Noted the discussion about Joe Spiers and his customized (or is it optimized?) Special 20's. Given the $125 starting point and a 6 month wait they will appeal mostly to serious amateurs, pro players and/or those with lots of disposable income.
For those of us who would like to do some basic work ourselves any suggestions about a good place to start? Lee Oscar has a toolkit and a booklet. Seydel has a stick that runs on PC and includes some sort of multi tool. Haven't yet found anything from Hohner but it seems likely they have something comparable. Any preferences? Limitations? Thanks!
I'd suggest starting with the basics. Learning to gap your own harps properly. It's the single biggest thing you can do to make your harps play better. Then I'd learn to tune them yourself.
You don't need to spend a lot of cash to equip yourself for this. All you really need is a paper clip to lift the reeds, a feeler gauge or some thin card to rest the reed on as you work on it (a train ticket is ideal), a jewellers file, maybe something like a very small modellers chisel to use as a reed scraper and of course a chromatic tuner of some sort. There are a number of free tuners online. The best of which I believe to be the Seventh String Tuner. Here's a link to it: Free Tuner
The best resource to learn gapping is by the great Joe Spiers. His set of three YouTube videos is a must watch for anyone wanting to work on their own harps. Here they are:
I've learned to do some work on my harps. I started with a Lee Oskar kit, and over the years collected other applicable tools. Hohner and Seydel both have kits, but I have no idea which one to recommend. There is a great selection of Youtube videos to study to acquire some knowledge. Thanks to all the folks who've shared their knowledge!
I think the Special 20 is a great harp. Is your playing really limited by the harp?
Most good marksmen a d soldiers don't spend hours customizing their rifle, they make a few adjustments to the sights and keep shooting. Use Joe's videos above (the best!) and make some quick adjustments and play. ---------- Greg Jones 16:23 Custom Harmonicas greg@1623customharmonicas.com 1623customharmonicas.com
Greg Jones asks a great question about whether or not my playing is limited by the harp. As a guitar player trying to add harp to my skill set the answer at this time is no. The harps I have from Hohner, Suzuki and Seydel all seem perfectly fine for my current abilities. I'm reasonably certain my playing limitations are mostly mine alone and I don't blame the harps.
As a guitar player I do know the quality of the instrument and set up of the guitar can have a big effect. Transferring that thought process to harmonica makes sense. I've got the time to work on the harmonicas so might as well see what I can reasonably do myself and note any changes.
Last Edited by on Dec 23, 2012 7:51 AM
It's a chicken-and-the-egg scenario, really. If your harps are not properly adjusted and that has an impact on your playing, it makes sense to address that instead of trying to compensate with technique. The result can have no effect, have negative effects on your technique by causing you to develop bad habits or even cause you to chronically blow out reeds since players tend to hit all holes as hard as the most stubborn hole.
If you know what your ideal harp feels like, it can help you tell the difference between a harp that needs an adjustment or a weakness in your skill.
The problem with considering whether an "optimized" harp versus an out-of-the-box harp will benefit you is that not all out-of-the-box harps are the same. You can get a really good SP20 or a really bad one. The advantage to an optimised harp is that you know the problem is not the harp.
If Out-of-the-box harps were totally consistent, would extra volume, better response and perfect tuning make you a better player? I think that's the question Greg was asking and I agree, it's a good one.
Sleigh also has "Turbocharge your harmonica". It's a great starting point to learn proper reed set-up.
I used to have the hairy chested attitude that I should play it as it came OOTB. While I can still play a stock harp,a custom makes a big difference. My one and only Sp20 is a custom from HarpNinja. It's a G,which can be finicky OOTB. This one rocks! I don't have to work hard to get it to play. It may well be the best harp in my arsenal. Having a well set up custom helps you become aware of an OOTB shortcomings. It gives you a benchmark for working on your own harps.
I got one of joe`s sp20 from rockinron....there is no way that I could possibly get a harp to play like that one...sp20s are great,easy to play harps but this one is the realdeal...
General consensus would seem to confirm that many harps need work so getting some basic knowledge and a basic toolkit is a good idea. It would also seem that owning at least one optimized/customized harp is also a good idea to provide a base line for work I do myself. Six months wait for a Joe Spiers is too long for me together started, and I think I saw something about US customers only, so I'll learn more about the others recommended here. Thanks for everyone's input.
