I bought a Bushman Soul's Voice in Low D a few months ago. I love the sound of the harp but don't play it much for various reasons. It's extremely hard to play 2nd position because the giant reed slots leak so much air (despite my attempts to emboss and regap). And the lowest pitched reeds tend to vibrate against the covers during deep blows or draws, which makes a horrific sound. I suppose the latter could be fixed by banging out the covers, but I haven't yet gotten into that sort of harp modding.
Anyway, the above problems are due to the key of the harp being so low. There are some other issues due to its manufacturing. The covers are not made of stainless steel, so they rust on the inside even though I don't play the harp that often. It's really disgusting and could be unhealthy for me. And just a couple of days ago, the 7 blow reed broke near the rivet. I noticed the problem when that note sounded a few steps too flat and wouldn't sound clearly. (Though on a side note, I was able to apply big pressure and "overblow" it to get some other note...what's up with that? I should use a tuner and find what note that is.)
I called Bushman yesterday, and they offered to replace the blow reed plate, no questions asked. They just took down my address and said it would be in the mail. I also offered a suggestion: switch to stainless steel for those covers. So while I'm not thrilled with the materials used in their harps, I am impressed with Bushman's service.
Does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative cover that I could use to replace the one on my Soul's Voice? I've never tried mixing and matching parts across different brands.
Jonathan Metts _______________________________________________ Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l