[Harp-L] Best Out-of-the-Box harp for bends & overblows?

[Tom Halchak]

I would like to add my two cents to this conversation.  We are going to get
into some parsing of words here, but I disagree with the notion there is no
such thing as an Out-of-the-Box that you can overblow.  I would not
consider myself a world class player by any stretch of the imagination, but
I can overblow almost any quality ($30-$40+) OOTB harp – with rare
exception - if a harp is very poorly setup.  Very poorly.  I’m talking
about Marine Bands, Special 20s, Golden Melodys, Manjis, Seydel 1847 and
Seydel Blues Session.  A couple of months ago, out of curiosity, I bought a
few of the newer entries into the harmonica market – mostly made in China.  I
bought a Kongsheng Mars, an Easttop 008K, and a VOX Continental.  I also
have a couple of Golden Birds that were given to me at SPAH a couple of
years ago.  I can easily overblow on all of them too.  The VOX, by the way,
is a Suzuki Manji clone.  It even states that is made by Suzuki Japan.  I
can overblow OOTB Lee Oskars too, but they squeal something awful.



I have not tried the Harmo or the Arkia.  I have heard of the Harmo, but
never heard of the Arkia.  So, I looked them both up.  Here’s where the
parsing of words comes in.  By their own descriptions, both are low priced
custom harps.  The gaps are manually adjusted.  Nail polish is added to the
reed slots when and where necessary to seal leaks.  The Arkia has a custom
comb and custom component that looks like a Double Reed Plate Component on
the blow plate.   None of this is bad.  In fact, it all looks very good and
if indeed they are as easy to overblow as advertised, that’s great.  But if
we are going to call them Out-of-the-Box Harmonicas, then why would we not
classify all custom harmonicas as Out-of-the-Box Harmonicas?  It seems to
me that if you have to do something as simple as adjust the gaps on a harp,
it is no longer an OOTB harp.  It is a good harp that needs tweaking.  When
I send a customer a Blue Moon Custom Harmonica, with a Custom Comb, perhaps
even a Double Reed Plate version, set up for not just Overblows, but also
Overdraws (a very different animal), and assuming they do not have to make
any adjustments to the instrument, by the definition that seems to prevail
in this conversation, it would be an Out-of-the-Box Harmonica.  In fact, in
a bit of irony, my good friend JD Taylor describes what I would call a
Custom Harmonica as an “Out-of-the-Box Play” in the following video.



https://youtu.be/VI150--xlpw



To bring things back full circle, my take is this. If you know how to
overblow – if you have mastered the technique and have the muscle memory –
you can overblow just about any decent harp.  If you asked me which stock
harp, that has had zero customization, is the best one to start with, I
would agree with many here who have stated that the Hohner Marine Band
Crossover is the best OOTB you can get.  The Seydels are very very good
too.  The tolerances on their reed plates is the best in the industry.  It
isn’t even close.

-- 
*Tom Halchak*
*Blue Moon Harmonicas LLC*


*www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com <http://www.BlueMoonHarmonicas.com>*