[Harp-L] Harmonicaster update



Yesterday I met with the designer from the 3D printing shop that's going to make the P2 prototype of my electric harmonica to finalize the design based on feedback (no pun intended, and boy I'm getting tired of saying that) that I've gotten from world class players like Madcat Ruth (thanks, Peter (a Harp-L subscriber)) and Jason Ricci as well as a number of harp players who gig in the Detroit area like Carl Caballero and Wailin' Dale. While the amplification side of things works great and it will play as loud as you want without any feedback at all, it's still not quite ready for stage use tone-wise (though Ricci said he'd use it in the studio, as is - just to make it clear, there's no endorsement by Jason implied in that statement, just reporting our conversation). Still, so far nobody says that it's a stupid idea or a waste of time and they're all encouraging me to keep working on it.

The major issue is that there's an echo in the tone, but I'm pretty sure that's due to how I made the first prototype, not something inherent to the concept. I'm confident that the revisions we've made to the design will eliminate the echo. While one of the reasons for making it is to have something that will work with any effects device, expanding harp players' tonal palette, but I want to be sure that the baseline tone, before any signal modification, is acceptable to most harp players. Though it already plays acceptably well from a mechanical and airtightness standpoint, and can be played with a very light touch (you don't have to blow hard to play loud) some of the revisions will also make it a faster, more responsive instrument - I'm hoping to get something akin to a guitar with light action. In any case, P2 will have those changes and it will also look like a manufactured product, not a hunk of wood I cobbled together in my basement shop.

Speaking of which, one of the players that has tried it out told me that though it works I'd be better off waiting until I have something that looks less like a prototype before I show it to players. From a PR standpoint that's probably true but from the tech side of things getting expert opinions on the P1 undoubtedly sped up the development process. One of the things I said in my initial meeting with the 3D printers was that we weren't going to print before I had experienced players give me their input. Now that I've gotten that input, when the P2 is ready, not only will it look better, it will work better than the P1 and reflect expert harp playing opinion.

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we'll have the P2 printed up and assembled within a couple of weeks. That will get shown to Madcat (he lives in Ann Arbor, where the 3D print shop is located), Carl Caballero and other players for their opinions on tone and functionality. If the response is positive, we'll do run of validation samples for quality control purposes and if there aren't any problems, go into limited production. I'm still not convinced that it makes sense to market it through big retailers. Hitting a price point that I think will be acceptable to consumers might not be possible if I have to make a profit at 50% of MSRP.

Ronnie Schreiber



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