Other web Sites
Harmonica Blues  Harmonica Amps
Harmonica Links Harmonica Pages
• Archives Home
• Years
 · 1992
 · 1993
 · 1994
 · 1995
 · 1996
 · 1997 		 · 1998
 · 1999
 · 2000
 · 2001
 · 2002
 · 2003
 
Web HarpL
Ebay Searches:
Amps:
Microphones:
Effects:
Harmonicas and Gear:
Harmonica Music and Instruction:

 

 

Harp-L Archives

[Previous Message] [Next Message]
[Next in Thread]
[Start of Thread] [End of Thread]

From: Winslow Yerxa <76450.32~ompuServe.COM>
Date: 03 Oct 96 15:32:49 EDT
Subject: Proving the Existence of Fish

TO: internet:harp~arply.com

Siegfried Naruhn guesses:

My poor non-native English couldn't prevent my suspicion that
a "fish" might be not only a trout or tuna but also a "thing
of minor importance", right? Then, a balky slide is anything
but a "fish".

Actually, that "not a Fish" tag got started when I was replying
to Ray Beltran who had written that the pride and joy of my
chromatic collection was a "Herring" and I wrote to modify that
statement. Not a bad speculation, though.

I'm still tickled at your description of the "Miserable chirping
reed" of a few weeks ago.

At first, the description of harp parts must be unequivocal.
If you understand with 'mouthpiece' the uppermost part with
the holes, then you can grind it's back into all eternity
without achieving any an effect because it has no contact
to the slide. You can only mean the back of the upper slide
plate, but why should we talk in different languages.
Mouthpiece or mouthpiece section must be differentiated, as
the case may be.

I assumed it was the back of the mouthpiece because this does in
fact jut out past the top of the slide casing by about 1mm, and
the scraping marks on the slide conform to the slit cut into it
to accomodate the transit of the extruding tip of the slide
spring, but on close examination I see that the mouthpiece cannot
contact the slide without considerable bending, and that the same
slit exists in the front of the top of the slide casing. However,
on a 64, it is the mouthpiece itself that does this scraping (by
the way, I see it on the back of the slide as well. Is the
tolerance too tight?)

You write:

Actually, I prefer again the original CX, of course
modified, and find that there is rather 'music in the air'
than 'plastic in the sound'. Maybe, you have a general
aversion against plastic and are influenced in your
jugdement. By the way, nobody could define how plastic has
to sound.

I have no aversion to plastic combs, or metal or wood. They do
sound different to my ears, and I like them all for different
reasons. But the "total plastic" sound of the plastic-covered
CX-12 and CBH, to my ears, is too much plastic. While it might be
hard to characterize the all-plastic sound verbally (soft,
lacking in high partials?), I do not find that I am the only one
to comment on this.

Here I will take the opportunity to stand on a soap box and,
while addressing no-one in particular, complain that there seems
to be a tendency among those seeking scientific explanations to
discount reported experience. I mean that if reported experience
is not borne out by the theoretical models advanced, then the
experience tends to be dismissed as invalid, and attributed to
the gullibility, suggestibilty or prejudice of the person who has
the experience.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am neither gullible nor suggestible
and am in fact highly skeptical. I am also fairly open-minded, as
in, willing to suspend disbelief and ascribe the unexplainable to
unknown causes.

Recently someone on the list pointed out that in the early days
of radio, this tendency to dismiss unexplained experience led
radio eggheads to dismiss field reports that if taken seriously,
would have led to the development of the transistor a good 20
years earlier than actually happened.

It seems to me that if the theoretical model cannot explain the
experience, then maybe the model is inadequate.

I am reminded of an old Bernard Kliban cartoon captioned "Proving
the Existence of Fish." It depicts a stern, bearded professor
gesturing in front of a blackboard full of scrawled formulae. The
audience members are all fish.

End of rant. Not to be taken as a personal affront to you,
Siegfried. I just took the opportunity to vent something that's
been bugging me lately.

Winslow Yerxa
Harmonica Information Press
Z
Z