[Harp-L] Harrison Harmonicas - Give Them A Break!

[Robert Coble <robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't have any "skin" in this game, one way or the other. That won't stop me from commenting.

The B-Radical is just that: a "radical" departure from the "same old, same old." Anyone with any
knowledge of Brad Harrison and his reputation for excellence would know that. I do not know Brad
personally, but his reputation preceded him. I am impressed with the quality and innovation he has 
brought into the market with his product. I have every confidence in his integrity.

New companies often struggle during the launch phase. There are myriad issues, not the least of 
which is a strain on cash flow, especially if the product succeeds beyond the expectation of the
owner. It's exceedingly difficult to scale up operations quickly from essentially a one-man shop
and maintain every aspect of the business to the complete satisfaction of the buying public.

When Brad explained that he had thought about the expressed lack of communication and then 
discovered that many people had tried to reply to a "no reply" message, that was NOT an excuse
on his part. It was an honest attempt to explain why those people had not received a reply. I'm
sure Brad had to scratch his head and wonder why or how miscommunications had occurred. I
worked for many years as a software engineer. I was continually amazed at how clients could
find a way to misuse something I had designed. I thought it was "bullet-proof." (I started to write
"idiot-proof", but that wouldn't sound very nice). It was only after a system was fielded for beta
that assumptions would be exposed as fallacies. I'm sure the developer of the "no reply" message
system ASSUMED that it was "bullet-proof," and that no one would attempt to communicate back
to the company via that channel. That's what "no reply" messages mean! That is NOT a copout
but a simple reality of software design. Obviously, Murphy's Law strikes again. Or, as I used to hear 
regularly while working for the military, "assume" means to make an ASS out of U and ME!

I am intrigued by several of the innovations in the B-Radical harmonicas. Profiling along the reed
instead of across the reed is not a new or unique idea. There is at least one patent concerning that
very idea that I am aware of; I first saw the patent information on Mel Bay's Harmonica sessions, 
Kinya Pollard's column. Reshaping the covers is another idea which has been done before, perhaps not
quite as ergonomically as the B-Radical. The idea of replaceable reeds (NOT reedplates) is another
idea that has been kicked around. The point: NO ONE ELSE PUT IT ALL TOGETHER IN ONE PRODUCT.
No one else put their money where their mouth was.

I'm hoping at some time that Harrison Harmonicas will be able to resolve the backlog and get into a 
more normal (responsive) product cycle. I have dreams of getting a "customized" B-Radical using
Circular Tuning. I know how to use two Richter Tuned harps to make a Circular Tuned harp. I can
do it with a B-Radical and appropriate reed substitutions. I'd rather have it done at the factory, if 
possible, because then it will be tuned and setup by acknowledged experts; I do not claim to be an
expert. All of Brad's innovations appear to make a Circular Tuned B-Radical at least a possibility, even 
if not presently a reality.

So far, everyone who has gotten a B-Radical seems to love it. That should be a good indicator of
the pride of workmanship that Brad and his company exhibit. Yes, it's a P.I.T.A. to have to wait,
and wait, and WAIT some more. <SHRUG> That should have been expected by the initial customer 
base; apparently, it was not. The fact that Brad took the time to uncover the reason many customers
had not received a reply indicates that he DOES care about his customers and DOES care about keeping
information lines open. If he took an all-too-typical "big business" approach to customer NO-SERVICE,
he would not have tried to investigate it PERSONALLY in the first place. 

My suggestion: give the man a chance to work out the kinks. It looks like he is a man of honor who
will (eventually) deliver the goods.

My two cents, FWIW, (and I've already overspent my opinion budget)
Crazy Bob

Standard disclaimers: I don't know Brad or any of his employees personally. I own no interest in
his company. I just think that the man should be given the benefit of the doubt when he explains
what has happened.