[Harp-L] Jason Ricci custom harmonicas

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jason Ricci has just put up a video of his custom harmonicas. You all ought to check it out. I have played nearly all these harmonicas in the video. They rule. I mean, RULE! The only ones I don't remember are the ones he's painted with this checker pattern that's nice. At the beginning of the video is Jason's new bird, he just got it Tuesday, I think. 

Anyway, like I said, I've played 9/10 of the harps in the video, I also own two of Jason's harps, a Bb Golden Melody with a rosewood comb (way to right a wrong on the GM comb material, Jason, lol) and an A Prewar Marine Band with a Suzuki Firebreath comb and my name scratched on the front cover. I play them and sometimes I just get them out and stare at them, I see a lot of that enthusiasm I had when I was doing EVERYTHING by hand, which is how Jason is doing these.... When you spend hours doing something ENTIRELY by hand like rounding corners of harps with sandpaper (takes FOREVER), so much of your personality gets poured into it, because you sit and think about stuff you could do and you really get attached to it while you do these menial things... it's an expression of the soul, like the time I took the hand engraver on a Marine Band, gave Matthias Hohner a beard and hat to make him the spittin' image of Robert E. Lee. Putting your personality into
 something... On my Golden Melody, he thinks, hey, what if I dull the finish with some fine sandpaper and then he does it and the Golden Melody looks really classy and it does, it looks 1950s to me, like the side of an Airstream camper. 

Jason's reedwork is excellent. These play incredibly well. Jason has mentioned that he was thinking about selling a few he's worked on, I don't know how or if yet, but if he does, folks would be well off buying one, I don't care what he charges... cause doing that stuff by hand, I've known him to work an entire evening, a night and into the next morning (which he did on my treasured prewar Marine Band) on these things. He loves the harmonica and is fascinated in how it works, that's how we met actually, he was playing in Parkersburg, WV, and I interviewed him for the newspaper and we got to talking... He really has a passion for this. So, if he does sell them, whoever buys them will have something very, very special to treasure forever. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nex7gROKyK4

Almost all the harps in the video are prewars. Jason built them all, except for the Marine Band DeLuxe at the end, which I doubt he'd ever part with because it is so awesome. Spiers did that one, it was an awesomeness in, even more awesomeness out situation with Spiers, he did a heck of job on that...

Dave
______________________________
Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com