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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
2 new tunings with a Bb-Harp and a C-Harp !
2 new tunings with a Bb-Harp and a C-Harp !
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Kniri
13 posts
Apr 15, 2012
11:40 AM
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2 new tunings with a Bb-Harp and a C-Harp !
Take the blow-side of a C-Harp and take it on the draw-side of a Bb-Harp
and you become a new tuning:
Blow: Bb, D, F, Bb, D, F, Bb, D, F, Bb
Draw: C, E, G, C, E, G, C, E, G, C
Bending on all 10 holes
Take the draw-side of the Bb-Harp and take it on the blow-side of the C-Harp
and you become a new tuning:
Blow: C, F, A, C, Eb G, A, C, Eb, G
Draw: D, G, B, D, F, A, B, D, F, A
Bending on all 10 holes
Does somebody know the names of the tunings ?
Last Edited by on Apr 15, 2012 12:06 PM
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Brendan Power
209 posts
Apr 15, 2012
12:46 PM
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Thanks for the reminder about this trick Kniri. I've used it quite often because it's a handy thing to do with 10 hole Richter harps if you want to convert them to tunings with all blows lower than all draws (as are most of my own tunings).
It saves having to do radical retunes in the top octave (normally the top 4 blows have to be lowered a lot!).
It works well on harps with moulded plastic combs (like the Hohner Special 20, Suzuki Harpmaster, Lee Oskar etc), because the reedplates have no grooves at the front. For traditional sandwich-style harps the groove would now be on the inside and lead to air loss.
The tunings that naturally happen are close to being useful but some notes are not great. However, if you change a few reeds a little bit it's easy to get some really useful tunings. Here are some examples:
Bb and C BLOW PLATES (ORIGINAL)
Blow: Bb, D, F, Bb, D, F, Bb, D, F, Bb
Draw: C, E, G, C, E, G, C, E, G, C
Change to EXTENDED RICHTER
Blow: Bb, D, F, Bb, D, F, Bb, D, F, Bb
Draw: C, F, A, C, F, A, C, F, A, C
Change to EXTENDED PADDY RICHTER
Blow: Bb, D, G, Bb, D, G, Bb, D, G, Bb
Draw: C, F, A, C, F, A, C, F, A, C
Bb and C DRAW PLATES (ORIGINAL)
Blow: C, F, A, C, Eb G, A, C, Eb, G
Draw: D, G, B, D, F, A, B, D, F, A
Change to PADDY SOLO (my choice for Irish Music)
Blow: C, E, A, C, E, G, C, C, E, G
Draw: D, G, B, D, F, A, B, D, F, A
Change to POWER REGULAR-BREATH I used this for a long time in the 1980s, with variations (eg. hole 3 blow up to A):
Blow: C, E, G, C, E, G, A, C, E, G
Draw: D, G, B, D, F#, A, B, D, F#, A
Lots of other useful tunings can be made more easily from 10 hole Richter harps by doing this nifty reedplate switch. It's fun and useful :-)
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Kniri
14 posts
Apr 15, 2012
2:33 PM
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Thanks for the tips Brendan.
I like your Powerbender!
Have you try my 221-tuning?
Kniri 221
G/B/D/F/A/C/Eb/G/Bb/Db BLOW
A/C/E/G/Bb/D/F/Ab/C/Eb DRAW
Regards, Kniri
Last Edited by on Apr 16, 2012 12:05 PM
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isaacullah
1918 posts
Apr 15, 2012
3:31 PM
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Wow! Thanks to both of you! This is really opening my mind up to new ways to retune... It soooo simple, yet I had never thought of it! The tuning that I am now using a lot is essential that Extended Paddy Richter (I've been calling it the "Modern Pentatonic" tuning), but without the top end retuned because it's too damn hard to do it from a normal Richter harp... Now I see that by using TWO harps, I could do it much more easily!
BTW, I imagine you could fill in the "groove" in the reedplates of sandwich style harps with some kind of epoxy, and then you could do this trick with Marine Bands, etc.
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Roverharp
29 posts
Apr 15, 2012
11:50 PM
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Using a Blow plate as a Draw plate works because the reeds are now on the outside of the chambers. They are however riveted at the end opposite regular Draw plate reeds. Any differences in playability?
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Kniri
15 posts
Apr 16, 2012
12:00 PM
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I like the tunings , because they have bendings on all holes,
and it`s good for a mexican touch (Tequila):-)
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Brendan Power
211 posts
Apr 16, 2012
6:03 PM
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@ Roverharp: No discernable difference that I can feel or hear.
Hohner had draw and blow reeds reversed from their current directions on older 64 chromatics, and Hering has both draw and blow reeds facing to the rear on their chroms. Most tremolo harps have rear facing blows and draws.
So it's not unusual, and nothing to worry about.
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ElkRiverHarmonicas
872 posts
Apr 17, 2012
2:20 PM
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Vermona/Seydel used to make diatonics with the blow reeds upside down and stuff. There's no reason you can't do different stuff if you want. I should also mention that before the 1920s, harmonicas didn't have the reedplate grooves. You can get by without them. Just bend down the coverplates a little bit so they don't ride up so high. I've also seen people take a piece of micropore tape and have the coverplate lip sit on that. Both work.
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David
Elk River Harmonicas
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