[Harp-L] raising a reed's pitch

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's been busy before Christmas, but I just came across this:


"Here is an example of Leo Diamond, back in the 1950s, doing exactly what you're talking about - bending notes UP on a chromatic. 

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgSDZLLoZM";


Um, where?  I don't hear any bending up from the song pitch, just bends down from it and up to it.  The vibrato he has is quite wide, but it's also all downwards from the standard pitch, not up to it.  A very nice song and excellent playing--though I wish the bongo part at the end was elaborated on and the whole thing had a bit more drive.


"Now Leo was a master player. He was also a master customizer. Recordings of Leo are very helpful in kind of getting some vague idea about the history of customizing. One of these interesting facts I learned from audio evidence of Leo is that embossing was done in the 1930s"


Obviously we have a very different concept of the word "fact".  Embossing is generally considered to make the reed have a brighter tone (emphasizing the higher harmonics over the fundamental), but that effect is very minor: whatever change from a non-embossed harp there is will be masked by the effect of the player attaching their resonant body to the harp.  It's a matter of degree: embossing has a very minor impact on timbre, the specific resonance of the player has a very major impact.  

Two examples of the far greater impact of the player on timbre than the type of harp or reed-plates in question.  The first is Charlie Mussellwhite (sp).  Over the years he has played nearly every model of harp out there: Hohner, Hering, Seydel.  Despite this, he is recognizable in terms of his tone on all of these different brands.  No matter the model or reed-plates being used, he sounds like Charlie Mussellwhite.  A second example is Stevie Wonder.  Playing as diversely different harmonicas as chromatic, standard diatonic and XB-40, he is still recognizably Stevie Wonder.  In both cases I would argue that the timbrel cues are there even before the various other stylistic clues give it away.  

So, let's assume embossing makes things brighter, but the player's tone greatly overwhelmes that.

Now, to the other point: that embossing could be heard through this recording.  Let's consider all the various distortions which an old vinyl like this has between the initial playing and listening.  First, the microphones used in recording will impact certain characteristics to the tone as it is recorded.  Then whatever master was used (I'm assuming tape in this case, but whatever the material doesn't matter) will effectively act as both filter, highlighting certain frequencies by curtailing others.  Then the translation to vinyl imports a specific set of timbrel changes, followed by the attenuations and amplifications of tone by the various parts of the playback mechanism (the reason why people spend a lot of money on specific types of turntables, cartridges, speakers and even cables).

So, I am very skeptical that any sense of what might or might not have been done to the harmonica besides the broadly obvious (ie, removing a valve for a double reed bend, etc..) can be judged by listening to such a recording.  Certainly not for something with as minimal an effect as embossing.


 "This harp is probably tuned at A=480 (that was not a typo). It's tuned so sharply that he has to bend every single note down to pitch. If every note must be bent down, then releasing that bend gives you the ability to bend up. "


I don't hear this at all.  None of his playing suggests he is bending down every note to that degree--the instability of the notes would show up at some point as an intonation issue--basically if everything is being bent down nearly a quarter tone (as you later adjusted it to A=460) then he will miss be off on some pitches.  This is not a dismissal of his abilities, just a realistic assessment after having listened to so many harmonica players trying to hit easily controlled half-step bends in pitch on a consistent basis.  But, in any event, it gets back to the first--I don't hear any pitch bends going up from pitch--up to pitch, yes, but not up from pitch.

Again, recorded evidence can be useful, but only if the limits of recording and recording playback are acknowledged.  Minute differences in tone and timbre are not going to be discernible from such evidence due to the distortions inherent in the recording process.  Enough artifacts are introduced into the equation that trying to claim these things as "facts" is something I would highly discourage.





JR Ross