Chris Michalek is one of my favorite contemporary harp players--he plays the instrument in a lot on nontraditional ways (jazz, fusion, funk, etc.). Check out his band, The Buddha's Groove, on their MySpace site:

[www.myspace.com]

Just posted an interview with him on the blog.

dfwhoot.blogspot.com

He's also good at customizing/tweaking harmonicas.

One of the best! I'm working on that myself, but I'm nowhere near being good enough to start charging for it.

How long have you been doing it? How many harps did you wreck? Are you still wrecking harps?

I just ordered Pupert Oyslers DVD yesterday.

Early on, I got a set of Hohner Piedmont Blues harps. Cheapies. I also found three used harps at some pawns shop....also pretty cheap. I've done all of my experimenting on those.

I am extremely patient, and when I want to learn something I'm passionate about, I read, and read, and browse and browse. Once I have read many different sources on ho to do something, I go and try it.

Because of this, I haven't done much wrecking. One of the pawn shop ones broke a reed from my tuning it down. Other than that, I haven't wrecked any. My peidmonts are all still playable (and some are playable that were not playable to begin with).

There were some cases where I made a harp sound awful. In many cases, made them to where many reeds would not sound. None of it was irreversible damage though. In those cases, I was able to get the harp back to life.

chris is good, really relly good! never herd of him before. like his style, different.

and customizing is a bit fiddly gene, i do it to ever harp, but unlike grillslinger i have zero patience and have detroyed many (mostly marine bands), i always go to far. But now im consistant and what i do makes then sound neater and play sweeter.

Chris is good, but I've got a couple of issues with him...

He's a member at another site with a forum, and he comes across a a pompous, self-important prick. He's like Simon Cowell - he knows what he's talking about, and he's usually right, but his criticisms are never constructive, and he's mean-spririted, and will take every opportunity to tell someone they are awful because they don't meet his standards. A quote from him:

"In my mind Fred[rick Yonnet] and Christelle [Berthon] are in the same class of harmonica player. They are harmonica players with pretty good technique who do not have it together musically. They are more harmonica player than musician and certainly wouldn't be classified as artists. How do I qualify that? Put them on a stage and see if they can play. Yonnet would ruin a song with his wanking and other worldly antics... christelle would fold like a sheet. She can't handle pressure, ambiguity and doesn't have the skills to improvise with a real band. In the end, neither of them add to a song."

I also caught a video of him (maybe on YouTube? I'll try to track it down) where he picked up the innards of a harp - comb and reeds - and stated that it was someone's (not his) that he was customizing. Then he proceeded to play it. Perhaps it's OK with the owner, but not if it were mine. Thanks, but my harps are for my mouth only. I suppose since I enjoy playing smoochies with my wife I wouldn't be skeeved if she picked one up and played, but that's it.

Link: [www.youtube.com]

But he is good, and he knows a thing or two or three, so I'll listen to him - but not with the same enjoyment as when I listen to Richard Hunter.



Post Edited (2009-05-07 02:21:48)

Chris lacks a social filter. His forwardness is what most of us need to hear in order to improve.

As far as playing the harp in that video...it's amazing that he can play that well on a harp with no coverplates.

Also, there is NO way to customize a harp without playing it. You have to check intonation, response, etc. There is no other way to check.

Customizers play the harps, then clean and disinfect them thoroughly, usually using ustrasonic baths.

I keep hearing that Chris is a an OK guy in person. But yes, on the forums he does seem extremely arogant. If something isn't done the way he would do it, "it sucks."

Where can one obtain one of those "social filters", I believe mine may also be missing. Are they one size fits all? Can I still keep my attitude? How about used, do they have to be sanitized first?

CM has stated himself he lacks a filter. (Does he really? Or could that be a convenient excuse for his behavior? It doesn't matter - he undoubtedly doesn't care what I think of him.) However he wants to explain himself, it's not going to change my opinion of him. How he sees himself, and my opinion of him can coexist.

We can go fishing, and you can hand me a fish you just caught, and I may think it's a wet, stinky fish. You can tell me it's wet because it just came out of the water, and you can explain until you are blue in the face why you don't think it stinks. But to me, it's still a wet, stinky fish.

"...His forwardness is what most of us need to hear in order to improve...."

We need honest critism, but we don't need it given in such a way that it is offensive and crushes our ego. I have seen both pragmatic and offensive from Chris.

"Lacking a social filter" is a reason for bad behaviour; not an excuse that makes it OK.

I've seen videos where he is giving instruction in his home, and in that setting he seemed to be a decent guy. I guess he knows nobody can perform dental work on him over the internet.



Post Edited (2009-05-07 03:02:56)

Almost forgot: the playing of someone's harp while customizing is not necessary. There are bellows he should be using to check his work.

And one more note about a "lack of filter". Not true. He has a brain; he's an intelligent man; he has a filter.

I agree with a lot of what you say. He crosses the line a lot.

Bellows can check if a harp is in tune. They aren't going to check how responsive a harp is to bends or if a harp can overblow.

I saw the video of him in person and you're right, he acts very different there than he does online.

Here's an example. This one has 6 parts. There's another one where he playfully beats that guy with the guitar (who is also taking harmonica lessons) with a monkey's paw to scold him for something.