Re: [Harp-L] Customify ? for Dave Payne

[David Payne <dmatthew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It is, if you look at a side view, the reed is down in the slot, there's no gap to speak of until you get to the vibrating end and then there's not much of one at all and it is pretty tightly embossed. I think most of the harps Jason has actually been playing though for a living are Joe Spiers'... with some Harrisons and an occasional Filisko mixed in. I told him once he ought to play his own stuff and he said "You probably can't tell, but there is a difference. I can tell." I couldn't really tell, guess he could, but that was like two years ago. Maybe I could tell now, I dunno.
My Golden Melody was the first harp he built. The Prewar A Marine Band he did maybe a year later, but a few months before his first Ebay harps. 
 I played most of the harps he sold on Ebay, he is getting better at making, I could tell they were getting consistently better. Now, he says he really misses those Ebay harps. He's getting down to the nitty gritty on playing harps and trying to get by until his signature harp comes out.
First time I met Jason, he was in town and I was interviewing him for the newspaper. I had just started trying to be a customizer. Jason let me play every harp in his case, which gave me an idea what the end result down the road needed to be and that experience has probably helped me stay humble since.
My personal favorite of his custom harps I've played, and I'm not saying it's better than anything else, I'm just saying I absolutely loved it, was this one he had by Brendan Powers. You get up on the high end and it draw bends and blow bends like butter. I presume it was valved. 

Dave
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www.elkriverharmonicas.com 




 

----- Original Message ----
From: JohnnieHarp <johnnieharp@xxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 3:38:59 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Customify ? for Dave Payne

Dave,

I think somewhere you mentioned that Jason Ricci customized a harp for
you. Also, you may have played others of his?

How does JR set his up? From his playing style and YouTube comments I
would expect his set up to be really sensitive and responsive with
tight tight embossing and gapping so as to require a minimal amount of
air to sound. Is this the case?

Thanks.
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