RE: [Harp-L] Mitch Weiss tuning was A Night in Tunisia

["Laurent \(Planet Harmonica\)" <laurent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all

Bobbie wrote:

>And on this other note from David...
>> As I recall Mitch uses some kind of a custom tuned and
>> half-valved CX-12?
>Yes, he likes Brendan's work on them, I gather.  In fact, I believe he was
>one of the earliest players I heard of using Brendan's CX-10 with a certain
>dedicated persistence.  CX-12's?  I haven't a clue.

>From what I know, Mitch plays the CX-10 in modified Richter tuning. Here are
some explanations by him:
"What I do is I retune the 2 duplicated notes.  Hole 3 blow slide in, is a
G# and so is hole 2 draw, slide out.  I make hole 3 blow, slide in, an A.
This eliminates the need to use the double bend on the 3 hole draw, slide
out.  The 3 hole draw, slide in, is a C, so is the 4 hole blow, slide out.
I retune that to a Bb (A#) and that can substitute for using the bend on 3
hole draw, slide out. "

This is in my opinion a terrific tuning. These A and A# are definitely hard
(impossible?) to make sound completely natural (remember Winslow's Ode to
Joy challenge) and this improvement allows very smooth sounding runs
(associated to the F being obtained by blowing with the slide in instead of
bending the 2 draw). This sounds like the best of two worlds (solo chromatic
tuning/diatonic richter tuning).

I will probably buy another CX-10 (or 12) with that tuning from Brendan
(and/or have my CX-10 retuned), as soon as I've gathered enough money.

Hey, we (harmonica players) live in a fantastic period! We have access to
tons of great info (harp-l, harp-on, ...), to great new designs (XB-40,
Discrete Comb, CX-10) and to great instruments (customized harps).

Laurent
Checkout the "Playing chromatically with Richter Harps" article at
http://www.planetharmonica.com/ph5/VE/PlayingChromaticallyUK.htm