Made myself a B-Thing tuning last night in the key of A, which is really cool sounding in a lower key like this.
I'm thinking about making a whole set of these, not necessarily for playing solos, but for accompaniment chugging and such, which I end up doing a lot of in studio sessions.
I've found that the Hot Metal harps are great for making alternate tunings. They're cheap, but decent. The reeds are not ideal for overblows, but I usually don't use overblows when using alternate tunings.
Hi Todd. I made myself a B thing a while back and had been thinking about making another in a lower keyed harp. I thought i might get some reed rattle on the draw 1 on an A harp. Have you found that to be a problem? ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/#!/alprice
Yes, I can get them - I just had to adjust/widen the gapping on both the blow and draw reeds. Once it's adjusted correctly, it bends just as easily as on the higher keys.
I'm thinking about getting some Big Rivers to turn into B-Things as well. I can really see them becoming useful for chordal accompaniment playing.
Thanks Todd! I had forgotten about this tuning until you mentioned it, but I remember wanting to check it out... I still have a couple of cheap-o Johnson Blues Kings lying around, so I might make one from one of those. I really like the idea of having those 6 half-tones available in the one draw! It sounds wild when you hear someone bending through all of those in one fluid motion! ---------- == I S A A C ==
Tom, it's a tuning that Carlos Del Junco made popular. Basically, you tune the 1 draw note up a step and a half, and tune the 1 blow note down a whole step, resulting in these nice sounding 7 chords on the blow and draw. In addition, the 7 draw note is tuned down a half-step. Here's a video of Carlos using it on the song, "B-Thing" which uses a B-Thing tuned E harp:
