Re: [Harp-L] The Future of Blues Harmonica?

[Sam Friedman <sammyasher@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think one thing that is reasonable to push the companies on is innovation
in manufacturing so that we can expect better OOTB harmonicas without a
large increase in price. The fact is, Matt, I think that the guitar analogy
is a little faulty, just because changing a string and tuning the guitar
don't really compare with the amount of skill (and time) required to
actually do a relatively-basic customization/improvement to
the play-ability of a harmonica. In any other instrument in the world, if
it was just "assumed" that after buying it half the notes didn't work, that
company would be out of business in a week. I realize that this comparison
is a little faulty because many of the instruments that could fill that
hypothetical I posed would be much more expensive than a harmonica.....
however; I think it is for the good of the entire community to have higher
expectations.

Personally, I am appalled at the state of many OOTB harmonica quality
consistency. I've bought golden melodies that played (without exaggerating)
worse than any harmonica I've ever tried, and turned into some of my best
harmonicas upon customizing. I realize not everyone overblows or any of
that, but regardless, a well-playing harmonica does something very
important that I think has a longer-term effect on the community as a
whole. It is easier to learn. When new people pick up the harmonica, and
don't get the feeling that it's a "real" instrument, and can't learn the
basics (bending, etc...) simply largely because the instrument plays
incredibly poorly, then that person shrugs it off and moves on.

If harmonicas uniformly had a certain assumed quality, then beginners could
actually learn to bend  (among any other techniques, as well as the general
strong connection of self to instrument through breath) quite easily and
instantly feel connected with the soul of the instrument, and in turn,
continue playing it. This, in my opinion, is the key to opening the
instrument up to a larger fan base (aside from getting away from the pure
fetishization of very specific genres for the instrument to play,
however infinitely beautiful they all are).

While it may seem unreasonable at first for a company to sink money into R
& D in this capacity, I firmly believe that if the $30-tiered harmonicas
had an actual consistent quality and airtightness to their build, in the
long run people would see many more humans sticking with the instrument in
a real way. The fact is, I wouldn't have learned 90% of what I did unless I
started working on my harps and making them play better. No one can learn
technique easily on any broken instrument, and that's what I consider most
out of the box harmonicas; a broken instrument that needs to be fixed to be
useful.

People may say that customized harmonicas really only matter for better
players, and that beginners shouldn't need them, but the reality is quite
the opposite. Advanced players can make music on worse harmonicas because
they already know the technique and are in this instance adapting an
understanding to a poorly-constructed tool/harmonica. It is crucial for
beginners to have a good instrument, because it is the fastest way to
actually understand what effect the motions you are doing have on the
instrument and the sound produced. If you are exploring the instrument or
trying to achieve a technique, and you make the motion that should in a
well working harmonica change the sound, but nothing happens because of a
poorly performing instrument, then two things happen; 1) You miss
the opportunity to learn about a certain embouchure/motion and how it
relates to the sounds you make, and 2) conversely, you learn that the given
motion does specifically *not* produce the desired sound, even if it really
*should* in a working instrument. This works to consistently actively fight
against anyone's attempt to learn or gain joy from this instrument. With a
working tool, however, you get feedback on the (no matter how slight)
effect of every motion you make and every exploration you embark on. In
this way you learn much faster and more efficiently, and have real feedback
as to the purpose and creation of the movements and sounds you make.

For these reasons, while I understand the argument to just be "fine" with
the progression of mass-produced harmonica quality, I don't believe enough
has been done yet as of this moment to warrant celebration. So many of the
new innovations (and I'm not including the sub-30 here, Brendan, because I *
do* believe it is a cool and respectable active attempt by a company to
advance the instrument) that we constantly see from companies have very
little to do with the actual play-ability of the instrument; color, comb
material, etc.... are things we see change every couple months with a new
name slapped on. What we rarely see is a new instrument whose selling point
is actually guaranteed better playability and airtightness. This is what I
think we should be asking for, expecting, and celebrating when/if it
arrives.


Sam Friedman



On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 11:32 AM, mik jagger <harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Mike, thank you for your review - it confirms my "suspicion" that it is a
> version of the xb40 - better or worse is to be determined by playing it, of
> course. I'd probably like the smaller size, but as a player of xb40, I got
> to tell you that hohner really works great out of the box, I love my xb40.
> Good to know that if rumors of xb40's demise are true, we have at least a
> somewhat passable option, although the price really does not sit well with
> me. BTW, my xb40 in C has years of hard play on it by now - it became my
> main instrument of choice, and no performance issues whatsoever!
> Mike.
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Mike Fugazzi <mikefugazzi@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>; mik jagger <
> harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx>; harpomatic@xxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 9:46 AM
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] The Future of Blues Harmonica?
>
>
> The most noticeable difference is that the it is the size of a standard
> diatonic.  I have a SUB30 in A that I removed the valves on holes 1-4 on
> and taped of the extra reeds on 1-4 (draw reeds on the top plate).  It
> plays a lot better, but you lose notes on those holes, then.  I was ok with
> that as I was more concerned with the middle and top octaves.  The 1 and 4
> overblow play well, IMO.
>
> The more I think about it, it plays like a Special 20 from the 90's...like
> right before they switched to stainless steel cover plates.  It is a very
> mellow and warm tone (dark), even after heavy tweaking of the reeds and
> slots.  The top octave plays well save hole 10, which I need to tweak more
> for the blow bends.  I am pleased with how it plays holes 4-9.  I think 3
> responds well now, but is still a tad stiff.  1 and 2 play and bend fine,
> but feel a little soft for me.  I am not sure tweaking gaps would really
> solve that.   The new bends on 10 are a lot more like an overdraw than
> you'd think, but are easy than a regular valve bend, IMO.
>
> I like it a lot more than a week ago, lol.  The new bends seem to be void
> of any extra noise or issue.  I would like to try it with different valve
> material at some point, though.  I will totally play it and gig with it if
> given the chance.  I should make it clear that I did spend a good chunk of
> time 1-2 hours tweaking it using very advanced techniques (beyond just
> gapping and embossing).
>
> I have tried the XB40, but don't own one.  I remember that harp being
> louder and brighter than the SUB30.
>
> Mike
> On Sunday, September 9, 2012 7:56:07 AM UTC-5, mik jagger wrote:
> So how's the "sub 30" different (to the better) from the xb40? XB40 has
> all the reeds bending deeper than a halftone (more available notes), less
> expensive, and great out of the box, yet not popular enough to not be
> threatened by the rumors of its demise...
> >
>