does anyone know of a cheap harp tuned like the melody maker? id like to try and see if that tuning would work better for my application. is there a harp tuned like a chromatic with the slide out. the hohner chromatic i borrowed takes a lot of air an is more difficult to bend. has anyone tried cutting reed plates and soldering them back togather to get a custom tune
Re-tuning a harp reed by a step or less is not that hard. I slide a business card under the reed and remove material from near the end of the reed with a jewelers file or sandpaper to raise the pitch. You can lower the pitch by removing material near the root of the reed but I usually add either Blue Tac or solder at the tip to lower the pitch.
Last Edited by STME58 on Mar 02, 2015 9:15 AM
does anyone know of a cheap harp tuned like a melody maker? i would like to see if it would work for my application. does anyone know of a harp tuned like a chromatic with the slide out? the hohner chromatic i tried seems to take a lot of air and i cant bend it. has anyone tried cutting reed plates and soldering them togather to get a custom tune? thanksdDdCm
Lee Oskars @ $38 are one of the best deals in harps.
I think (I might be mistaken) you are looking for "SOLO" tuning. Seydel has it on several models and Hohner has it on a 364 Marine band, and probably others.
Cutting reed plates? I can't say it's never been done or that it is impossible, but by the time most of us could develop the skill to do it, we could easily have become proficient at interchanging reeds 10x over.
No, I don't know of a cheap MM tuned harp. Yes, you can get Solo tuned harps which are like a chromatic with the slide out. Yes, Brendan Power used to cut reed plates and recombine them to make his own custom tunings.
Brendan likes 11 hole harmonicas--so he had to cut 'em up. You can buy cheap harps and you can retune harps but if you do both you have invested in less desireable goods-- sort of throwing good money after bad. I never thought cheap harps were a good idea, and now that I do repairs for Suzuki (and others) I belief less in the idea of "penny wise, pound foolish". Tell you what, I'll sell you a (used) Melody Maker and Solo tuned harmonica, and if you don't like it, I will refund your money. I realize that this is not the for sale page, but I do have some extra harmonicas (they don't all fit in my mouth) and want to get the word out on alternate tunings. I bet you can find me if you look hard enough LOL
I haven't been using this tuning, of course, but it would be perfectly useful for someone who wants a diatonic harmonica with chromatic capabilities and nice chords--hey, that's me!
Anyway, this is from a few years back, before Brendan convinced me not to refer to the IV6/V6 as "Magic Bop", a name Magic Dick used when trying to patent this tuning (along with some others).
If you like the MM tuning then sooner or later you will need to start making your own as Lee Oskar offers only a limited range. Alternatively Seydel will make specials for you but they cost for the extra work. I tune & retune lots of my own harps to MM or Major X or PR tuning and it is a simple easy job providing you take your time & use a good tool kit eg Lee Oskar kit. I take ca 15 mins to make an MM & use Hohner Sp20s or Suzuki Harpmasters & Bluesmasters. Have had only one failure and it was a dud Manji OOTB that I put aside and later tried to change to MM tuning. It was an impossible task as the entire top plate had misaligned reeds unplayable & unfixable. In Oz the Harpmasters are cheap but I think really nice harps which are easy to work on. ---------- HARPOLDIE’S YOUTUBE
