Re: [Harp-L] Re: Subject: Re: The 'other' side of Hohner from a satisfied customer

[Cara Cooke <cyberharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am with Richard Hunter on the laudations of Lee Oskar for making
different scales more available.  I bought my first harmonic minor out of
curiosity and it remains a favorite scale today.  I still use a natural
minor every now for certain tunes because of the rearrangement of the
bends, due to the scale.

Cara

On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Richard Hunter
<turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> I make a point of buying a wide range of diatonic harps from practically
> every manufacturer.  There is no question in my mind that as per Cara
> Cooke's comments, the general quality of out-of-the-box harmonicas has
> improved very significantly in the last decade--and that includes Hohner
> harps. I also appreciate that there are good choices now for players in
> price ranges from under US$20 to well over $US50.
>
> It's a far cry from the 1980s, when damn near every other harp I bought
> had a serious flaw that affected playability, sometimes terminally.  Lee
> Oskar broke that cycle in the mid-1980s with instruments that were
> reasonably priced, durable, consistent in quality, and very playable.  In
> effect, Lee raised the industry floor for quality to a much higher level,
> and we can all thank him for getting the ball rolling. (We can also thank
> him for popularizing a number of non-standard tunings that I for one can't
> live without.)
>
> At this point, I don't have to make any adjustments at all to most of the
> out-of-the-box harps I buy--they just work.  This is the golden age of
> gear.  Enjoy it.
>
> Regards, Richard Hunter
>
> author, "Jazz Harp"
> latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://hunterharp.com
> Myspace http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
> Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
> more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
> Twitter: lightninrick
>