hering does an incredible job tuning them straight from the factory. and they have a great tone. the brass is quite soft and they do not hold up for very long. and at that price you could get perhaps 3 marine bands. rod does use the hering chromatic 64 it last forever.
The Rod Piazza model is largely based off the Hering 1923 Vintage Harp model and is one of the last diatonic harps being tuned OOTB to 7 limit just intonation. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
i believe you can get a rod piazza model from harp depot for $70.only available in the key of C though.
if i am not mistaken,harp depot and ebay seller eezy reeder wound up with most of north america's hering stock.
i am unclear from people's posts if they have tried this harp.the price is steep to just try one.if it is a great harp,that's not so bad.
is it definitely 7 limit or is it 19 like the master blues?
i like to use mixtures of hering and hohner parts for certain things,so it is interesting ---------- www.shakeylee.com
Last Edited by shakeylee on May 16, 2015 2:22 PM
I assume I don't have to explain who Rod Piazza is? Good. This is a extremely striking looking 10-hole diatonic. As the name suggests this harp has bronze covers, bronze reedplates and bronze reeds, with typical sandwich-style construction on a wood comb. The covers have minimal engraving and no hole numbers at all, with vents at the end of each cover much like a certain venerable harmonica much loved by blues players over the decades. The standard thickness reedplates are secured with five screws. The comb is sealed is heavily lacquered along the outside edges and this combined with the nicely rounded corners to the chamber partitions prevent the cheese grater effect whilst tongue blocking. The lack of sharp corners and edges over the instrument as a whole also make it very comfortable in the hands and mouth. My review sample is in the key of C and uses Hering's medium slot length reeds on standard thickness reedplates. Not surprisingly, the tuning is the traditional 7-limit Just Intonation scheme which gives very rich and full sounding chords. The tuning is very consistent, but rather sharp overall - rooted around A=446Hz. This would suit harder players, as would the reed adjustment,with the gaps being set a little wider than on other Hering diatonics, particularly on the lower draw reeds. Currently available in the popular blues keys of G, A, C and D and comes in a nice hard shell case with form fitting lining. This is would be a great harp for the traditional blues player and I'm sure Rod Piazza is proud to have his name on a harp that looks and sounds so good.
Theres a company in Denmark seems to sell them called Music2you for about £75.00!!! I'm also curious about them but 1847 says not sure about how it would hold up for frequent use and at that price I would want Hohner durability, though I'm not disagreeing with Pat Missin I would rather scoop my eyeballs out with a bronze table spoon but he gives it a good enough review! Mind you, you never really see Rod using one on the YT vids as far as I can tell so maybe just marketing, deal sort of thing.
Last Edited by marine1896 on May 17, 2015 4:20 AM
my experience with hering is mostly the black blues harp. it has a thicker reed plate so that would explain the slightly shortened life span
the signature model shown here has the normal thickness reed plate.
it is basically a marine band it should last at least as long as a hohner. rod would not play them if he did not like them. or if they did not hold up well.
last time i saw him play he had what looked like a hering harmonica
it appeared to have gold covers and a black corian comb. i meant to ask him about it because he has always used a wood comb, so i was quite surprised.
Anytime you have a harp with a thicker reed plate in the hands of a player who tends to play too hard, they're always gonna get blown out quick because they lack breath control and it gets worse when they;re bending notes because that's when they'e guitly of playing at their hardest. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
BBQ Bob gave me some good tips when I purchased my first 1923, primarily about break-in. He advised me to break it in easy, so I spent a few weeks just getting it out and playing soft chords ( which it's excellent for )and noodling up & down a little. I left the harp in "backup/reserve" mode until I'd owned it a couple months. I use that harp still, years later, especially on tunes that require solid clear chord tones. There are tunes I wouldn't use any other harp on ( It's a normal A harp ).
this looks like the harp i saw him playing however this is et tuned he would never in a million years play a harp equal tempered so now i am curious.
Last Edited by 1847 on May 18, 2015 1:52 PM
@1847 -- Some of the Hering Black Blues and Hering Blues models were ET tuned in various years. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I used to like ET before I started posting here. Now I am not so sure. It's easy to play out of tune chords on an amplified harmonica tuned to equal temperment. And so easy to tune the thirds a little flat so that it doesn't howl so much . . .
Deciding between equal- vs. all other non-equal temperaments is easy. If you intend to play melodies in genres in which you would be playing along with other instruments, e.g., Bluegrass, Traditional Irish, Jazz, etc. you will be embarrassingly out of tune with the other instruments unless you are playing an equal tuned harp. This is why I invested in a full set of Suzuki Promasters, which are equal tuned.
