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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Main Things A (Semi)Pro Should Be Able To Do...
Main Things A (Semi)Pro Should Be Able To Do...
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Suffering Heath
6 posts
Feb 21, 2014
2:04 AM
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Good people,
I'm a life-long blues/fusion player, but have always relied on others for my general harmonica upkeep. If one of my harps blows out, it hits the garbage. In the back of my mind, I always sensed this was wrong, but never took the time to educate myself. Further, "customization" is alien to me. For me, the answer has always been to buy a new Special 20 (or Lee Oskar for minors).
Since I now have monthly gigs for (a touch of) actual bread, I'm finally ready to do something about this.
Can some of you please give your opinion about exactly WHAT those basic things are that one should be able to do to make our harps play better, longer?
In a utopian world, this thread will produce a positive, helpful, sarcasm-free list for people like me with links and google-able terms for youtube tutorials...
Thanks! I have lots of respect for you guys -
Heath
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www.reverbnation.com/thebluesprofessors
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Baker
370 posts
Feb 21, 2014
4:09 AM
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Hi Suffering.
Probably the one big thing you want to be able to do is gap your reeds. This will make the reeds more responsive and hopefully lead you to not playing as hard, which means the reeds should last longer. Check out Joe Spires' videos on this:
Richards Sleig's book – "How to turbocharge you harmonica" has some great information on gapping and tuning too. However it looks like he's not selling the book anymore but has replaced it with a series of videos which, according to to his website covers much more than the book. It also say's he'll send you a free download of the book if you purchase the videos. I've not seen them but I do have the book and it is a great resource so probably worth investing in the videos. Check it out here: http://rsleigh.com/turbocharge-your-harmonica/
Both of these guys are top customisers and I'd imagine their info is some of the best out there.
You might also want to learn how to replace you're own reeds. If Richard's videos don't cover this try searching YouTube for "Harmonica Reed Replacement". There are various different ways of doing this. Some people – like me – just pull reeds off of old reed plates with the rivet still attached and reattach them to the new reed plate. This works ok once, maybe twice if you're lucky but anymore than that the rivets tend to get too loose – If anyone has a good solution to this I'd be interested in hearing it.
Others re-drill and tap the reed plates so they can attach bolts which means you can then replace the reeds as many times as you like.
I guess it's a matter of how much effort you want to put in. I've only needed to replace three reeds in the eight years I've been playing. I generally tend to buy new reed plates every so often to the keep them fresh.
Last Edited by Baker on Feb 21, 2014 4:18 AM
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harpwrench
778 posts
Feb 21, 2014
6:29 AM
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I'd keep track of the ones that were especially great OOTB. Spend the 15 bucks to have them fixed by someone that knows what they're doing (or put them away until you do). There's often deeper reasons for the exceptions (slots stamped with fresh dies, reeds cut from a nicer batch of brass etc) so it's smart to take advantage of that. Practice repairing and whatnot on the rest.
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Suffering Heath
8 posts
Feb 21, 2014
7:38 AM
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Harpwrench, you wrote
"Spend the 15 bucks to have them fixed by someone that knows what they're doing..."
Is that really the cost, or was it a generalization?
Who does this work?
Thanks!
Heath
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www.reverbnation.com/thebluesprofessors
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harpwrench
779 posts
Feb 21, 2014
7:46 AM
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Several guys on the forum, and Mike Peace in Tulsa, not exactly sure on the 15 dollars but think that's average.
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Pistolcat
593 posts
Feb 21, 2014
8:57 AM
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Mark Prados, handle MP on the forum, and Andrew Zajac, arzajac, have reed replacement services. Check out their signatures. I think MP has an ad in the 'For sales' thread.
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Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
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arzajac
1290 posts
Feb 21, 2014
10:34 AM
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Pay $20 to have it refurbished, good as new?
Better than new, actually.
There's another thread along pretty much the same lines as this one here: What Do You Do To Your OOTB Harps?
What do you do? What should pros need to know to do? I don't see how the difference is relevant because you can get five pros in a room to discuss it and they could each have a completely different take on the matter; there is no correct answer. Do what works.
Ultimately, if you have a little more spare money than spare time, you may prefer to send your harps to someone. If you have more time than money, you will naturally gravitate to trying to do stuff on your own. Everyone's needs and abilities are different.
Anyway, back to the list of things you would do to a harp...
There are a small number of things that I believe most people will agree will improve a harp.
-Air tightness
-Gapping
-Tuning
-Reed polishing
-Embossing
-Reed work (reed curves/profiles/etc...)
Once you get some experience, about half of those things only take a few minutes to do. And done together, they significantly improve a harp (I'd even say, that gets you more than half the way). The rest take a little longer and gets you the remainder of the way to a supreme harp.
How much tech time does each harmonica get at the factory? I mean how many minutes total does someone actually work on the harp with their hands? I can only guess, but I would guess less than five - and perhaps it's much less than that. So if each harp got an extra 10 or 15 minutes of tech time at the factory, the costs would be astronomical.
So, what's a fair price for a third-party to charge for this service?
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica service and repair.
Last Edited by arzajac on Feb 21, 2014 10:35 AM
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