[Harp-L] Magic Harps

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

My fellow "Jon" Clark writes:

"Well, are there enough of us out there to commit to purchasing the  
1500 needed for to generate Hohner or someone to manufacture a test  
batch? I am in for 5"

I doubt you'd be able to drum up 100 from the number of people really  
willing to shell out money on harp-l.  Most people don't want  
alternate tunings, and don't bother to buy or use those already  
available (which are both easy to adapt from standard GMD tuning and  
extremely useful).

However, any decent harp technician should be able to make you any of  
these tunings very easily.

For the record, the patent can be found online at the US Patent  
Office website ( http://www.uspto.gov/  ) by typing in the patent  
number 5166461.  Also, if you go to http://www.patmissin.com/ 
index1.html click on "Tuning" and then download "altered states" you  
can find most of the listed (and some not listed) tunings from the  
patent on the 8th page.

This patent was discussed at length on harp-l probably ten years ago  
or so.  I didn't find much in the archives, so it could be from the  
time they were lost.  In any event, there was a lot of question of  
the validity of the patent, particularly in terms of whether it could  
actually be enforced or not (for the record, I'm pretty much  
convinced that the broader claims could not be).  I'm not sure if  
this was a factor in terms of not producing them, since I would  
expect most major manufacturers had other good reasons not to make an  
investment in alternate tunings, which historically have been shown  
not to sell in any form of significant numbers.

In any event, if you want to try one, I'd highly recommend talking to  
James Gordon  ( http://www.customharmonicas.com/james_gordon.html )  
about making one (I'd also recommend Pat Missin, but I'm not sure  
about his availability at the moment).  I'm sure Richard Sleigh would  
also do a great job, but Jimmy is the one I consider more of an  
alternate tuning devotee of the two.  Outside of the Magic tunings,  
if you want to try a really, really fun tuning, check out Jimmy's  
"SuperStreamliner" tuning.  It's just a blast to play.  I need to get  
to work on using that more, and get some more keys...

Hope this helps.



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()
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