Re: [Harp-L] Harmonica Customizing as a Business

["bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-- fjm <mktspot@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Matt Stuart writes about getting a lesson in harmonica set-up/repair 
from Richard Sleigh.  Having spent some time across a table from 
Richard 
I can confirm that it's time well spent. If for no other reason than 
to 
see how he approaches the problem solving involved with diatonic 
harmonica manipulation.  I'll transplant a reed if I'm forced to and 
I've retuned an entire harmonica to low A.  Over the years I've 
touched 
up the tuning on my various customs and I've even bought a composite 
comb and assembled a ground up custom on my own devising but I'll 
confess that when they work out right I can't tell you why.  That 
leaves 
the whole process somewhere in the realm of magic for me.

Off the shelf harmonicas are getting better again but the contrast 
we're 
seeing is more due to how abysmal they'd become rather than how good 
they currently are.  What is required to make a superb instrument 
customised to an individual's requirements is well beyond the scope 
and 
capabilities of any normal manufacturing process.  I don't think 
Hohjner 
or any of the other harmonica manufacturers are missing the boat by 
not 
serving this market niche.  They sell millions of units in a year. 
Beyond an airtight instrument the biggest difference that can be made 
in 
a harmonica is in the tuning.  Tuning schemes are subjective and 
myriad 
and good tuning takes time because of the tendency of the reeds to not 
stay put when you tune them the first several times.

Robert Bonfiglio talks about the necessity of being able to handle 
your 
own chromatic set up.  I do think he's correct in that the basics, 
gross 
reed offset and tuning of octaves and intervals are all well within 
the 
capabilities of most players.  Maybe it's like being able to change a 
flat on your car.  Most times you'll be able to give a quick call to 
AAA 
but sometimes you'll need to for what ever reason just change the flat 
and get on your way.  It's nice to not be totally helpless.  As Robert 
points out it's almost impossible to actually hurt a reed by 
manipulating it.  If it snaps off it was dead anyhow.  fjm

Hi,
This post is so abolutely dead on the money!!!!!!! What too many 
people seem to thick they can get a Rolls royce quality while paying 
at a price of a beat up, junk box used Chevy on its last legs, so for 
the general public, this is a HUGE reality check here. If the 
manufacturers all did what the customizers all do, they'd be paying 
just as much, if not more than from a customizer, because of the extra 
added production line costs involved, all of which is VERY labor 
intensive, and the these very SAME people constantly complaining about 
all of the quality issues they percieve will also be complaing about 
the cost they have to pay, and remember, who gets the added production 
costs passed on to in the price you pay?? YOU DO, like it or not!!! 
Yep, once again, a cold, hard, brutal reality check.

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