[Harp-L] off the shelf quality

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ryan writes:

"It's just hard to believe that after 10 years and with all this  
competition, a company has not come out with a harp that plays good  
out of the box? Isn't that what everybodys been complaining about for  
years?  "

Most harmonica companies produce decent off the shelf instruments.   
Most are decently in tune and while gapped fairly high, certainly  
fully playable.  Different companies have different quality control  
methods, and different models will be aimed at different markets  
(it's not reasonable to expect the same quality in a $10 harp as a  
$25 harp), but for the middle-of-the-road harmonica the market is  
both large and more than decent in terms of quality.

Two companies that tend to get superior ratings in terms of quality  
control are Lee Oskar and Suzuki.  Indeed, Lee's QC should be a model  
for other companies.  And both these companies produce very nice  
harmonicas that should satisfy most people's needs.  Suzuki has even  
gone a step farther and produced some very high end models recently,  
the Pure Harp, Firebreath and Fabulous (and, yes, these names do  
truly suck).  This is a new market for the harp, and Hohner (MB  
Deluxe), Hering (Golden Blow) and Seydel (1847 line) have all brought  
out higher end models as well.

It's worth remembering that the overwhelming majority of the market  
is not professional players, harp-lers or the like but people who's  
main concern is the most basic quality for the least amount of  
money.  It's easy to get the impression from reading harp-l that  
everyone is either buying "custom" harps or taking their harps apart  
and tweaking them on their own.  Nothing could be further from the  
truth.

"Who are some good but not super expensive harp builders? "

If money is your main concern, then you might as well not bother.   
The best cost more for a reason, and anything less than the best  
isn't worth it, IMO.




 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
`----'