Re: [Harp-L] big harmonicas

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Exactly. There was video of the tune 'Oh Girl' and one of the singers was holding a harmonica that was about 12.5 inches long. 
#1, It was probably a goliath tremelo or octave tuned. (the sound was actually done on chromatic)
#2, The player wasn't playing it.
#3, In later versions of the tune, a melodica was used instead.

As I said off list, it's a chromatic in Prior's hands. Most blues players used them for third position (Dm fingering). Very few could actually play them in several keys. Mainly because....they didn't need to. 
smo-joe

On Jan 8, 2013, at 8:15 PM, Eric Miller wrote:

> very interesting.  I would say most of the pictures I've noticed with these
> big harps are indeed mostly old-school players whose body of work seems to
> be completely cross harp on the diatonic, and no tunes that suggest to be
> on the chromatic.
> 
> Now that I think of it, most of the images I'm referring to are from
> Pandora album covers.  I'll bet they use chromatics frequently for that
> even if the artist never played one in their life (although I'm sure many
> did as you suggest).  The chromatic is simply more photogenic due to its
> size...makes sense to use a larger one to make it more prominent/visible on
> the album as opposed to a tiny 10 hole.
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 8:04 PM, Stephen Jennings <harpfixer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> 
>> That's a chromatic, I'd say. Many harp players since Little Walter have
>> dabbled with chromatic, with varying degrees of success, to the point at
>> which it is now an important part of many players' arsenals.
>> YMMV
>> Steve Jennings
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Eric Miller
>> Sent: 09 January 2013 00:44
>> To: Harp-L
>> Subject: [Harp-L] big harmonicas
>> 
>> so, as a new player who is used to the standard sized 10 hole marine band
>> size harp...whenever I see a picture of somebody sporting one of these big
>> harps I wonder what they are.
>> 
>> I know chromatics are bigger...but I'm pretty sure a lot of these guys are
>> strictly diatonic guys based on their playing styles.
>> 
>> what are these big harps?
>> 
>> here's <
>> http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LffMieGML._SL500_AA300_.jpg>an
>> example
>> 
>> http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LffMieGML._SL500_AA300_.jpg
>> 
>>