Re: Customised harps

["dfwhoot" <dfwhoot@xxxxxxxxx>]

Granted , it's not the harp it's the player who makes it sing. Years of hard
work and dedication. Just like the old broken down violin, in the hands of
the master it plays beautiful music. But a fine custom harmonica is like the
difference between a  Honda and a Harley, you hear the difference , it
performs differently,you will take care of it properly, because it will
change your way of playing.Try one, and I bet you'll see, feel , hear the
difference.
Jerl Welch
- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stephen Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 6:26 PM
Subject: Customised harps


>
> >>>Rainbow Jimmy wrote:
> Since I love Lee Oskars straight out of the box, they do everything I
need,
> is there an advantage to custom harps? None of my harp heros use custom
> harps. Granted there wasn't much for custom harps back when Paul
Butterfield
> and Sonny Terry played, but Charlie Musselwhite and James Cotton play
stock
> harps and sound great.>>>
> >>>>>I don't mean to sound snide. Has anyone bought a custom harp and
> >>>>>prefered the store bought?
>
> Rainbow Jimmy>>>>>
>
> ....and Chris Brunner wrote:
> I think the message coming out of the recent thread regarding embossing
and
> custom harps is not that it is easy to turn an out of the box harp into a
> harp as good as those produced by customisers, it's more that you can fix
> your own harps and return an unplayable dog back into a decent
> instrument.>>>>
> >>>>Maintainence on your harps is no substite for a customised harmonica,
I
> >>>>certainly can't claim to be able to set a harp up for overblows or do
> >>>>embossing or any other of the things that customisers can do for their
> >>>>customers, but I can fix most of the regular problems that happen to
out
> >>>>of the box harps.>>>
>
> I would like to know what kind of people actually decide to buy custom
> harps.  Just professionals?  The rate I get through harps, especially
> Special 20s (two months per harp if I'm lucky), would make buying custom
> harps a very expensive option for me (I don't make money from playing the
> harmonica - you hear that, Mr Taxman?  ;-)  ).  And once little things
start
> needing adjusting, a bit of fine-retuning here, a bit of gapping there -
> then it isn't really a custom harp any more is it, unless I send it back
(at
> frequent intervals?) to the customiser?  So I'd better have customised
spare
> harps too?  I can get my Lee Oskars and Special 20s to such condition with
> my own usual bits of low-tech tweaking - including "Paddy-Richtering" my
> harps - that any faults in my playing are 100% me and 0% the harp.  So how
> much would I gain from the extra financial layout?
> Of course I want to play better - but at what point does the law of
> diminishing returns set in?
>
> Please note the question marks. I am a relatively impecunious amateur
> harmonica player but I want to keep improving.  Perhaps a customised harp
> would be a real revelation to me, but I can't afford to buy one to find
out!
>
> Steve Shaw.
>
>
>
>
> Want more than the blues?  Try Irish!
> http://mysite.freeserve.com/trad_irish_harmonica
>
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