[Harp-L] Custom Harmonicas - a point that needs to be made

[Tony Eyers <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The current debate on custom harmonicas motivates this post, which I've 
been meaning to write for some time.

As Steve Baker indicates, there are a small number of customisers who 
apply a great deal of time and expertise to the shape and preparation of 
reeds, following techniques which I believe were pioneered by Joe 
Filisko. I played one of Joe's instruments back in 1999, courtesy of 
Trip Henderson in NYC. I had been playing for 20 years at that point, 
and I had never played anything remotely as good as this instrument. 
This is the dramatic improvement that Steve Baker is talking about.

For the last 6 years I have been playing instrumentsprepared by Neil 
Graham in Australia (www.neilgraham.com). For me, Neil's instruments 
have the characteristics that I recall from my brief encounter with a 
Filisko instrument, extraordinary volume and very fast response. I need 
instruments like this for my music, and I'm happy to pay the difference 
for the performance they give.

Neil spends about a day preparing each instrument. I do a little 
harmonica work myself, and having inspected his reeds I can appreciate 
where his time goes. I suspect that other top class customisers invest 
similar time preparing their instruments.

Now to the point of this post.

How should you reward a master craftsman who invests this much time on 
your behalf? Consider that they need to run workshops, power tools etc, 
and often have professional trade skills (e.g Joe Filisko is a toolmaker 
by trade). Another way of looking at this: how much would you expect to 
pay a licensed plumber or electrician who spent a day working at your 
house? The answer should give some idea of how much the very best 
customisers need to get for their instruments.

It is common for players of other instruments to spend many thousands on 
their equipment ( have a close look at the gear at your next blues jam 
or bluegrass festival to see what I mean). I don't see that harmonica 
players are any different. It is not easy for me to find the money for 
my custom instruments, but I consider them worth every dollar.

This is not to denigrate off the shelf instruments, which have improved 
enormously over the last decade. Similarly, there are a number of 
harmonica technicians who gap and tune reeds, adjust cover plates etc, 
and sell the resulting product for less than $100. I have played some of 
these instruments, and the extra they cost over stock instruments is 
well spent. However I imagine that these technicians cannot afford to 
spend much more than an hour on each instrument, otherwise they would go 
broke. The additional time put in by the very best customisers, and the 
many years needed to refine their skills account for the extra cost of 
their instruments.

To conclude: if you have never played a instrument from one of of these 
customisers, hopefully one day you will. Then perhaps you will see 
things as I do.

Tony Eyers
www.HarmonicaTunes.com
...everyone plays