[Harp-L] Harp Construction vs Quality and Responsiveness



  I had a mail order in the pipeline that looked like it wasn?t going to make it in time for a rehearsal I had committed to. Popped down to a local music store to get a relatively cheap fill in and realized Hohner makes a lot of different brands of diatonic harmonicas. Made me wonder what exactly is different between all these harps and also other common brands.  Was mainly interested in how differences in construction affect life and ease of playing or responsiveness.  (I?m worried if a discussion of tone gets started here I?ll never get my question answered.  In principle some of these construction differences should affect how ?bright? or ?warm? a harp sounds or how loud it may be. But it seems that the player has so much more influence on tone that how differences in harp construction affect it may be getting down into the weeds.)
   
  I?ve noticed my Lee Oskars last longer than Special 20?s and have heard others say the same. Why is that? Reed material, thickness, how the reeds are attached?  Then again those Lee Oskars have that weird banshee squeal on ob?s.  
   
  Why are ?cheap? harmonicas cheap and what are the tradeoffs for harp life and responsiveness? ?Air tightness?, reed vs comb dimensions, gapping, other factors?   I suppose a clue might be what the custom guys are doing to compensate for flaws in mass produced harps, but I have no idea what that is. 
   
  Was having trouble finding info on this.   Could anyone point me in the right direction?  Not sure how to search the Archives on this kind of topic, so apologies if this has been covered recently.
   
  Bill H


		
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