So I'm jamming on a brand-new, unmodified, completely stock Marine Band. I'm wailing some stuff I might do for HPC3, and I'm really starting to get into it. I start my typical hand flapping, and all of a sudden, I feel a pain in my right middle finger. I look down and there is blood on this finger. "What the F*ck?" I say to myself. Then I realize: My harmonica has just cut me. I paid a little less for this particular harp than the going rate for a Marine Band (which is around $30), but this is a standard modern Hohner Marine Band harmonica. This harp, the Hohner Marine Band, is a PROFESSIONAL instrument, yet it has coverplate edges that are sharp enough to cut you. I'm asking you, what other professional-level instrument would be so carelessly constructed as to pose such a danger to the musician playing it? Us harp players, we don't get NO respect...
Here is a photo (after cleaning the wound up up a bit) to show you just where on the harp it was so sharp. Is it me, or is this a place where it should be easily predictable that folks are going to touch it with their hands?
Okay, so it's a fairly minor wound. I didn't get my finger cut of or anything. But still... I really don't think a professional level instrument should be cutting you as you play it in a normal, non-extreme fashion.... Damn you Hohner! Damn yooooooooouuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!! ---------- ------------------ The magnificent YouTube channel of the internet user known as "isaacullah"
Last Edited by on Jan 14, 2010 6:54 PM
i seen some one hit them self in the forehead with a drum stick when he was drunk. so those can be pretty dangerous. he bled too. string instruments can hurt if a string snaps. an dont forget about how dangerous a piano can be.
Ouch! I don't know. Probably only the $30 dollar ones. :) Actually, I think I cut my finger once on a baritone, or rather I pinched my finger adjusting a stuck tuning valve.
The cover plate looks awfully far back on that. Was it the corner of the cover plate? Or was it part of the fold in front? The fold in front gets my lips sometimes on cheaper harps. I was just looking at an SP20 and a Blues Band. They seem to have the same shape, but the SP20 uses a heavier gauge metal which has smoother corners, maybe just because the edge is thicker.
Actually, I've spent some time tying to get the front lip on my harps to come down parallel to the front of the harp. When I don't get it right it can cut me up a bit. (When I get it right I think you get a better seal with your lips.)
some marine bands i get the reedplates stick out way too far. my F harp sticks out terribly far an can be very bad on my lips, where my Bb is smooth as butter. quality control at its finest. ----------
It was the upper right back corner of the coverplate, where it curves from upright to the horizontal. This is the one part of the coverplate where the edge is exposed. The majority of the back is folded down (the infamous "lip" of Marine Band cover plates), but the back corners are not. And apparently they are razor sharp.
Regardiong sharp edges...one time I bought a laundry umbrella style clothesline. On the box there was an AMerican flag and the bold print words "Proudly made in America!"
Directly below it in fine print "caution sharp edges"
They weren't kidding either...razor sharp....and around $30 several years ago coincidentally...LOL.
When I was a kid, I couldn't do a glissando on my piano without leaving blood on the keys. Still, I don't think an MB should cut you like that with normal use. ---------- YouTube SlimHarpMick
Just a quick update for everyone... I think my finger will be fine, and that I will it will not turn gangrenous, and it is likely I will not have to amputate after all. I believe that this due to the fact that I applied a tourniquet immediately, and applied a poultice of comfrey root extract and aloe vera as I slept. Over night I captured some natural antibiotic fungus in an incubator dish of jello, and I ate it on my toast this morning. I think that that should stave off any future infection. I'm also going to have a witch doctor make a ritual sacrifice of a chicken in my finger's honor.
In the future I will be purchasing a pair of Kevlar gloves to wear when ever I decide to play Hohner Marine Bands.
Haha...if that surefire cure doesn't work, I MAY/MAY NOT know someone who has some moonshine from the North Georgia mountains that'll do the trick. He/She may/may not bring said moonshine to the Hill Country shindig as well, if you attended and if you're not dead from your wounds!
Last Edited by on Jan 15, 2010 9:54 AM
Some cheapo guitars can cut you if the fret work was poorly done and also if there are burrs happening on the strings so harmonicas are not alone in this respect, and this has happened to me on guitar. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I knew a guy who had done some studio time back in the 60's a mixer-man. He told me that he was on his way into the doors of the studio once when a cymbal fell over on the stand onto bare concrete sidewalk outside. It hit directly on edge. It was the old lathe spun style of construction and it exploded. He described it as blowing apart as it "unraveled" like a coiled spring. Some portion of the brass flatwire somehow cut some guy so bad they thought he'd lose his finger.
Yes, I have a team of highly litigious attorneys who have been working around the clock since the "incident". My goal is to get at least 51% of Hohner's "assets" and thus take control of the company. I will then direct their R&D department to begin a series of experiments to produce coverplates with slightlyless sharp edges. hopefully in 10 or 15 years, they might start to get some positive results, and then we an slowly start to phase over the production line to this new way of manufacturing coverplates. I would expect that consumers could start seeing "safe" harmonicas in about 20 to 25 years.
