Re: [Harp-L] Hohner Price / Tolerances

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, Brad Harrison claims he IS (or very soon will be) making harps from scratch, and not just hotrodding existing models.

For years, I heard from old-timers that building harmonicas from scratch wasn't practical outside a large factory due to the size, scale, and cost of equipment involved, the length of manufacturing runs required to bring cost-per-piece down to a reasonable number, etc.

But Brad claims to have taken a fresh look at the new technologies available that can be applied to harmonica making to make the from-the-ground-up approach practical without the big metaphorical smokestack.

Will he have Hohner and Suzuki gasping in disbelief as he takes over the market? Or is it all just blather? Time will tell, and perhaps sooner rather than later . . . 

http://www.harrisonharmonicas.com/press.php

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

Author, Harmonica For Dummies ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5

--- On Fri, 5/29/09, Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Hohner Price / Tolerances
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, May 29, 2009, 11:55 AM


A square foot of brass sheet in the thickness needed for reed plates (36), Is less than $24.oo. So, a set of reed plates has an initial cost of $1.33.
Even if you alloy the brass for the reeds, a pound of it will go a long long way. A small piece of wood is worth virtually pennies, and cover plates of nickel plated sheet steel, aren't even worth mentioning. There's more of this metal in a tin can..HA, never thought of THAT one, did ya?  lolol

 Soooo, where does all the money go? Pricing a diatonic over $28.99 ($96.99 for chromo), is out of line. And at these prices, they should work.

Having to tell someone in quality control that there is a problem with quality control, indicates, (to me at least), that someone is drawing a pay (and consequently adding to the overall cost), who shouldn't be there, because they apparently aren't concious.

 Points about tolerances are well taken. Now the machines were paid for a long time ago but the DIES need occasional replacement. How often this occurs is one of MY concerns, but it goes without saying that no one can make a harp from scratch. Well, maybe, but it would take too much time to justify. Even people outside of actual manufacturing facilities that say they build harps...don't. Like hot rodding a model T roadster, they START with an existing model T.

smo-joe
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