RE: [Harp-L] RE: poor manufacturing was Suzuki's Fabulus....Rant...

["Anthony Smith" <anthony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree.  For 15 years I happily bought GM's and Spl 20's.  Never had to
tune gap, etc.  Got a lemon once in a while but I was buying them (either
model) for $14 so it didn't bother me that much.  Then for the last five or
so years, the Hohners have been horrible and the cost has kept on rising.
Many in this forum are techie types that truly enjoy tinkering.  I own an
insurance agency, I have three kids and I would rather spend the personal
time I get playing harp in lieu of tuning.  I do have tons of older ones to
practice on and figured it would make great sense to learn how to gap.  The
harps from Hohner weren?t out of tune, they just weren't playable if you
wanted anything other than Oh Suzanna in straight fashion.  Again, in my
discussions with several VERY KNOWLEDGABLE customizers they said if you gap
you need to tune. 

No one, Brendan included has any idea of how this guys harp arrived!  And
for everyone that assumed he was at fault and blows too hard or that anyone
having these problems has poor technique is foolish to say the least. I sent
several mic's to a well-known mic guy to get worked on.  One comes back and
has a horrible non grounding type sound, like blow your speakers hiss hum!!
I called and s/w him about it and he was adamant it was a cord, the amp on
and on.  It couldn't have been anything he did or didn't do as the insides
and connections are just too simple and straight forward to be the problem.
Yes, he used sealer when putting in the Switchcraft but "only one out of a
1000 have ever had such a great coating between the connector and the shell
that it caused grounding problems!"  Very sure of himself and lost me as a
future customer because no matter what I said, while holding the mic in my
hand he knew more..so he thought.  Instead of having me send it back so he
could correct, which I said I would he argued and made it seem like I'd be
wasting my time.  I then had Chuck Gurney do a few for me and sent this one
along as well to see if he could check it.  He did what he needed to do,
then actually "TESTED" his work when complete and it did the same thing!
Hummed.  He put a set screw in and I'll be damned problem solved!  Too many
make assumptions and adamantly argue based on ASSUMPTIONS and we all know
what happens when you do that!


-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Jeff Roulier
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 12:42 AM
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Harp-L] RE: poor manufacturing was Suzuki's Fabulus....Rant...

At 08:08 PM 5/20/2009, you wrote:

>  > > > But at the same time I do agree if I paid good money for a harp
> > > then it should come with out problems...
> > > > Then again, when you buy a guitar they will test it for you and
> > > maybe tune it to make sure its good,,,, then the rest is up to you 
> > > to maintain.....
> > > > then again its me.
> > > >
> > > > abner (Blueyes, then again who knew)
> > >
> > >
> > >There just can't be a stock harp that is going to suit just 
> > >everyone. It isn't possible.
> >
> >
> > Why not? I'm not saying everyone will like lets say sp 20's, MB's MB 
> > Deluxes, etc, but once we find a harp we do like, why can't it be 
> > manufactured the same way every time? Why do we settle for such poor 
> > manufacturing from all the companies. We wouldn't if we were buying 
> > anything else.
>
>
>
>It isn't poor manufacturing, it's just that ~we~ 
>are all different.   The harp companies are on a 
>hiding to nothing here.  They are expected to churn out cheap harps by 
>the thousand so that we can all afford to buy harps.  Clearly they have 
>to have some compromises in matters of gapping and fine-tuning as it is 
>impossible to please everybody.

You're missing my point. There are hundreds of harps we can choose from. Out
of these we eventually find one we like. My point is lets say I like SP
20's. I like the feel, tone and response. Why cannot Hohner make the same SP
20 every time? Sometimes their leaky, out of tune, or other reed issues. You
cannot deny that the same harp comes to you different than the one before.
Why? And why do we not demand better from all the manufacturers?  Hohner
made a better harp 50 years ago than they do now.  And, if they're not going
to be playable out of the box, why don't they say some tweaking may be
necessary instead of the tripe they spew?

>  On the whole I think they do a good job.


You do?  Well, I've got some stuff I'd like to sell.  Would you say the same
if we were talking about cars?  If not, why not? So what you have to give
your new car a tune up, right?  The quality and consistency should go up as
the price does (and I don't think $30.00 is all that cheap for a tiny
instrument such as the harp), but we really don't see that enough in this
business.









>The guy accompanying me was playing a guitar costing £1200, a mando 
>costing over £600 and a fiddle/bow costing Gawd knows.



This is just comparing apples to oranges, and is irrelevant to the
discussion.

>It's easy to complain, and I'm sorry if disabilities prevent some 
>people from working on their own harps, but I think that out-of-the-box 
>harps, ultra-cheapos aside, are the best value on the planet.

Then I would call you and me and others who just accept the status quo
suckers

Jeff
http://www.myspace.com/jeffroulier
http://www.youtube.com/Jeff1915

...anyone who fights for the future lives in it today - Ayn Rand




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