[Harp-L] SUB30 and X Reed

[Rick Dempster <rickdempster33@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Reeders;
                      I bought a SUB30 in C, a couple of months back. I
have 'overblown' harps for 30-odd years, but never been entirely happy with
the sound. When I have a harp set up to play the overbends well, I can't
stand the awful squawk they make. This is probably because I am a tongue
blocker, for the most part, and like playing a lot of 'double-stops' ie 2
notes at once, and not necessarily adjacent holes. These kind of harps seem
to work well in the hands of folks like Howard Levy, Flip Jers and and some
others who play a lot of single notes. Whatever; I can only play my own
crummy custom harps, that overbend less well, but don't give me a headache.
So as much as I dig playing overbends, I think that another way would suit
me fine, and probably most other players too.
                       I thought the Hohner XB was a great instrument,
though, as someone else said on harp-l way back, they tended to sound a
little 'tubby', particularly, I think, when played with a pucker.When
played with the block, they sounded something like an organ. They were
loud, and thus much loved by acoustic jammers, especially the Celtic mob.
                        The XB had an astonishing number of repeated notes,
which I don't think anyone had seriously looked into.
                         However, the damned thing didn't sell well enough,
so Hohner stopped production.
                         The MAIN thing I liked about the XB, was that
(talking C harp here) the Bb could be had as a blow bend on holes 1,4,7 and
10. , and that in addition to the usual draw bend on 3, and  the draw on 7
as well. And it was a full bend, so the Bb was a very definite destination.
                          What I have always disliked about the standard
Richter setup, is that this very important note ( important particularly
for the two most common 'positions', first and second, and probably the
next most common, twelfth and eleventh ie F and Bb on a C) is very
difficult to hold
clearly and steadily, as the first bend on a three-semitone bend reed. OK
for a bluesey 'filth' note, but not for a pure melodic tone.
                           As anyone who has bought a SUB30 will know, the
thing is a great idea, seriously flawed; everything 'new' sounds great -
well, nearly - (ie the blow bends on holes 1-6 and draw bends on 7-10)
while allo the familiar bends are awful.
                           Enter Brendan Power. I have two of his
customised SUB30s, that is, 'X reeds', om order.
                           I have asked Brendan to make holes 1 and 4 blow,
bend down a tone to Bb, just like hole 10 doea normally, and that,
apparently, is possible. Making hole 7 a blow bwnd down to Bb, is not. Why?
because the SUB30 has its blow bends ON THE DRAW REED PLATE.
 and none of the reeds on that plate have sympathetic reeds. So, no bending
blow 7 a tone. Damn. It makes a lot of sense for that C to bend to Bb;
that's what overbenders do, albeit on hole 6, and it is the same thing as
the blow bend on 10.
                           At least the draw bend Bb on 7 is a full, all
the way to the floor bend, unlike draw 3. Being able to play a blow C7th
arpeggio with blows only is something I crave, just like having the draw F
for a G7th arpeggio, as we do on the standard Richter.
                           To get what I want, I would have to drastically
re-engineer the SUB30. Sometimes I wish I'd just played trumpet, or sax,or
fluglehorn, bassoon, alpenhorn,,,,anything....!!
                            Anyhow, sorry for the long post, but I don't
post much these days, and had to get that off my chest. Maybe somebody who
can do something is listening.
                            Oh yeah...I am looking forward to getting the X
Reeds from Brendan, despite draw bend Bb@7
Cheers,
RD