Re: [Harp-L] Re: Blues Harp

["steve@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <swebb@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my effort to find an easy way to bend notes, I bought some Blues Harps in the 70s. I had that problem with caving in the cover plates and then having them leak in the front. I never did like them much.
Steve Webb in Minnesota

---- Steve Baker <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: 
> The Blues Harp was released in 1966. At that time Tony Glover  
> reviewed it and said as far as I can recollect that the product info  
> stated that the reeds were different and didn't need to be broken in.  
> In fact the Blues Harp (like the Old Standby) was never anything else  
> but a standard Marine Band comb & reed plates fitted with closed  
> covers, which made the sound slightly less bright due to the  
> different shape and of course the closed sides. They never had  
> plastic combs and were tuned exactly the same as the MB, because the  
> inner unit of comb and reed plates only became a Marine Band, Blues  
> Harp or Old Standby when the appropriate covers were nailed on, The  
> Blues Harp covers tended to cave in under the pressure of holding  
> them, which made them leaky at the front, so I  only bought them in  
> emergencies when I couldn't get a Marine Band. I'd rip the covers off  
> and throw these away, replacing them with the covers from the Marine  
> Band which had just given up the ghost. Like that I got a new MB with  
> slightly soiled covers.
> 
> I always assumed the reason for this branding ploy was that John  
> Philip Sousa's Marine Corps Band didn't mean much to Europeans and  
> that the name Blues Harp was intended to make the instrument more  
> attractive to purchasers there. In the UK the Marine Band was sold as  
> the Echo Super Vamper for many years (fortunately fitted with proper  
> MB covers with a different stamp) for the same reason.
> 
> Steve
> 
> Steve Baker
> steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> www.stevebaker.de
> www.bluesculture.com
> www.youtube.com/stevebakerbluesharp
> 
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