Re: [Harp-L] Neck Rack Blues

["Vern Smith" <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

The Ergonomic-Neck-Rack seen on www.hands-free-chromatic.7p.com solves all
of your problems and answers all your complaints about neck racks.

Vern


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Olson" <CalSag1@xxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 6:54 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Neck Rack Blues


Let me tell you buddy, the cure for the Neck Rack Blues (2)
If your neck's too long, try takin' off your shoes.

Actually that wont work either (I tried). Seems to me somebody on the list
was/is selling a heavy duty rack with vertical adjustments (Elevate me mama,
five or six stories on down!) but, as I recall it was a little pricy for me.

 I got a few rack issues myself - but when I tried going to the harp-l
archives and messing around for a while I found I couldn't work it well ( I
guess google has spoiled me). Everything I need to know is probably in the
Archives and been discussed a hundred times since 1992. Can somebody hep me?
I can't do it all by myself.
I'd like to be able to type in "harp, harmonica, rack, holder, clamp, vise,
experimental, design" and get a hit list without a million misses included.
Any real help from archivists would be cool.
I have a cheap solution for one rack problem (not height). I have/had a
problem with the harp "running away from me" and not getting a good pressure
seal. A cheap solution: go to the Dollar store and get a couple packages of
assorted bungee cords. Tiny ones wrapped in the right places can help can
help restore "tired rack syndrome". Then take a big one and hook one end to
the rack part that runs around back of your neck (the neck piece?) and the
other end gets attached to your belt or belt loop - if it's too loose - tie
knots in the bungee until the tension feels right. Also sponge-foam pipe
insulation (Home Depot etc., cheap) can be cut and put over the neck piece
and other places. This (for me) helped the runaway problem a lot - but not
altogether.
IMO the perfect rack should (except for cupping, etc.) approximate the hand
held sound (if that is what you want, and I do) and that's just a matter of
design - I'm guessing that if I could mine the achieves I could find several
wheels I wouldn't have to reinvent.
One design I've been working on includes drum equip. clamps, gooseneck
extensions, HD Bulldog clips, plastic funnels, tie-clip mics and a few
bungees. this is attached to my keyboard stand in a fairly rigid
configuration (hardly runs away) and sounds more like hand held than
anything I've ever been able to get. I'd like to talk with some one who
designs artificial limbs  and/or robotics AND blows harp!
There's probably at least 200 harp-l-ers that fit that MO.
Suck, blow, have fun,
  --CalSag

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From: "Steve Shaw" <moorcot@xxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [Harp-L] articulated neck rack

>From: Joel Fritz

>This weekend I got out my rack and fooled with it for awhile.  I realized
>that one of my problems--one that cann't be solved by my practicing more or
>learning new techniques--is the angle of the harmonica.  I can't get the
>harmonica at a comfortable angle in my mouth without either trimming a
>couple of inches off the front of my face or shortening my neck a bit.
>This is the result of the constant radius of the circle the harmonica
>travels in in the rack and the fixed position of the harmonica in the
>clamp.

LOL - Years ago I had this big idea of playing the harmonica and bodhran at
the same time so I bought a rack (Hohner I think..).  No matter what I did,
the only way I could get the harp satisfactorily in my mouth sufficiently to
play it was to jut my whole head and lower jaw forward and slightly down.
Ten minutes of that and I would have needed physiotherapy.  At least, the
traditional music world was spared this cock-eyed notion.  I always put it
down to the fact that nothing ever really fits me anyway.  I'm the kind of
guy who can make a £100 pair of Levis look like I just picked them out of
Woolworths' reject dump.  I know I'm not helping, but it's heartening
sometimes to hear that it isn't just you.

Steve



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