[Harp-L] My Special Gift

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

No, not that kind of gift, haha. I got none of that. I wasn't in the
harp line when those were given out, must have been somewhere else.
Every little step comes only after ridiculous amounts of practice and
work for me.

But I just had a "milestone" birthday and requisite huge multi-keg
party, and I got a lot of "stuff" but by far the coolest gift I received
was from none other than our own Mike Easton, my good friend, reluctant
mentor (he doesn't give lessons but I'm allowed to go hear him play and
try to steal stuff) and harp tech extraordinaire.

Mike is best known for repair and doesn't generally "do" custom harps,
but he did this one for me. Maybe after hearing me whine about liking
the Golden Melody form factor but not necessarily the tuning for blues.
So Mike presented me with a custom GM (in A) he built and tuned for me,
and it's just a work of art. The comb is brass and he reshaped the cover
plates to open them up in the back for a bigger sound, added reinforcing
posts, just did a beautiful job.

I waited to play it for the right time, when I was fresh of mind and
mouth. I ran  through Whammer Jammer (which I've been learning on) on
it, which is a challenge up and down the harp as you know. It plays like
butter. The high end bends especially, which are challenging on that
tune, due to things like the vibrato on the 10 blow bend, were far
easier. It was just a joy to play. I went through the major and blues
scales, some bends using bendometer, octaves (finally killer octaves!!),
some of my tired crappy riffs, etc. The ease of play and sound are just
incredible. 

I'm taking a chance by 'outing' him here on building the custom harp,
but oh well. Mike respects all the folks out there in the biz and does
not wish to compete with them, certainly that rough gang "The Filsko
Guild". He does not want to find a horse head in his bed or fish at his
door. But I can't thank him enough for this. Now I hope every tune I
ever play on is in E, haha.  Well or Bm. Maybe I'll learn those Obs and
play chromatically so I can  use this harp for everything. It's just
KILLER.

The great thing is that I've been working at not playing forcefully, and
I'm so afraid of hurting this beautiful harp that I damn sure do on this
one, and it sounds just great and response so nicely without a lot of
air at all. Ok Mike, so I'm ready for my C, D, Bb, and G harps now,
HAHA. Greedy!!

I've played a few customs, they're always a treat and a HUGE difference.
Works of patience and love. This is easily the best harp I've ever
played!

Hmm. Maybe I'll bring this new pistola down there to SPAH and do that
showdown with the groovy gypsy after all. Gypsy, never bring a knife to
a gun fight (Butch Cassidy?). This sucker weighs about five pounds so I
can always use it as a weapon. Oh wait, I do that when I play.

Bill Hines
Hershey, PA