Re: [Harp-L] Harp Soaking

[Johnnie Harp <johnnieharp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Bill

> Something I've often wondered about is whether people were 
> customising harps before Joe Filisko et al - 
> I really can't believe they weren't

Maybe with is where Fillisko's impetus came from? Might have come across it in his investigations of players from the past and their music. Also, might be necessary to play the sophisticated acoustic stuff that he specialises in. If he needs to use customized harps to play it well, then probably so did his predecessors.

I think someone mentioned in passing in a post over the past few months, old timers dragging a nickel along the slots to make the harp play better. Might have been Dave Payne?

In terms of expanding combs, back in the day a pocket knife was habitually carried and used commonly for various purposes including whittling. It would make sense that a young guy, who was sitting outside playing his harp a lot, might get fed up with a sore tongue and start smoothing and shaping sharp and irregular areas of the comb.

In terms of reed work, I can imagine someone doing a reed repair / replacement 'cuz there was no other  choice and finding that the new reed didnt' work as well as the others. Holding the reed plate up to the light and seeing a difference in the reed-reedplate interproximal space, and trying to narrow this. Upon being surprisingly successful, wondering what would happen if other reeds were so treated. 

In the past, people were used to doing handwork and may have had experience in doing something similar with respect to elecrical gear, auto manufacturing, etc.

> to be honest, just like I can't believe that Blues Birdhead was the 
> only person overblowing in the pre-war period.

Even if no more than the buddies that he hung out with ...

> Is ther an unwritten history of harp customisation that we 
> should know about?

Or even info contained in writting somewhere, even if in passing.

Actually, it is pretty surprising that there isn't more common knowledge of the past in this regard given the active performers who would have played with pre-war harp players ... Cotton, Musselwhite, etc.

Yet, despite some strong opinions on Harp-L that harps wouldn't have been soaked in the past, in the last couple of days we have a report of Charlie Musselwhite soaking in the 60s, and Paul Butterfield too ...

The next person that sees Charlie, or James Cotton needs to pose these questions while they still can be answered. Also, Mark Hummel might be a good historical source given his interaction with guest players through his Harp Blow Off shows ...


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