Re: [Harp-L] Joe Leone's Wise Observation...

[Will Greener <willgreener@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good questions.

I also think that "the manufacturers serving the harmonica community are doing a great job trying to deal with the nature of our chosen beast."

As for your questions...

Assuming one wants to play lots, on lots of harps, and have those harps last a long time, I see three options:

1. be successful and/or rich enough to employ a technician/customiser and/or afford up-to-spec instruments when you want them,

or

2. learn to tinker, repair, rebuild, retune, tweak and cannibalise (by practising patiently and by studying the FREE information that knowledgeable and generous people have made available FOR NOTHING AT ALL),

or

3. get used to certain realities and limitations!

I spent a lot of time griping at 3.

Now that I've learned 2 (took me a year or two of patience, experimentation, failure, frustration and awful, awful sounding harps), I always seem to have harps in every key/tuning I want and never seem to be buying any.

Still working on 1, though!

Maybe that's because I can't tune my harmonicas as well as I think I can?!?

xxx

--- On Tue, 26/1/10, Warren Bee <spahpublicity@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Warren Bee <spahpublicity@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Joe Leone's Wise Observation...
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tuesday, 26 January, 2010, 14:04

Harps are self destructive / high maintenence. It puts them in a class of
their own in the world of musical instruments. This is the nature of the
beast. The nature of manufacturing, whether it be plumbing parts or
harmonicas is to make money. In business the numbers never lie. I think all
of the manufacturers serving the harmonica community are doing a great
job trying to
 deal with the nature of our chosen beast. We have many choices
as players. The more demands that we put on our instruments as we play them
dictates more choices that have to be made. How much do you have to spend?
How much "tinkering time" do you have available? Do you even have the
patience and skill set to be a worthy "tinkerer"?

WB
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