Happy Halloween everybody! I took Kevin up on his offer right away and sent him a harp on Wednesday. I was shocked to find it back in my mailbox on Saturday. I promised Kevin a review, so here it is.
I sent him a Crossover in A, which I bought a few months ago. I was really underwhelmed with it and put it aside. It played stiffly, and was hard to bend. This was the kind of situation Kevin was advertising for. Also, for what it's worth, the key of A is the hardest key for me to play, and I don't play A harps much for that reason. That will give someone who is trying to play blues harmonica the blues. I mean A is where it's at, you know?
Let me tell you, I am really impressed by how smooth this Hoo Doo harp plays from hole 1 to hole 10. All the regular bends bend incredibly easily. I need very little breath force and can play it very softly. I'm really happy with it, it's nothing like the harp i sent him.
My only comparative criticism relates to the OBs. I can OB the 6 fairly well and incorporate it into songs, and I can OB the 5 not as well, and am making progress incorporating it into songs. I can get the 4 OB but can't use it in a song. The 1 OB is not within reach for me yet. The OBs on the Hoo Doo harp are ok, but the they are not as easy for me to play as some other harps I have gapped myself with limited skills. I feel like they are there, but I need to adapt my technique to this particular harp. I should probably work with the harp more, and will post a follow up if I feel like I should modify this part of my review.
This is now my favorite harp, other than my one existing custom, which is aChris Michalek Buddha highest level custom. It holds up well to Chris's harp for general playability, doesn't OB nearly as well. Now Kevin turned this harp around so quickly, that it would seem he didn't spend hours working on it. But I don't really care what he did, or how long it took him. It is exactly as he advertised--a great harp for blues players. I'm somewhat intimidated by my Buddha harp and feel it has capabilities that I have no way of exploiting. It is incredibly sensitive, almost too sensitive for someone at my level. Kevin's doesn't reach that level, but frankly I don't need it too.
So if Kevin can turn around these harps fairly quickly, I would say that you will be getting incredible value and an incredibly smooth playing harp in return. His work is worth more than $20, for $50 I think it's worth it given the much shorter wait time, but I wish the OBs were a little easier. One reason I haven't invested in customs is the wait time--the one I bought from Chris he had built for someone else so it was immediately available. I've played for such a short period of time, that it hasn't made sense for me to wait to order customs. My thinking was that I would need to buy a harp for when I was waiting for the customs to arrive, and that seemed like a waste. My intention is not to review Chris's harp, just to give some context to my Hoo Doo harp review.
Some more context, so people can measure the worth of my review. I'm a newbie, will have been playing 2 years end of December. There seems to be a lot of middle aged guys who picked up the harp without a lot of prior musical experience, and I'm one of them. i've posted a video of me playing the harp Kevin modified so, you'll know where I'm coming from. I don't think my playing is anything special, and I did a quick one take shot on my Iphone to upload, but I can tell you I can't play this well on my other A harps, including a Manji that I bought after I bought my Crossover. This song, Front Porch Blues, is something I play every couple months to measure my progress. I'm playing it at about 80% regular speed, and please discount skill level about 20% for immediate freezing up when I hit the record button.
I will definitely be sending more harps Kevin's way.
I'm sorry the overblows didn't work very well! I'm surprised because that was one of the few harps that was easy to fix. It was all messed up in every way possible, but everything I did on that harp worked the fisrt or second try! That almost never happens!! I don't mind telling you that I worked on it for 3 hours, but I got alot done in three hours and felt like it was done. I sanded the comb, had to straighten the draw plate then sand it flat, embossed about 75% of every slot, straightened the reeds, gapped the reeds and then tuned it. I've never had a harp be so cooperative as that one. I really like working on the crossovers. I think they are a great harp when all the manufacturing flaws are removed. One thing that I should mention (this someting that BQBOB stated) These really aren't custom harmonicas because I'm just fixing them not sitting down with you and handing you a harp and saying is this what you want. The reason I bring that point up is because I'm doing this for alot of people and if anything I will error on the side of gapping to much. The last thing I want is to send a harp to someone and they say one or more of the reeds freeze up, but in this case it sounds like I should have set them a little lower. Again I'm sorry about that and if you do send me more harps please send that one and I fix it free of charge!
Last Edited by on Nov 01, 2010 9:58 AM
well I also took kevin up on his offer,I sent him a manji that was just hard to play and a marine band deluxe that was the same,hard to get the bends, out of tune.with in two days I got a email from kevin saying the manji was done but the marine band would be a couple days longer,he was sealing the comb. a day later i get another email and he offers me a crossover if i didnt want to wait for the deluxe.I took him up on his offer as i wanted to try a crossover any way.well I just have to say that I got to great harps back with in a weeks time.the crossover just rocks and the manji is as good as a custom that I have from another customizer.If you havent taken him up on this offer your really missing out,sent him three more harps today.$20 its a steal
Last Edited by on Nov 05, 2010 7:10 PM