Re: [Harp-L] Cheap/Huang => so harp became a rich man's game (?)

Tom Ball <havaball@xxxxxxx> · Thu, 27 Jun 2013 15:14:47 -0700

Bart,
Of course there's never anything wrong with 
trying to save money. But my statement is 
"rubbish"?  Beg to differ. Please note my 
wording, "the musician who stops buying good 
instruments...."  In other words, buys bad 
instruments.
Perhaps you interpreted my post as an endorsement 
of expensive, custom harps...(?)  Not the case. 
For the last 30 years I've played Special 20s 
straight from the box. No tweeking, no embossing, 
no customization. (It should be noted I'm using 
the US "handmade' SP20s rather than the European 
MS counterparts.) Last I looked, these things had 
a list price of about $50 US but can be found for 
as little as $30 or so if you shop around.
Sure, we all complain about price increases and 
can remember when they were under five bucks. But 
then, a beer used to cost 50 cents and a movie 
ticket was a buck, too.  I don't consider $30 too 
expensive for a professional-level instrument; 
particularly since they last twice as long as 
they used to. Hohner's quality of workmanship on 
the SP20 has advanced light-years from where it 
was 10-20 years ago. I've tried 'em all, but I 
keep coming back to SP20s. Of course the world is 
full of people with differing opinions, and 
that's fine.
Point I was trying to make is: if a harp player 
honestly wants to get the most out of their 
playing, they can't cut back to absolute bare 
bones junk or toys... if they do, they'll be 
fighting a largely unplayable instrument and 
wondering why it doesn't respond. They'll either 
get frustrated and give up, or simply never 
improve. Same goes for guitars, pianos or even 
<shudder> banjos and accordions. :-)
cheers,

TBall

PS: This player sho' don't "make loads of money 
aside from making music." I just look like it. 
<cough> :-)

I know it's meant to be funny Tom, but you do know it's rubbish, right?

When did trying to save some money became a bad 
thing? I try to save money on éverything, for 
the simple reason that I have to.

I read the silliest things, like 'buy 
expensive', 'but the best you can get', 'buy 
custom', 'dont try to save money', etc... Some 
of you guys probably make loads of money aside 
from making music, but unfortunately not 
everybody does. And don't start telling me now 
that harmonica's are cheap, because they're not.

Man, I would love to buy me a couple of 
customized harps from all over the place ... but 
never did and probably never will. For the plain 
and simple reason that I just can't afford a 
couple of 100 euros to buy me a harp that's a 
little less leaky and so I don't have to work so 
hard on that thing. (Unless somebody can 
convince me that those harps don't blow out just 
as fast as the cheaper stuff, like Golden Melody 
or Lee Oskar) Mmm okay, so I just work a bit 
harder to still try to make music I like. And 
maybe try some embossing, tuning and customizing 
myself on a cheap harp. Ye never know...
So MHO: it's okay to save a few bucks by 
practicing on Huangs and save your Hohner & 
Suzuki's for the gig. Life is expensive enough 
as it is
Sorry, had to get this of my chest
btw. I do stop the clock every now and than to save some time! ;-)
Cheers
Bart

Aha, so trying
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Ball" <havaball@xxxxxxx>
To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2013 2:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Re: Cheap Harps
Just MHO, but methinks the musician who stops 
buying good instruments in order to save money 
is somewhat akin to the person who stops a 
clock in order to save time.
--TBall