[Harp-L] haiku-ode to Tim Myer, harp customizer

[scott gold <scottgold@xxxxxxxxxx>]

dateline:  1:45 am, tokyo
situation:  drunk.
reading:  Tim¹s sayonara letter...... again.

Ode to a harp-l customizer

deja-vu:  Tim has written this letter to Harp-l
several times over the past 10 ten years.
I don¹t blame him.

maybe not as much as he, I just can¹t understand it ­
it being the harp player/customer.
in my mind, I see a harp-l list filled with an
excited, energetic, starry-eyed, devoted, slightly obsessive,
and very psychotic bunch of folks who indulge heavily the harp into their
lives.

and for the diatonic folks, we are talking about a $15-$20 deal.

it strikes me odd.  does it not anyone else?

Tim is funny b/c he understands the mathematic of the human brain
relative to his now defunct business better than I ever could.
I tried to sell his excellent products in Japan.
after testing, trying, playing using Tom¹s harps, the typical response-logic
I got?:

   ³these harps are great!  but if I have end up relying on them (only),
     then I will never be able to play out-of-the box harps again.²

this sort of flawed reasoning me sickens me.
no, don¹t let me play pool with that nice decent cue
because I may have to one particular day play with a
warped, chipped, cracked-ferruled, split butt, tipless house cue,
and that might end up hurting my game.

Tim, I think this Is the 3rd time you have retired.
each time you hung up your tuning fork, I though it was it, and it wasn¹t.

who knows what the future holds?

all the best,

-sg
tokyo

ps?don¹t forget my slide harp!


> After a busy spring that saw the introduction of two new harmonica
> models, I thought I might actually make this a survivable business.
> But then things dried up over the summer, when harmonica players
> were spending their extra money on $3/gallon gas and tickets to
> Disneyland.  My business dropped by 2/3, and I made the hard
> decision to take a day job at 4 times the salary, plus benefits and
> retirement.  Sometimes doing something you love means taking care of
> those you love.  Maybe I can send my kids to college.  At least I
> can take them to the doctor when they need it.
>
> I entertained the illusion that I was going to be able to work a
> full-time job, take care of the kids after school, play in a band
> AND build harmonicas, but I found it increasingly difficult to make
> myself spend the last two hours of each day after the kids went to
> bed, plus my weekends, building harmonicas for less than minimum
> wage.  Somehow, it's more enjoyable to pour a glass of wine and sit
> down and watch Boston Legal with my wife.  Go figure.
>
> I am in the process of trying to complete the orders I have in
> house, many of which are 15 or more weeks old, and in the mean time
> have stopped taking new orders.  It was a hard decision, having
> gotten into and out of the harmonica business repeatedly over the
> years, and continually disappointing a following that's tried so
> hard to be loyal through all my flip-flops.
>
> Who knows what the future holds?  Hopefully good things for all of
> us.
>
> -Tim
>
> Tim Moyer
> Working Man's Harps
> http://www.workingmansharps.com/