Re: [Harp-L] RE: the harp I hate the most plays the best...

[Joseph Leone <3n037@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mar 3, 2013, at 2:18 AM, the_jukester@xxxxxxxx wrote:

>     I had to respond with my personal history as a harp player, which may strike a familiar note with a few other players. 
> 
>     I first picked up the diatonic harp in 1963. I was inspired to do so after hearing, starting in 1955 on AM radio, a number of players who would become my most important influences. Listening to late night broadcasts from WLAC in Nashville as well a couple of stations in Canada which played only blues, I became familiar with the work of Rice Miller, Little Walter, James Cotton, Jimmy Reed and many other blues harp players of the 1950s and 1960s.
> 
>     I had accumulated an extensive library of blues records by the time I took the plunge. Underground radio stations (Remember them?) had sprung up in the early Sixties, and all kinds of music was now in and on the air as a result of their progressive play lists, and a lot of it was real blues, by real blues musicians.
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>     Nobody I knew played blues harp. NOBODY gave lessons - I went into every music store in the Pittsburgh/Tri-State area to inquire about blues harp lessons, and always got a variation of the same couple of answers: "You have to teach yourself", or "You have to find an old guy who plays and ask him", etc. There were no books on blues harp playing. Tony Glover's Blues Harp book (with all it's errors) had not yet been published.

I agree, I was playing diatonic in the Pgh area in the late 50s. But except for Tommy Tucker, Buster Brown, Jimmy Reed, and a few other 'cross-over' harp players, we did mostly doo-wop and dance stuff. Places like K of C, Legion, VFW, fire hall, school, Eagles, Elks dances. Occasionally West View & Kennywood amusement parks. 
I got the same story. And for chromatic? Fogeddabowtit. There was Jack Allison and there was me. And Tony's book was still 5 years away. 
> 
>     So I taught myself. I played the records over and over, tried to pick up licks and get a good tone acoustically, bought my first amp and mic to play amplified, and bought Tony's book when it came out in 1964. By that time I had a handle on making the sounds I wanted, so it's main value to me was that it explained what I was doing with bent notes. Plus it had some great photos of my idols. And another thing - he recommended Marine Bands.

Right, the spl-20 wasn't around. So you took MBs, rounded the edges on the tines, worked the plate edges over with steel wool, and you were off to the races. lol. When the nails worked loose, you took women's high heel tap nails and voila. 
> 
>     The harps I had been learning on were Marine Bands, vintage Old Standbys with the wood comb - basically a MB with cheaper cover plates, and some older, wood body Kratt harps. These were the harps that were available to me at the time, and the playing technique and the personal signature tone that I eventually developed were the result of learning by using them. 

AND only Lomakin's music store could get odd keys. The Nat'l record stores had only Cs and Gs. :) 
> 
>     I tried the Blues Harp when it came out. I tried the Orchester with the metal comb cover. I tried the Special Twenty when it came out. I tried Lee Oskars. I tried everything I came across in the next couple of decades. I always came back to the Marine Band, because it sounded best to me, the most like ME. It still does. 
> 
>     In the beginning I had a couple of combs swell up on me, but I learned to play with a dry mouth and haven't seen a swelled comb in twenty years. My gigging harp case today consists of a mixture of Marine Bands, vintage Old Standbys, and a couple of vintage Kratts. 
> 
>     Meeting Mike Easton was a godsend to me. He has done most of the maintenance on my harps for the past 12 years. I can't remember when I last bought a new harp, but I've been fortunate in finding enough NOS Marine Bands and vintage Old Standbys to last me the rest of my playing career. 
> 
>     I've played a couple of different custom harps over the years and they all sounded good. But the vintage style Marine Band and Old Standby are the harps I'll be playing for the duration. I can't say I hate any harp, but I can tell you which ones I love.
> 
> Pete Sheridan
> www.petesheridan.net
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