harps in your collection.
For that kind of money you could buy a nice Gibson Les Paul and vintage Fender amp and be pretty much done with it. Guitar strings are cheap.
harmonica are not expensive....for less than 50.00 you can a quality harp....you dont have to play customs...harps dont play themselves....you need the skill and the will....
As a cheap-ass. I take issue with that. A full set of harps @ $35 a harp sets you back $420 before tax.
If you think it is just fine to buy a million dollar guitar, go right ahead, but there are those of us that have different priorities with our money.
There are plenty of folks that can make better music on a $100 guitar than most could make on any high priced guitar. If you can't make the music with the instrument, you can't spend your way into it. The marginal return on buying better and better equipment only matters if you can actually use it. I think it would be dumb to buy a Porsche if you live on a gravel road with a 25mph speed limit.
Just because something is relatively less expensive doesn't mean it is not still expensive.
I could buy a pickup truck for 20k. I could buy a Bugatti Veyron for 1 million. Where do you get that a 20k pickup is expensive?
Over the past 40 years, 20 of them doing 200-300 shows per year, I bet I have gone through a dump truck worth of harps. In all those years I have played a 1963 fender jazzmaster that was given to me by stevie vaughn and a cheap harmony guitar I paid $20 bucks for. If I had paid for the jazzmaster the price would have been about $250 at the time. In all those years I have put a couple hundred dollars into a refret job on the jazzmaster. Harps suck. They are disposable. Guitars last a lifetime. The new customizing thing is just that- new. Still one will need the skills to fix their own or pay big bucks to keep old harps going. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
What is this 12 harp target quantity of which you speak? What about low harps, high harps, country tuning, minor tuning, echos, tremolos, chromatics? German harps, American harps, Chinese harps, Japanese harps. The possibilities are seemingly endless.
What other instrument provides such potential variety with so minimal investment? Or rather, such modest installments.
I like the harmonica in general but what I don't like about them is they're a disposable instrument and have to be replaced. Over a lifetime of playing this can be quite expensive.
Let's say you buy your first harp at age 25 and blow out your last one at 75. Let's also say that during those 50 years of playing you spend an average of $100 a year on replacing harps. That's $5000 and you don't physically have anything to show for it at the end of your life. You can buy a nice guitar for a lot less money than that and have a nice vintage instrument to pass on to your children or whoever.
I get sentimentally attached to all my instruments and hate the thought of tossing one in the trash can. I know you can replace reed plates but often they cost as much as a new complete harp. And as far as replacing individual reeds go the manufacturers don't make that an easy task for the average Joe. I wish they could come up with a way to replace a reed that was as quick and simple as changing a guitar string. But the manufacturers don't want that so we'll have to buy more harps. But I agree with Rick...its all about the tone so the love/hate relationship continues.
I became a harp tech so I could afford to play harp. I like altered tunings, so it can get really pricey. I'd like to have a $200 harp, but I don't--OK, not including chromatics--see, it gets expensive when it adds up. My main instrument is guitar, but harmonica gives you many things you don't get with a guitar--so I hope to continue playing them.
If you query 100 blues harmonica players, people passionately committed to the instrument--and not merely playing the harp as one of several different instruments that they play, or playing it in order to produce a certain kind of sound out of an amp--I think you'll find that the great majority of them really love the instrument: love the sound, love the physical feel and the glinting look of the thing, love the concept, and especially love the portability. Harmonica, I wrote many years ago, may be the only instrument that you can play while walking down the street without people thinking you're extremely odd. The same thing can't be said of an electric bass, or a violin.
I think that most musicians dig their instruments. The tone is important, as is the feel of the thing in (or under) their hands when they're actually producing sounds. Perhaps because the harp is so small and so connected with our breathing, we harp players feel this even more pointedly.
I don't grow attached to any particular harp, but I'm passionately attached to harps as an embodied idea. I like picking them up and making those sounds. I like the intimacy of cupping the harp to my face and making those sounds. I like the draw-as-well-as-blow element.
I've always suspected that one-man bands who played guitar as well as harp were basically guitar players who wanted to add pizazz to the mix, not passionately committed harp players. Waltertore has thrown down the gauntlet and said "Hell yes, that's what I am!"--as though the fact that harp players sometimes blow out harps and have to throw them away necessarily undercuts our love for the harps themselves. I've used up, spit out, and thrown away literally hundreds of harps during my 38 years of playing. But I'm always the same 16-year-old when I open a harp case and take out a new instrument: I'm hoping I'll get a great one. And I'll know it's a great one within a couple of seconds after playing some old familiar licks. I know I'm not the only one on this forum who feels that little rush.
