Re: [Harp-L] Hohner USA response re: prices, blister packs etc.

joe leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:58:17 -0500

No trying to be insulting Andrew. I started playing way back in the  
mid 50s. I have burned through quite a few chromos. I see a couple  
problems. Which are:
1... You buy a chromo. You're 12.5 years old. NO ONE buys your harps.  
You buy them yourself. It's 1955. The price is about $8.50. You strip  
scrap from the discarded appliances down at the dump and after  
several knuckle busting hours, you have enough money for one.
2... You start to play the thing, and after a short while, you get  
buzzing noises that flat stone ruin the pretty music you are making.  
You need to change a windsaver. Ok, how does one do that? So you  
learn. What do you use? Yu find something that works for a while.
3... If you're lucky, as you try to fix your chromo, you don't snag a  
reed on your cordaroys and bend it so badly that it's ruined.
4... After a mere few weeks, the nickel is wearing off of your slide  
parts and the consequent constant film of oxidation is making the  
slide stick. So now your dreams of doing Der Ziegunderweisen go right  
out the window. You are always taking the slide parts apart to clean  
off the oxidation with silver creme.
5... One day the return spring breaks. What do you do? You make a new  
one with a #2 safety pin.
6... One day you have a reed go south, so you make one...out of  
NOTHING. Then a rivet from a paper clip. Back in business.
7... One day the comb cracks. Unwittingly, you take BOTH plates off  
at the same time and you never get the thing back together properly  
after your glue job.
8... You begin the cycle all over again. But this time you seal the  
comb with 50/50 Vick's Vapo Rub and baby oil.
9... Next chromo has an orangish pinkish comb made from a plastic  
that is also used in many German toys. This plastic looses it's  
integrity after a couple years and begins to crumble. I had several  
model cars with wheels made from the same plastic. Instead of being  
antique collector cars today, they sit in a box with no wheels.
10... More of the same BS over the NEXT 54 years.
The things that they 'should' change, they don't. The things they  
should leave alone, they change. It's exasperating. Fortunately I had  
a grandfather and every time I complained about the price of  
something, he would hand me his pen knife and say: "Make me one". No,  
tis true, I can't make a harmonica, and the price is moot because if  
I want one. I get one. I grew up in a family with depression parents.  
I went through all that.
I play Hohners. I happen to like Hohners.
smo-joe
My only bone of contention, and this is as an ACTIVE harmonica  
player, is this constant klepto for trying to make something into  
something it is not. Didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but  
that's honestly how I see it.

On Jan 25, 2010, at 9:27 PM, Andrew Grzybowski wrote:

 Hey, way to be insulting dude! gratz on that!

From: 3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Hohner USA response re: prices, blister  
packs etc.

Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:21:00 -0500

To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
the harmonica remains the lowest priced professional musical
instrument available in the market today.

I don't consider the harmonica to be a professional instrument. I
think that many players have BECOME professional because they are
crazy enough and have the pit bull tenacity to persist in playing the
harmonica in spite of it. I don't have any complaints about
diatonics. I play the spl-20 exclusively, but chromos are just a
joke. As long as the wind savers are as they are, chromos will never
be acceptable. Constant maint. I have a 1905 & 1928 trumpets, 1952 &
1975 clarinets. No maint. Harmonicas are self destructive. Probably
one of the first throw away items. They should be priced accordingly.
smo-joe (get rid of the 270s nails)
_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l

_________________________________________________________________

Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection.

http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390707/direct/01/ 
_______________________________________________

Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org

Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx

http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l