Re: [Harp-L] Country tuning

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

On Feb 8, 2009, at 11:10 AM, Jonathan Ross wrote:

> Smo-Joe writes:
>
> " I described my tuning (5th draw sharped and with a wind saver)  
> and the rest is history. Somehow it got around."
>
>
> Funny, this is entirely different from the story Charlie McCoy has  
> told many times for years and years, with a great deal of consistency.
So how does Charley tell it? According to what he told me, he was  
playing somewhere and a fellow (he didn't remember the name)
approached him and said "I think I know how you did that....you  
sharped the 5th draw up a semi tone". When in fact, Charlie had used  
TWO harps (actually 4 because he modulated up). Charley then said (to  
paraphrase) something like; "No, but I will do it that way from now on".

Now I don't know what year this happened but it was probably after  
1975, because up until then, at least on the 10 McCoy albums 'I'  
have, you can clearly tell when he is using two harps and when he is  
not. Charley is not much for overblowing or blow bending, does mostly  
2nd position, and when he plays chromo, it is usually IN the same key  
to which the chromo is tuned (see T.D.s Boogie). I agree with his  
philosophy totally in not liking unnatural tones.

In any case, it's no big deal to me, and I never claimed this  
tuning..wasn't in a famous enough position to DO so, and frankly, as  
long as it benefited the harp community, that's good enough for me.  
The way I came up with it was by accident anyway. I had a cracked  
reed back in  1 9 5 9. That's right, 1959. I was already playing  
professionally and was 17 years old. I was in local 802 of the  
'transient musician's union' out of N.Y. (I lived on Staten Is. at  
the time). The way I fixed the harp was to:

Hammer out a brass lipstick case. (I have also used razor blades,  
bullet casings, electrical switch parts)
Cut the reed to size with my mother's cuticle cutters, and a diamond  
dust fingernail file.
Pierce a hole for the rivet by pushing with a sewing machine needle  
and then gently filing the dent that appeared on the back side of the  
reed with the file until a hole appeared.
Then I swaged the hole bigger until it would take a drift pin made  
from a paper clip.
Then I tapped on the clipped off top of the rivet with a spoon to  
form a head.,
I left the bitter end protrude below the reed plate, but struck it a  
few times to make it barrel out and wedge fit.

As I was tuning, I went the wrong way and was too sharp. I LIKED it  
and immediately it opened up a whole NEW world of tunes I couldn't do  
(correctly) heretofore. Eventually, I added a sharped 9th reed and  
then a windsaver in order to blow the 5 blow DOWN a semi tone.

This is why, things should be documented. This is how stuff gets  
lost. This is how legends start. This is how things get credited to  
people. Sometimes the wrong people. Just because I'm not famous,  
doesn't mean I didn't do it. And there's nothing anyone can do about it.

Btw: I didn't stay in the business because I have a low threshold for  
people I like to describe as being afflicted with Anus Orifice  
Syndrome. And I sure met a lot of THEM in my time....lololol

smokey-joe (executive assistant to Keyser Sosa...........got my sMo- 
joe working.........roogalatah)
>  ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
> ()  ()
> `----'
>
>
>
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