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From: Pat Missin
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 19:59:09 +0100
Subject: Lee Oskar harps

>From: blues doctor
>Date: Sun, 22 Sep 1996 23:24:16 -0400 (EDT)
>Subject: lee oscar harps
>
>wjennig asked about lee oscar harps,
>In my opinion the lee oscar is superior to the honer blues harp because the

OK - I can handle the lack of capital letters, but the name is "Oskar", with
a "K" (not "Liza" with a "z", or whatever ;-) and speaking of which,

>From: j~im.enterprise.net
>Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 18:06:23 +0100 (BST)
>Subject: Holding hands
>
> This problem didn't occur with the LO, due to it's nicely rounded
>plastic corners, but then, I hate the LO. It is expensive, feels cheap
>and nasty in my hands because of the very thin cover plates and, in my
>opinion, does not play as nicely as the MB and BH (though maybe I got a
>bad one, but this would not play three reeds out of the box until I
>adjusted the offset, and still is very slow and alot of the reeds choke
>out.

Most of this is a matter of personal taste (in the same way, I like the Lee
Oskar plates ecause they are made of stainless steel, but I'm sure others
have their own faves), but the thickness of the plates can be measured, so I
did. Out came my (t)rusty micrometer and a quick run through my spares box
came up with the following cover plate vital statistics:

Hohner Modular Series 0.50 - 0.52mm
Lee Oskar 0.45mm
Huang Silvertone 0.44mm
Suzuki ProMaster 0.43mm
Hohner Golden Melody 0.41mm
Hohner HM Marine Band 0.40mm
Hohner HM Pro-Harp 0.32mm
Honer HM Blues Harp 0.32mm
Hohner HM Special 20 0.31mm

I'm sure there will be some variation between individual harps (and I recall
that Hohner are making the MS covers a little thinner recently), but it can
be seen that the Lee Oskar covers can not really be descirbed as "very
thin". This reminds me of how a lot of people talk about the "thinner" OR
"inferior" reeds of the Blues Harp as compared to the Marine Band. As far as
I have been able to tell, there is no difference at all in the reeds, except
for how they are adjusted. I once made up a harp for a friend of mine, with
Marine Band covers and Blues Harp reedplates and he claimed it was the best
harp he'd ever played!

As for the slow response on the Lee Oskar, it sounds like the harp still
isn't quite gapped properly. However, if you prefer the tone of the Marine
Band, etc., then a quick rub around the harp with some abrasive paper will
take the sharp edges off. I wish they'd do that at the factory.


Pat Missin - pa~lobalnet.co.uk

"...my music's a lot better than it sounds!" (with apologies to Mark Twain)
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