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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Johnson Blues King vs Piedmont Blues
Johnson Blues King vs Piedmont Blues
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residenthooligan
4 posts
Feb 07, 2009
9:28 AM
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Just thought I would give my impressions on these cheap harmonicas. The Johnson's are availabe in all 12 keys for $3-$4 a piece. The Hohner's are available in a 6 key set which includes a case and runs about $20. I got my first harp back in Sept, an MB Special 20. I damaged this and moved on to a Lee Oskar. I like them both and think they both play very nicely.
As for the Piedmont's they don't sound very good, and are a little quiet due to the plastic covers, They do leak, but they play fine and I have no trouble hitting most of the bends and overblows.
The Johnson's are difficult to play and sound very shrill and tinny. I will try to play them a bit more and see if they break in and play a little better. I bought six of them from coast2coastmusic in various keys and I had to open every single one up and tighten the plates up. The A has a really flat 3 draw so it is unplayable. These are by far the worst harps I've ever played.
The Johnson's seem to be made with much better quality materials than the Piedmont's. They have metal plates, reed plates are much thicker and heavier, however they leak much worse than the Piedmont's and I have trouble hitting all the bends.
That being said, I swapped the Hohner's plastic cover plates for the Johnson's chrome ones and this did improve the sound of the Hohner. So that's a $6 harp and 15 minutes of my time.
For those just starting out or those who just want to practice, the Piedmont's are going to be OK, but I would suggest getting at least one decent harp so you know the tone SHOULD sound.
Last Edited by on Feb 07, 2009 9:44 AM
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isaacullah
36 posts
Feb 07, 2009
9:49 AM
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I would tell you that I bought the johnsons way back when, and had the same thoughts as you. Recently I've started teaching myself how to set up / customize harps, and I started on those Johnsons becasue they were cheap and I never played them. I have to say that once you've embossed the reed slots(A LOT!), changed the reed profile/curvature, re-gapped, and made sure the reedplates are flat (all of them were slightly warped), they sound and play GREAT! After these few modifications, the harps are WAY more airtight, they bend like a breeze, and the tone has improved. I should also say that I modify the coverplates in two ways: 1) I take a pair of pliers and open up the backs by folding under the lip of metal that hangs down (akin to "prewarifying" a marine band ala Dave Payne). and 2) I slim down the front profile (where your lips meet the harp) by gently pulling on the front of the coverplates, thereby making the harp thinner in the front, enabling a better emboucher... I also used some of these Johnsons for alternate tuning experimentation, especially when the Johnson was a duplicate key to one of my better harps. I mainly followed instructions from Steve Baker's Harp Handbook, and Pat Missin's website, and now I have a couple of Country Tuned, a Paddy Richter, a Dorian Minor, a Spanish tuned, and natural minor tuned harps.
Pretty cool for 3 dollar harps!
Isaac
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The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
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