Diggsblues
947 posts
Aug 24, 2011
12:35 PM
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I was told by a legendary tech at SPAH that I would be better off making my own country tuned harps because hohner's was old
stock.
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Emile "Diggs" D'Amico a Legend In His Own Mind
How you doin'
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HawkeyeKane
75 posts
Aug 24, 2011
12:36 PM
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I usually use Folkmasters for country stuff.
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Hawkeye Kane
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clyde
130 posts
Aug 24, 2011
1:28 PM
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hawkeye,
do you retune them?
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HawkeyeKane
80 posts
Aug 24, 2011
1:32 PM
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Nope. Just the natural tinny sound of them gets the job done for me.
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Hawkeye Kane
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toddlgreene
3259 posts
Aug 24, 2011
1:34 PM
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isn't it just a 5 draw a 1/2 step lower or something to that effect?
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Todd L. Greene
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HawkeyeKane
81 posts
Aug 24, 2011
1:37 PM
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No idea. I'm not into retuning myself. I need to look into it and learn, but life seldom allows me to devote time to such things unfortunately. lol
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Hawkeye Kane
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clyde
132 posts
Aug 24, 2011
1:39 PM
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up a 1/2 step
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toddlgreene
3260 posts
Aug 24, 2011
1:45 PM
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Ah, thanks clyde...but just that one reed? Seems simple enough.
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Todd L. Greene
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Rick Shanks
73 posts
Aug 24, 2011
3:11 PM
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If you take the B3 up a whole step, theD5 and the D9up a half step on a major richter tuned harp, you get to what Lee Oskar calls Melody Maker tuning.
Lee Oskar's are available this way in five keys. I have a complete (second) set tuned this way for melody playing...
It isn't hard to do. (You get the ionian mode in second position) which gives greater/more familiar expression when playing non blues tunes.
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KiwiRick
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WinslowYerxa
46 posts
Aug 24, 2011
3:53 PM
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It's Draw 5 UP one semitone (not down, which would make it eh same note as Blow 5).
With the right tools it takes about 2 minutes to accomplish (shim under the reed, sanding want applied to the top surface of the reed at the tip).
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WinslowYerxa
47 posts
Aug 24, 2011
3:55 PM
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I'm wondering why Hohner old stock would be bad? Some players prefer the pre-2005 reed mensurs. True, there were some rappy periods in the 1980s, but I'm assuming the stock isn't that ancient.
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Todd Parrott
658 posts
Aug 24, 2011
8:13 PM
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I bought a Special 20 in B back in the mid-90's with the 5 draw AND the 9 draw tuned up a half-step. I still have it.
These days I just tune my own harps, and the country tuning is very useful for playing certain melodies. Just because you can hit the 5 overblow doesn't mean that it always sounds best. Sometimes the country tuning does the trick and just sounds prettier.
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Gnarly
82 posts
Aug 25, 2011
12:33 AM
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And don't forget you can always bend that note down to get the unmodified note.
I just ordered three SP20s from Rockin' Ron, they should be here tomorrow--interested to see what the latest quality is--I am sure he has fresh stock of the standard tuned SP20s.
I retuned three harps to complete a set of my New World tuning--here is a video of Sleighride using three of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zQnxxYRAQw
This just in--harps arrived, and they play great out of the box. Not that they can't be improved, but all notes sound clear (I didn't try to OB anything, or even bend for that matter) and it's airtight and in tune. Guess it's a good time to buy new stock.
Last Edited by on Aug 25, 2011 2:30 PM
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barbequebob
1718 posts
Aug 25, 2011
9:50 AM
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Before they were making them as a stock item in to mid 80's, all you had to do was just retune 5 draw2 1/2 step sharp, and they were usually called Major 7th harps back then. It's no big deal. If you were to to tune them to JI, that 5 draw would be tuned to 14 cents flat. On a CT harp, only the 5 draw is tuned 1/2 step sharp, and finding one that has both 5 & 9 drawtuned that way is unusual, and that was the way the Huang Jazz harp was tuned.
CT harps are great for playing 2nd more like 1st for ballads, and is a useful tuning for jazz as well, and for playing doowop tunes doing harmony lines.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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