what are some famous players that i might watch on utube that prefere LO harps other than LO,im interested in blues players mainly. thanks
Last Edited by on Jul 02, 2010 1:10 PM
Junior Wells was an early endorser, but I don't know if he ever actively played them. Richard Hunter isn't strictly a blues player, but he plays them, including the special tunings ----------
Crescent City Harmonica Club Todd L Greene, Co-Founder
Their site doesn't seem to have a list. Bad News Brown plays Lee Oskars. He's hip hop, but his playing is very bluesy. I think he uses the minor tunings.
Heck, for awhile, not even Lee played them. I recall a spah convention a few years ago, Lee was on stage and in the middle of one song, Madcat yells out, HEY LEE, WHAT KIND OF HARPS ARE YOU PLAYING? He was using Marine Bands.
They do a good job of branding. When you watch someone play they are about the easiest harp to spot. All those hip hoppers are going to see Bad News Brown playing them and go down to there local shop looking for Lee Oskars. Unless maybe someone gets some other harps in his hands with another name plate.
Well, the good thing about Lee Oskars is that you can actually find them in the music stores in many keys, even the odd tunings and high and low tunings.
But what I've never understood is why Lee Oskar has tied up the U.S. market for over 25 years with one harp when TOMBO makes an entire line of harmonicas besides the Lee Oskar (aka Major Boy) model. Couldn't they have made a ton more money in the U.S.?
From what I understand, yes. (I may be wrong.) When I wanted to buy a TOMBO Ultimo, I had to purchase it from a shop outside of the U.S.
Last Edited by on Jul 02, 2010 5:34 PM
Perhaps not famous, but deserving of wider recognition: Dave Nevling, who will be on the bill with Adam, Rob Roy Parnell & Sonny Boy Terry @ SBT's Houston harpfest on July 31. IIRC, Dave retunes his LOs to the SP20/MB compromise tuning.
i recall a local Junior Wells festival gig that was rained out and he came over to a local club with some of his band and they sat in and played a set. I hung out with Junior for about an hour--very urban guy.
Anyway, he was carrying a set of Lee Oskars in a shoulder bag and had no other harps. The LOs were in their plastic cases that attach to one another and he had them attached to one another in his bag. He played them when he performed and showed them to us and actively talked them up when we were having a few drinks.
thanks guys ill have to check some of the guys out,Im wondering how a harp with equal tuning sounds when a old school blues players plays,if they still use a lot of chords or is it more notes playing.When i listen to Lee Oskar play blues it sounds really good but has a lot of notes in it.I was wondering if there were any good blues guys comping with LO harps.i think thats what im trying to say.LOL
Todd i was wondering the exact same question about Tombo cause i hear they make some nice harps other than the LO
7th Dave, that's my understanding of it, but I'm not sure where I came by that information, so I don't know how accurate it is. I actually really wanted to try a couple other Tombos. When I was first learning I knew more about piano layout than harmonica and I wanted to try one of their harps that's laid out that way.
Here's someone playing one!
And I'm not sure what to make of the description on the Tombo site:
"There are two problems on current Chromatic harmonicas. They are Slide and Air-valve. This new chromatic harmonica has no slide or air-valve. So it assures long life of usage. Also it's constructed to provide one tone per one hole, which makes it possible to produce big volume of sound and get faked on all tones."
I'm not sure I'm ready to get faked on all tones.
---------- Nate Facebook
Last Edited by on Jul 02, 2010 7:43 PM
