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Customising a cheap harp for a great result?

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Tue, 01/28/2014 - 18:56
RACarroll
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Joined: 01/15/2014

Hi,

Can you get a cheap harp like say the Bluesband to perform at the level of say a Special 20 with proper adjustment/customising or are the materials of the cheap harp a limiting factor.

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Thu, 02/06/2014 - 10:22
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jeff7b9
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Joined: 02/04/2014
sometimes you get lucky

Just taking a guess here, I am by no means an expert, but.....

 

I think you may get lucky every once in a while, but in general you get what you pay for (+ your harp tweaking skills)

So a customned up Manji, Crossover will probably reach a much higher level of excellence than a well tweaked Blues Band or Old Standby.

That said, I feel like sometimes you get lucky. I have a Hohner Hot Metal Key of F.... I swear it bends as easily and as accurately as any harp I own which would include Crossover, Firebreath, Marine Band, Overdrive, Lee Oskar, 

Is it a better harp? No, not really, but it plays amazing. I don't think the tone stacks up to the higher end harps and that may be the quality of the materials coming into play. However (probably due to the reed gapping) the bends are on the money and really really easy to get, the notes are really smooth, no need to draw or blow any harder on different holes to get notes, easy to get vibrato on bends etc... 

It has to be luck. I got the harp for $8 long long before I started taking harp seriously (to cover the harp solo in Outkast's Rosa Parks in my coverband where I play keyboard) 

I had a friend who had a yamaha acoustic guitar that sounded like the music you'd expect at the gates of heaven, some of the best tone I have ever heard on a guitar, including Taylors and Gibson Hummingbirds etc (didn't hurt that he was a very good guitar player)   He got the guitar for $125 new, which was the sticker price. I wanted to get one myself, so we tried out about a dozen of the same model guitar (he played them as did I to make sure that my crappy guitar playing wasn't the culprit), none of them sounded anywhere near that guitar, honestly they all sounded like a $100 guitar. 

Sometimes you get lucky.

 

 

 

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