Re: [Harp-L] hole sizes

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hole *spacing* is the same on all Hohner diatonics that I've played. If you measure from the middle of HOle 1 to the middle of Hole 2, etc., you'll find that it doesn't vary significantly.

What you're really experiencing is differences in thickness of the dividers between the holes, whcih changes the size of the opening.

When you're starting out playing, though, any small difference seems very large. If the opening sizees vary, it may make it harder for you to accurately locate and isolate a single hole.

The good news is that as you gain experience, commonalities start to get bigger and incidental differences start to get smaller.

For now, if the differences in divider thickness are bugging you, you might want to concentrate on just one model until you gain some ease with hole location. Then you may have a stronger basis for feeling the commonalities and thereby more easily accommodating the differences.

Winslow

Winslow Yerxa

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

--- On Thu, 1/14/10, vincent <vincent.fx@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: vincent <vincent.fx@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] hole sizes
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010, 3:26 AM

Well my newest naive revelation is that the hole sizes are not the
same on my different harps, even though they are all Hohners.  This is
a bit alarming, since I am a beginner and I was wondering why I was
having trouble playing one harp as well as the other.  I thought it
could be differences in the metals, flexibility of the reeds, the
different keys (which are all possible) but now I am thinking a factor
is  hole size.   My guess is the Blues Harp MS has to have smaller
holes due to the wood comb and stability issues.  The Big River and
the cheap "Silverstar" with their plastic combs seem to have the same
size holes.

This is a pretty major issue in my opinion, since I started and have
practiced most on the Silverstar, and am having trouble switching to
the technically superior Blues Harp.  Hole size seems to me a
fundamental issue in playing, doing one-hole draws, etc.  Also I had
heard some advice to get all different kinds of Harps, but now I think
that might not be a good idea if there is going to be an issue of
different hole sizes.

Could you tell me if any other hole size variations in the other
Hohners (like the Special 20s, which I was considering next)?  And is
my concern on this warranted?
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