[Harp-L] EQ'ing for harp meets the materials debate

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

<<Different brands can sound quite different from
>one another, and materials and quality of construction can
>also affect the tone. A harmonica with a wooden comb, for
>example, may sound warmer than one with a plastic comb....

There it is, in black and white! On the Web! I always knew it was
true.

George >>>

 

George, 

 

I hate to burst your balloon here but this really doesn't prove a thing.

Just because some recording engineer says something doesn't make it true.

I'm a wallpaper hanger and painter by trade and I can tell you that I've
read 

Pages, and pages of advice on the internet from various sites,  

claiming to be authorities on wallpaper and paint wherein the absolutely
wrong 

advise is given and absolutely wrong things are stated.  

 

What you need to believe is your own ears.  The fact is there are a lot of 

things that effect tone far more than comb material.  For starters there is
the player. 

The player has a far greater effect on tone than the harp he or she is
using.  As 

Blues players go, I have pretty damn good tone.  Give me a Suzuki Folkmaster
(a very 

Crappy harp IMHO) and give a guy with less experience and lousy tone a
Marine Band and 

I promise you in a blind comparison you'll think I'm playing the MB and the
other guy is playing

the crappy harp.  But you put me next to a guy with a really huge oral
cavity, who has the ability 

to produce a deep, thick tone and you'll think I'm the guy with the cheap
harp.  I've only scratched the 

surface here.  As anybody who can think for a minute of all the factors,
from construction of that harp, to 

the skill level of that player, to even the song being played, can tell you,
comb material really 

doesn't make much difference - to the listener.  Now how it feels to you as
a payer is a different matter.

 

This controversy is, was, and always will be a silly one. 

 

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh