Re: [Harp-L] Hohner Price / Tolerances


On May 29, 2009, at 3:18 PM, Winslow Yerxa wrote:

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

Well, I sure HOPE so. Brad is a wonderful person and a treasure to the harmonica world. I remember an interesting situation where a stupendous player made a chromo. While he did mill the chassis (comb) from metal, press out the covers with strong wood dies and hydraulic electrical box hole cutter, the reed plates (second most important part) were pre existing and even though he took out the reeds (most important part) and replaced them with stainless steel ones, he didn't make the reeds. So, I hate to be a tseeka-tseek, but if you ain't made the reeds or reedplates, you ain't made the harp.

I went over all of this with Rich Farrell maybe 25 years ago when we discussed reeds attached with screws (mach OR s.m. tapping). We decided that while rivets were the way to go for mass production, REPAIRS should be done with screws. We talked about reeds made from non conventional sources. I (myself) have made them from flattened lipstick tubes, razor blades, electrical contacts, flattened cartridge cases. And the list goes on and on. It all comes down to: if you ain't got the machinery, it's too tedious to make reeds. I have made them in as little as 15 minutes and as long as 2 1/2 hours. It's a drag.

Btw, using sheet metal screws is not a good idea. The thread pitch is too coarse. (usually 24 tpi, but on rare occasions 36 tpi). What you wind up with is that the bottoms of the heads of the screws will not seat flush. Mainly because of the angle on the screw thread ramps. They will ALWAYS apply pressure in a half moon arc..ANYWHERE within. the 360 degree circuit. Too easy to crack the rivet pad. A, you would need a washer. B, with only 24 tpi in a 1mm plate, you only have 1.05 turns IN the meat of the plate. Any engineer will tell you that this isn't enough. Too easy to strip the plate.

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.

I have to agree with that. Btw, you can use any of this in your books.


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.

Interesting, as there is also a certain amount of metallurgy involved. The reeds themselves aren't common brass.
smo-joe

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


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