Re: [Harp-L] Just Intonation for Blues?

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

If you learn to tune, you can have your preferred combination of harp model, covers, and intonation.

Tuning is not hard but it does take some patience. Pat's advice is thorough and excellent. (The only advice I disagree with for *my* personal use is his recommendation to tune a harp to A443. For me this is just too sharp for the musicians I play with. 442 works but it still puts me sharp.)

The 7-limit just intonation that has been used in the past on some harps makes the Draw 5 (and 9) sound really flat melodically, though it sounds super smooth in chords. You might want to look at 19-limit just instead, especially as that note is so important in 3rd position.

Winslow

PS: harp cover shape is partly a matter of aesthetics, with many players preferring traditional shapes. However, there is also strong player belief that cover shape affects tone, projection, and even reed response. So cover shape is more than a matter of manufacturers being hidebound.

Bill Hines <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: It's time for me to replace some harps. I was originally playing Lee
Oskars when I started a few years ago, but switched to the Golden
Melodies because I was finding them much easier to bend, and focusing
primarily on single note melodic lines at the time, found them to sound
better. Plus, they felt way better in my hands and seemed easier to get
a seal around, being smooth shaped and all (I don't understand why they
are still making harps in the old angular sharp-edge marine band form
factor, not very ergonomic, for nostalgia I'm guessing but whatever).

So these days, I'm a *little* better and have taken to playing octaves
and chords. Hmm. The Golden Melodies don't sound too good. I've been
reading on Pat Missin's site on some of this tuning stuff, and it hasn't
been discussed here in a while. Since I'm playing pretty much amplified,
2nd position chicago blues, am I better off then with harps that are
Just Intonation or close to it? I was going to buy some Firebreaths (I
have one), they're expensive but a beautiful harp and I appreciate the
smoothness/comfort of holding them and also that they are crush proof
(I've dented many a harp, don't ask). But they're equal tempered like
the GMs. 

I was thinking about getting a JI type harp to see if that sounds
different. I understand some of the Herings are. I've been told some of
the Seydels are JI *and* have the smooth form factor I like - the
Sessions and Favorites. 

Can anyone comment on all of this, i.e should I care about tuning and
are these good 'blues' harps? Or should I finally crack open the Rupert
Oysler DVD I got a while back and learn how to retune my GMs or
Firebreath - is it hard at all?  What will a JI harp sound like when I
move to 3rd position, which I've been trying to do at the jams for minor
songs? 

PS My daughter just called me in the room - Chikezie just busted out a
harp on american idol. It wasn't good. Damn, there we go down a notch
again. Simon Cowell said "It was going ok and then you broke out the
harmonica, which was literally atrocious" (and he was right).  Do we
need to license?

Thanks in advance,

Bill Hines
Hershey, PA
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