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Exotic Harps, Spare Parts, No Longer made Harps

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 4:18 pm
by DiatoniChromatic
I was gonna order a ChromaBender yesterday from your website but was dismayed to find it's no longer made. That's very disappointing bringing a harp on to the market and then dropping it. This also brings up a point that i'd like to get clear: With all the niche and exotic harps you're bringing on to the market are spares made for all these designs? Say my Asiabend harp, are reed plates available for that harp? I love all the new harps and the possibilities they bring however seeing harps being made obsolete because of parts not being available from manufacturers isn't good. This is a big reason i think many people are reluctant to buy niche harps and just stick with the standard diatonic or chromatic; they think that further down the line they're gonna be made obsolete. Interested in your thoughts on this. I really wanted that ChromaBender but seems as if it's not possible now.

Re: Exotic Harps, Spare Parts, No Longer made Harps

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 2:20 am
by DiatoniChromatic
Interesting that Brendan hasn't seen fit to answer this thread. That is kind of illuminating and tells me that my assumption on writing this thread may very well be correct and there is little to no back up for these niche harps if one fails. What happens if i need a new reed or reed plate for my Asiabend? Where do i get it without having to buy a whole new harp (provided of course that they're still in production. They may have been made obsolete). I don't see them on Brendan's site or anywhere else. What do i do? Junk the harp? I mean it's all well and good coming up with all these crazy ideas and designs but where is the service back up if it's needed? I think potential buyers need to bear this in mind before they go spending money on something that could be made obsolete like the Chromabender has been.

Re: Exotic Harps, Spare Parts, No Longer made Harps

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 2:06 pm
by Brendan
Sorry, this thread was just brought to my attention by David, my website manager. I wasn't trying to avoid the issue, just missed it is all! Don't worry, we have mechanisms in place.

Re. the ChromaBender: Gary Lehmann in San Diego is available to do repairs, including reed replacement.

For the Lucky 13 we have Gary plus the other three the guys on this page, who all have spare reeds:
http://www.brendan-power.com/lucky13.ph ... dRepairers

The AsiaBend is simply an Easttop 12-hole chromatic in a different tuning. They are widely available, and Gary and others can replace reeds using reedplates for a stock Easttop chrom bought from eBay at a low price. Therefore it's not necessary to keep special reeds or reedplates for it.

In addition we list all these excellent customisers and repairers, all of whom can do reed-replacement:
http://www.brendan-power.com/customisers.php#intro

My other 'crazy' harps as you call them use existing reedplates from popular brands and models, and can be fixed by any decent customiser. I'm always available to help them if they need special assistance.

Hope that answers your concerns. Of course the BEST solution is to learn to do harmonica repair and tweaking yourself. In my opinion, any serious harmonica player should have these skills - there is a lot of instructional material about these days on YouTube. If you teach yourself the skills, you could easily make a ChromaBender for yourself, in any key you like, from a standard chrom. I can help with that, if you want to do it.

Re: Exotic Harps, Spare Parts, No Longer made Harps

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:26 pm
by CrawfordEs
It wasn't my question but thanks for the answers!
Gary is a good guy and easy to deal with.
I get to tinker more than I get to play, but I enjoy it at least as much, and am better at tinkering. Making a chromabender out of an unused harp sounds like a fun project.

Re: Exotic Harps, Spare Parts, No Longer made Harps

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:08 pm
by DiatoniChromatic
Thanks Brendan appreciate the answer. I'm in the UK so Gary is not an option for me. I do work on all my own harps doing set up, embossing etc and have the tools where i can replace a standard reed that was riveted. The welded reeds are a problem because i believe you need a drill press to replace a welded reed. I don't have that at home, though i could probably get one. But for the odd reed replacement it doesn't make much sense, financially speaking. This is the thing with harps with welded reeds, they are not as user friendly as a Hohner or a Seydel with ordinary rivets IMO. I wonder about Suzuki going this way with the Manji. I have a few of those harps in different keys and if the reeds had been riveted instead of welded i think they would have been better. Why do you think they like going with welded reeds? Tone? Easier to build?

Re: Exotic Harps, Spare Parts, No Longer made Harps

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:42 pm
by Brendan
Easier and faster to assemble. You can replaced welded reeds without a drill press if you're careful with a regular drill. Reeds can even be attached with Superglue if you don't like drills and screws.