I just busted the second seydel in a month of playing im been playing just about 9 months and the only harps that seem to last me the time ive been playing have been my Lee oskars and my Huang star performers.Im on a very tight budget.and im wondering sence i get good milage out of the huang star performers and there pretty cheap compared to some of the others could a person with some practice at the modifacations videos on you tube take a Huang star performer and beef it up to play as well as a stock 30$ harp or better and could one be made to do over blows.I kinda like em they seem tuff the 2 i have i ve done some minor reed gapping and opened up the back covers but was wondering if you could emboss em or the other tricks and make it into a nice harp.
FInally, another Huang player! I thought I was all alone...anyway, I can tell you point blank that yes, Huangs take to customization just as well as Hohners, and in the case of some of my better Star Performers, I feel like I've gotten more results out of 'em. I'm still learning my way around the whole customization thing, but R.J. Harman tweaked one of my Star Performers a year ago, and I haven't had to open it up since.
I can't comment on the Huangs, but have you tried any Herings? The Hering Blues is similar to a LO - though has a thicker profile - and is a very good bang for the buck. It's quite a bit cheaper than LOs. ---------- YouTube SlimHarpMick
Last Edited by on Oct 24, 2009 12:03 PM
I have an old Silvertone (G) and it plays as good as ever,,, bends easily too. Don't know about the newer ones.....Have a Herring 12 hole chromatic and it is a little flat on some of the middle notes.
I have the Huang Musette tremolo set (C/C#). It's got a nice tone, although it's hard to compare a tremolo to a diatonic. I'm trying to learn how to customize. Maybe I'm 'special' but I completely destroyed the first harp I tried on. You won't get the same results with a cheap harp, but it might be worth getting some throw away harps to practice the very basics on. I just got a couple more Blues Bands for $5 a pop to practice on. A set of seven Piedmonts is only $20-$30, although with plastic covers you can't open up the back easily like a Blues Band. Sure, you won't make a great sounding harp, but you won't ruin an expensive one. After a couple practice harps you can move up to a better one. Of the harps I've played, I really like the Special 20's. When I get this customizing thing down that or a Golden Melody will probably be my base harp.
The way I practice the tweaking skills is to buy one of those nasty £3 unbranded Chinese harps and work on them until they play well. You can get pretty good results. OOtB they are usually horribly out of tune - so plenty to practice on there. As for overblows, I've found getting 4,5 and 6 to overblow is usually not too much hassle. Tonally they are dead though, no harmonics, dull sounding so I give 'em to my kids when I've done with them.
Yes Mickil i had a Hering freeblues in D i liked it alot was only 15$ but i played my 1st gig after only been playing a while and the band had me turned low so i blew the hell out of that hering busted my 1st harp up until then i was like how do you know if a harps gets busted.I found out that night its pretty easy.but i liked the harp just blew it to hard
I haven't gotten my hands on a Bluesmaster yet, although it's pretty high-up on my "need to try this harp" list. I seriously recommend the Star Performer over the Silvertone; I've always gotten better OotB consistency with them, they sound a little more richer, and they most certainly take a beating better. I will say that Silvertones seem to be easier to customize, but maybe that's just me.
i havent tried the silertone yet i have 2 star performers and really like what they offer for the money,They dont sound as good as some but the dont sound bad and the price is nice.i will have to try the silver tone i was wondering if the tuning was any different than the star performer
Nope. Same tuning, different body shape. The cover plates are trapezoidal, which makes for an interesting feel when you're cupping 'em, but the backs are still opened up like on the Star Performer. It sounds to me like the S.P. has a little richer tone, but after an hour of reed-surgery, that difference becomes nil. Try 'em out; they're my harp of choice every time.
Interestingly enough, the Golden Melody was designed by the founders of Huang Harmonicas. Apparently they didn't like the way Hohner was doing business, so they made their own harps and marketed them affordably without the brand-name markup. Hopefully that philosophy carries on...
The model I'm referring to is the Hering Blues, not the Free Blues. Very different model, dude. Same reeds as the Vintage. Madcat Ruth uses them - have a look at his YouTube vids.
