Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Harrison custom Harmonicas reply
I really appreciate your response, Jim. For certain I agree with your take
on "never meeting a customizer you didn't like" because one thing I know for
certain: no harp customizer ever gets rich doing this for a living. It's
precise craftsman work.
For example, I've watched Jimmy Gordon work on individual harps for some
fairly well-known players (Madcat in particular, one year...where Peter
teasingly tormented Jimmy while he was attempting to focus on fixing his harp among
crowds of people around his 'Filisko teach-in' table... at Buckeye. Jimmy
was so focused on that instrument despite all going on around him.) I found
what he was doing completely intriguing.
He then helped me with my favourite old 10-hole Hohner chromatic, which gave
me the impetus to want to open up and try working on my own chroms from then
on (not Jimmy's favourites to work on). Jimmy's been terrific to me each
time I see him, being more than willing to answer any questions I have and even
tweaking my Super 64, and he's who I think of as the penultimate
'customizer'....
...but my question was more about the language/linguistics involved. I
genuinely thought all harps made by someone like him and the other customizers,
were considered 'custom' purely because they had their own unique 'stamp',
regardless of whether or not they'd been specifically geared to a particular
customer/player. I know I'd be thrilled to own (if I'm ever good enough to play
it) any Jimmy Gordon harp. Perhaps someday, when/if I feel worthy :)
I'm still focusing on chroms..but hopefully this year or next I'm going to
pick the brains and skills of the friends I have in the diatonic/blues
community (Jason, SmoJoe, Dennis Gruenling, Michael Rubin, many others)...and
finally learn how to play what you all seem to do so easily. I'm of the school who
believe a chromatic is far easier to play than a diatonic 'well'.
For the record, I've heard many good things about Joe Spiers and Brad
Harrison's harps, and don't think there ever will be a glut of good customizers in
the harmonica world.
Regards,
Elizabeth
"I've purchased a handful of harps from individuals who have made general
performance adjustments and full custom jobs. Of course, if you buy the $50
general performance model over the $100 customized for Jim model, you simply
are not buying as many adjustments (time on task)... but when you do pony up
that $50 more... now, I've still got all my teeth... but I'd guess it's like
getting custom bridge work. in my experience, the harp customizer has
contacted me, asked me about my playing style, what I would like in a harp, etc,
etc... then turned around and delivered (for no extra charge.) And, I also know
that if something wasn't to my liking upon receipt of this harp, it would be
fixed/adjusted post haste at no cost to the customer (no shipping, etc.)
Bottom line, I've never met a harp customizer I didn't like. Be it the $50
model or the $100, they've all strived for nothing less than complete customer
satisfaction. A lot of time and effort goes into each harp and I'll tell you,
if on some of my more oft used keys, a reed on an OTS harp may go flat after
a few months of gigs/rehearsals/practicing, I've played some well put
together custom harps that have been serving me admirably for better than a year now
(then, you can turn around and send them back in for maintenance/tweaking
for about the same price as a new OTS harp.) And those custom jobs, both the
$50 and $100 models, to varying degrees, are so responsive and fluid... it's
really hard to go back to OTS (or even use one of the several OTS harps still
in my kit bag.) I'm not affiliated with any customizers... I just dig a good
tool... the right tool for the job. And, in my experience, that's what I've
received when I made the extra initial investment (that's the hard part...
everything else is butter.)
Jim.
www.mcmule.com"
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