[Harp-L] FW: Three Simple Things Hohner Could do to improve their harps

["Bill Kumpe" <bkumpe@xxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Kumpe [mailto:okbizlaw@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 12:03 PM
To: 'harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx'
Subject: Three Simple Things Hohner Could do to improve their harps



It seems everybody has had something to say about Hohner quality of late.
In that vein, here are three simple suggestions that IMHO might help Hohner
deliver a better harp:

1.  Mark the harp key on the mouthpiece facing the player in large easily
visible lettering.  Not only does this help a nervous player (or for that
matter a vain one who does not want to show his age by wearing readers)
find the right harp on a dark stage but also prevents a really nervous, half
blind etc. player from sticking the wrong end in his mouth and starting his
solo with a ear piercing squeak instead of the intended three draw. (Yes, I
really did that a couple of months back.)  Since I fit both descriptions
above, this is one the first things I do to a new Hohner but do not have to
do on new Suzuki's or LO's. 

2.  Open up the covers.  A year or so ago, one of our local harp gurus, Mike
Peace, showed me how to roll the edge back on the cover plates on a Hohner
to open it up.  I believe it makes the harp play louder with less effort and
improves the tone considerably.  I hope I don't kick off another technical
argument on this issue, but I think I'm probably not alone in this belief
because I see a LOT of Hohner harps with this same after market
modification.

3. Encourage Hohner retailers to return their defective harps to Hohner
instead of returning them to stock and trying to sell them.  A number of
times in the past, I have ran a harp through the squeeze box test and found
that it has one or more bad, sour, weak, etc. reeds only to watch the
retailer return the harp to stock.  That would explain why you sometimes
have to go through three or four Hohners in a store before you find a good
one.  It's not that Hohner's quality control is that bad but rather that
years worth of bad harps are piling up on the retailer's shelves and the
retailers aren't ordering good replacements.  

Bill Kumpe
Tulsa, Oklahoma