[Harp-L] Joe Spiers harmonicas review

["10hole" <10hole@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all. I just wanted to take some bandwidth here and write a review for Joe's work. To set the stage let me start out saying that I have done all of my 
own harps for 7 or 8 years now. Joe and I got talking about my new 15" amp and worked out a barter of sorts so I decided on 4 different harps from
him all stage 2. I have played through a lot of the customizers harps and there's a lot of good work out there so I write this with a good comparitive
knowledge. 

To start I will say that the best custom I've ever played was a long slot D built by Jimmy Gordon. I still kick myself for not taking that one home but 
theres no turning back at this point. The D Jimmy built was built on a composite comb and played itself. I got Joe's harps at a stage 2 which is not 
his top instrument. Had I gotten the stage 3 it might have been in that same league and I'm considering finding out in the future. With the stage 2 harps
I got from him I certainly feel that he's capable. These harps are EXTREMELY smooth. The bends are precise and effortless and a good run flows 
silky smooth with no worry of sticking or slop. One thing that surprized me was to still see nails in the harps but once I played with them I saw no 
reason for screws. I've always drilled and tapped my reedplates and used screws to hold them to the comb. As much as I hate to admit it, Joe's harps 
are just as airtight if not more with the nails and thecovers are screwed on. I am a typical Chicago blues player and can be hard on harps. I can overblow
but there's only 1 overblow note that I've been able to use in context so it's something I don't do. These harps overblow fairly easily and they're not set up to do so. 
My experience has been that a good overblow harp is a hard players nightmare. The fact that they overblow well does not affect the way I play them at all.

To summarize, the man does great work. If your shopping custom harps give Joe a look. His 4 harps were immediately rotated into my gig kit and the 4 harps
they replaced that I built were rotated into my truck kit. I guess that tells you right there that I like his a lot more than my own  ;-)

The typical "no affiliation" crap applies

Scooter