Re: [Harp-L] Marine Band Deluxe

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Garry Hodgson wrote:
<Chris <s5gv2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<
<> When I first heard of the MD Deluxe I had hoped that it would have a 
<> plastic comb and I was really disappointed to find out they only have
<a 
<> semi sealed wooden comb. Surely Hohner can make a plastic comb the
<exact 
<> dimensions of a wooden one?<
<
<they could make it.  i doubt they could sell it.  for better or worse,
<the 
<cachet of the wood comb is firmly embedded in harmonica players'
<psyches.

There's certainly been plenty of debate on this list about the merits of
plastic vs. wood.  Some -- mostly on the wood-is-best side -- have even
been unwilling to accept the idea that a valid blind test could be
constructed. 

I played wooden harps until 1986, when I got my first Lee Oskar, and
there are now very few wooden harps in my kit, mostly specialty
instruments (e.g. my SBS-tuned model 365s) that aren't available in
plastic.  The wooden harps are simply more trouble in every way --
harder to repair, harder to tune for performance, more prone to air
leakage, etc., etc.  And I am very skeptical of claims that they sound
better.

A quick check of the Pro Pages at my website
(hunterharp.com/propage1.html), shows that many of the pros do indeed
prefer the wood -- among other things -- but a lot of them like plastic
and even metal too.  Rob Paparozzi, Jellyroll Johnson, and Dennis
Gruenling all say they play customized Filiskos and stock marine Bands;
Johnson and Paparozzi also list LaVoie titanium combs as their
favorites. Carlos Del Junco prefers customized Golden Melodies.  Tom
Ball likes Special 20s, right out of the box. 

A Filisko (or Sleigh or Gordon) of course, is as much like a standard
Marine Band as Richard Petty's race car is like a stock sedan. Filisko
does a lot to make the imperfections of a stock Marine Band disappear,
and that's why his instruments sell for a lot more than a stock Marine
Band. Most players don't have these intruments at their disposal. If
you're using stock instruments, the plastic stuff works a lot better out
of the box, and is more easily customized.  Period.

It seems to me a little contradictory to say -- as almost every pro on
this list does -- that "90% of the player's sound comes from the player"
and then claim that the comb material-- which Dr. James Antaki, designer
of the TurboLid and TurboHarp, among others, has shown has very little
effect on the overall sound of the instrument -- is a big factor.  I, of
course, prefer Lee Oskars, and if you want to hear what they sound like,
check out the solo acoustic harmonica recordings at my website at
hunterharp.com/mp3s.html.  I think they sound fine.    

In any case, for Hohner to promote the Marine Band Deluxe as the
near-equivalent of a customized harp seems like a reversion to the bad
old days, when the company would put a new box on the same old
instrument and promote it as a new product.  Today's harmonica players
are a lot smarter about their instruments, have a lot more choices, and
get the word from their peers a lot more quickly than they used to.  If
you want to promote an instrument as a high-performance model, you had
better have something more than the usual stuff under the hood.  It
doesn't look to me like the MB Deluxe has it.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com