[Harp-L] Hohner Reeds: Damned if you Do, Damned if you Don't

["Brendan Power" <bren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Poor old Hohner are getting a hard time, and to me a lot of it seems
unfair. Though I work for Suzuki, I feel a protective urge to leap to
their defence!
 
My friend Damien Masterson wrote:
 
Before 2005, you could take an imperfect stock instrument and have 
it tweaked and tuned to just your liking. Now, they've narrowed the 
slots, making it next to impossible to emboss. They made some other 
changes, and the instruments don't play like Hohners. ...If it 
was Rick Epping, I wish they would bring him out of retirement to undo 
the damage.
 
Hmmm... That seems kind of strange! What you are saying Damien, is that
you'd rather Hohner made leaky 'imperfect' harps, just so a select few
can get them embossed and tweaked to their liking. That seems rather
elitist. What about the vast majority of players, who just want to buy a
stock harp that works well out of the box? For them, life with a Hohner
harp has improved.
 
Before the new reeds and reedplates came in there were never-ending
complaints about how leaky and unresponsive they'd become. As a
customiser myself, I can verify how poor they were. But due largely to a
lot of hard work from master technician Rick Epping, Hohner quality has
undoubtedly improved in all areas, not just in reed response but also
(as you point out) in the slide mechanisms of their chromatics.
 
An out of the box Hohner 64, 270, Special 20/Golden Melody/Marine Band
Classic is now a much more airtight and responsive harp than it was 5
years ago. Whether the tone is better or worse is a subjective issue.
Some will like the brighter, crisper sound that the much-improved
reed/slot tolerances impart, others will prefer the tone of earlier
models. 
 
I've heard similar complaints from other customisers, who say they can't
emboss the slots of the new Hohner harps because the reeds are tighter
in the slots. To me, that seems like a GOOD thing: a manufacturer
responding to customer complaints to make improvements so, for the
majority, the harps don't NEED to be customised to make them play
decently.
 
So yes, I'd say the best thing for Damien and others who feel the same
way is to just buy up heaps of old pre-2005 harps and spend lots of
money customising them to their personal taste, and leave Hohner to make
good harps for the majority of players. 
 
(Pssst... I have lots of 'old' Hohner chromatics (pre-2005) I can let
you have for a song. Or should I wait for 20 years till those old piles
of junk become 'Collectors Items'?)
 
It's tough being a harmonica company!

Brendan
WEB: http://www.brendan-power.com <http://www.brendan-power.com/>