This is AC Blue playing his diminished-tuned diatonic harp at Ziggies Sunday Blues Jam in Denver. AC can play any key using a single 10-hole harp.
He is playing through his EV RE-10 mic into my 1971 Fender Champ amp. The Champ has been modified for harp by Bruce Collins of Mission Amps in Denver.
My band hosts this jam every other week. Last night was WAY fun... lots of talented jammers and great fans in spite of some really crappy weather. The joint was jumpin'.
This is not a dis on AC, but the timbre and intonation of what he is playing isn't any less out sounding than hearing a solid overblow player. Check out :12, :17, and :36 roughly.
I liberally use overblows, so I am not saying that what he is doing is "wrong" by any stretch or even passing judgement on the musicality. In fact, I applaud what he is doing. I am simply stating that I hear things standing out the same if not more so than when a player tries the same sort of lines using overbends. So at risk of getting flamed and reopening an old topic, I don't see this as more musical or "correct" than overblowing in terms of timbre, intonation, or musicality. Bends don't sound like nonbends and blow notes don't sound the same as draw notes, etc.
So just to be ultra clear - I am NOT discrediting this tuning or anything else, I am just using my ears to specifically refute previous claims of the ability of this tuning to eliminate some of the sonic differences between overblowing and other techniques base off of what I heard in that clip. ---------- Mike Fugazzi vocals/harmonica MySpace YouTube Twitter Facebook Album Ordering
On another note, I am jonesin' for a RE 10. One thing that stand out here, mods aside, is that an RE 10 has much more of that high end attack going on than other dynamic mics. For instance, a SM 57 would sound bassier in comparison. The RE 10 doesn't sound as much like a dynamic mic as others I've tried. ---------- Mike Fugazzi vocals/harmonica MySpace YouTube Twitter Facebook Album Ordering
It's an interesting tuning, but I guess when you're accustomed to the 'ordinary' tunings most of us use, it kinda grabs the ears. It doesn't sound bad;but it would have to grow on me. Yes, AC is a good player, that's for sure! I'd like to have a dminished harp to fool around with.
Mike-I recently got an ev631b-it's smaller than the RE10, with slightly more bass. I scored one on ebay for 20 bucks! Good luck finding an re10 for under 100 anymore. The 631 is awesome sounding, and super light. Plus, the dual-z ones are easy to make hi-z, so I don't need the transformer. ---------- Todd L Greene. V.P.
Last Edited by on Mar 15, 2010 1:28 PM
First of all, I am jealous. There is another EV mic that is supposed to be near identical to the RE 10. I had one but don't remember the name.
But that's my point about grabbing your ears...how is that different than obing? Further, other than a harp player, how many people can tell if one is obing or using a different tuning? ---------- Mike Fugazzi vocals/harmonica MySpace YouTube Twitter Facebook Album Ordering
Well, the reason overblows/overdraws are played at all is to access more notes to complete the chromatic scale. They only stand out during ob/od(most of the time)becuase of the timbre, or perhaps it's slighty sharper or flatter than intended. Some of that hit me with the diminished. I'm not sure if it's straight bends/draws or if he's ob/oding as well, but you see what I mean.
Again, don't wanna nitpick a live, probably unrehearsed solo. It sounded impressive overall, and has turned me on to the tuning, and AC's playing as well. ---------- Todd L Greene. V.P.
Some nice runs, from 16s to 30s on the first video was superb. Some questionable intonation on other parts.
But well done AC Blue.
I thought about trying one of these harps,for blues, but after hearing it I think it would require a radical re-thinking of my playing and a LOT of practise.
Brendan Powers plays some ace hiddly diddly music on these.
It's great to hear such good feedbacks - thanks. I personally thought my playing was full of intonation issues. It proves the point of how helpful it is to record yourself than listen back and (hopefully) improve your playing. I'm planning to do just that :).
One comment I need to reply on - just to clear up an important note about diminished tuning:
"Very limited expressivness available for blues-only three patterns you can play in diminshed tuning."
That is not true. Since all notes are available on the harp with a regular half bends the tuning is not limited to blues-only patterns. You can just as easily play folk, classical or whatever else style. I half valve my harmonica which allows expressive bends on the blow notes. You can bend each of the draw notes. So in my opinion this tuning is very expressive.
Now I'm not saying that diminished is the only way to play harmonica. I love it and I love the fact that it is playable in all keys. In trying to get better at it I - for the time being - stopped using other harps at my gigs (still practice on them at home, though). It's been a huge challenge but I am having fun with it.
Last Edited by on Mar 15, 2010 3:47 PM
I am not defensive at all, and wasn't in my previous posts on this thread.
While it is true that obs aren't needed with this tuning, it has many of the same characteristics sonically. I don't see the relevance in whether it was a rehearsed song or not.
Regarding the half step bends, there are just as many issues with timbre and intonation as with any bend. Some of the notes in that layout need to be hit exactly dead on 100% of the time to sound good...maybe even more often than with a traditional tuning. These notes may even be root notes that really need to be stable. You can't be as vague with your pitch as when bending from 2nd position over a blues. In fact, I would be willing to wager that most blues players hit their bends out of tune either on purpose or because, with rare exception, do they have to be as spot on as with this sort of tuning. Hitting half step bends on pitch is extremely difficult for a lot of players.
I feel bad because I am not ragging on the tuning or its relevance. In fact, I think its cool and love the valving piece for its added expression. I am just really surprised that you, Rick, can be so critical with overbends and then think this is so amazing. Especially when this tuning requires more work than learning to overblow and sonically offers near identical sounds.
I also see the value in one harp for all keys, but would stress that I haven't heard an instance of that being as sonically pleasing, to me, as carefully picking a harp key specific to an idea. ---------- Mike Fugazzi vocals/harmonica MySpace YouTube Twitter Facebook Album Ordering
Sorry, Mike. I'm not going to take the bait and re-open the argument about overblows.
The point of this post is that AC Blue is doing something new and interesting, and I think he sounds great.
I will note, however, that AC uses half-step draw bends to achieve what OBers do with blow notes. I think draw notes inherently have better timbre. That is why cross-harp is so popular.
That being said... I saw Jason Ricci at a club in Denver last week, and his overblows were sensational. I was sitting with good harp players who could not really tell which notes were OBs because we could not really say what position he was playing! It was so smooth and lovely as to be uncanny. I am amazed at the OB skill of players like Jason and Adam.
