Re: Quality control

[Pat Missin <pat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve Shaw wrote:

>Thanks Pat. In the light of what you said I will contact them - not with
>the aim of getting anything back, as I have the harp up and running now
>anyway, but to point out my experience. 

I think they would genuinely appreciate the feedback. As you probably
know, each reedplate is stamped with a code that allows them to tell
exactly which production run it was from.

>On the same tack, but to broaden it
>out a bit, I can say hand-on-heart that I can't remember ever having a harp
>(or plates) of any make that was "perfect" out of the box in terms of
>consistent gapping and "in-tune-ness," and I don't mean for my particular
>needs, but objectively, in terms of how the harp/plates ought to arrive for
>an average player (I know, I know - don't want to start anything!!). I can
>take a few cents either way on the tuning side of things, but gapping is a
>different ball game. If you spend £20 on a new harp, and you're the
>aforesaid average sort of player, you should be able at least to play all
>the notes without choking or weak sound due to incorrect gapping. A harp
>that arrives otherwise is going to put off many a beginner to say the least.

Very true, but when it comes to the majority of harmonicas that are
sold, the "average" player is actually a non-player. For that reasons,
gapping usually has to have a lowest common denominator approach -
that is every newbie should be able to honk as hard as possible on all
the reeds without them choking. This requires setting them with gaps
that are usually considerably wider than most players would require.
Lee has said as much in his workshops and seminars. Even so, I know
that all harmonica companies regularly get people calling to complain
that the 2-draw reed is stuck, when it is simply the case that they
haven't learned how to play the instrument.

Of course, we are dealing with a mass-produced product and as amazing
as I personally think Lee Oskar's quality control is, there are bound
to be some mistakes which slip through. Add to that all the bumps and
knocks they can suffer after leaving the factory, getting shipped to
the distributors, trucked to the retailers, maybe even dropped on the
floor of the music store and stood on by a teenage heavy metal
guitarist, etc. Given all of this, it's pretty impressive that any of
the manufacturers can deliver the level of consistency they do. I'll
tell you one thing, if you asked me to build you something of
comparable quality from scratch, I would charge you a good deal more
than twenty quid!

>All they have to do in the factory is glance along the plates in a good
>light and look for gapping consistency - how long does that take!

I imagine there are folks at the factory who do just that. I also
imagine that if you are doing a visual inspection of harmonicas eight
hours a day, five days a week, out of the thousands you look at, you
might look at one or two of them a little less closely than the
others.

>In defence of Lee Oskars, I would add finally that things are never normally
>anywhere near as bad as I found with these plates today. They are usually
>the best of the bunch. As for damage, new LO plates are pretty
>well-packaged in terms of protection.

FWIW, I just looked at 17 packs of LO replacement reedplates (took a
little less than five minutes, so that's US$2 you owe me :)) and out
of those 340 reeds, I saw three that were gapped wider than I would
consider to be really acceptable and four that were gapped too
closely, IMO. The other 333 were certainly not how I would prefer them
for my way of playing, but they looked to be OK for most players.
Assuming the tuning is of a similar consistency to all the other LOs
I've measured (average deviation less than 2 cents from 12TET @
A=443HZ), then I would say that 333 out of 340 is pretty good going
for a mass-produced item. 

Of course, as soon as I open the pack, I will alter both the tuning
and reed adjustment anyway, so it's not really a big deal for me.
However, it does sound like you either got a dud set of reedplates
that slipped out of the factory on a Friday afternoon, or perhaps a
funny thing happened to it on the way to the theatre. Either way, I'd
drop Lee a short note with the details.

 -- Pat.