customization

Richard Sleigh has written an article to help students of BluesHarmonica.com understand the premise behind the customization of harmonicas for overbending. You'll find it on this page, under the support material listing http://www.bluesharmonica.com/lessons/bending_study_8_overbend_study_1_t...

A very extensive article on the past challenges of Hohner Marine Band quality control and the birth of harmonica customization featuring our resident harp tech expert Kinya Pollard, The Harpsmith, and other contributors to BluesHarmonica.com... Steve Baker, Joe Filisko, Brendan Power and Richard Sleigh.

The Return of the Harmonica
http://craftsmanship.net/the-return-of-the-harmonica/

Lastly, everything's just easier to play on a custom harmonica. The big one is that bending is easier (draw, blow and overbend) and the middle bends are less airy in tone. When playing a 3" you'll notice that there's an airy quality to the bend... this is normal for all harmonicas, but is greatly diminished with a custom harmonica.

Okay, let's review...

Balanced
Same breath for each reed, making playing across the range of the harmonica effortless

Dynamic Range
The main reason for playing custom harmonicas is so you can play softly, giving you great dynamic range

Longevity continue reading...

Harmonica customizer Jon Harl and I often discuss issues commonly experienced by my students and his customers… most often being focused on playability, tone and most commonly longevity. He works on some of my student’s harps and it’s common for me to receive a note from him like, “Please nudge your student to play softer, he’s killing his harps!” I asked him to write some Tips of the Day. Hearing from a person that works on harmonicas daily brings an interesting insight into proper technique. Thanks Jon!

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Harmonica customizer and tool maker Richard Sleigh just completed his website redesign. If you're into harmonica technology and the tools used for customization, I suggest you check his page out, paying specific attention to the Archives at right.

http://hotrodharmonicas.com