[Harp-L] Comparing Lee Oskar and Marine Band

[Ken Banks <edits@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I've been lurking on this site for a while and really enjoy the 
exchanges. There's an enormous amount of information changing hands 
and a lot of good will. I've been playing harp for a long time, about 
40 years, but mostly in isolation. In 1967, when I was working in the 
kitchen at a copper mine tent camp on the south slope of the Brooks 
Range, Alaska, I heard an Eskimo kid play blues on his harp every 
night. I asked him if he could teach me to play, and he told me. He 
told me to just pick up a harp and start blowing. When I got back to 
town (Anchorage) I bought a harp. Soon after, I got a job counting 
gravel trucks as they came and dumped their loads to fill a swamp. 
There was a lot of downtime, and I sat on the hood of my car with 
that harp and put two notes together that sounded pretty good. I 
added some more notes that sounded ok, and I've been doing it ever 
since. So that's my story. Now I live in Honolulu. I played with a 
group for a while, but it wasn't fun. Seems like a lot of the time, 
when guys say they're playing blues, there's a whole lot of rock and 
roll in there. They were dead set on gigging in clubs, too, and that 
isn't my thing either.

Anyhow, I have  a whole bunch of Lee Oskar harps, after playing 
Marine Bands most of my life (my first one cost me US$2.75). I wonder 
if anyone would like to comment on the difference between the two 
harps as far as tone goes. I like the Lee Oskars because the comb 
doesn't swell and protrude, but I feel like the Marine Band gave me a 
nastier tone, which is what I'd like. I know that tone is a complex 
thing that doesn't come down to just the instrument or the 
electronics, but what does anybody think? (I occasionally soaked a 
Marine Band and got an awesome tone that way; too bad is destroys the 
harp so fast.) By the way, I'm a tongue-blocker and came by it naturally.

Aloha all,
Ken


The Editorial Outsource
806 Kauai Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96817