Re: [Harp-L] Results of HHC/ERIFAHS Informal Comb Test

[Vern <jevern@xxxxxxx>]

Wow!  100%accuracy!  That is impressive.  Sounds like you are the person to win my $1000 wager.  If you can really do that, it would be like taking candy from a baby!

You wouldn't even have to name the material, only state whether each successive play was the same or a different material from the previous one.  Any two materials..e.g. brass & wood would be your choice.  

Conditions:
- Four otherwise-identical harmonicas, two of each material. 
- You keep them for a week before the test to practice with them....learn to recognize the characteristic sounds of the materials.
- Retuned by a mutually-acceptable third party.
- Reedplates switched around by Vern
- 51 plays of a ditty of your choice.
- You call "same" or "different"
- Choice among 4 harps determined by roll of a die. (5 or 6, roll again)
- Scoring and stake-holding by a mutually-agreeable third party.
- Neither one of us sees or touches the harmonicas during the test.
- If you can get 38 or more correct (>75%), you win the $1000
- If you get 37 or less correct (<75%),  I win the $1000


Vern

On Oct 30, 2012, at 7:45 PM, David Payne wrote:

> Tonight, the Huntington Harmonica Club and Elk River Institute of Advanced Harmonica Studies joined forces in the midst of Hurricane Sandy blizzards for an informal comb test. This is
>  important stuff we are doing and junk.
> There were two tests using my ear as the discerning ear. This was done during a break in a crowded room of folks who had come to hear the harmonica club at the pizza place - there was even a
>  little girl's birthday party in there. One with wood vs. plastic. I could correctly identify wood or plastic about 2/3 of the time. We didn't really keep track and I make no claims from that test. The wood vs, plastic test wasn't all that serious, the one I was really interested in was plastic vs. metal.  
> The idea was I have my back turned while two identical notes on two near identical harmonicas were played back to back. So, I hear one, then the other and say "harmonica 1 has a metal comb,"
>  or whatever. THey were both Suzukis, coverplates looked pretty similar to me, reedplates the same. 
> Once I got cocky, and only listened to only one and identified it wrong. 
> 
> But otherwise, when I actually did the test as I supposed to, listening to them both, then making a call, a very distinct pattern emerged. Six times we did the test. I identified the metal comb
>  correctly all six times.
> Jim Rumbaugh was the guy playing the two harmonicas. I have no desire to thrust him in the debate, but if he wishes, he could merely add one of two things:
> 1) These things David Payne says are facts.
> 2) These things David Payne says are lies. 
> Now, I'm not good with math, but I think the odds of me correctly identifying the two combs correctly six consecutive times by mere happenstance is 64 to 1.
> 
> 
>  
> David Payne
> www.elkriverharmonicas.com
> 
> 
> Elk River Harmonicas Forum now available via Iphone app, www.elkriverharmonicas.com/forum