[Harp-L] Re: Suzuki price increases

[Michael Easton <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Not sure if it was mentioned  here before. I posted this on  
Slidemeister as well.

 Just got done watching an episode of "Factory Made" on the Science  
Channel.

They showed how a Toots Hard Bopper is made. It also showed how Hohner  
cuts reeds and tunes them. Looks like about 12--16 reeds cut every 3  
seconds
from a piece of brass.  If you get the Science Channel the episode  
should be on now in the Central time zone and in a few hours in the  
Pacific time zone. The episode I saw came on at 9:30am EST.  The  
harmonica segment is at the end of the show.  Check your listing for  
info on time.

btw, it's looks like the only part of the HB that is actually hand  
made is the assembly of the mouthpiece and cover screws.
Even the reed plate nails are attached by machine.

mike
On Apr 30, 2011, at 7:35 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:13:34 -0700
From: Vern <jevern@xxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] RE: Suzuki price increases
To: Bill Kumpe <bkumpe@xxxxxxx>
Cc: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID: <B7FD8BC5-2B4C-4C8E-A302-7E279C60E349@xxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Take a marine band diatonic or a toaster into a machine shop and ask  
for a quote.  In small quantities, the price will be in  
hundreds...maybe thousands of dollars. More likely you will be told  
"we can't do it."

The harmonica is a mass-produced product.  None of the machines in a  
typical machine shop could produce reeds from a blueprint.  A machine  
shop might be able to make a machine to make reeds but not the reeds  
themselves.  Combs and reedplates can be made with conventional  
presses but require very expensive dies.....

Michael Easton
www.harmonicarepair.com