Re: [Harp-L] Re: The Future of Blues Harmonica?



I know what you mean! I think there a lot of harps our there that cost much less but are still overpriced. This one, honestly I think with some hand factory tweaking, should be around 250-300. If you were to purchase a full overblow/overbend setup from a customizer it would cost about the same without as many cool bends available.

Did you see Richard Sleigh's video? He got a lot of improvement in performance by just taping down 4 of the extra reeds, without sacrificing much.
On 9/10/2012 11:27 PM, Robert Rowe wrote:
I appreciate your sentiment, but for $189 don't you think the buyer should expect a harp that is at least playable right out of the box? That's not what I got. That's not what a lot of people that have contacted me got. Brendan's innovation worked perfectly for me. It's the underlying fundamental blues harp that is the huge fail.

RKR

On Sep 10, 2012, at 10:31 PM, Matthew Smart <matthewsmart@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm going to go out on a limb here...i think people are being a little too critical of this fabulous innovation. If you want a hand tweaked harp out of production it will have to cost way more! Harrison tried to hand tweak every harp (for the same price) and they went out of business. Harp players have to learn how to tweak their harps or be willing to pay a customizer to do it for them. Every time i get my amp tuned up its at least a 100 bucks for new tubes etc. Just imagine if most guitar players could not change strings or tune their guitars. There would be lots of howling dogs I'm sure!

As we manufacture parts, I know what it costs to tool up to make this kind of stuff and it would not surprise me if it was a quarter of a million cost to start production on this harp. For example: a new cover plate stamping die would cost at least 10k to make. From the looks of it Suzuki is not recycling any parts here except maybe some reeds.

Hats off to mr power and Suzuki! I applaud them for pushing the envelope.

Matthew
Hetrickharmonica.com

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 10, 2012, at 4:32 PM, Robert Rowe <robertrowe2@xxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks, Brendan, for the positive perspective on the SUB30. Being severely scorched by the initial offering, it'll be a few years before I warm up to them again. I really admire the design and think it is an elegant engineering concept. I find fault with Suzuki for rushing a half-baked execution to market, especially at the current price point.

I will say the new bends were easy to achieve, so that design objective was met well. But the rest of the harp, the basics, seems to have been neglected.

I expect Suzuki will address the problems I, and others, have brought up and make a wonderful 30 reed 10 hole diatonic that plays beautifully right out of the box. I'll be back on that wagon when it comes. Again, it's a brilliant idea. Suzi just has to bring the rest of the harp up to the same level.

RKR

On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:20 PM, Brendan Power <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I think Richard Sleigh's easy taping mod to the Suzuki UltraBend is an
excellent one for those who want to combine the best of the old and the new.
Personally I like its low octave blow bends, but for traditional Blues
tongue blockers Richard's tweak is perfect to combine the old-style feel of
the bottom end while retaining the expressiveness and chromaticism of the
new blow and draw bends in the middle and top octaves.



In answer to Richard's rhetorical question, I think triple-reed harps ARE
the future of blues harmonica. I'd be the first to agree that the UltraBend
is not yet the perfect embodiment of the design out-of-the-box. However,
Suzuki have a great track record when it comes to making small incremental
improvements to harmonicas over time. As an example, compare the modern V2
SCX chromatics to their earlier versions: the difference is like night and
day.



The same will happen with the UltraBend. Prices will drop and quality will
improve. But even now it does what it claims to do: give the player 10 new
easy double-bends that expand the possibilities of the familiar 10 hole
Richter harp in exciting ways. It really rewards giving it some time to get
used to the fantastic new possibilities, and you don't have to emboss it to
play good music. The following videos were all played on un-embossed
UltraBends:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1_5M9mQ79w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5emY-a_ZfWU
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5emY-a_ZfWU&feature=related>
&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZDLEKMMFB8



All the UltraBends so far came from the first small production run. The next
one is at the end of this month. You can be assured that Suzuki will work
hard now and in the future to improve OTB playability.



I predict that in a year's time a lot of influential players will be playing
and recording cool new-sounding harmonica music on the UltraBend in their
favourite configuration, whether with Richard's taping tweak, alternate
tunings, with custom combs - or just out of the box.



The future of Blues harmonica has definitely arrived - maybe not with a
resounding bang, but the example of top players and customisers such as
Filip and Richard will show the possibilities, inspire others to try the new
format, and momentum will gather over time. Other manufacturers will jump on
the bandwagon, and the general playability OTB will improve markedly.



The triple-reed diatonic is just such a fantastic Blues machine! I predict
in five years the improved quality and its seductive expressiveness will
have convinced even the most trenchant non-believers to try it, and in ten
years the triple-reed design will be approaching the norm.



Heaps of great new licks impossible up to now will have entered the harp
player's repertoire, and harps that can't get those extra bends will just
seem so limited. Watch this space.



Brendan Power

WEBSITE: www.brendan-power.com <http://www.brendan-power.com/>

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/tethnik

YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/BrendanPowerMusic







This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.