Re: hohner vs oscar vs 1923--Custom harps

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard Chandler" <chandler@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>; "Howard Chandler"
<chandler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 8:48 PM
Subject: Re: hohner vs oscar vs 1923--Custom harps


> Bob,
>
> This is all good news.  I am certainly a candidate for this harp.  I
really
> miss the things that I could do harmonically with the old harps.  Perhaps
I
> can use this harp as way to populate my collection for trad. blues.  Of
> late, I'm doing much more in the way of vocal accompaniament in a latin
folk
> setting, and so the LOs and SP20s I'm using are real good for this.
>
> I wonder what the customizers think of this harp?  Perhaps thay can offer
a
> customized version of this harp for less since many of the time consuming
> tasks in preparing the harp are already part of the initial package.  How
> much this reduces the labor, I do not know, since there is much about the
> customization process that have not the expierence to judge.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Howard Chandler

Hi Howard,
Funny you should mention that! I was on the phone with Tim Northcutt of Hot
Rod Harps and this very subject came up in our conversation. One of his
customers had sent him an entire set of Vintage Harps to go over, readjust
them if necessary, tune if needed, and tho he really didn't get much of a
chance to really give them a VERY thorough going thru in the customizer's
sense of the word, we both agreed that considering the fact this is a mass
produced instrument, it's clearly a step in the right direction, and again
considering that it's a mass produced instrument, it was a pretty good bang
for the buck, and plays pretty well out of the box. He told me that he
didn't try to open the back of the cover plates because he noticed as I had
that these were already considerably more wide open that a stock hand made
Marine Band as it is.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some customizers actually setting up MB reed
plates to fit these harps, as many of its dimensions are very, very similar.
In my C2C review, I mentioned that unlike most harps that employ a thicker
reed plate, the tone was unusually dark, because 99% of the time, it's gonna
be much brighter. IMO, much of this has to do with the fact that the cover
plates are made of a very thick brass, and when I tried these cover plates
on a newer HM MB, it definitely darkened the sound to my ears. I've also
found that the cover plates on these harps won't crush as easily as a HM MB
does.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA