tvguit Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 Any blues harmonica players here? I have recently been having a blast playing the harmonica. I have a marine band and a blues harp and I love both of them. I would equate the Marine Band to a sniper rifle (articulate, easy bends, sometimes shrill) and the Blues Harp to a shotgun (not very air tight but great bottom end and really full). Anyway, I am looking for another harp and I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for a quality harp with a wooden comb (I hate the plastic comb!). I know there are some old blues guys here!
Versatile Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I enjoy Blues Harp too...thinking of going for a higher quality harp Currently using a boxed set of 12 with plastic combs to access all keys V
larryp58 Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I've toyed with harps for years. Especially when I was heavy into Neil Young's stuff. I got a few Marine Band harps in several different keys. That's about it for me. I do love to play 'em though!
tpbiii Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I have used Special 20s for years -- they are the same family as the ones you use, but with plastic instead of wood.
tvguit Posted January 10, 2011 Author Posted January 10, 2011 I have used Special 20s for years -- they are the same family as the ones you use, but with plastic instead of wood. Maybe it's all in my head, but the plastic comb just says "cheap" to me. I started out playing a Hohner Bluesband (not to be confused with the Blues Harp of course). It was a cheap little harmonica with a plastic comb but great to learn on. Once I got my MB and BH I absolutely loved the look and feel the instrument. For some reason when I see the plastic comb I think cheap. Has anyone tried the Hering 1923 Vintage Harp or the Seydel 1847?
ponty Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I have just ordered a Suzuki pro master. I will have it tomorrow. I started playing years ago but gave it up. This is a renaissance!
RadioXGtr Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 I have a lot of respect for those that coax cool blues all night long from low-end harps. A few years back, we had to learn a couple of harp-intensive songs and had to resort to “makin’ it by fakin’ it”. I bought the Hohner XB-40 “Extreme Bender”. I was pleasantly surprised how I could fill in the required 8 bars including some tasty bends without sounding like a rank amateur. It’s a big harp and I’m usually out of wind after a solo - but I love it.
tvguit Posted January 11, 2011 Author Posted January 11, 2011 I have just ordered a Suzuki pro master. I will have it tomorrow. I started playing years ago but gave it up. This is a renaissance! I checked that harp out and it looked a lot like the Hohner Meisterklasse with it's aluminum comb but it said it was "valved". Could you explain what the valves are for? Have fun with it!
Hogeye Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 I bought my first harmonica when I was a sales rep and traveling in the vast empty wasteland called North and South Dakota. There were miles and miles to travel and not much to keep a tired guy awake. I played guitar but playing that while driving was pretty much out of the question so someone suggested I could try harmonica. I bought a Marine Band and a harmonica rack and never looked back. I played for about a million miles. It did the trick. It kept me awake and interested. If you have a long hard drive I highly recommend it. I take good care of my harps and have 20 or so. My favorite is a Hohner Golden Melody. I chose it because I was sporting a moustache at the time and it was always getting caught in the sharp sides where the top meets the reeds. The Golden Melody top is smooth and goes all the way to the end of the top. No more moustache problems. It does have a plastic comb and that is even better. The wooden combs are subject to moisture changes from your mouth and from the weather. When they expand they will stick out and they can be like running your tongue over a cheese grater. Pretty soon the brads that hold the reeds to the comb get lose and then you have trouble. The old guys used to dunk their harps in water or beer and swell them back up so you could play them. Not recommended. I like to use cheap whiskey. I have a Hohner Chrometta 12 that is a dandy. Smooth top and plastic comb. It's a chromatic so you can play in any key and hit all sharps and flats. It takes two hands so not so good in the rack when you are playing with the guitar. I started playing goofy stuff on it like Moon River and that sort of stuff. It really does a great job and it keeps you sharp running the valve on the side to hit the sharps and flats. It's harder than one thinks. I love to backpack and it's amazing how much fun it is to play a harp sitting in front of a campfire. Not blues so much but the good stuff like Home On The Range and Red River Valley. People really enjoy it and you don't have to worry about packing a big heavy guitar. They make a ton of music.
tvguit Posted January 11, 2011 Author Posted January 11, 2011 I bought my first harmonica when I was a sales rep and traveling in the vast empty wasteland called North and South Dakota. There were miles and miles to travel and not much to keep a tired guy awake. I played guitar but playing that while driving was pretty much out of the question so someone suggested I could try harmonica. I bought a Marine Band and a harmonica rack and never looked back. I played for about a million miles. It did the trick. It kept me awake and interested. If you have a long hard drive I highly recommend it. I take good care of my harps and have 20 or so. My favorite is a Hohner Golden Melody. I chose it because I was sporting a moustache at the time and it was always getting caught in the sharp sides where the top meets the reeds. The Golden Melody top is smooth and goes all the way to the end of the top. No more moustache problems. It does have a plastic comb and that is even better. The wooden combs are subject to moisture changes from your mouth and from the weather. When they expand they will stick out and they can be like running your tongue over a cheese grater. Pretty soon the brads that hold the reeds to the comb get lose and then you have trouble. The old guys used to dunk their harps in water or beer and swell them back up so you could play them. Not recommended. I like to use cheap whiskey. I have a Hohner Chrometta 12 that is a dandy. Smooth top and plastic comb. It's a chromatic so you can play in any key and hit all sharps and flats. It takes two hands so not so good in the rack when you are playing with the guitar. I started playing goofy stuff on it like Moon River and that sort of stuff. It really does a great job and it keeps you sharp running the valve on the side to hit the sharps and flats. It's harder than one thinks. I love to backpack and it's amazing how much fun it is to play a harp sitting in front of a campfire. Not blues so much but the good stuff like Home On The Range and Red River Valley. People really enjoy it and you don't have to worry about packing a big heavy guitar. They make a ton of music. What a great way to learn how to play the harp! Next road trip I go on I will surely bring my harp and rack. I love the 50s styling of the Golden Melody. It does have the plastic comb, and I understand why plastic could be better, but I still want the wooden comb. It may be all in my head but I think that the wooden comb adds some resonance that makes it have a little better tone. I hopped on the internet to see if I could find a sealed wood comb for a Golden Melody and I found this http://cgi.ebay.com/Solid-Wood-Comb-Hohner-Golden-Melody-Harmonica-/190488580098#ht_626wt_932. I feel like this guy tailored his advertisement just for me because it had everything I wanted: rock maple, CAD cut, sealed, rounded comb ends, etc. I want it! However, I read more about the Golden Melody and it said that it had "tempered tuning" which made it good for playing melody. I'm not sure if this harp would be best for playing Blues. I have heard a lot of buzz about the Special 20 but it has the plastic reed and is one of the more boring harps to look at. I think at this point I am looking outside of Hohner. I have heard good things about Hering and Seydel. The Seydel 1847 is just as much as the Hohner Mesiterklasse at around $90 and I don't think I am ready to drop that for just one harp. The Hering 1923 vintage harp has the sealed wood comb that I want and it is cheaper than a Marine Band. I have heard that they are made with cheap reeds but that was only from one source. Has anyone else played one of these? Again, ugly styling but I could get over it if it is a great harp.
ponty Posted January 12, 2011 Posted January 12, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHuiExkUH4E&feature=player_detailpage This short clip will explain better than I can about valved and non valved harmonicas. I received mine today - which is valved. Very high quality for $60. I now need to re-familiarise myself with the harmonica!
onewilyfool Posted January 12, 2011 Posted January 12, 2011 My college girlfriend was an angel......she played a nice harp....
tvguit Posted January 12, 2011 Author Posted January 12, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHuiExkUH4E&feature=player_detailpage This short clip will explain better than I can about valved and non valved harmonicas. I received mine today - which is valved. Very high quality for $60. I now need to re-familiarise myself with the harmonica! Sounds like a great harp, but I didn't really like the valve bend sound. It just didn't sound particularly "bluesy". Maybe I should just go for the Golden Melody and get the wood comb with it? Ugh! My fiance calls this "Analysis Paralysis", I can't decide!
McDuff Posted January 12, 2011 Posted January 12, 2011 I play the harmonica if you have a loose definition of the word play.
Versatile Posted January 12, 2011 Posted January 12, 2011 When I was a lad some groovy hippy fellow said he 'played harp' I thought he meant a full-size stringed frame harp :blink: V
tvguit Posted January 12, 2011 Author Posted January 12, 2011 I play the harmonica if you have a loose definition of the word play. Same, BB. I am really just beginning. What kind of harp do you play and do you like it?
