Re: [Harp-L] Custom Harmonicas - Worth It?

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Stainless reeds last a lot longer. I've got one of the first 1847s sold in the United States. It was my main C harp for a long time. I bluegrassed the heck out of it, which a lot of times is fast runs with hard, deep bends. Very hard on a reed. The Forty Seven is in perfect tune. After all that, absolutely perfect tune. There's a reason it took stainless steel reeds so many decades to make the jump from big stainless reeds in accordions to little harp reeds, it's hard for the designers to get the steel to work in a commercial reed. I think, perhaps it is SmoJoe who invented the stainless steel reed, but it was really difficult to do it on a commercial scale. You needed sometbody like Karl Pucholt, the engineering guy at Seydel, to make it work. To design the 1847, he applied what he knew from steel accordion reeds. 
To make the stainless work, Karl and gang had to look at everything, basically reinvent the harp in the way. The other changes they made to the coverplates and reedslots account for the sound and playability of the 1847. Seydel shows these spectural analysese, etc. about the sound of it, but I really don't know how much of that is steel, they made so many other improvements. 

But the steel makes it last, but there's other changes they've made to make it last longer. The D is usually the quickest harp to blow out, that's because it's the lowest of the short reedslot harps, the reeds get plenty of pressure, but are shorter. The 1847 D is a LONGSLOT harmonica. I believe the E and F are also longslot harps.

If you play a stock harp and a custom harp the exact same way, the stock harp should last longer, because there is so much less pressure on the reeds. There is a lot of breath wasted in a stock harp, the primary function of a custom harp is to take advantage of that air stock harps waste to improve response. There is probably not a person on this board who couldn't learn to swap a reed in an afternoon. Back in the old days, before  Dick Farell and other jedi knights took on the Dark Lords of the throwaway harp conspiracy by offering specialty tools, etc., it was hard. With the meager tools I have, I can have a reed off a plate in seconds and a new reed back in and tuned in a half hour. The tools available foday aren't very expensive and make the job easy. Reed replacement is not rocket science.I do not throw away anything. It's either parts or it's kept running. 



Dave
____________________________
Dave Payne Sr.
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com .  



> I would love to have customized harmonicas.  However,
> I assume the reeds get fatigued at the the same rate
> as those in stock harmonicas. I replace my harmonicas
> regularly, after extending each harmonica's life
> somewhat by filing a reed when it first goes flat.
> Eventually, as we all know, that reed is gone forever.

I think that as a hard player troubled with reed failures, you would be a 
good tester for Seydel stainless steel reeds.  It seems likely to me that SS 
reeds would not fatigue as quickly as copper-alloy reeds do....maybe not at 
all.  You could report your experience to us.

IMO, Seydel has addressed the problem and deserves the applause and support 
of harp players for their initiative.

Vern
Visit my harmonica website www.Hands-Free-Chromatic.7p.com



>
>
> I'm not well off.  I can't justify buying expensive
> customized harmonicas that I will eventually throw
> away. I'm too frugal. (I assume they eventually get
> thrown away, like stock harmonicas). Are the
> customized harmonica users richer than the rest of us?
> Am I missing something?
>
> Some of you, if you respond to this topic, will be
> tempted to talk about changing one's playing style to
> lengthen the life of the harmonica.  That's fine, but
> my musical/bluesical style over the last 30 years has
> incorporated plenty of hard blowing and drawing, and I
> would rather keep that style than change it to save
> money.
>
> No disrespect is intended to the excellent customizers
> out there; it's great you're doing it and great
> there's a market for your work.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wolf Kristiansen
>
>
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