Harmonica Basics - Addendum To Part III

Addendum: It occurred to me after posting that a reader (I only have one) might conclude that by using the star ratings exclusively you could insure that you're buying a quality product and also save time slogging through customer reviews. This is a case of "just because something is true doesn't mean that it is relevant to you or your situation". Example: The Hohner Golden Melody. This is, depending on which website you check, a 4.5 to 5 star harmonica. Noted pros use it and amateurs love it. However, after perusing (this means "to examine in great detail", not "to skim over") dozen of customer reviews, I kept coming across variations of this comment: "It's great for tongue blocking". This sounded significant but I didn't know why. I kept surfing and reading reviews until I found one that said it was great for tonguers because of the smaller blow/draw openings spaced more closely together. Um, yeah. Great for tongue blockers but probably a nightmare for lip blockers. Ideally I would need a harp with openings roughly the diameter of my gaping piehole spaced 1 inch apart. My calculations tell me this fictitious harp would be 32 inches long and weigh 13 lbs. Suitable only for very short gigs. Back to the point. Read the reviews. The "relevant" truth is out there.

Harmonica Basics-Choosing Your First Harp Part III

There's an apocryphal story of a fan offering James Cotton $400 for his Hohner Marine Band after a show. Cotton told the man that he could buy a new one for $8 at any music store. The fan insisted, saying that Cotton had obviously modified the harp to make it sound the way that it did. So, is it the harp or is it the person playing the harp?

Sound Quality - Conventional wisdom says that wood combed harps have a warmer, crunchier tone than plastic combed harps and that harps with metal combs have a brighter, if more antiseptic tone than both. Harmonica maven Pat Missin convincingly dispels these myths in an article (http://www.patmissin.com/ffaq/q6.html) posted on his uniquely informative website. Missin provides data from tests conducted by The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of Harmonicas as well as his own scientific study. He then takes it a step further with audio files of the same note being played on a Hohner Marine Band (wood), a Lee Oskar (plastic) and Suzuki ProMaster (metal) so you can decide for yourself.

Missin contends that, unlike an acoustic guitar, whose body (soundbox) construction has a substantial effect on it's tone, the comb material of a harmonica acts almost solely as a support for the reeds. The soundbox of a harp is the hands, mouth, throat and lungs of the player. Tonal quality is also greatly affected by the shape of the air passages, reed construction, shape of the covers and tuning. I highly recommend that you read Missin's article, as well as everything else on his website. I've tried to distill it down to the most basic and necessary elements but in no way did I do it justice. My conclusion is that I could take a $150 custom Marine Band and make it sound like a cheap child's toy. James Cotton could take a child's toy and make it sing a sonic representation of the combined works of Shakespeare.

Durability - This category initially concerned me more than the others. I've read dozens of product reviews that went something like, "Just got a shipment of Lee Oskar harps in every key known to man and blew out the 2 draw in all of them over a three day weekend". Are harps really this fragile? Um, no. The guys that write variations of this review represent an archetype that infests every niche of American hobbyism. I call him "Hard On His Gear Guy". He communicates using an obliquely confrontational verbal form of macho posturing that says "Don't know about you, but I'm a bad ass".

I've personally met the surfing, mountain biking, rafting and golfing incarnations of this guy who, in the harp universe we'll refer to as "Hard on His Harps Guy" or HOHHG. I see this guy's posts as evidence of some sort of psychological malady and not as proper consumer reviews. This isn't meant to imply that some of the reports of prematurely blown reeds aren't the result of poor manufacturing.

Here's a good rule of thumb when reading product reviews of any sort. Throw out the extreme high ("I've gigged with the same Big River since 1952") and extreme low (HOHHG) and concentrate on the median. A good product's satisfaction median will skew more positive. The degree to which this is the case should give you a fairly accurate reflection of the actual quality of the product.

Harmonica Basics - Choosing Your First Harp Part II - Size Matters & Pass The Mouthwash, Please

Here's a list of a few things that you're probably going to be concerned with prior to your first purchase. Some are worthy of your concern and others are just time wasters that will introduce frustration and second-guessing into an already semi-mysterious process.

1. Size - Most 10 hole diatonics that I've seen are roughly the same size. That isn't to imply that a 1/8 of an inch here or there won't drastically affect your connection to the harp. You need the harp to fit in your hands and mouth comfortably. My recommendation is to go to your local music shop and get a feeling for the relative sizes of the various harps. Remember, you can hold them but not mouth them! If you find one that you like and you live in a state where the sales tax is about the equivalent to shipping charges you might as well buy on the spot.

