Re: [Harp-L] re:was harp as a toy now set up

Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> · Tue, 21 Jun 2005 18:56:12 -0400

On Jun 20, 2005, at 12:43 PM, Eric Neumann wrote:
Pierre wrote:
"I kind of doubt the old Chicago players tweaked harps."
Maybe not - but I would not count them out yet. I think that it's

because of lists like this one, and communities revolving around 
playing

the harmonica well, that have probably made this seem more of a

contemporary practice.

 I believe Pierre AND Eric are BOTH correct on this issue. On the one 
hand, most harmonica players did NOT mess about much with their harps, 
but as players got more and more experienced, involved, famous, active, 
or whatever you want to call it, the bigger names gradually realized 
that if one didn't work on their own harps, it could cost a small 
fortune to play them. Coupled, of course, with the rarity of harp 
repairmen back then. There was usually one guy in a group who knew a 
little about them. The Harmonicats had Jerry, then Dick Gardner, then 
Bob Bauer. The Rascals had Borrah, Leo Friedman, Fuzzy Feldman. Most of 
the 'singleton' diatonic players were pretty much on their own and some 
used repair guys while others did some of the work themselves. Blackie 
Schackner (while predominantly a chromatic player) was a 'singleton' 
performer and had to do his own work.

 On the other hand, I don't feel the 'early' guys did very much to 
their Marine Bands, probably electing to just replace them as needed. I 
don't feel diatonics were worked on much till lately as fellows found 
out what could be done. As an example. can anyone think of ANY custom 
diatonic before the Filisko? Now, while I'm sure there were people 
doing SOME adjustments to diatonics, I never heard of any custom jobs 
till within the last 25 years.

I found out through this list, that Jerry Murad used to repair and
adjust his onw harps.

 This is true. Jerry had done a stint with the Harmonica Rascals and 
while there, he worked on other peoples chromatics & chords. He had 
always done his own work until Dick Gardner came along. I recall 
spending Tuesday afternoons at Jerry's home workshop where, at one 
time, we sorted through roughly 25 pounds of reed plates, pidgeon holed 
most of them and wrote out cards as to which reeds were good and which 
were not. Tuesday evenings several of us would then sit around from 
7-11 and play
 Heck even Smo Jo clipped his 5 reed back when
bread didn't come sliced in a package.

 That was purely an accident. I always wondered how MANY threshold 
discoveries were purely by accident :)

Let alone the fact that a lot of the Old Chicago players used to out
right lie, and mislead everyone regarding their gear, technique,
background, et cetera.

 Absoultely, It was hard just to find out how OLD some of them were. 
Hell, some of them didn't even know themselves how old they were. 
That's show business. There's a lot of cloak, dagger, intrigue 
involved. It's good for establishing 'Mystique'. This is how legends 
are born. I recall when I was 18-19 and living in NOLa & Baton Rouge, 
there were several occasions where I wanted to meet one of the greats. 
I found most to be aloof, uninterested, and some were downright mean. 
Lazy Lester was the exception.
 I just think it is in fact possible that early,
early harp players that were being recorded may well have made
adjustments to their harps.

 Oh, I would say that this went on, but only a few percent at the top 
might have thought that they needed to bother with it. As far as the 
'water' trick. Cold water will cause the brass to contract. Just how 
much difference THIS makes is questionable. From what I know about 
metalurgy, it would seem that the SLOTS (cut into a comparitively 
massive slab of brass) would close up faster than a reed's width 
(comparitively diminutive sliver of brass) would narrow. Ergo: the fit 
will be tighter and produce a different sound.

 I, personally, like to think that the water (itself) adds "vapor bulk" 
to all the EDGES and it is THIS that changes the dynamics, (NOT the 
shrinkage factor).

I ask, when was the first time you tore a harp apart trying to fix a 
bad

reed...

 In my case, I was just a child. I was way too young to know s**t. In 
fact, I STILL don't know s**t. I had no choice but to try to fix it 
myself. This is probably what most kids did. Either that or they bought 
a new one and tossed the old one in a drawer.

 I never kept the old junkers. I threw them out. But I shined shoes, 
had a paper route, and collected scrap copper & brass out of the dump, 
so I could afford to buy new ones. I don't believe the really 
"old-timeys' had that luxury.
 maybe not even knowing what to look for... I've seen used harps
on ebay for instance where the covers were attached with bailing wire
after somebody looked under the covers for some reason.
To me, I would feel it's likely that any old recording harp player that

traveled a lot to do gigs, eat, have some drinkin money, may, or may 
not

have had the five bucks to spend on a new harp after figuring out how 
to

fix one.

 I tend to feel it was in individual thing. Those that HAD to work on 
their own harps probably did THAT, while those that were only 
interested in PLAYING them, may not have. There seems to be an 
undercurrent that most of the old musicians (especially from the south) 
were dirt poor. This isn't always the case. They may have been poor but 
a lot of them WEREN't underprivileged.  There are many stories about 
kids receiving a guitar from an uncle, or their father or mother bought 
them an instrument for Christmas, or they got piano lessons from their 
Aunt. My parents wouldn't buy ME an instrument to save my ass. They 
didn't like noise.
 Ray Charles learned piano from an old man who was his neighbor. 
Pinetop's mother was a cook in a (shall we say) 'house', where he 
learned to play from visiting gentlemen. Miles Davis' father was a 
dentist. Chuck Berry got a guitar for Christmas from his dad. Handy (& 
many many others) learned music in church.
 I was surfing Google one day and was amazed to find out that there 
were a couple DOZEN singers and musicians from the golden days of 
blues, rock, pop who were either related to each other in some unusual 
way (half brother/step aunt/adopted nephew/etc), or knew, spent time 
with, and learned from each other. Man what an advantage THAT would be. 
Example: Your uncle is Howard Levy, You're getting free lessons from 
your neighbor Stevie Wonder, and your mom's new boyfriend is Charlie 
McCoy, and you are currently living with your mother's step-brother 
Toots Theilmanns.  Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
smokey joe & the cafe s

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