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From: Steve & Anne Price
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 02:06:30 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: a/b

Boy, I'm astonished at the concern for the differences in sound
that people seem to feel is or isn't there. In all honesty it matters to
me very little since Lee Oskars and Special 20s and Filiskos and Marine
Bands and Blues Harps all sound like harmonicas to me, as do all the
various chromatics I've gotten to hear in my limited experience
(including Renaissance). Not to belittle the preferences, or to slight
those who think them important, but I'm MUCH more concerned with the
playability and feel of a harp. The biggest and most important thing
I've learned about since logging on to harp-l in the technical realm is
adjusting reed offsets, and I cuss to think of all harps I chucked
because the reeds need a little adjustment before I learned about that.
The point is that offsets has to do with the feel of the harp, so all of
this discussion about testing for sound regardless of feel, or dispite
feel, or controling for feel--that sounds far from my main concerns with
a harp. I have stopped using a number of harps because of the feel of
the playing despite a perfectly acceptable tone. I honestly haven't
heard very many harps in my entire life that I thought the tone was the
real problem, and not tuning or something else. I've only owned one or
two in hundreds that I thought the tone was too cheesy to play in
public. I covet Filiskos (but can't afford them alas) because of the
superlative feel, not because of the wood or brass.

I don't think I'm deaf or insensitive, and as I say, I don't mean to
belittle anyone's preferences. I'm just astonished by people's
priorities. Perhaps I just need education and I'll renounce this
position after a while. But right now the responsiveness of the harp,
the feel, the ease of technique used to play a harp is paramount to me.
Am I alone?

Steve Price