If you're in California (I paid $31 for a Spec 20 at Guitar Center that I could have gotten for $22, with shipping, online), New York or any state with confiscatory sales tax rates, proceed to the online store of your choice. Most online stores have customer reviews, many of which contain valuable information on the specifics of all of the harmonicas that should be considered by a beginner. Utilize this resource. In my very limited experience I've found that Lee Oskar Majors are a little bigger than Hohner Special 20s and Hohner Big Rivers and Hering Vintage Harps are bigger and taller/thicker than both. The Hering has another drawback which leads me nicely into the next item on our list.

2. Flavor - Yeah, I know this sounds silly and if you stick with plastic comb harps it's not going to be an issue. If, on the other hand, you like the sound of a wood combed harp, I hope you also like the taste of the wood. Marine Bands taste like pearwood. But Mike, pearwood offends my delicate palette! I'm sure, with enough research or the services of a harpsmith you can get a wood comb with just the right qualities to satisfy your needs. I've heard that hickory and birch are to die for.

Lastly, BEWARE THE SEALED WOOD COMB! Case in point: The Hering Vintage 1923 Harp has a sealed wood comb and faux antique gold cover plates. This is a great, rich, deep and crunchy sounding instrument that tastes like a mouthful of brass washed down with a shot of varnish. Until they start sealing combs with maple syrup I'll stick with plastic.

Next: Sound Quality & Durability

Harmonica Basics - Choosing Your First Harp Part I or I'll Have the Tin Sandwich Please

The easy part first. Regardless of the brand or model of harp that you ultimately choose, get it in the key of C. Almost all tutorial material and programs are set up to be used with a C harp. Second, you want a 10 hole "diatonic" harmonica. Chromatic, Tremolo and Octave harps all have their places but they are like kryponite to the beginner. A diatonic was good enough for Sonny Boy Williamson and it's good enough for us.

Now it gets a bit more dicey. Because health laws just about everywhere outside Azerbaijan prohibit you from test playing harmonicas prior to buying, you're going to have to rely on your eyes and hands (if you are going to make your purchase at a brick & mortar store) or the opinions of current harp players (if you're going to purchase online). The next few posts will deal with this problem in enough detail that you should be able to, with a fair amount of confidence, buy a usable harp without having to slobber all over it.

Also, as I get more comfortable with HTML I'll be including links from websites that have useful content. In the meantime, Google "harmonicas" and you'll pull up every online harp dealer in the free world and probably a Wikipedia post that is actually pretty interesting. Almost all online vendors on the first search page will have a section on choosing harps. I found it helpful to read all of the material from several sites even though much of it was repetitive. After getting through three or four of these you'll be pretty comfortable with the basics. After you've done that, come back and I'll tell you, among other things, why the flavor of an otherwise exceptional harp can be a deal breaker.

Welcome To The Blues, My Son!

I'm Mike and I'm a wannabe. I first fell in love with sound of the blues harp when, chemically altered, I stumble/wandered into The White House in Laguna Beach Ca. in 1981. I'd been following a sound for several blocks. A sonic wailing that was reverberating through the night and seemed to encompass simultaneously, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, love and hate. I felt this on an intuitive level more than an intellectual one. I was twenty-two and the Truth that my hormone ravaged mind grasped onto was this: Anybody who can recreate this sound can get laid whenever he wants. Strong stuff indeed.

For the next three hours I did an uber-pathetic version of The White Boy Dance amidst other sweaty undulating forms as The James Harman Band introduced me to The Blues. The next day I bought a Hohner Marine Band and my journey began. It ended two days later when I realized that there was work involved. The Sound was elusive.

Fast-forward twenty-five years: I'm at a birthday party where Chuck E. Weiss and the Goddam Liars are playing. Jimmie Wood (Imperial Crowns, Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts) joins on harp for a couple of numbers and a neural pathway is created that takes me back to The White House and that sweaty night. The next day I order a Lee Oskar C harp and my journey began anew. When it arrives three days later I'm instantly reminded that, oh yeah, this is hard. Regardless, I'm going to do it this time. I'm a young man no more and my interest in getting laid is, uh, less consuming, so I've got the time, the focus and the energy to see this through. Welcome to The Blues!