Re: [Harp-L] B-radical on E-bay

[SÃbastien FrÃmal <sebastien.fremal@xxxxxxxxx>]

I searched for informations about this harp to understand why it would be
worth 500$. I found that B-radical :
- Uses screws instead of rivet. Marine Band uses nails, and it's therefore
not easy to open it to set up, tune, repair or change your reeds.
- Has rounded edges (more easy to grip whole holding a microphone).
- Is more solid. I saw on the video that it's much more difficult to crush
the cover plates of the B-radical.
- Is really airtight.
- Has a great tone.

My thought about all that. Most harmonica use screws nowadays (Marine Band
is becoming the exception), I use a file to get round edges and I never
crushed one of my harmonica. What could really be interesting in this
harmonica are its tone and its airtightness (for overnotes). Nevertheless,
you can get overnote harmonicas at less than 400$ with Joe Spiers, Andrew
Zajac, Sugar Cain ... Its price is therefore especially justified by its
rarity (an historic hamonica not produced anymore).

Regards,

Sebastien

2016-01-13 6:13 GMT+01:00 Gary Lehmann <gnarlyheman@xxxxxxxxx>:

> Yeah, like I said before, they don't make 'em anymore, and it IS is piece
> of harmonica history. It might be worth $500 to me if it said "Gnarly" on
> it, but I wasn't brave (or lucky--you know the story I am sure) enough to
> to have one made for me.
> As far as being "better", I doubt if a Fabulous is better than a Joe Spiers
> Stage One! Which now makes me think, what a monster you would have if you
> bought one and sent it to Joe--or what would he do to Danny's B-Rad . . .
> I think part of what brought Brad down was not charging enough for the
> harmonicas!
>
> On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 7:25 PM, Daniel <dany_perrone@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > David Fairweather wrote:âBased purely on playability as opposed to
> > rarity,  is this harmonica better
> > than a Suzuki Fabulous (the most expensive commercially produced
> diatonic I
> > know of?)     Is it better than a vintage Filisko?   I've only known one
> > person who actually owned a B-Radical and he wasn't particulary impressed
> > with his.â Hi David, I would not know if itâs better than some of the
> > harps you mentioned as I donât own any of those.I bought it soon after my
> > personal âdiscoveryâ of the diatonic harmonica... the initial euphoric
> > phase if you will.I wanted to explore the different techniques (
> overblows,
> > valved bends etc ) I was blown away by the effort and risk that Brad took
> > in producing the B-radical and I wanted to do my part to support
> > him.Ironically, me doing my part probably contributed to them not being
> > able to timely fill those initial orders and ... well..you know the rest
> of
> > the story. Soon after I got it my searching/discovering lead me to decide
> > to play half valved spiral diatonics.I donât overblow and donât play
> > Richter anymore. Even if I wanted to half valve it the protruding nuts
> > securing each individual reed makes attaching valves difficult.I treasure
> > my B-radical ... but I am a minimalist and hate collecting things...mixed
> > feelings...I know. P.S  Brad...wherever you are I still admire you for
> > taking up this huge project...your life dream... and I am saddened it did
> > not became profitable so you could continue it.
> >
>