[Harp-L] New Golden Melody

[Steve Baker]

Hi Laurent,

it’s great that companies like Arkia offer this service. However, it’s something which can only be offered by a small independent company with low overheads. Larger companies operate under very different constraints. Industrial wages cost around €80 an hour in real terms, translating into about 3x that for the customer. In order to be able to set up a harmonica to overblow reliably, you need to be a very proficient player. Harmonica production lines are generally not staffed by top players.

So it’s really not a matter of Hohner failing to invest in the future of the harmonica. Overblows are one part of the future of the instrument, but a large majority of players aren’t able to do it and may have little interest in learning. I believe the best course of action for a larger manufacturer is to educate players to maintain their own instruments, and provide spare parts, which Hohner has done for many years. See the extensive series of videos on maintenance on the website:


https://www.hohner.de/en/service/harmonica/clean-maintain

These primarily deal with the chromatic, but all the stuff about offsetting, tuning etc. is just as applicable to the diatonic.

Steve Baker
www.stevebaker.de
www.harmonica-masters.de


> On 26. Feb 2023, at 19:08, Laurent Vigouroux <laurent.vigouroux at xxxxx> wrote:
> 
> Hello all
>  
> While it’s clear that any additional work on a factory line can have big financial impact, I’m a bit surprised Hohner doesn’t really address the overblow community.
> This technique being now often taught very early for the new players (as we know now only 4 tongue positions are required to play all the bends and overblows), I would tend to think there would be a market for a real overblow harp around 100-150€. Chances are that big numbers still are for regular harps, but the overblow market probably increases.
>  
> This is what Arkia is doing, with great success. If a micro-company can do that, why big names like Hohner and Suzuki can’t?
> Hohner did try the XB-40 and Suzuki the Brendan Power version of the same context. It probably cost a lot of money to create these product lines.
> Unfortunately there weren’t the real solution.
> The problem is that lots of people thought at that time that overblows were a difficult technique, hence these products.
> A bunch of years later, the overblows have proved their efficiency.
>  
> I guess Hohner prefers not to invest on that. I believe this is missing the future of the harmonica, but I don’t have the market numbers, so it’s just a belief.
>  
> Happy harpin’ everybody
>  
> De : Harp-L <harp-l-bounces at xxxxx <mailto:harp-l-bounces at xxxxx>> de la part de Steve Baker <booking at xxxxx <mailto:booking at xxxxx>>
> Date : dimanche, 26 février 2023 à 17:42
> À : Harp-L <harp-l at xxxxx <mailto:harp-l at xxxxx>>
> Cc : shellerman at xxxxx <mailto:shellerman at xxxxx> <shellerman at xxxxx <mailto:shellerman at xxxxx>>
> Objet : [Harp-L] New Golden Melody
> 
> The only way to ensure that harmonicas overbend reliably out of the box would be to adjust the reed offsets accordingly in the factory. This involves a lot of extra work, which would make the instruments prohibitively expensive. A set-up which will do this for everybody is impossible to realise in commercial harmonica manufacture, as different players require different set-ups anyway. Better to learn to do it yourself according to your own needs. I don’t find the new GM any harder to overbend than the previous version.
> 
> I just took my new GM apart and have no difficulty in accessing the 5 & 6 hole reeds. 
> 
> The old GM had several issues, in particular with airtightness. In my opinion, the redesign addresses these issues pretty effectively. The result sounds great and is both elegant and comfortable to play, I would say it’s an improvement. That said, I’m not a Golden Melody guy and will continue to play Marine Band Crossovers to the day I die.
> 
> Steve Baker
> www.stevebaker.de <http://www.stevebaker.de/>
> www.harmonica-masters.de <http://www.harmonica-masters.de/>