Lee Oskar, you dog!

I just received a few long awaited harmonicas in the mail.  In all honesty I needed to buy harmonicas a few months ago but let it slide.  Not unlike changing strings harmonicas have a life span of a about a year for me (strings about a month).  Obviously if you play it more or harder it would need to be changed more frequently.  I've also heard dipping your harp in water will get it to sound nice if you do it right before you play, but the downside is that it may lessen the lifespan.  I've seen Neil Young do this in his MTV Unplugged but don't make a habit of it myself.  

I'm not a huge harmonica guru. In fact that tidbit about the water just exhausted my knowledge of harp playing!  I play folk harp with a diatonic harmonica around my neck.  I'm also about to get a lesson I deserved a while ago when I should have ordered these harmonicas:

In addition to a few harps (C, G, D, A) I also replaced a ten year old neck rack with the Lee Oscar rack that I've seen repeatedly get 4 or 5 stars from online shoppers.  I always played this old one-size-fits-all rack that I must have gotten from one of the guys in my first band.  I'm glad it lasted 10 years but my new one makes it look and feel like scrap metal.  

The only problem is that this rack has a different design and a new feel resting on my neck.  I just put it on, and I feel like I don't know how to play harmonica anymore.  It's going to be a while before I'm comfortable playing harmonica with this thing.  I'm thinking, "can I show up at my next gig with just the new one?"  I'm pretty sure the old neck rack deserves a comfortable retirement, but maybe this switch was more than I bargained for.