Battle lines have now been drawn, my children. Which side are you on?
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2012 1:14 PM
It's worse than that--I am a singing guitarist in search of pizzazz-- And not sure I qualify as a Modern Blues Harmonica player--my friend John Frazer keeps asking me, "Are you a blues man?", and the answer is always no--I am a musician, not in any one style. I can appreciate the blues, but it's not my main bag. I may be the least bluesy harp player on this list!
The harmonica itself is not super important to me. I really dig Blues music. I like the real deal Blues played on a harmonica. I love listening to players like Little Willie Anderson, Big Leon Brooks, Good Rockin' Charles, Snooky Pryor and Little Mac Simmons. To many, their playing is crude and simplistic. To me, their music is pure, raw emotion captured in 3 minute snippets. It speaks to me much like the music of Albert King, Howlin' Wolf and Sunnyland Slim.
I was exposed to a lot of harmonica music as a kid. It was okay. I listen to it, but it really didn't speak to me. The first time that I saw Mojo Buford with the Muddy Waters Band, it was the first time that music made with a harmonica spoke to me. That show was one of three events that made want to play.
One thing I like about the harmonica is that the barrier of entry was low. The cost of instruction was about $10 for Tony Glover's book. I bought my first Marine Band for $7.50. I bought my first JT30 for $40. My first amp cost me $100.
Fast forward 30 years. I've probably gone through hundreds of harps. When the quality of Marine Bands tanked, I switched to MS harp and started swapping reed plates until recently when the prices of replacement reed plates doubled. Now, I get them repaired by MP.
I don't need customs to do what I do. Until I recently bought a Manji, I had never spent more than $30 on a diatonic harp. Prior to that, the only harp that ever cost me more than $50 were a 2016 chromatic and a brand new 64 chromonica that I bought from a guy that received it as a gift.
As far as cost goes, I've managed to accumulate nearly a complete of Marine Band Deluxes at less than $30 each. I've got a complete set of MS harps and duplicates for common keys. Really common keys, I am three or four deep. My current plan is to send them to MP when I accumulate 6 or 7 bad ones.
Harps are cheaper than playing an instrument like a saxophone. As far as hobbies go, its way cheaper than photography or record collecting. I've got way more money spent on records and CD's than I have ever spent on harps.
the harp was my first instrument and still is my main one. I love harps but use to hate they wear out so quick. When you are playing most everynight in amplified situationas with a real band behind you (my life before the internet came about) and you play off the mic acoustically, they wear out a lot quicker than if you are amping it. Making barely enough money to eat made me desperate at times to find ways to get harps. I stole to buy them because I needed to hear the sound. Those days were desperate ones. Always behind finacially, and the dam harps kept going flat. Most guys here don't know that lifestyle. I remember hanging around with guys like charlie musselwhite, junior wells, back in the 70-80's and many of their harps were flat or had stuck holes. We had to learn how to work around that all the while the guitarists, bassists, keys, just buzzed along in good shape....... Walter
PS: I have no attachment to my harps and little to my guitars, drums, amp, keyboard. I am attached to the sounds they make but would be fine with any instrument as long as they play/sound the way I like. Now that I am not relying on music for my income I can view harps with no distain. I can buy what I need and have been blessed to have my harps customized to my needs and maintained by open door harps- thanks Burke T! I could have really used all that when I was struggling playing full time :-) ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
Interesting thread. I think everyone is right – that is – from his/her own perspective. The one thing that I would add is this: The harp is NOT the instrument. It’s the player who is the real instrument. The harp only facilitates the player. I submit that a harp is like your vocal chords. Your VOICE is a result from a variety of things that come from you - not just your vocal chords. The better you become as a player, the more likely you are to get away from the cheaper harps. If not, you will have an interest in improving the harps you already own. The fact that there’s a market for custom harps tells us something.
Today’s modern players do some amazing things on an instrument that was never designed to do those things. We keep demanding more, pushing the envelope to increase its range.
Harp is perhaps among the most difficult of instruments to learn and play well. You have to love it to do it at a respectable level. It’s a major commitment with a slow learning curve precisely because it takes all of those skills you have to conquer beyond the machine in our mouths.
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2012 3:01 PM
I agree with Noodles. Harp is easy to play but very hard to play well. Good comment.
This thread was not meant to start fights or draw lines; just to provoke a little thought and discussion on a rainy (here in Denver) Saturday.
Having said all this, there have been a few harps I owned that I really liked and hated to see them wear out. Some I even paid to have repaired several times. But I don't have a real interest in exactly how harps work or the mechanics of improving them, as I do with tube amplifiers. Harmonicas just do not fire my imagination very much. I love playing them, but I do it purely for the sound and for the challenge of getting better.
HarmonicaNick: Is that question for me? The audience reaction is usually applause, a few cheers, the usual. I don't get the biggest hand but I appreciate it anyway. I always get nice comments between sets. Nobody ever yells, "You Suck!" I'm cool with it.
We all love the SOUND of the harmonica, else we wouldn't be reading and posting in this forum. Most of us love blues too.
(aside-- Music, in all its forms, is more important than blues. Blues as a form is more important than any particular instrument used to make it. The human voice is the most important instrument, which is why I love harp players that can make their instrument sing.)
Rick was being deliberately provocative to see where this would go.
I'll bite. If you love the SOUND of an instrument, you have to be prepared to put up with the mundane problems that come with any instrument. My father, a flute player, was always fiddling with the pads that had to be seated just right to completely seal the hole when he pressed a key. All instruments have cost and maintenance issues. Comes with the territory.
Cheers,
wolf kristiansen
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2012 3:31 PM
This tread was partly inspired by a thread from Boris featuring photos of his collection of really fine harmonicas. I like and respect Boris but when I looked at the photos I was like, "Meh...." (Boris, don't get me wrong here. Your harps are very cool.)
I know many players get excitement from harps and I understand and honor that. But when I look at photos of harps I am pretty bored.
As you say, wolf... It does seem that someone who has spent as much time and energy on blues harp music as I have would feel a closer attachment to the harmonica itself. When I was thinking about that exact point I recognized its all about the sound for me, not about the instrument. Is that a distinction without a difference?
Perhaps I'd be a better player if I had more interest in the physics of the harmonica. Who knows?
Love em. Love everything about them. Love the portability, the sound, the large range of sounds and feelings that can be conveyed with them.
Love the fact that that they are really hard to play well; guitarists are a dime a dozen, but good harp players are rare (especially where I come from). Love the way that the vast majority of people I play to love the sound of it. Love tinkering with them and even buying new ones. Love the fact that its played with the breath (breath is the conduit between body, mind and spirit). Love that its as far as I can tell its the only instrument that you can't see when you play, meaning that the part of the brain that deals with visualisation is active when you play. Love the fact that playing it regularly is good for your health.
That probably just about covers it. ---------- Lucky Lester
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2012 4:11 PM
I LOVE my Harps, I love the look of them, the weight of them, the feel of them, I love shining them up till they could blind you, I love stripping them down and cleaning them, I love the feel and taste of them in my mouth and the fact that I can FEEL them working in my mouth and teeth and face and if I get it right, deep down inside me vibrating all the way down to my gut. Oh and best not forget the sound, that tingle up the spine when you're wailing on a bent 4 draw with just a hint of the 5 hole gritting up that tone,oh man it gives me goose bumps. I LOVE my Harps, when I'm pissed I pick em up and kiss them, I talk to them, I thank them for being in my life and for letting me be part of this special musical club that we all on this forum belong to. Oh yeah by the way did I mention I LOVE my Harps.
Last Edited by on Oct 13, 2012 4:21 PM
I met a pro musician in the Albuquerque airport a few months ago - Texas Johnny Boy - when he dropped a harp onto the floor, and I asked him what harp he plays. Marine band deluxe, by he way. He offered that playing harmonica is a lot more expensive for him than playing the tenor sax, which he also plays professionally, doing what he calls "old school rhythm and blues" as an "eclectic bluesician". Just one pro's experience. ---------- Matthew
Often played keys don't last forever, but the joy of making them talk is priceless. Live in the moment, enjoy, and cough up the cash when one of your "babies" coughs up a hairball. Cost of everything keeps going up, but there are somethings that you just need, and for me it's a new harp when one of mine goes south on me. Amen
When I admitted to myself that I was a harmonica addict in the mid 1990's, I had a revelation fairly quickly that learning to work on my harmonicas was a necessity!
"I am VERY frugal" so, that's probably why that revelation bopped me upside the head so early on in my love affair with the harp!
Lucky for me I enjoy it an find delight in taking them apart and doing all the necessary things to make them better or revive them back to life.
But if for what ever reason someone is not able to work on their own harps in a least a modestly proficient way, I can understand why they would not like them very much.
I find it interesting that the perception of the harp to the non-initiate is that it is cheap and easy to play. It has a poor sound and is basically a toy. This is backed up by the fact that most of us on this site could probably teach a non-musician to play a recognizable tune on a $5 harp in just a few minutes. A person would spend longer trying to get a non-musician to even get a note out of a brass or woodwind instrument. Harmonicas don’t make terrible screeches in the hands of a novice like a clarinet or a violin so it must be simple to play, right?
However, when you get to know the instrument it can do amazing things and takes as much or more effort to master as any instrument. I expect that many who consider the harmonica a toy do not even realize they are hearing it in some of the music they listen to.
So the little easy to play toy is really one of the more expensive, and difficult to master instruments around. I wonder what opinions I hold about things I know little about that are as far off from reality as this common perception of the harmonica.
Just had Blow 7 go flat on My Lo D Session Steel for the 5th time since I bought the harp over a year ago. I have bought 3 sets of reed plates for this harp but Last time a took a reed from one of the old reed plates, cut it to fit and screwed it into place. Because I already had the plated tapped and a screw holding the reed, replacement was fairly easy.
Is the only comany that attached reeds with screws for easy replacement the one that went out of buisness. This seem like the way to make the harmonica more repairable for the non expert. They dont rivet or weld the strings to a guitar at the factory!
I'm learning the hard way. Heaps of different harps in all brands & tunings, customs, tremolos & chromatics. I don't know how much I've invested to learn that it's me that makes the noise or music. Frustrating yes. I thought that having a harp was simplicity, low cost, convenience, and portability. Now when I travel or go to a gig I take them all because if I don't, the call will be for the one I didn't bring or the extra one I need to buy tomorrow.
I love my harps but get frustrated sometimes with the way I play. I'm sure every instrument causes the same frustrations.
I like pretty harmonicas, but I'm always on a budget. I decided I wanted a small collection of vintage harps after seeing a display of art deco harmonicas on Flikr, but I knew I'd never be able to afford expensive ones, so I've focused on pretty little plastic Magnus harps. When I have enough I'm going to mount them on a board and hang them on the wall, maybe as a clock. I can get one on eBay for about $10.
I like tinkering inside out of curiosity, but I lose interest a lot of the time once I've figured out the principle. It's a puzzle for me rather than a craft project. ---------- Nate Facebook Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
I'm crazy about my harps. I like tone, feel, portability, ability to play anywhere anytime, no preparing to play (guitar needs tuning, clarinet needs assembling). I always have at least 7 harps with me and play them at any possible moment. When I played Hohner Brass reeds I was always nervous about keeping them in tune and availability of spare reeds. When I go to Seydel and become a serviceman and get comlete set of reeds. Now I just play them and get pleasure. Most problems I can get with harps can be solved in minutes using a swiss knife (reed centering, gaping). Reed replacement need more tool and set of reeds, but I have them at home. If I play gig I always have a spare harp for such situation. It's a great to have skill which allows you to repair your instrument fast. And for harmonica it's possible. Even complete set of reeds and tools for replacing them reqiers not too much place.
Our instrument is very unpretentious. Just talk to clarinet player about reeds, pads, springs, wood cracks etc. Talk to guitar player about humidity, frets, strings. ---------- Excuse my bad English. Click on my photo or my username for my music.
I feel your pain.. Actually, today I was just assessing the cost of what I am shouldering. It's obscene.... But like you ended your thread with, it's about the tone. When you know you can do it, why stop there? It's more than the tone, too. ----------
Why is it that we all just can't get along?<
Last Edited by on Oct 14, 2012 2:52 AM
I actually play HOHNER BLUES HARPS with DORTEL combs : 70€ each .They are fine and have the sound i want .A reedplate set is 15€ at THOMMANN's or 20€ at HOHNER C SHOP .I think it's not so expensive .
"I know there will be some who will claim they have harps that have lasted them YEARS and I must be doing it wrong. No, let’s dismiss that right away. I know several pro players and I’ve asked them about this."
Pro players are just like the rest of us. Some blow hard, some don't. Quite a few of them play much harder than the average one of us - just because Junior Wells played softly, doesn't mean all pro players, or even a quarter of them do.
I bend all the time. I overblow much of the time. I'll go through my main gigging harmonicas. The Bluesified Concertos are all newer, as are my XB-40s, so I won't mention those. If I've replaced a reed, it will be obvious, because i have always used screws. opening the case, I see.
