Re: [Harp-L] re:was harp as a toy now set up




On Jun 20, 2005, at 12:43 PM, Eric Neumann wrote:


Pierre wrote:
"I kind of doubt the old Chicago players tweaked harps."

Maybe not - but I would not count them out yet. I think that it's
because of lists like this one, and communities revolving around playing
the harmonica well, that have probably made this seem more of a
contemporary practice.

I believe Pierre AND Eric are BOTH correct on this issue. On the one hand, most harmonica players did NOT mess about much with their harps, but as players got more and more experienced, involved, famous, active, or whatever you want to call it, the bigger names gradually realized that if one didn't work on their own harps, it could cost a small fortune to play them. Coupled, of course, with the rarity of harp repairmen back then. There was usually one guy in a group who knew a little about them. The Harmonicats had Jerry, then Dick Gardner, then Bob Bauer. The Rascals had Borrah, Leo Friedman, Fuzzy Feldman. Most of the 'singleton' diatonic players were pretty much on their own and some used repair guys while others did some of the work themselves. Blackie Schackner (while predominantly a chromatic player) was a 'singleton' performer and had to do his own work.
On the other hand, I don't feel the 'early' guys did very much to their Marine Bands, probably electing to just replace them as needed. I don't feel diatonics were worked on much till lately as fellows found out what could be done. As an example. can anyone think of ANY custom diatonic before the Filisko? Now, while I'm sure there were people doing SOME adjustments to diatonics, I never heard of any custom jobs till within the last 25 years.

I found out through this list, that Jerry Murad used to repair and adjust his onw harps.

This is true. Jerry had done a stint with the Harmonica Rascals and while there, he worked on other peoples chromatics & chords. He had always done his own work until Dick Gardner came along. I recall spending Tuesday afternoons at Jerry's home workshop where, at one time, we sorted through roughly 25 pounds of reed plates, pidgeon holed most of them and wrote out cards as to which reeds were good and which were not. Tuesday evenings several of us would then sit around from 7-11 and play


 Heck even Smo Jo clipped his 5 reed back when
bread didn't come sliced in a package.

That was purely an accident. I always wondered how MANY threshold discoveries were purely by accident :)

Let alone the fact that a lot of the Old Chicago players used to out right lie, and mislead everyone regarding their gear, technique, background, et cetera.

Absoultely, It was hard just to find out how OLD some of them were. Hell, some of them didn't even know themselves how old they were. That's show business. There's a lot of cloak, dagger, intrigue involved. It's good for establishing 'Mystique'. This is how legends are born. I recall when I was 18-19 and living in NOLa & Baton Rouge, there were several occasions where I wanted to meet one of the greats. I found most to be aloof, uninterested, and some were downright mean. Lazy Lester was the exception.


 I just think it is in fact possible that early,
early harp players that were being recorded may well have made
adjustments to their harps.

Oh, I would say that this went on, but only a few percent at the top might have thought that they needed to bother with it. As far as the 'water' trick. Cold water will cause the brass to contract. Just how much difference THIS makes is questionable. From what I know about metalurgy, it would seem that the SLOTS (cut into a comparitively massive slab of brass) would close up faster than a reed's width (comparitively diminutive sliver of brass) would narrow. Ergo: the fit will be tighter and produce a different sound.
I, personally, like to think that the water (itself) adds "vapor bulk" to all the EDGES and it is THIS that changes the dynamics, (NOT the shrinkage factor).

I ask, when was the first time you tore a harp apart trying to fix a bad
reed...

In my case, I was just a child. I was way too young to know s**t. In fact, I STILL don't know s**t. I had no choice but to try to fix it myself. This is probably what most kids did. Either that or they bought a new one and tossed the old one in a drawer.
I never kept the old junkers. I threw them out. But I shined shoes, had a paper route, and collected scrap copper & brass out of the dump, so I could afford to buy new ones. I don't believe the really "old-timeys' had that luxury.


 maybe not even knowing what to look for... I've seen used harps
on ebay for instance where the covers were attached with bailing wire
after somebody looked under the covers for some reason.

To me, I would feel it's likely that any old recording harp player that
traveled a lot to do gigs, eat, have some drinkin money, may, or may not
have had the five bucks to spend on a new harp after figuring out how to
fix one.

I tend to feel it was in individual thing. Those that HAD to work on their own harps probably did THAT, while those that were only interested in PLAYING them, may not have. There seems to be an undercurrent that most of the old musicians (especially from the south) were dirt poor. This isn't always the case. They may have been poor but a lot of them WEREN't underprivileged. There are many stories about kids receiving a guitar from an uncle, or their father or mother bought them an instrument for Christmas, or they got piano lessons from their Aunt. My parents wouldn't buy ME an instrument to save my ass. They didn't like noise.


Ray Charles learned piano from an old man who was his neighbor. Pinetop's mother was a cook in a (shall we say) 'house', where he learned to play from visiting gentlemen. Miles Davis' father was a dentist. Chuck Berry got a guitar for Christmas from his dad. Handy (& many many others) learned music in church.

I was surfing Google one day and was amazed to find out that there were a couple DOZEN singers and musicians from the golden days of blues, rock, pop who were either related to each other in some unusual way (half brother/step aunt/adopted nephew/etc), or knew, spent time with, and learned from each other. Man what an advantage THAT would be. Example: Your uncle is Howard Levy, You're getting free lessons from your neighbor Stevie Wonder, and your mom's new boyfriend is Charlie McCoy, and you are currently living with your mother's step-brother Toots Theilmanns. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

smokey joe & the cafe s

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