I found this out years ago the hard way. Interestingly enough, at the time I was deep into my set of Hering 1927's, which I bought based largely on BBQ Bob's now near ancient positive review. I was loving them for blues but in my naivete I made the mistake of taking them to a BG circle. Uh-Oh! Never again.
The only thing is that if you do go the ET route you will have to reconcile yourself to playing single notes. Chords on ET harps are ~awful~! That's why I have multiple sets of diatonics in different temperaments. I never tongue block on those Promasters for that reason but it's a good thing anyway with their aluminum combs.
At least that's the way I see it.
Michelle
[BTW, I still have that set of 1927s that have since given way to a set of Marine Bands. They're just sitting around if anyone would care to make me a reasonable offer via. email (address below).]
---------- SilverWingLeather.com email: mlefree@silverwingleather.com
Last Edited by mlefree on May 21, 2015 10:35 AM
If the band is tuned to 440, and your ET harp is tuned or drifted to 443 on up (sometimes wayyyy up), is that embarrassing too? On a modern MB compromised JI, crossover or 19 limit, the thirds are pretty dang close to 440 especially when the reeds drift sharp, and the rest are sharper. Some players want their ET harps tuned to 440-441 but most don't know the difference. All to say I don't think it's written in stone that a non-ET harp will always sound less in tune with a band than ET. The player factors into it quite a bit.
@harpwrench -- That's an excellent point. Some of the sharpness is partially gonna be due to where the breath moisture lands and then dries on the reed as well as how much and I know when it lands on the riveted end, a reed is always gonna go sharp at some point and how hard one plays also makes a HUGE difference and hard playing often leaves moisture problems on the reeds and breath moisture plus layers of dead skin drying on a reed can drastically alter the pitch of any reed. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
To answer your question, Joe, I'd rather be consistently a cent or two off than embarrassingly off-key on particular notes.
All I know is that when playing along with other melody players using a non ET harp, I'll do fine until I come to one of those flatted notes. And the farther the deviation from ET, the worse those notes sound against the other in-tune instruments. I don't ever care to lay any more eggs like that in front of musicians I respect and want to play with again.
Since I'm not off-key on all the other notes, why else would those flatted notes sound so bad against those played by other properly tuned instruments?
Unlike blues, in a BG or Celtic setting, most of the tunes are played in first position. In blues it is desirable to bend lots of notes so listeners get used to hearing off-key notes. In more melodic settings, an off-key note stands out like a sore thumb. So, my level of agreement with ya Joe is heavily influenced by the context of the musical genre.
Michelle
---------- SilverWingLeather.com email: mlefree@silverwingleather.com
Last Edited by mlefree on May 23, 2015 10:21 AM
1847, keep looking for a counterexample if you are in that sort of mood. The harmonica in that song was only used for the train imitation and associated little melody and was played by itself, virtually solo in effect. It wasn't following along with the melody simultaneously with the fiddle or guitar like other melody instruments would so it is impossible to evaluate their comparative intonations.
Anyway, I said, "most," not "all" BG and Celtic.
Michelle
---------- SilverWingLeather.com email: mlefree@silverwingleather.com
Last Edited by mlefree on May 24, 2015 9:23 AM
Is the orange blossom special considered bluegrass? I believe Charlie mc coy prefers Equal temperament he at one time had a full case of meisterclass harmonicas
With the exception of your hering harmonicas, most modern harps Are tuned sharp, there are no flat notes to speak of.
Also a guitar is not perfectly intonated Unless perhaps it has been set up by butterfields guitar player buzzy feiten
I don't have the time or interest to get into a debate here, but if you check, just for one example, Marine Band tuning according to Rick Epping (admittedly an aging reference, but still valid), has 7 notes 11-12 cents flat.
i got to play rod's harmonica with his mic thru his amps with his band, drinking his beer. and i tell you right now it was a honor to do so. around here he is number one.
Michelle, I believe you are onto something. But, this is going to necessitate more harmonica cases, and well, with you being in the harmonica case business..., Still, the next time I foresee myself sitting in with Jazz, Folk and/or Bluegrass I am going to try to remember to take along some ET.
"Is the orange blossom special considered bluegrass?"
A resounding yes!!! It is THE Bluegrass tune and quite a bluegrass fiddle favorite. Charlie McCoy was forced to change the key of OBS to C in order to play it fast. F harps have short reeds and respond faster than say..A harps. McCoy does switch to a Bb harp and back to F during the song.---------- ---------- I'm out of the Biz for a while till I get over my burnout. You can try HarveyHarp or arzajac, or just look the page nacoran put together under Forum Search. .
