The one you'd leave behind ...
I was going to entitle this something like, "What's the weirdest harp in your kit?," but then figured that maybe it's a weird one that is actually a useful favorite. So instead:
If your house was on fire, and your spouse, one of the firefighters, your dog, or whomever, told you that you had to leave one harmonica in the house and let it go up in smoke, which harp would you leave behind?
For me it's pretty simple. Even though my concentration these days is on blues styles, a few years ago I got this crazy idea that for hiking and camping (and folk songs around the campfire) it might be fun to have one of those two-sided, two-keyed tremolo harmonicas, like the Hohner Echo Harp. But I balked at the cost. So instead, I found a Swan 2x48 C/G tremolo for all of $15.
The Swan has certain distinctions:
For one thing, it is so lossy that I never have to worry about not getting enough aerobic exercise while on a camping trip. 32 bars on the harp is the equivalent of a 5-mile run.
The Swan is so badly tuned that fellow campers often ask in amazement if what I think is "Careless Love" is actually a little-known 12-tone piece by 20th Century avant garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
I don't worry about a lot of sand or dust in my tent. Without my even taking it out of its case, the Swan doubles as a vacuum cleaner.
And finally, I don't worry about supplies in my first aid kit getting too old. I'm constantly replenishing. The Swan has so many sharp edges and burrs on the mouthpieces that sometimes upon returning home, my wife asks if I've been trying to kiss a bear, or something.
So for me, the harmonica that I wouldn't shed a tear over (or even file an insurance claim for) as the house burned down ... is the Swan.
How 'bout you?
Brian: Let's hope that there was a purpose behind your difficult intro to the harmonica in the 1980s. I.e., that finding a good instrument, finding the blues, and finding bluesharmonica.com all happened at the time in your life that they did, for a reason.
Before your post I'd never heard of "David Harp." Did some looking on line at various sites. If the positive review of his meditation book from the late Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) is genuine, then a tip of the hat to him; however, after my own lifetime of career pursuits, music, running and cycling, and even learning enough electronics and Morse Code to get an amateur radio license years ago (not to mention parenting, with no instuction book), any time I see the word "Instant" as part of the title of an instructional book, I cringe. And David Harp's denigration of reading musical notation goes beyond simply helping folks learn first with their ears, and then decide for themselves whether or not learning to read music will be a good thing for their objectives, or not. The way David Harp uses harmonica for corporate morale-building events looks really cool, and I can understand how a very large group of people, many of whom come to such an event with no musical experience, would get a lot out of it, morale-wise. But I would bet that for 99% of the participants it ends there, and they go back to other things in their lives. (But, e.g., take a look at Gary Allegretto's nonprofit, Harmonikids. It's possible that fewer than one out of every 1,000 or 10,000 kids who are able to attend one of his outreach events and get a free harmonica from him actually pursue the instrument with any degree of seriousness. But wherever Gary goes as he brings these events to kids who are underprivileged, are victims of war or natural disaster, or have been abused, he brings them a few hours of real joy, and a taste of how they can make good times for themselves with very little. And that's more than good enough.)
And re instrument quality, "cheap" is a subjective word. More objective is the difference between "inexpensive" and "junk." My own analogy comes from years of teaching ukulele to kids. I have some ukes that have been custom made for me, the cost of which I'd rather not mention here, for fear that some crook might be tempted to kidnap and hold one of them for ransom. But there are some US-based companies that use quality-controlled Chinese factories to produce some very nice and very playable ukuleles in the $60-70 range. But often it's hard to convince a parent to put out that kind of money, when they worry, "what if my daughter decides she doesn't really want to learn ukulele?" So they buy the child a completely unplayable $20 instrument, and the child struggles and becomes discouraged. Sadly, had the parent paid $70 for a playable instrument, the parent might be able to get $55 for it on Craigslist. The $20 instument? Basically good only for firewood.
Okay, so I need to rethink things. Had David Harp included a half-way-decent harmonica with his book then the book might have coast $50 instead of $20 and I probably could not have bought it. Unfortunately, I did not know anyone who played harmonica (or music) to help guide me along the way. That $20 spent wasn’t much on teaching me harmonica, but it was a lesson learned and for that I’m glad I spent the $20.
As a side note, I’ve found it interesting that as I learn the study songs, I keep finding morse code in the swing notes and use it to help me remember some of the licks.
73 de KC4FAN
Brian: So instead of "shuffle," "rhumba" and "swing," you're thinking "bug," "paddle" and "straight key"? 73 back from N6LUB.
For me it’s simple, the Harp that taught me a valuable lesson. In the 1980’s I purchased a David Harp book that came with a harmonica and a cassette tape. The Chinese harmonica was horrible and only good for playing cords, but at the time I did not know that. I would play it for a week or two then give up. I did that a few times throughout my life. It wasn’t until a little more than a year ago I thought I would give it another try. Thank God, I could not find that stupid harp. I purchased a Hohner Crossover and within two weeks I was playing folk songs and starting on learning the blues. I since have found that China harmonica and I still can’t play it today. Worst harmonica ever and I would be overjoyed to see it burn in a fire. Lesson learned, cheap cost me a lifetime of playing. David Harp brags about how many millions (or some number) of people he has taught to play harmonica, I wonder how many of those still play today or like me gave up because of his cheap harmonicas.