Re: [Harp-L] Custom harmonicas: filisko method...(longish)

["Bob Maglinte" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Ficara" <kenficara@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Custom harmonicas: filisko method...(longish)


> Well, I just finished my set of Sleigh harps with a new shipment from
> Richard and I'm thrilled. I think that the biggest advantage of these
> harps is that you can play them much more gently than a stock harp and
> get better tone and response. I can play what I need to play on a
> stock harp, but it takes more work, and I find that the lighter the
> touch, the better the playing.
>
> Ken

Hi,
That's basically the case with all custom harps, which I can personally 
attest to. For beginners, there's NO WAY in the world I'd recommend them 
ever getting custom stuff because it'll take a bit of time for them to 
unlearn bad habits, and one bad habit 90% of all beginners will have is 
playing the instrument excessively hard all the time, especially during the 
bending process. Playing much more gently even on a stock instrument will 
give better tone, greater overall agility, and will help keep the reeds in 
tune MUCH longer, and as a result, you don't blow them out quickly. All the 
players who constantly whine all the time about their stock harps blowing 
quick are usually the same people who play way too hard all the time in the 
first place, and far too often, they haven't really made a concerted effort 
to unlearn this really bad habit in the mistaken notion that their tone will 
suffer, which if anything, will improve it, and they will blow out a custom 
harp even quicker than a stock instrument. There were no custom diatonics 
around when I used to see Big Walter Horton play, and he played much gentler 
on a harp than the average player does, and his tone as well as tone control 
was nothing short of awesome.

The customs, to me, won't make you a better player if you don't really have 
the skills yet to begin with, but it makes everything unquestionably much 
easier to play, and when you unlearn the average harp player's bad  habit of 
playing excessively hard all the time, you should be able to get not months 
out of any harp, but YEARS out of them, most especially on a custom 
instrument. Great instruments won't hide poor playing habits for a 
nanosecond, but they will surely expose them in a  hurry.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/