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

["john" <jjthaden@xxxxxxxxx>]

    Well George, Vern, I guess it's time to unpack that Styrofoam comb again.  
Fooled 'em with it at SPAH a decade ago but maybe the human ear has 
evolved since then.
-John Thaden  


======= At 2008-03-29, 13:13:33 you wrote: =======

><<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
>