Re: [Harp-L] RE: Suzuki price increases



Take a marine band diatonic or a toaster into a machine shop and ask for a quote.  In small quantities, the price will be in hundreds...maybe thousands of dollars. More likely you will be told "we can't do it."

The harmonica is a mass-produced product.  None of the machines in a typical machine shop could produce reeds from a blueprint.  A machine shop might be able to  make a machine to make reeds but not the reeds themselves.  Combs and reedplates can be made with conventional presses but require very expensive dies.

I have made a machine to make reeds that was very slow and didn't work very well.  I made a few reeds with it and learned what a tricky process it is. It took me all afternoon to make, install, and tune one reed.  That is light-years away from making harmonicas.  Making a reed that hits the "sweet spot" for stiffness and responsiveness, has off-the-machine pitch error of less than a halftone, and will fit into a slot with .001" clearances requires machining tolerances of about .0001" in a tiny, flexible part.  These machines and the techniques for using them have been developed over a period of 100 years by the manufacturers.  

If I were to start a harmonica manufacturing company, I would first design, build, and test the machines and procedures for mass-producing reeds.  When I could produce replacement reeds for a few cents each whose performance would be indistinguishable from those of existing manufacturers, I would then move on to stamping covers and molding plastic combs.  Machines like this never work right the first time...they require redesign and tweaking to achieve the necessary precision. After that, I would work out automatic assembly machines and processes.  

Only then would announce a product and accept orders.

I have absolutely no inside knowledge of the difficulties that lie behind the current inability of the American harmonica manufacturer to ship harps. However, it is an easy guess that they approached the startup in the reverse sequence to the one described above and working out the glitches in reed fabrication, assembly, and tuning are holding up production.  Hand-rework of out-of-spec parts is possible but is expensive and will only support a dribble of production.  All the while, fixed costs are relentlessly burning through capital and delays are destroying customer good will.  For them, I hope for the best but fear the worst.

Vern

On Apr 29, 2011, at 2:43 PM, Bill Kumpe wrote:

> ......There are small aircraft machine shops
> all over this town that are laying off employees that could turn out a great
> harp just as easily as the much more complicated and regulated whatsit valve
> actuator for a 747.
> Bill Kumpe
> Tulsa, OK
> 
> 
> 






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