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

[Owen P. Evans]

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> 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> de la part de Tom Halchak <info at xxxxx>
> Date : lundi, 27 février 2023 à 17:22
> À : harp-l at xxxxx <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 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