[Harp-L] Favorite Harp Labeling Methods - Etc.

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This topic has made me inch closer to doing something about my shabby gear case/labelling situation (maybe)
Like John Walden in London, I order my harps in 5ths, as I imagine a lot of other players do.
I like David Fertig's idea of the tackle box, but then... I've been using an old 'Globite' (read compressed cardboard)
school-kids' case which my two elder sons found on a street chuck-out when they were little (say about ten or twelve
years ago) The hinges are non-existant and I keep it held together with an old leather belt that is older than me.
Inside, on top of the harps are usually kept strings, picks, volume pedal etc. for my 'other life' as a steel guitar
player. If I take these things out, the harps dislodge and the whole thing becomes complete chaos. I think this is why I
continue to play both instruments; they appear to have a symbiotic relationship. It also explains why I don't get a
better case, as the whole balance of my musical nature is kept intact by the impractcality of my case.
Anyway, when I'm doing a harp-only gig, the lid-that-comes-off-because the-hinges-are-broken, serves as a tray for all
the junk I don't need during that gig. (If I had two cases for the steel & harp stuff, well, then I'd have two cases;
think of the confusion!)
I label the harps with masking tape or sticky labels from the stationers.
I write 'L' next to the key if it is a low octave harp, and 'H' for a high ('G' only, but I intend to make or get a
high 'A', BTW)
This practice draws out the wit & sarcasm of my musical colleagues, and I find myself thinking they are not very funny,
and my fragile 'toy-instrument' players ego get's its hackles up. I find myself thinking of ways that I can appear more
'slick', 'sharp' and 'pro'. Then I start thinking about
'heavy dudes' with ammo belts full of harps slung ocross their chests,and gunholsters full of chromatics, and how that
would look really silly on a skinny old bastard like me, and how my wife would laugh....and I pick up my old school case
and head off to the gig......