[Harp-L] The New Golden Melody and Overblow Harps from the factory

[Laurent Vigouroux]

Hi Owen

Always a pleasure to exchange.

Not sure I’m naive about how a business works 😊
How much do you think Hohner spent on the XB-40?
Most probably much more than what Arkia spent on the development of their comb.

The XB-40 was a dead end because it didn’t have the size nor the sound of a diatonic (in my opinion).
My understanding is that Hohner didn’t believe in the overblows enough to put their effort on a real overblow harp.
Today, overblows are the main technique used by advanced players to obtain all the notes.
But I may be wrong in where the future of the harmonica lies.
Time will tell!

Happy harpin!

De : Owen P. Evans <opevans at xxxxx>
Date : lundi, 27 février 2023 à 18:49
À : Laurent Vigouroux <laurent.vigouroux at xxxxx>
Cc : Tom Halchak <info at xxxxx>, harp-l at xxxxx <harp-l at xxxxx>, Steve Baker <booking at xxxxx>
Objet : Re: [Harp-L] The New Golden Melody and Overblow Harps from the factory
Thank you Tom for the elucidation of the market as you see it.

Laurent, I feel that you are naive as to how a business works and how to make profit margins.
I believe you certainly wish for another world (utopia) where companies invest so as not to worry about profits. Instrument companies are not software giants. By the way, a Hohner Crossover and a Seydel Lightning are high-end products and get one closer to a personalized harp than models built to lower price points. You also seem to believe there is a huge harmonica market out there. There isn’t. Compare the harp market & the guitar market. No contest.

The reason customizers exist is to serve the market of harmonica players who will pay extra money for an instrument which will play to suit them and offer more capability than an OTB harp. Arkia is one company that is ‘experimenting' in this area, especially with overbends. (And, I don’t need to remind anyone, that blowing any harmonica hard is not getting every nuance out of the instrument.) Their products go for between $85.00 and $180.00 and the latest will cost you $307.00 One model for the masses? One size does not fit all!

I’d rather have a choice of products; a choice of customizer and a harp built for me. $165-225 will get me a custom harp that will play just like I want it to, including overbends. I have this choice now. It’s also how I used to buy guitars. It takes a fine luthier to fit it to my hands & style of play. This costs extra. It doesn’t come that way from the factory and never will. (An accident precludes my abilities to play guitar now and so I don’t buy them any longer)

Individuality is important to some and not to others. Serving every customer is a dream but serving everyone with a starting point is a reality! No single company has everyone’s dream product, but one of many certainly does! Thank goodness for choices and competition.

Just my 2 cents worth after playing for 9 years.
Sincerely,
Owen


On Feb 27, 2023, at 11:58 AM, Laurent Vigouroux <laurent.vigouroux at xxxxx<mailto:laurent.vigouroux at xxxxx>> wrote:

Hello

While I agree the number of overblowers is most probably very small compared to the mass of harmonicas produced annually, I find it weird how we are the only instrument with no big factory high end products for advanced players.
And actually even a few 1/1000s of the total can mean an interesting number of players.

But I guess this will stay the exclusivity of small companies (as pointed out by Steve) … till the time when the overblowers market is big enough for the big companies to have interest in.
They will then have to (try to) buy one of the small companies, which are innovating at the moment.

While a bit similar to software (where big companies pay very expensive amounts to buy small innovating companies), I don’t think it is of the same magnitude, as there will always be lots of casual players who don’t care about overblows. Time will tell.

By the way, an overblow ready harp doesn’t have to have very small gaps. Arkia harps can be played hard. The innovation lies somewhere else.
Plus, high end harps are also better for regular bending, not only overblows.

Cheers

Laurent

De : Harp-L <harp-l-bounces at xxxxx<mailto:harp-l-bounces at xxxxx>> de la part de Tom Halchak <info at xxxxx<mailto:info at xxxxx>>
Date : lundi, 27 février 2023 à 17:22
À : harp-l at xxxxx<mailto:harp-l at xxxxx> <harp-l at xxxxx<mailto:harp-l at xxxxx>>
Objet : [Harp-L] The New Golden Melody and Overblow Harps from the factory
I wonder what percentage of harmonica players use overblows and overdraws
in their playing.  My guess would be about 1-2%.  I could be wrong.  Maybe
it is 10% or 20%.  But whatever it is, players who use overblows and
overdraws are clearly in the minority.  A similar question would be, what
percentage of harmonica players subscribe to harp-l.org<http://harp-l.org> or participate in
any of the harmonica-centric groups on Facebook?  Again, my guess is that
it is a very small percentage of the overall harmonica playing population.
Most harmonica players have never even heard of overblows and have no idea
what they are.  Even many who have been in the middle of these
conversations for years reject overblows out of hand because they are
either too difficult or because “Little Walter never used them”.  The
notion that Hohner or any of the other major harmonica manufacturers should
be setting up the harps they produce for overblows and overdraws is a bit
silly.  Overblow harps are set up much tighter than stock harps.  The
average harmonica player would hardly be able to get a note out of an
overblow harp.  They play too hard and force too much air though the harp.
The reeds would choke.  Hohner has no choice but to set their harps up for
the average player.  If a skilled player requires a tighter harp to
facilitate overblows and overdraws, he will need to figure out how to
adjust his harmonicas himself or find someone who can do it for you.  Or,
perhaps, find a small company that caters to that particular  niche of
harmonica players.

Tom

--
*Tom Halchak*
*Blue Moon Harmonicas LLC*
*P.O. Box 14401 Clearwater, FL 33766*

Owen P. Evans

“ If you can’t dig the blues, you must have a hole in your soul.”  - Jimmy Rogers