Hi Guys, here's a question for the UK players, Who do you recon to be our Joe Filisco. I have a few custom Marine Bands now made by, Anthony Dannecker, Steve West Weston and Henry Slim. All of these guys do very nice work but I was wondering do we have a real standout talent over here when it comes to Harp Tweaking? Who gets your vote?
Last Edited by geordiebluesman on Mar 22, 2013 1:47 PM
When you open up Tony's harps you find beautiful engineering and the harps play consistently. The only thing I personally find is that you need to play them at a shade more than a whisper. You need to get the reeds working.
Bear in mind I smoked a pack a day for 30 years up until November last year.
If you want to pop overblows, a little gapping makes it happen.
Likewise, I only know the ones you have mentioned but if you want to broaden your search I have received a couple of great harps from Ben Bouman.
The 1st was a Seydel 1847 in A. I have played a lot of different makes of harp and this one blew me away. Great volume, really smooth bends and really easy overblows on 4,5 & 6. It has Stainless steel reeds and is really well built with sealed maple wood comb and strong cover plates. I went for the mid-custom option (which he calls Beta X-tra) which has some mild embossing, reed shaping and is set to OB on 4,5& 6 Cost £73.82 delivered paid via Paypal When you think you pay £67.00 + delivery from Eagle Music for an OOTB 1847.
I have also tried a Seydel Session Steel that has a plastic comb and full length covers and if anything I like it even more! I went for the mid custom again and this cost me £57.55 delivered. this included the grey Winter special plastic comb rather than the standard bright orange one. I have since ordered two more of the Session Steels and they were shipped 5 days after my order!
He will tune to your spec at no extra cost, my first was JI and then I went for ET tuning, both great.
I have to add that I am not connected to Ben in any way I am just very impressed with his harps. He also offers an unlimited guarantee and service on his harps.
If I was going down the custom harp route then I'd buy Joe Spiers harps.
In regards to UK customisers the only ones I know of are:
Steve Weston - Not really full custom harps, just well set up. Jon Vaughan - Don't know if he's still building or not. Henry Slim - Never tried his work so can't comment Al Price - Glasgow based, great player. I'm told he builds very good harps. Anthony Dannecker - Never tried his work so can't comment. Personally speaking, unless you're an overblow player. I think the current stock Marine Band harps (1896, Deluxe and Crossover) are more than good enough for any player to use, without any additional work.
Last Edited by Kingley on Mar 22, 2013 10:11 PM
I was wondering if you knew of a Chromatic repairer in the UK/Europe? I have tried Michael Merino in Scotland but I think he is recovering from an illness.
I hope you don't mind me asking this question on this thread Geordie. ----------
Grey Owl - Sorry I don't know of any in the UK. Somebody told me a couple of years ago the Anthony Dannecker no longer does chromatic repairs. No harm in trying him though. The only ones I know of are Mike Easton and Steve Malerbi. Both based in the USA. Both come highly recommend by many players. My only other thought would be to send an email to the National Harmonica League. They would know of some in the UK, if there are any.
Hi Guys, thanks for the replies,(I'm gonna have to stop rhyming everything I say!) I was really just sort of thinking outloud with this thread, I have a Custom Marine Band in F on it's way from Henry Slim and he is VERY talented and well priced and it was thinking about this that placed the thought in my head. I am trying to get my first Overblows going but having very little success,(It's the learning to bend thing all over again and that took me MONTHS) I am using an older less loved Marine Band to practice on as I don't want to kill one of my good harps IE the ones I bought off Kingley coz they play so well, but perhaps I would be better off finding the way on a harp set up to overblow? but then I might kill a reletively expensive Harp quite quickly in the learning process, what do you guys think?
Steve, I'd suggest gapping one of your existing harps so it'll overblow more easily. Watch Joe Spiers videos on YouTube for how to do this. His username on there is "choppajoe". It's fairly easy to do and gapping is something every harp player should learn how to do.
I'd start with learning to overblow hole 6. Try an A or Bb harp to begin with as they tend to be easier to overblow for most beginners to the technique. Play the hole 6 first as a normal draw bend. Then keeping that same mouth shape blow the note. The overblow should then pop out. Just remember to use only light breath and try not to tense up too much, as that'll make it more difficult to do. It'll take time to learn it, so don't get too frustrated if it doesn't pop out first few times you try it.
You might find that a harp set up for overblows will not play well for you at first. You'll probably need to learn to play with a lot less breath pressure to get the best out of it.
Last Edited by Kingley on Mar 23, 2013 3:32 AM
I'm a relatively new overblower but have become comfortable playing them now especially on holes 4,5 & 6. Hole 1 is a bit more of a struggle where harp setup is more critical.
The frustration of trying to play them is still fresh in my mind!
I have made a youtube video LINK TO OVERBLOW VID showing a tip I found the most helpful. It focuses on hole 6 and involves playing a blow bend on hole 7, then keeping the same embouchure and try to play a blow bend on hole 6.
You will find that the harp doesn't want to do this (it's important at this stage not to change your embouchure and attempt to massage an overbend out of hole 6) Commit to it just as if you were blow bending 7 and what will happen is that the 6 blow reed will 'choke' and stop sounding (if the harp is not set up very well you might get the odd background squeal from blow 6) all the air will now be direcxted to the 6 draw reed and that will produce the overblow note.
You might sense yourself pushing a small pocket of compressed air from the bottom of your mouth to the top of your mouth to assist the overblow.
I embossed and gapped my MSProHarp not really knowing what I was doing. (I do have an engineering background so messing about with metal wasn't too strange.) It plays really well and I can overblow 6, 5, 4, with relative ease. I tried OBing so many times on 4 or 5 different harps and got nowhere. It makes all the difference. Get a cheap Big River and try it! The way I see it is it's all about tolerances, just tighten the gaps up and see what happens.
Thanks lads thats some great advice especially to the Grey Owl for that Vid, I'm just getting squeaks at the mo but that's more than I was getting before so I must be onto it!
That's great Geordie, looks like you're getting close!
I guess you're trying the OB on more than one harp, if after a time you're still not hitting the overblow without a lot of squeals you could try adjusting one of your old harps. This can be done by taking off the covers and closing the gaps on the 6 blow and draw reed.
Joe Spiers produced a nice series of 3 vids on how to do this. I think the 2nd vid dealt with the middle holes and Video 1 starts on the high end of the harp and shows the process.
SergZZZ - Those Joe Spiers gapping videos are not intended to be full customisation videos. They are only to show people how to set the gaps on their harps. Which is the single most important thing anyone can do to make their harps play better.
Hi Grey Owl. Sounds as though you are getting on well with Ben's harps. It's interesting you prefer the session steels, as I am undecided as to whether I prefer the 1847's or the session steels. I've just taken delivery of a B flat session steel also with the grey comb ( I actually prefer the orange ) and its a delight to play. I'm currently waiting for delivery of a couple of 1847 silvers. One low C and one low C paddy richter. Ben was good enough to send me a few MP3's of low harps, and the sound blew me away. I'm hoping you might find time to post another example of your playing, especially if its the new harp.
Hi Gipsy, Yeah I love them. Honestly they are both great harps, I can't believe the response I'm getting out of them. It's down to how I'm feeling on the day, which one I prefer now. The Session Steel is cheaper though and I do like the full length covers which I've enjoyed playing on harps like the Golden Melody and Promasters.
Be interesting to hear what you think of the low key Silvers. Should be getting my 2 new SS's soon, can't wait!
I'll try and put up a vid sometime of the Session Steel. ---------- My MBH Profile
