Re: [Harp-L] mixing brands

[MundHarp@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 5/27/2011 7:00:06 A.M. GMT Daylight Time,  
robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

<<  I'd like to hear your experience, pro and con, for mixing harp brands  
in
your diatonic kit.>>
I mostly stick to one brand and model of 10 hole diatonic harp. That is the 
 Hohner MS series, admittedly with combs of different materials. Some are 
metal,  some wood and some plastic, and I usually fit them with "Blues Harp" 
cover  plates, which are my favorites because they are very thin and vibrate 
as I play  the harp, so that the instrument feels "alive" to me as I play 
it.
 
I have recently returned to England  the land of my birth. My  home for the 
past 2 years has mostly been in tropical  south-east Asia, in Cebu City, 
Philippines. It was VERY hard to obtain decent  harmonicas in that place... & 
If I ordered from a USA or European  supplier, it would perhaps take a week 
for the harmonica to arrive in the  Philippines, but then take eleven weeks 
for the package to clear  the customs! So I had to buy a few "other brand" 
instruments while I was  there to keep "up and running", and although they 
got me out of trouble, their  playing characteristics are very different to 
the Hohners that I am used  to.
 
I think that my music probably sounded better once I standardized on one  
particular type of short harp....
 
John "Whiteboy" Walden.
Now in Lincolnshire,
England.