That argument about, "Is it me or the harmonica" is the reason I always tell people to get a good harmonica. We don't get it quite as much on MBH, but on /harmonica we get tons of people asking why they are having a hard time learning to bend. I'm happy to share what I know, but without being able to look at the harmonica to see if it's got problems all I can do is make an educated guess based on what I know about the quality control for the brand and model. If it's a Special 20, I can say it's probably you. If it's a Blues Band? Who knows. The first harmonica I ever had was a cheap Blessing tremolo. My first diatonic was a Blues Harp. It ripped up my lips and that kept me from practicing, so I eventually gave up. A few years later my asthma was giving me problems and I decided to give harmonica another try. I got a set of Piedmonts. Not great harmonicas by any stretch of the imagination (and the gold paint wears off after a couple days, but until it does it tastes horrible), but for $25 I had 7 cheap harps, so the chances that all of them were broken was pretty low. The difference though, when I got my first Special 20 was like night and day. I haven't tried the Chicago Blues Harp. I saw them on Rockin Rons once. I'm always looking for a cheap harp that I could give away to kids, but in my opinion, no brand should be using nickel plated covers. I know it isn't an allergen for most people, but I also know a couple players who gave up harmonica for a period of several years because of constant mouth sores because they didn't realize their harp had nickel covers. My personal favorite OTB harp I've ever played was a Kongsheng Solist. Stable overblows on holes 4-6 (even with my mediocre OB technique) but I had to go and get the covers powder coated because I could only play them for 15 minutes before my lips would start to feel chapped.
For give-aways to kids, I've gone with the four hole key chain mini harps, get 'em on AliExpress for less than a dollar each, and they DO play (oh Susanna, for example). As to the "is it the harp" question, that was answered for me definitively in the 70's during my one and only harp lesson from Peter Madcat Ruth. He was doing this deep 2 hole bend that I couldn't do, and I told him, I think it's the harp (a Hohner Blues Harp, btw). He took my harp, looked at it suspiciously, looked at ME suspiciously, then decided neither of us were contagious (silly him), and proceeded to do the same deep two hole bend on MY harp. I was like, oh, well durn, guess I gots some learnin' to do.
I have a few of those! I have another Kay that’s similar but with a wood body…I agree with your opening statements for sure. You made it sound amazing Tim, but I agree💯with your thoughts here.
Thanks Pat - yeah, I'm on a whirlwind tour of really inexpensive harps at the moment - I worry about beginners picking them up, thinking "I'll get a more expensive one when I get better". Problem is, with some of these, it's really hard to actually get better (if you don't already know what you're doing). So, I'm gonna go with "beginners, at a minimum, should start with one of the four I listed in the description section". Meanwhile, I'm just having fun trying these things out. Cheers!
That argument about, "Is it me or the harmonica" is the reason I always tell people to get a good harmonica. We don't get it quite as much on MBH, but on /harmonica we get tons of people asking why they are having a hard time learning to bend. I'm happy to share what I know, but without being able to look at the harmonica to see if it's got problems all I can do is make an educated guess based on what I know about the quality control for the brand and model. If it's a Special 20, I can say it's probably you. If it's a Blues Band? Who knows.
The first harmonica I ever had was a cheap Blessing tremolo. My first diatonic was a Blues Harp. It ripped up my lips and that kept me from practicing, so I eventually gave up. A few years later my asthma was giving me problems and I decided to give harmonica another try. I got a set of Piedmonts. Not great harmonicas by any stretch of the imagination (and the gold paint wears off after a couple days, but until it does it tastes horrible), but for $25 I had 7 cheap harps, so the chances that all of them were broken was pretty low. The difference though, when I got my first Special 20 was like night and day.
I haven't tried the Chicago Blues Harp. I saw them on Rockin Rons once. I'm always looking for a cheap harp that I could give away to kids, but in my opinion, no brand should be using nickel plated covers. I know it isn't an allergen for most people, but I also know a couple players who gave up harmonica for a period of several years because of constant mouth sores because they didn't realize their harp had nickel covers. My personal favorite OTB harp I've ever played was a Kongsheng Solist. Stable overblows on holes 4-6 (even with my mediocre OB technique) but I had to go and get the covers powder coated because I could only play them for 15 minutes before my lips would start to feel chapped.
For give-aways to kids, I've gone with the four hole key chain mini harps, get 'em on AliExpress for less than a dollar each, and they DO play (oh Susanna, for example). As to the "is it the harp" question, that was answered for me definitively in the 70's during my one and only harp lesson from Peter Madcat Ruth. He was doing this deep 2 hole bend that I couldn't do, and I told him, I think it's the harp (a Hohner Blues Harp, btw). He took my harp, looked at it suspiciously, looked at ME suspiciously, then decided neither of us were contagious (silly him), and proceeded to do the same deep two hole bend on MY harp. I was like, oh, well durn, guess I gots some learnin' to do.
I have a few of those! I have another Kay that’s similar but with a wood body…I agree with your opening statements for sure. You made it sound amazing Tim, but I agree💯with your thoughts here.
Thanks Pat - yeah, I'm on a whirlwind tour of really inexpensive harps at the moment - I worry about beginners picking them up, thinking "I'll get a more expensive one when I get better". Problem is, with some of these, it's really hard to actually get better (if you don't already know what you're doing). So, I'm gonna go with "beginners, at a minimum, should start with one of the four I listed in the description section". Meanwhile, I'm just having fun trying these things out. Cheers!
Sorry Tim i submited to you that kind of tourcher. But seems. Like it was better than expected ?
It wasn't horrible, and I have a great time messing with these things!
All cheap harmonicas i bought sofar are just crap.
Overall garbage.