retrorod Posted January 12, 2011 Posted January 12, 2011 I like harp, but never got into it for me. I know, and have done amp work for some first-class harp players. They are a 'picky' bunch as far as their amp tone is concerned. One of these harp players does 'custom work' to harps. Stuff dealing with the reeds etc. He can really 'soup one up' and make it 'talk to ya'. He has an awesome collection of vintage and modded- vintage mics also. Gives lessons as well. His name is Tom Dikon... chipdin@cox.net....in Hampton, Va. Rod
Hogeye Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 I went to a garage sale and there was a box of music junk for sale. $2.00 for the box. I almost tore my back pocket off getting my money out. There were several old harmonicas. Lurking in the bottom were two of the most amazing finds ever. The first was a pickguard pickup for a late 1940's Super 400. It worth about a million $$$. Ok maybe several hundred. On top of it was the legendary "Green Bullet" mike. It's the perfect harmonica microphone and highly prized by the old blues style players. It is designed to fit your cupped hands perfectly. I told the older lady just what she had and I paid her $100.00 for the box. She cried I smiled and then I met a girl that thought I was a nice guy for doing that. I told the girl I would buy her lunch and we dated for several months before she broke my heart. Well I still have the "Green Bullet" and the pickup. Sounds like a blues tune in there somewhere. I'm open for suggestions for a title.
tvguit Posted January 13, 2011 Author Posted January 13, 2011 I went to a garage sale and there was a box of music junk for sale. $2.00 for the box. I almost tore my back pocket off getting my money out. There were several old harmonicas. Lurking in the bottom were two of the most amazing finds ever. The first was a pickguard pickup for a late 1940's Super 400. It worth about a million $$. Ok maybe several hundred. On top of it was the legendary "Green Bullet" mike. It's the perfect harmonica microphone and highly prized by the old blues style players. It is designed to fit your cupped hands perfectly. I told the older lady just what she had and I paid her $100.00 for the box. She cried I smiled and then I met a girl that thought I was a nice guy for doing that. I told the girl I would buy her lunch and we dated for several months before she broke my heart. Well I still have the "Green Bullet" and the pickup. Sounds like a blues tune in there somewhere. I'm open for suggestions for a title. Hogeye, if this story is true, you are now one of the coolest dudes on this forum. Well done, sir. I am jealous of that mic!!! If I had a super 400 I would be jealous of the pickup too! So what old harmonicas did you find? I used to have a pre-war Marine Band. It was a fantastic harmonica but it was a C and I already had a C so I sold it. I miss it!
McDuff Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Same, BB. I am really just beginning. What kind of harp do you play and do you like it? I've got a Hohner marine in A and G then a Bob Dylan signature series in D. They are nice harmonicas but I wonder if they are wasted on me honestly. I love them though the Dylan signature series sticks if my lips are particularly dry.
Hogeye Posted January 14, 2011 Posted January 14, 2011 Hogeye, if this story is true, you are now one of the coolest dudes on this forum. Well done, sir. I am jealous of that mic!!! If I had a super 400 I would be jealous of the pickup too! So what old harmonicas did you find? I used to have a pre-war Marine Band. It was a fantastic harmonica but it was a C and I already had a C so I sold it. I miss it! The harps I found were Marine Bands. They were all dried out and needed a lot of work. I took them apart and reset the reeds as they were loose and the brads used to hold them in place were giving up. I did get them fixed up good enough for my ability to play them. My very first harmonica was a Marine Band that I got by saving my allowance. I got it at the Dime Store. Ben Franklin's. Never learned to really play it. I think they were $.25 at the time. Guess that will tell you how old I am. ha.... The curious thing about the mike is that it has a very short chord. Three feet long at the most. I thought maybe it was used for a desk mike or something. I was talked out of replacing the chord and kept it original. I made a chord extension for it by putting a female connector on one end of an old guitar cord. Works just fine. The pickup has a strange connection as well. The pickup itself has a threaded connection like a mike connection. It didn't have a chord with it so I just used an old mike cable and it works just fine. I mounted it on a Ibanez F-hole FA-800. This was a prototype George Benson used before Ibanez came out with their GB-20. It's a great sounding pickup. it's a P-90 mounted on the pickguard along with the tone and volume pot.
tvguit Posted January 25, 2011 Author Posted January 25, 2011 Well I got the Golden Melody and the wood comb. The comb was very cool. Solid rock maple, sealed, CAD laser cut, fit like a glove. The harmonica however SUCKED. That's right, I did not like it at all, for 2 specific reasons. The first being my fault and the second being the harp. 1. My favorite harp is my Blues Harp in G. It is really low and I like that. I bought the GM in F because I thought it would be low as well but I was DEAD WRONG. It sounds like a toy it is so high. Can someone tell me how that works with harps? Is there a low F? Pardon my ignorance.... 2. I hated the tempered tuning. These two reasons combined made for pretty much the worst blues harmonica I could have bought. So now I have a brand new customized Golden Melody with about 5 minutes of playing time on it. Lesson learned, stupid tax PAID. Anyone interested in a Golden Melody with a sealed wood comb?? Half price! $20!
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