Re: [Harp-L] Slot Embossing

[Frank Evers <frank@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

Am Freitag, 29. Januar 2010 schrieb Buddha:
>  I don't know about Epping. It's possible
> Dick learned it from Rick.

Rick once explained (here i guess) that slot embossing is kind of a 
common and long known technique for accordions, and that he just 
transferred it to harmonicas.

Uhm, went back to my Harp-L archives for a while and found this 
statement by Rick from Dec.9 2008:

"The facts seem pretty straight.  I left Hohner as an employee in 2005 
but have continued working for them occasionally as an independent 
consultant.

I described embossing to Joe Filisko, Dick Gardner, Doug Tate and 
others in the early '90s, when Hohner's reed-to-slot tolerance had 
grown too wide for good performance and Joe and Dick were sending 
harmonicas back to us as being unworkable.  We had nothing better in 
stock to send them so I passed on the embossing technique to help them 
through until we could get improved product.  The project I headed to 
improve Hohner's reed tolerance beganshortly thereafter, resulting in 
new reedplate tooling.

Aside from embossing, I described many of the other techniques I used 
to work on harmonicas in a series of articles published in Hohner's 
EasyReeding Magazine, including gapping, adjustment of reed curvature 
and tuning, along with a fair amount of theoretical background to the 
instrument.

While I may be responsible for some early developments in customizing
techniques, and while a number of players like Dick have for years 
been improving chromatics for themselves or for others, I would 
certainly acknowledge Joe to be a pioneer in, if not the founder of, 
the commercial business of diatonic harmonica customization.  Both a 
fine player and a skilled toolmaker, he has what it takes to turn a 
production harp into a great musical instrument, as any who have 
played his harmonicas will readily testify."

-- 
Gruß,Frank