Re: Sugar Blue's weapon of choice

[Jack Ely <IMS_ELY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  FWIW - I don't have Sugar Blue's album but from most descriptions the 
  instrument on the cover must be a Hohner bass poly. Since there has been a 
  lot of postings about this harmonica I thought I might as well jump in there 
  too.
  
  A few years ago, when I was preparing a beginners workshop on bass 
  harmonica, I made ASCII drawings of the Hohner, Huang and Tombo bass 
  harmonicas. For some reason I never held the workshop - maybe I never got my 
  confidence up. I was going to call it "The Bassics of Bass".
  
  The following was created in 1989
  ------
  
                            #7 POLYPHONIA (HOHNER)
  
  +-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-+
  |D||D#|E||F||F#|G||G#|A||A#|B||C||C#|D||D#|E||F||F#|G||G#|A||A#|B||C||C#|D|
  +-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-++-+
  
  The Hohner #7 polyphonia, usually thought of as a special effect or novelty 
  instrument, can be used effectively for bass. The #7 is tuned from D to D in 
  the bass register. It has a range of two octaves. The layout is different 
  than more traditional bass harmonicas and perhaps this is why bass players 
  seldom, if ever, use it. It is layed out with the chromatic scale in line 
  (25 blow reeds on one deck) making rather awkward interval jumps. However, 
  once the intervals are learned for a particular bass line it can be played 
  in any key by simply moving up or down the instrument to the proper starting 
  point. Polyphonias are, by the way, the world's only self transposing 
  instruments.
  
        Jack Ely - Columbus, Ohio  --New Addr--> IMS_ELY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx