Re: [Harp-L] A surprising Hohner Silver Star

joe leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:18:58 -0400

On Aug 30, 2010, at 11:41 AM, Pat Powers wrote:
I dunno --  I've blown out many high-F's.

Bingo, you just hit on MY pet peeve. I have NEVER.....EVER.... had a  
good hi F harp. In all my years of playing, I think I blew out 6-7  
harps and 5? have been Fs. I don't know what the dichotomy or  
disconnect is, but it's almost a twilight zone issue.
  I think it depends on what kinds of songs your playing with your  
E-harp.  If you're playing staright forward 1st position country/ 
classical (in Emaj) or 3rd/5th positon minor scales (F#m/Abm) and  
not overblowing much, the harp will last a lot longer than if your  
bending the sh_t out of the reeds playing second-position blues (in  
Bmaj).

You got it. I'm mostly in 2nd and I DO bend a lot of draw notes. I  
also bend down some blow notes and it seems that THESE are the ones  
that go.

5 & 6 blow and 4 & 5 draw. Once I do 2 repairs, and am ready for a  
3rd., the harps go to Dave Payne for parts.
  On other words, the life of the instrument depends on the work  
load demand.
My guess is your not beating the crap out of that E-harp as much as  
your other keys.   I play mostly blues and don;t use my E-harp very  
much, and therefore it lasts a lot longer than the other keys.

Right again, in 2nd, an E would equate to B and almost nothing is IN  
B (unless you modulate). The only time I seem to need it is when I  
play a tune requiring 2 or 3 harps, and the E fits the bridge at the  
time. Or sometimes I only need it for a few notes, (Tragedy/As Time  
Goes By). But my Eb gets MONSTROUS usage and I never wrecked one.  
Same for the D. Now the Db is cavallo of another hue. I have already  
tossed 1 a couple years ago, and am about to toss another. Then the C  
& B are ok, but the Bb goes. It's like it's every THIRD harp. Strange.
I trash mostly D, A, and F-harps, in that order.  Obviously, most  
of the songs are second-position blues in A, E, and C, respectively.

With me it's F & Db, for tunes in C and BRIDGES in Ab.

My 2 cents,
patpowers@xxxxxxxxxxx
Aug 27, 2010 08:18:45 AM, martinoldsberg@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Gosh, so it´s that simple!

  Thank you, Joe, and I´m blushing in a becoming manner. With a few  
minutes of concentrated brain work I ought to have been able to  
come up with this hypothesis myself -- but why exert oneself?
So Eb is the breaking point? Interestingly, I have a Huang Bac-Pac  
harp in D that almost has held up as well as that little bugger in  
E ... -- but I understand the general principle.
thanks again,

says,

Martin,

who´s in a hurry downtown to buy a couple of more Silver Stars in  
high keys, since there´s a bit of a sale! on them.
---------------------------------------------------
From: joe leone <>
On Aug 26, 2010, at 5:34 PM, martin oldsberg wrote:
> The Silver Star is not one of Hohner´s top of the line products,
> and that is reflected in it´s price, but I´ve been surprised by one
> thing:
>   Normally if I buy a C or A harp they´re pretty much goners after
> a few days, but there is one Silver Star in E that just keeps
> hanging on -- and we´re talking years of hard labour here.
>   What could be the reason for this?
Eb and higher =....shorter stronger (comparitively) reeds
>   One would assume that the difference, in metallurgical terms, ain
> ´t that great between a C and an E -- or?
If you take a lucite plastic ruler, hang it over the edge of a table
and twang it while exposing more and more over the edge, after
exposing more and more ruler, it can break. Turtle, tortoise,
terrapin? same thing.
>   I´ve abused this one to an unlikely extent and it still shows no
> sign of giving up; hasn´t even needed a tuning. The key of A Silver
> Star that I bought the other week is now, by way of comparison,
> irredeemably lost, and sounded crap form the outset.
>    Is it so that the Silver Stars started out as great harps and
> then declined, and it was just my luck that I got this one from the
> right early batch?
The A has weighted tips on the low end. Add fishing sinker to the
ruler tip. = quicker failure.