Diatonics: 1) G Prewar Seydel Bandmaster, American Chestnut comb. Made around 1915. Been my main G since 2006. Zero blown reeds. 2) Ab Seydel Solist Pro, Hetrick comb, no blown reeds, but it's newer. 3)A B-radical. Since 2010. Played it a lot. No blown reeds. Also and A Jason Ricci prewar Marine Band that was my main A from 2008 - 2010 and still gets some playing. No blown reeds on that either. 4) Bb Jason Ricci custom Golden Melody. Jason played it for some time. It's been my main Bb since Jan. 2008 and Jason played it for some time before that. Zero blown reeds. 5) C B-radical, since 2010. Zero blown reeds. It has been played almost every day. I blew out one reed on its predecessor, a C Seydel Solist, which I'd been using since 2006. It's still sitting around here, waiting for me to put a reed in it. 6) Db Solist Pro with Hetrick comb. Newer, no blown reeds. Its predessor, was a Db Marine Band I'd had since 1999 or so. I used it until 2009, when I customized it and gave it to Phil Caltebellotta for his birthday that year (PHil had just come all the way down from New York to WV - George came, too -to judge a harmonica contest I had). Phil was using it to play the diatonic part when he plays "Harmonica Boogie." I don't know if it is still in service or not. I'll try to remember to ask him. 7) D Seydel Solist. I built it in 2007. Zero blown reeds. 8) Eb Golden Melody custom by Randy Sandoval, Genesis wood comb. Since 2008. Zero blown reeds. 9) E Solist Pro with Randy Sandoval Genesis Corian comb. Since 2008. Zero blown reeds. 10) F Bends Juke. since 2011. Zero blown reeds. 11) B Seydel Solist. Since 2006. Zero blown reeds. 12) F# Marine Band, since 2000. Zero blown reeds. 13) A Seydel Solist, Paddy Richter tuned. Played a great deal since I built it in 2008. Zero blown reeds.
Chromatics in the case: 13) D Hohner 270. I have played this harmonica since I was 12 years old. Zero blown reeds. 14) Hohner 64, I haven't had it that long, though. 15) Rauner Chromatic, made around 1946, zero blown reeds. Tremolos: 16) Hohner E Sportsman Tremolo, prewar. Played this one a bunch. Zero blown reeds. 17) Seydel Mountain Harp, double side tremolo, since 2009. I use this one a great deal as a chord harp. Zero blown reeds. In all fairness, I had another Mountain Harp - which I gave to somebody - that I blew a reed out on. I used to use it for the William Tell Overture, I had to play that one pretty crazy and hard to get that.. I had to flip the tremolo fast to get some of the needed notes on the other side. It was Richter tuned and I played this one reed bending it down to the floor. I blew it out once and replaced that reed. I've replaced a lot of reeds in my day, but oddly enough, they were rarely mine.
I used to blow out reeds occasionally, but this stopped around 2008. I'm trying to think of reeds I have blown in the meantime. I can only remember that C Solist and the Mountain Harp. I started playing when I was five years old. I still have my first harmonica - a Pocket Pal - it has a blown reed. I kept blowing them out during my teen years probably. I don't think I have ever blown out a reed on a chromatic.
---------- David
Last Edited by on Oct 14, 2012 3:39 AM
Here's that D Chromatic I've been playing since 1987. I still get quite a bit of volume from it, but haven't blown any reeds.
---------- 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
I think I've got an idea how he feels. As much as I get into harmonica history, mechanics and things, there are still a few things that will just bore me to death and I am constantly tweaking stuff.
---------- 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
thanks for posting,dave...I love skip james music and that one is my favorite...love the lyrics...great playing on the chromatic...your cuz does well on vocals and guitar...
I agree with Rick in some aspects. It is rediculous that you buy a brand new harp and there is little quality control. As Adam mentioned, You open the box and hope you got a good one. This is what I do not like about the harp. After gapping it is better but never exact to another. Also, They do go out of tune and retuning for most is not trivial as turnings a tuner on a guitar. So I do see Ricks point. They are delicate and a pain in the ass to setup. There is no denying.
Well...when you are committed, you are committed, I guess. Or addicted...
I just seem to get in deeper and deeper.
First of all there's never enough skill, so I keep working on that. Then the harps need tuning and repair, because replacement is expensive, and wasteful. Better to spend money and time on learning to repair, than on buying harps even though some need to be bought from time to time(and I LOVE buying new harps, especially customs)
Then, the delivery system needs addressing...mics, amps, p.a.'s, pedals, loopers, etc...