As for being drowned out by the band, that's a common enough problem for harp players. My solution: I simply don't play if the levels are too silly; there's simply no point. ---------- YouTube SlimHarpMick
thanks Mickil ill have to check the Hering blues out.Yea i learned my lesson i actually blew 2 harps out the 1st time i played a gig. the Hering free blues and a hohner blues bender
Last Edited by on Oct 25, 2009 9:03 AM
Have a look at this. Madcat's playing a Hering Blues, which is as cheap as as chips and has replaceable reed plates. Sorry for hijacking the thread a bit peeps.
Tuckster has a YouTube video where he does just that (modifies a star perfomer to play better). I tried with a starperformer, but no matter what I did to it, the low holes were always still too leaky for my liking.
Tuckster's YouTube name is N62KNM, here's the link to his starperformer video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xE_pUdgBCQ
Oh, whoops. I probably just got confused with all the aka's around here. For some reason, I thought that was your YouTube handle... It's especially tough when the MBH aka doesn't match up with the YouTube aka... Who is YouTuber N62KNM then? I know it's someone who at least used to post here... Hmmm... Mysterious! ---------- ------------------ The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
well i took my 2 Huangs opened up the backs then put small openings on the side. gapped them then tried embossing like i seen on the elk river videos,But i only did the draw holes 1-6 i had a reed get stuck like the video said but freed it up with a razor blade my feeler guage grew legs and left me lol.it sounds and plays pretty good the lower holes are tighter now im impressed how embossing help tighten the 1D that was loose.its still kinda loose but a lot better.My question should a person emboss all the reeds on both plates.Im not a overblower im just wanting a decent playing harp that will play standard blues type stuff
Wow... This may get an award for thread resurrection...
(check the date of the post 145nE)
Since I've seen this in several threads, you should probably just start a new thread instead of dredging up any thread that matches the reed plates you need...
---------- Danny
Last Edited by on Mar 30, 2012 1:51 PM
I still play em,they sound good,I dont play them as much as my others,But they are my best sounding harps and playing harps.I play them when I feel like playing a nicer harp,Hows your son likeing the CBG? ---------- Hobostubs
I reed arced a Huang in D and plays so much better. It can overblow 4, 5 and 6 and they sound pretty good. I think if I embossed the reeds it would sound even better. ---------- Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind How you doin'
The Huangs, when they were first introduced in 1982, were the very first diatonics to come in 19LJI tuning rather than 7LJI or ET tuning. The company was started by classical harp virtuoso Cam-Ber Huang, who for many hears was also head of design and engineering for Hohner and during his stay at Hohner, he helped setup some factories that began making budget line instruments for Hohner, and after years of frustration with them, left to start his own company, with the harps being made in the Chinese factories. His brother Frank, a long time harp tech for Hohner, joined his brother during the late 80's himself and has been running the company since Cham-Ber Huang retired over a decade ago.
The first 15 years, they really suffered because the quality of materials and workmanship really weren't too great, tho the designs were realy good, but since the mid to late 90's, they smartened up and did the finishing work in the US, and overall quality actually did improve.
Wheras Hohner went with stiffer, harder brasses in the 80's, they went to a softer brass, which Hohner went to after they retooled in 1995/96, which did make their harps more responsive. The very first 5 years, they tuned them to real A440, which was a mistake, as the average player often plays far too hard to keep the pitch at real A440 (which is why harp makers seldom tune it that way and usually tune to A442-A443 because they way most players tend to play, tuning it that way, no matter how hard you play, it won't fall below A440, but if tuned to real A440, the really hard players will drop it to A437 in real playing breath, which is gonna be REALLY flat, damned close to 45 cents flat with a very hard breath force.
Hering 1923 Vintage Harps are one of the last diatonics tuned to 7LJI, but uses a very thick reed plate (NOT to be confused with thicer reeds, which is obviously something totally different), and for someone who plays WAAAAAAAY to hard, which too often describes the average player, the thicker plate, which makes harps play louder and more aggressively, is the one thing that will also make them blow out quick in the hands of player who plays too hard all the time, which is flat out BAD playing technique. They were the first stock diatonic that had any kind of sealing of the wood combs at all (being partially sealed, meaning around the outer edges and its popularity forced Hohner to come out with the MB Deluxe, where until the last few months, were also sealed this way as well.). ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I have a lot of Haung Star performer harmonicas, they work great, I also have Bushman, Suzuki , Hohner, etc , the Haung Star performer is a great harp for the money..
You did a great job on that CBG Stubs and my son loves it and plays it quite well. ---------- Wisdom does not always come with old age. Sometimes old age arrives alone.
