[Harp-L] Brendan and Vern

[Ben Bouman]

Thank you Tom for this big KIS!

If we all Keep It Simple harmonica life would be much better/easier!

Ben Bouman

> Op 17 jan. 2019, om 15:39 heeft Tom Halchak <info at xxxxx> het volgende geschreven:
> 
> Here are a few random thoughts about some of the lively debates that have
> transpired on harp-l in the past few days.
> 
> To Brendan Power – THANK YOU for blowing the lid off the ill-fated comb
> experiment at SPAH 2010.  Thank you for being the Mad Scientist Innovator
> that you are.  In the past few years, you have single-handedly come up with
> more new ideas for the harmonica than everyone else on the planet
> combined.
> 
> Whereas Vern practices pseudoscience, arguing that bumblebees can’t fly,
> comb material has no affect on tone and precision reed work yields no
> measurable effect on response, and Brendan practices Voodoo Witchcraft to
> conjure up radical concepts, I operate in the Real World.
> 
> In the Real World, The Market is genius.   In the Real World, people vote
> with their wallets.
> 
> I started making Custom Harmonica Combs just over 8 years ago and Custom
> Harmonicas about 5 years ago.  I did not invent custom combs and then set
> out to convince harmonica players that they needed them.  Quite the
> opposite.  Eleven years ago, when I first discovered the hallowed pages of
> harp-l, I noticed that harmonica players have an insatiable appetite for
> custom combs and that nobody at that time was doing a particularly good job
> meeting that demand.   Back then, custom combs were made to order, took
> months to get and often the quality was suspect.  I saw an opportunity.  I
> had a novel concept.  How about if I make them first, using
> state-of-the-art technology, and THEN offer them for sale?  I started
> offering them on eBay and was immediately swarmed by harmonica players all
> over the world.  It quickly became a collaborative effort with harmonica
> enthusiasts providing valuable feedback about how to improve the quality,
> which brands/models to make and which materials to offer.  All I did was
> listen to them and give them what they wanted.  It was and still is, more
> them convincing me to meet their demands than me convincing them to buy my
> products.  All my combs are CNC Machined and I make them out of Exotic
> Hardwoods, Corian, Acrylic, Aircraft Grade Aluminum, Brass and Phenolic
> Resins.  I have also tried many other materials which proved impractical
> for one reason or another.  In the past 8 years, I have sold thousands upon
> thousands of custom combs.  Thousands.  The pattern is always the same.  A
> customer will try one or two combs to see what all the fuss is about.
> After installing the combs on their harps, amazed by the improvement, they
> immediately order more.  They’re like Lays Potato Chips – nobody can eat
> just one.  The same is true for custom harps, built on my custom combs and
> using the tried and true reedsmithing principles that have become the
> staple of harmonica customizers around the world.
> 
> And so, my evidence is not scientific, and it is not theoretical.  It is
> Real World, where the rubber meets the road, where people spend their
> hard-earned money.  I have had thousands of conversations with harmonica
> enthusiasts all over the world - both amateur and professional.  Her is
> what they tell me, over and over again.
> 
> 1.       Custom combs make a positive difference.
> 
> 2.       Comb Material affects the tone of the harmonica.
> 
> 3.       Custom Harmonicas play better than stock harmonicas.
> 
> It is as simple as that.  Unless we are to believe that thousands of
> harmonica players are suffering from some form of mass delusion, I would
> submit to you that the feedback I have received from my customer base is
> the largest body of data dealing with this subject.
> 
> Please understand that I don’t want this to be a big commercial for Blue
> Moon Harmonicas.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation on the
> forums, Facebook, etc.  Almost all of it is hearsay.  Somebody who didn’t
> know what they were talking about wrote something and others picked up it
> and started repeating it and pretty soon it became settled science.  I’m
> just giving you information based upon real experience.  I’ve lived it.
> 
> Shifting gears, someone asked about using laser or other modern
> technologies to cut precision components.  Trust me when I tell you that I
> have researched every possible technology for making reed plates including
> CNC Milling, Laser, Wire EDM, Water Jet and Acid Etching.  There is an
> inherent problem with all of them and that is that the cutting tool is
> round and cannot cut a perfectly square inside right angle.  There will
> always be a radius to the cut.  A CNC End Mill is round. A Laser Beam is
> round.  A Wire is round.  A Water Jet is Round.  You cannot cut a square
> inside corner using a round tool.  In addition, Lasers, Water Jet and Acid
> Etching all lose power as they cut through material.  It limits the
> thickness of the material you can accurately cut.  A laser beam will
> decrease in strength, diameter and cutting power as it cuts through metal,
> meaning that the resulting slot cut in a plate is wider at the top where
> the beam is strongest and narrower at the bottom where the beam is weaker
> and smaller in diameter.  In addition, the cut is jagged.  It is not this
> smooth flawless cut that we imagine.  Harrison Harmonicas used Wire EDM to
> cut their reed plates.  Under magnification, the insides of the slots look
> like serrated knives and the tips of the reeds have to be dog eared to
> avoid snagging on the radiused corners of the slots.
> 
> The reality that the best method of making reed plates is Fine Metal
> Blanking – not stamping as many people believe. Stamping leaves a burr on
> the back side of the cut, which then requires an additional step to
> remove.  Fine Metal Blanking cuts from both sides of the metal
> simultaneously leaving no burr.  The plate that comes off the cutting table
> is a finished product requiring no additional work.  Every custom harmonica
> player would love to make harmonicas that are 100% own brand.  We can make
> combs and covers, but reed plates are the Holy Grail.  It is cost
> prohibitive.  The Fine Metal Blanking stamps necessary to make a reed plate
> cost about $50,000 each to make and then you have to deal with making 80+
> different reeds, then paying people to mount them on reed plates, then
> tune, etc. etc. etc.  It is far better and more economical to just buy the
> reed plates from your manufacturer of choice and work your magic to improve
> them.  It really is a moot point.  Trust me on this.
> 
> Thanks again to Brendan and Vern for keeping us entertained.
> 
> *Tom Halchak*
> *Blue Moon Harmonicas LLC*
> *P.O. Box 14401 Clearwater, FL 33766*
> *(727) 366-2608*

Kindest regards, met vriendelijke groeten,

Ben Bouman

www.benboumanharmonicas.com <http://www.benboumanharmonicas.com/>
www.harmonicainstituut.nl <http://www.harmonicainstituut.nl/>
www.marbletones.com <http://www.marbletones.com/>
www.marble-amps.com <http://www.marble-amps.com/>