[Harp-L] Harmonicaster update

[Ronnie Schreiber <autothreads@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday I met with the designer from the 3D printing shop that's going 
to make the P2 prototype of my electric harmonica to finalize the design 
based on feedback (no pun intended, and boy I'm getting tired of saying 
that) that I've gotten from world class players like Madcat Ruth 
(thanks, Peter (a Harp-L subscriber)) and Jason Ricci as well as a 
number of harp players who gig in the Detroit area like Carl Caballero 
and Wailin' Dale. While the amplification side of things works great and 
it will play as loud as you want without any feedback at all, it's still 
not quite ready for stage use tone-wise (though Ricci said he'd use it 
in the studio, as is - just to make it clear, there's no endorsement by 
Jason implied in that statement, just reporting our conversation). 
Still, so far nobody says that it's a stupid idea or a waste of time and 
they're all encouraging me to keep working on it.

The major issue is that there's an echo in the tone, but I'm pretty sure 
that's due to how I made the first prototype, not something inherent to 
the concept. I'm confident that the revisions we've made to the design 
will eliminate the echo. While one of the reasons for making it is to 
have something that will work with any effects device, expanding harp 
players' tonal palette,  but I want to be sure that the baseline tone, 
before any signal modification, is acceptable to most harp players. 
Though it already plays acceptably well from a mechanical and 
airtightness standpoint, and can be played with a very light touch (you 
don't have to blow hard to play loud) some of the revisions will also 
make it a faster, more responsive instrument - I'm hoping to get 
something akin to a guitar with light action. In any case, P2 will have 
those changes and it will also look like a manufactured product, not a 
hunk of wood I cobbled together in my basement shop.

Speaking of which, one of the players that has tried it out told me that 
though it works I'd be better off waiting until I have something that 
looks less like a prototype before I show it to players. From a PR 
standpoint that's probably true but from the tech side of things getting 
expert opinions on the P1 undoubtedly sped up the development process. 
One of the things I said in my initial meeting with the 3D printers was 
that we weren't going to print before I had experienced players give me 
their input. Now that I've gotten that input, when the P2 is ready, not 
only will it look better, it will work better than the P1 and reflect 
expert harp playing opinion.

Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we'll have the P2 printed up and 
assembled within a couple of weeks. That will get shown to Madcat (he 
lives in Ann Arbor, where the 3D print shop is located), Carl Caballero 
and other players for their opinions on tone and functionality. If the 
response is positive, we'll do run of validation samples for quality 
control purposes and if there aren't any problems, go into limited 
production. I'm still not convinced that it makes sense to market it 
through big retailers. Hitting a price point that I think will be 
acceptable to consumers might not be possible if I have to make a profit 
at 50% of MSRP.

Ronnie Schreiber