My wife wryly mentions every once and a while that she is a...'harmonica widow'.
Whatever music related purchase I make these days only comes from gigging money, and nobody makes much money around here gigging, so I have to save for a while before I can make any significant buy.
Anyway, it seems to be worth it. I keep enjoying the process, and enjoying improving my chops(which among other things, involves making the harps more friendly to me)and loving playing with the other musicians I play with.
It's especially gratifying when the audience actually seems to be listening and enjoying the music!
My main motivation, I think, is to keep improving, not just to please myself, but for the sake of my fellow players. It makes for better music, and it's pretty inspiring when your band mates are all working to get better at what they do, and better at working together to make the song really happen.
I don't think you could play harmonica long and not see Ricks point. I am moving in Boris' direction. As I learn to repair the harp it's fragilness becomes less of a pain in the ass.
A modern harmonica reminds me of a turn of the century automobile. You need your mechanic riding along or you are not going to finish the race.
Like 528hemi mentioned, quality control on new harps seems much less than it could be. I think Hohner has improved it on the Crossover but I don't have much data. I bought 3 marine bands to get one good one and I have bought 2 crossovers and they are both set up well out of the box.
THe comparison to woodwinds is probably fair. They do need a bit of tweeking with cork pads and linkages. If you want a low maintanince try a trombone. I bought mine used 40 years ago and have had to do nothing to it. The only time I need to tune it is if the piano is out of tune and I need to match it. I play mostly with the same 5 guys in a brass quintet and for the most part we just pull our instuments out an play.They have to do a bit more fiddling arouns bucause of their valves but we are right in tune out of the case from tuning weeks ago. (or maybe we just can tell we are out an play anyway)
hmmm, I had to read the entire thread to come around to the thought that I've been in some denial about this topic. I am very serious about my playing but the gear is incidental. It's status to have top shelf gear but tone is everything. The result is that I don't care much about my harps, as long as they play. I have learned to work on them because they cost too much. I'm trying to like working on them but I'd rather play. That's why I keep wishing I had the $ to buy a bunch of crossovers. Gruenling plays them out of the box.
Mike, irony? That makes no sense. Where is the incongruity between the literal and the implied meanings? It ain't there.
I've been fascinated with amps since my bass playing days and hi-fi days, which both predate my serious harp playing days. I don't see how that impinges on my point about harmonicas at all.
I think the lesson of this thread is that I should learn to tweak and repair my own harps. I can do only the most basic and rudimentary stuff to harps. Every time I have tried to do anything more than gapping I've made the harp either worse or unplayable.
Great thread - sorry I'm late. Been on the bench w ith my soldering gun, having fun with some old amp chassi. On one side of the bench sits 1/2 dozen harps. UGH! - I never get to them, when I do, it's not always an improvement. My relationship ? : LOVE/HATE.
Harps are the most expensive instrument I play because they are just that - an expense. My saxes, mandolins and guitars have all more then retained their value. If my grandkids dont play them, - they will at least get good money for them. My amp collecting has if anything, made me a little coin. Can not say that for the mountain of harps I've bought over the years.
I look at my pile of amps and say to myself I sais, "numbly, you should sell some of them amps and get yourself some more cusom 1847's, try one of them new fangled sub 30's" - but its a very tough sell. Those amps have value that will last. Both as objects of enjoyment for me, and monetarily should I ever sell them. The harmonicas?? - I don't think my grandkids will get very much at the garage sale.
Once upon a time I bought Marine Bands for $5. Blew them out and replaced them with I thought sounded the best on that goofy red sqeeze box thing you tried them on at the music store. I still thought they where expensive - because I needed to keep a good full set with back-ups for the common keys. Now that I can (more or less) afford it, I'm experimenting with much more expensive harps. I am happy to be exploring some new ground with these, Overblowing etc., and I'm grateful to those who adavanced the state of the art. = But it's a mixed bag.
I do own two harps that are worth more than what I paid. A Black Buddha from Chris, and a B-Radical. Both wonderful instruments. It's a pity I'm afraid to play them** - the joke's on me I guess.
** (I actually do - but I have to think twice before I pull them from the case)
I don't get attached to my harps too often. Occasionally,if it was an exceptional one. I consider them a disposable commodity. That's why I have but one custom. I don't wish to get too attached to it. On the other hand,I'm very attached to the amps and mics I always use. It's harder(and more expensive) to replace those.
NInja, - working on amps is fun (for some of us), - and as I just elucidated above, are a durabel investment that holds (or increases) their value. Can't say that for harps.
