Hi, I have a question about "brightness" vs "mutedness" sound in certain keys.
I first bought a SP20 in C. I really like that harmonica, it has a brash, bright sound, and is EXTREMELY easy to bend.
I just got a Suzuki Harpmaster in A and immediately noticed that it was much more muted sounding and not nearly as easy to bend as the SP20.
My question is: is it mostly the brand/type of harmonica that's contributing to the bright/muddy sound difference or are certain keys, like C just naturally more bright sounding than others like A?
Mostly key but a bit brand. An A harp is lower in pitch and takes a steadier force of breath to play than a C. As for comparing sp20 to a harpmaster: Not much difference, if any it's the harpmaster that is described as brighter.
LOW D harp second pos
F harp second pos (more than a octave higher in pitch)
They play as different instruments and you need to work with them such and not 'force' them.
Keep at it!
And check out all threads on how to gap reeds, too. ---------- Pistolkatt - Pistolkatts youtube
Last Edited by Pistolcat on Jun 11, 2013 2:40 AM
It's very hard to compare across keys - C sounds brighter simply because it is 1.5 semitones higher than A.
There are many things that affect brightness - the more volume under the cover plates and the more area that is enclosed, the more the higher overtones are damped out.
Comb height is another - the smaller the volume of the holes, the brighter and more responsive the harp is.
I imagine reed length (long, narrow slots vs. short, wide slots) makes a difference, but I haven't done any tests on this.
Then there are a number of important factors that are specific to the harmonica at hand (and not whether it is a Suzuki or Hohner or Seydel, etc.), like gapping height and profile. Embossing tends to brighten tone. Small air leaks between the cover- and reed plates, or between the reed plates and the comb, or between holes in the comb will add breathiness and damp out high overtones.
So, there is a number of things in the design of the harmonica that affect tone, but also a number of accidental things that also affect tone. These accidentals often overwhelm the design aspects of tone shaping, and one can easily buy a harmonica that is quite different in tone from what one could expect from just design alone or from other examples of the very same make and model one has bought previously.
Then there is the factor that is you. You can make any harp brighter or darker or louder or more muted with just your oral cavity and your hands.
Last year I sold off six Manjis cheap because I thought they were tonally all over the map. My gapping and profiling instincts, developed on Marine Bands, just didn't transfer to the Manji.
I did keep one, however, and two months ago, I gapped it. And lo, it is now a fantastic tone machine. I bought another, gapped it, and got the same result. I don't know what precisely I am doing differently, maybe I just became a better player, but somehow it works.
Moral of the story: Harps are individuals, just like you (Hm, I might be an individual, then again, I might be just like everyone else. Who knows, for sure?). By manipulating the factors under your control, you can get the tone you want from just about any harp.
You get what you pay for. The Harpmaster sells for much less than a SP20 and is a much less powerful harp. It is lacking in airtighness. I suggest that airtightness is the most significant factor in making the Harpmaster sound muted as well as harder to play/bend.
I'm not dissing the Harpmaster, I like it very much and play a few regularly. It just is a cheaper harp.
Brightness is affected by a lot of things. Again airtightness, slot tolerances and coverplates can affect brightness - and I am using brightness as a general term. Your definition of brightness may include volume and responsiveness. Or it may not. It depends on how specific/picky you want to be.
A harp can be bright but not loud. It can be responsive but not bright. It depends on a few factors.
For example, a SP20 played acoustically sounds tinny because the player doesn't hear some of the overtones as well as a harp with vented covers. Vented covers (for one thing) allow the player to hear certain overtones because they are "shooting out" of either side of the harp, right in your face. So this may be one reason why you say the SP20 is bright. The Harpmaster has vented covers. Played amped, all this is completely different because the overtones play out differently inside your tone cup.
Back to brightness, most of these things are variable. Out of the box, they are set up very differently due to being mass produced. You can improve airtightness of a Harpmaster. You can improve reed shape and slot tolerances and get it to respond even better than an out-of-the-box SP20. You can also get it to sound brighter. It's a lot of work because the raw materials have less potential (it's a cheaper harp) but my point is that it's not something that's set in stone.
Every harp has a range for each characteristic. If you compare different brands, you might find that most of the ranges can overlap. Out-of-the-box, each brand probably has a point within the range of each characteristic where the harp will be 75 per cent of the time.
One last thought - tuning can affect brightness. A harp tuned to ET at 443 will probably sound brighter than a harp tuned to compromise 442. Jimmy Gordon tuned his harps to ET 445, perfect reed profiles and highly embossed - extremely loud and bright! The first time I played one it blew my head off!
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Last Edited by arzajac on Jun 11, 2013 7:50 AM
