[Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 55, Issue 5

[Robert Ross <robertaross@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Greg,
Thanks for a terrific and well thought out response! I've admired our
work for several years since I first researched buying a Kalamazoo II
(not one of yours, but a very nice one). I was thinking something in
that price range myself, just felt right. I agree with everything you
said, which just inspired me to keep on doing what I love.
"Over-promise and under-deliver" truly is my middle name, too :-)

I've already invested a lot in doing this, from the tools and
workbench I built up to the addiction I seem to have developed to
bidding on vintage stuff on eBay. I originally started building mics
because I thought that I couldn't afford to buy a $200 mic - but it
ended up costing me many times that to get more tools, buy vintage
mics and parts and trash some parts learning what not to do. But I
just love doing it. My latest and best mic is the hottest mic I have
heard (comparing against various mics I have played, including Rod
Piazza's, JT30s, Black Elements, you name it) - and is invaluable, at
least to me. But f you add up what I have spent to get here, I
probably could have bought a nice Bassman by now (well, maybe a
resissue). 

I don't have the equipment to mount those Switchcraft screw-ons or do
a proper powder coating job...but maybe that'll come one day, too! I
prefer 1/4" connectors anyway for my own mics since they work better
with my wireless setup.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, for your supportive comments and
for the tips about the harp mic forum - I am sure you'll be seeing me
there soon!

Regards,
Robert


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Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 17:45:27 -0800
From: Greg Heumann <greg@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Harp Mic Repair Fees
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <F1C3C310-EB16-4F69-90D1-475468C49ECD@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=US-ASCII;	delsp=yes;	format=flowed

Robert

I have a business serving harmonica players.  Your statements below  
indicate to me that you understand the game pretty well. It is  
absolutely and totally fair to give your work some value.

The market is very small - maybe 10,000 players worldwide, of which  
1,000 or fewer are ever likely to hear about your services or mine.  
Fortunately a large part of the market are "amateurs with means".  
Most pros are struggling to make a living and rarely have any extra  

bucks to spend. The following sentence is the most direct answer I  
can give to your question: I price my goods and services with a labor
 
component of $35/hour. Given that to do what I do requires skills in 

electronics, woodworking, machining, manufacturing, marketing, sales,
 
operations, computers... not to mention understanding the gigging  
harmonica player's needs, $35/hr is probably well below what my  
skills are "worth". But I do it because I love it. I love solving  
customers' problems. I love learning new skills. I get to have a one-

to-one relationship with each customer - I have absolute and total  
control over customer satisfaction - and I find it very rewarding to 

"under-promise and over-deliver." So it is worth it to me. But that  
might not make it worth it to you.

I KNOW I have happy customers because the longer I've been in  
business, the more of my business is repeat business. So I'm  
confident that my work is valued and appreciated - and I believe my  
customers understand that I can't give my labor away. They also  
understand that if the market were, say, 100 to 1000 times bigger, a 

big company with offshore manufacturing could make anything I make  
and absolutely crush me on price. But the market is small and  
thankfully for us, it doesn't make economic sense for the big guys,  
which means I make stuff one at a time, by hand, the old fashioned  
way, and therefore it costs real money.

Keep in mind that your labor rate is only part of the picture.  In  
order to turn jobs around quickly, I have to have thousands of  
dollars invested in inventory - elements, connectors, amp rebuild  
parts, weird stuff I have to buy in huge quantities to get at all,  
etc. And in order to do quality work over and over again, I have many
 
more thousands invested in tools. The price of the tools you need to 

do a proper job of fitting a screw-on connector into a bullet shell, 

for example, is way more than I charge to do the job (and by proper I
 
certainly do NOT mean epoxy, or an attempt to retain the connector  
with allen screws, which is guaranteed to fail.)

If I had to support a household and/or family solely from this job,  
I'd be looking for another career in a hurry. When you look at it  
realistically, the profit margin ain't very high, even if you DO  
charge a reasonable labor rate. Lucky for me, it works. Only you can 

judge whether it will  work for you. I hope that helps.

P.S. - There is a very friendly gathering of harp mic builders at Tim
 
"harp mic gaskets dot com" Dougherty's "harp mic forum" at http:// 
harpmicforum.myfastforum.org/index.php


/Greg

http://www.blowsmeaway.com


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