apskarp
324 posts
Sep 05, 2010
6:14 AM
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So I finally had time to do the required tuning work for the POWERBENDER in the key of A. I used my old Lee Oskar as I thought it won't make a good OB harp anyway.
Some findings and thoughts about the tuning work:
It was actually pretty easy to do although there was some serious tuning involved - 4 semitones of flattening and 3 semitones of sharpening. My surprise was that actually it's quite easy to tune the reeds that much - the whole process of tuning took me just 1 hour!
Flattening was easier than the sharpening. Especially when sharpening the 9 & 10 holes I was afraid that I'll break the reed. But all went well (actually I ended up tuning the 10 hole almost 3,5 semitones and had to flatten it back to 3 st). So if you are considering to try out one and you are fluent with tuning work, I suggest you'll take one of your older harps and try it out.
Thoughts about the tuning itself and playability (with about 2 hours of experience):
I found it very intuitive tuning as the others have commented too. 1-4 is exactly the same so there's nothing new there. When you try out the upper octaves you'll find your way pretty fast. Especially with 2nd position you can just copy the licks in higher octave without much altering.
The other positions seem to be pretty intuitive also, but it needs work of course. Actually it felt pretty much the same as learning some song in a new position - so I don't think it will mess up your built-in muscle memory of licks if you learn this new tuning too.
One surprise to me was, however, that when I started to play some classical pieces in keys that don't use any OB's I had to utilize the 6OB with this tuning to get it done... :) So, if you have put effort to learn OB'ing this tuning doesn't make it waste as you can certainly benefit with the ability to OB. (Of course you could find other positions if you can't OB.) On the other hand I could play e.g. Careless Love in the higher octave without the 5OB that I need with my richter harp (not to mention the blues scale which you can play without OB's in higher octave too).
So my first impression of this tuning is really positive. I'm sure I will start to practice this too as it certainly is easier for me to utilize regular bends instead of OB's. I don't mind using few OB's here and there, but if the song has lots of those it's just damn hard to make it work.
BUT!
One thing that I did notice is that you will need a good harp with this tuning too to make it really work. I mean my Lee Oskar is just regapped stock harp and bending the holes 8-10 is really hard with this one. I mean it is lot easier to get the OB's with my own customized Special20 than get the regular draw bends with this Lee Oskar in the high register - and they squeeze too. So I do think that even this POWERBENDER tuning will benefit a lot if you get it done by a good customizer. Especially so if you plan to utilize the OB's too with this one..
So here's my review of the tuning, congratulations for you Brendan finding out an alternative tuning that works so well with people that have started with richter. I imagine this would be a good tuning to start with too, especially if you start to get this tuning from your harp dealer. Looking forward for that book of yours I promised to order... :)
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Brendan Power
91 posts
Sep 05, 2010
7:22 AM
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@apskarp: "One thing that I did notice is that you will need a good harp with this tuning too to make it really work. I mean my Lee Oskar is just regapped stock harp and bending the holes 8-10 is really hard with this one".
Hmmm... that's strange. The Harpmaster Powerbender is just a stock harp, yet it draw bends really easily on those high notes. I suspect that you need to gap the high blow notes closer - that will make a big difference. Also check the airtightness of your reeplates on the comb. Improving those basic things should make a big difference toi the performance.
If you get both of those
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boris_plotnikov
227 posts
Sep 05, 2010
7:36 AM
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Haha, I just retuning the last reed of my old alabama blues to try powerbender. To avoid such sharpening reeds and deep retunings I recommend to exchange 9-10 reeds between blow and draw reedplates.
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oldwailer
1330 posts
Sep 05, 2010
8:12 AM
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Very good post, apskarp--I ordered the book a few days ago, and I've been meaning to get around to tuning up an old harp--but I haven't done it yet--so this is good information to me.
Also, thanks for the tip on exchanging the reeds, boris--do you swap the 9 blow and 9 draw and the 10 blow and 10 draw--or just change to different reeds? Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I'm not quite clear on what you mean there. . .
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apskarp
325 posts
Sep 05, 2010
8:57 AM
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@Oldwailer: If you switch the positions of 10 blow and 10 draw you don't have to tune either. If you change blow 9 and draw 9 you still have to tune the blow 9 one semitone down, but without the switch you'd have to tune blow 9 3 semitones down and draw 9 2 semitones up...
I don't have nuts & bolts to use with the reeds and thus I just filed the reeds without any changes...
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oldwailer
1332 posts
Sep 05, 2010
8:57 AM
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OK Boris--I just went and looked at the Powerbender tuning chart and got an answer to the question on swapping the reeds--very clever! I'll be doing that soon. . .
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oldwailer
1333 posts
Sep 05, 2010
9:02 AM
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@Apskarp--we posted at the same time--thanks--BTW, you can just punch out the rivets and re-use them--that's what I do to change a reed--but I don't remember if the LO's have rivets or not--anyway--thanks. . .
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boris_plotnikov
229 posts
Sep 05, 2010
10:29 AM
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BTW, 7 and 8 are possible to swap too, you'll have to retune them not as radical as -4.
Great tool for retuning is here http://www.truechromatic.com/tune-o-matic.php
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arzajac
333 posts
Sep 05, 2010
3:53 PM
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Is there a compromised/JI tuning for Powerbender or does it need to be ET?
I have been hesitant to ask, but Powerbender does have some nice and useful chords....
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blogward
150 posts
Sep 05, 2010
6:29 PM
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I ordered a PowerBender from Brendan on a Tuesday, it arrived on the Saturday. Harrison Harmonicas take note. A great addition to any serious player's kit. I tried retuning one of my old SP20's in the meantime and while it works OK, the Suzuki from Brendan is top notch - well worth the layout. While I really like the tuning, I'm not sure I totally and absolutely love the doubled up 4 draw and 5 blow, seems to me there's a note not there that should be.
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Zadozica
168 posts
Jan 23, 2012
6:52 AM
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Not sure I get this tuning. The 4d and 5b are now the same notes. The old 5d has been replaced with the 5b and the 5d moved to 6b. Why the repeat on the 4d and 5b and why put the 5b in the old 5d position?
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arzajac
723 posts
Jan 23, 2012
7:44 AM
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"Why the repeat on the 4d and 5b and why put the 5b in the old 5d position?"
To make key notes in the scale draw notes and draw bends. The reasoning behind PowerBender tuning is that draw bends can be more expressive than blow bends or overbends. It's that way all up the harp.
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