[Harp-L] Honer Blues Harps and their potential

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

I just recently picked up a couple of Honer Blues Harps, a B flat and a C.
The last time I got a Blues Harp was maybe 1978.  I remember not liking them
and wishing I had gotten a Marine Band instead.  I have to say that I'm
really happy with these two harps.  In fact, I almost wish I had a whole
set. I know everybody has their preferences in terms of tone, feel, and comb
material.  I was never crazy about wooden combs after I first tried plastic
combed harps - most of my harps are either Sp 20s or GMs  now.  But after I
opened these blues harps up and tweaked them I ended up with the two best
harps I've ever played.

What I did was as follows.  I elongated the screw holes from front to back
of the comb so that I could push the comb forward, flush with the reed plate
edge. I sanded the edges of the comb prongs to round over the sharp corners.
I sealed the comb with bees' wax by first heating the comb in the oven set
at 350 for about 5 minutes and then immersing it into the liquefied wax.

For the reeds plates I embossed them (reeds 1 - 6) using the edge of a
penny, something I recently discovered from one of Richard Hunter's posts.
This is a really easy way to emboss reeds and I wish I had known about this
a long time ago - bless this list. I gapped the reeds a little more open. No
fancy curves or anything - just enough to keep them from choking now that
the slots are so close. I got a couple stuck but was able to fix that by
sliding a gap gauge (the thinnest one) along either side of the reed.

Now, when I put the harps back together I was really pleased with what I had
but felt they could be tighter.  I know that all you harp tweaking gurus out
there are now pooh-poohing the micro-poor tape gaskets but, damn it, after I
gasketed these two harps they felt sooo much better so I guess I am still a
believer. Maybe it isn't so much the air tightness that results but
something else. They just feel more responsive.

Any way, these two Blues Harps are now the sweetest harps in my arsenal.  I
own 40 harps - not a lot by most people's standards - and I wish they were
all as good as these two. I only played a Filesko harp once but I feel that
I have something approaching that kind of quality and responsiveness in
these two harps. Everything I did I learned on this list.  They require much
less wind to produce the same volume and tone as any of my other harps.
Since I just learned to produce throat vibrato and am still developing those
muscles, this kind of responsiveness means a lot; a leaky, unresponsive harp
sucks for doing throat vibrato.

Having had everything I've read about customizing harps come together so
nicely is a real treat.  I just want to add one more thing.  I have ten
Suzuki Pro-masters. With their stainless steel reed plates, there's not much
you can do in the way of embossing or tightening up their action.  What you
get in a Promaster is what you're pretty much stuck with. They sound great
out of the box but need constant re-gapping and the cover plates are also
hard to shape for tightness, given their design. I bought them about two
years ago and I'm sorry I spent so much money on harps that  I really can't
work on too easily.

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh